XVIII.—AN INTERMISSION
During the performance of a hula the halau and all the people there assembled are under a tabu, the imposition of which was accomplished by the opening prayer that had been offered before the altar. This was a serious matter and laid everyone present under the most formal obligations to commit no breach of divine etiquette; it even forbade the most innocent remarks and expressions of emotion. But when the performers, wearied of the strait-jacket, determined to unbend and indulge in social amenities, to lounge, gossip, and sing informal songs, to quaff a social bowl of awa, or to indulge in an informal dance, they secured the opportunity for this interlude, by suspending the tabu. This was accomplished by the utterance of a pule hoo-noa, a tabu-lifting prayer. If the entire force of the tabu was not thus removed, it was at least so greatly mitigated that the ordinary conversations of life might be carried on without offense. The pule was uttered by the kumu or some person who represented the whole-company:
Pule Hoo-noa
Lehua [266]] i-luna,
Lehua i-lalo,
A wawae,
A Ka-ulua, [267]
A o Haumea, [268]
Kou makua-kane, [269]
Manu o Kaáe; [270]
A-koa-koa,
O Pe-kau, [271]
O Pe-ka-nana, [272]
Papa pau.
Pau a’e iluna;
O Ku-mauna,
A me Laka,
A me Ku.
Ku i ka wao,
A me Hina,
Huna mele-lani.
A ua pau;
Pau kakou;
A ua noa;
Noa ke kahua;
Noa!
Footnote 266:[ (return) ] Lehua. See plate XIII.
Footnote 267:[ (return) ] Ka-ulua. The name of the third month of the Hawaiian year, corresponding to late January or February, a time when In the latitude of Hawaii nature does not refrain from leafing and flowering.
Footnote 268:[ (return) ] Haumea. The name applied after her death and apotheosis to Papa, the wife of Wakea, and the ancestress of the Hawaiian race. (The Polynesian Race, A. Fornander, 1, 205. London, 1878.)
Footnote 269:[ (return) ] It is doubtful to whom the expression “makua-kane” refers, possibly to Wakea, the husband of Papa; and if so, very properly termed father, ancestor, of the people.
Footnote 270:[ (return) ] Manu o Kaáe (Manu-o-Kaáe it might be written) is said to have been a goddess, one of the family of Pele, a sister of the sea nymph Moana-nui-ka-lehua, whose dominion was in the waters between Oahu and Kauai. She is said to have had the gift of eloquence.
Footnote 271:[ (return) ] Pe-káu refers to the ranks and classes of the gods.
Footnote 272:[ (return) ] Pe-ka-naná refers to men, their ranks and classes.
