XXVI.—THE HULA KU’I MOLOKAI
The hula ku’i Molokai was a variety of the Hawaiian dance that originated on the island of Molokai, probably at a later period than what one would call the classic times. Its performance extended to the other islands. The author has information of its exhibition on the island of its name as late as the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The actors, as they might be called, in this hula were arranged in pairs who faced each other and went through motions similar to those of boxing. This action, ku’i, to smite, gave the name to the performance. The limiting word Molokai was added to distinguish it from another still more modern form of dance called ku’i, which will be described later.
While the performers stood and went through with their motions, marching and countermarching, as they are said to have done, they chanted or recited in recitative some song, of which the following is an example. This they did with no instrumental accompaniment:
Mele
He ala kai olohia, [389]
He hiwahiwa na ka la’i luahine,
He me’ aloha na’u ka makani hauai-loli, [390]
E uwe ana I ke kai pale iliahi.
Kauwá ke aloha i na lehua o Kaana. [391]
Pomaikai au i kou aloha e noho nei;
Ka haluku wale no ia a ka waimaka,
Me he makamaka puka a la
Ke aloha i ke kanaka,
E ho-iloli nei i ku’u nui kino.
Mahea hoi au, a?
Ma ko oe alo no.
Footnote 389:[ (return) ] Kai olohia. A calm and tranquil sea. This expression has gained a poetic vogue that almost makes it pass current as a single word, meaning tranquillity, calmness of mind. As thus explained, it is here translated by the expression “heart’s-ease.”
Footnote 390:[ (return) ] Makani hanai-loli. A wind so gentle as not to prevent the bêche de mer loli sea-anemones, and other marine slugs from coming out of their holes to feed. A similar figure is used in the next line in the expression kai pale iliahi. The thought is that the calmness of the ocean invites one to strip and plunge in for a bath.
Footnote 391:[ (return) ] Kauwá ke aloha i na lehua o Kaana. Kaana is said to be a hill on the road from Keaau to Olaa, a spot where travelers were wont to rest and where they not infrequently made up wreaths of the scarlet lehua bloom which there abounded. It took a large number of lehua flowers to suffice for a wreath, and to bind them securely to the fillet that made them a garland was a work demanding not only artistic skill hut time and patience. If a weary traveler, halting at Kaana, employed his time of rest in plaiting flowers into a wreath for some loved one, there would be truth as well as poetry in the saying, “Love slaves for the lehuas of Kaana.”