[Translation.]
Song
The rustle and hum of spinning top,
Wild laughter and babel of sound—
Hear the roar of the waves at Pu’u-hina!
Bursts of derision echoed from cliffs,
The cliffs of Ka-iwi-ku’i;
And the day is stirred by a breeze.
The house swarms with women and men.
List! the drum-beat of Lohiau,
Lohiau, the lover, prince of Haena—
Love glows like an oven at his coming;
Then to bathe in the lake of the God.
Let us look at the vale Lima-huli, look!
Now turn we and study the spinning—
That trick we must catch to be winning.
This fragment from antiquity, as the local coloring indicates, finds its setting at Haena, the home of the famous mythological Prince Lohiau, of whom Pele became enamored in her spirit journey. Study of the mele suggests the occasion to have been the feast that was given in celebration of Lohiau’s restoration to life and health through the persevering incantations of Hiiaka, Pele’s beloved sister. The feast was also Lohiau’s farewell to his friends at Haena. At its conclusion Hiiaka started with her charge on the journey which ended with the tragic death of Lohiau at the brink of the volcano. Pele in her jealousy poured out her fire and consumed the man whom she had loved.