[7] Kini maka o ka la. In the original text from which this is taken the form is Kini-maka, offering the presumption that it is intended as a proper name. Kini-maka was a malevolent kupua, demigod, against whom, it is charged that she was given to scooping out and eating the eyes of men and her fellow gods. Her name was then called Walewale-o-Ku. Kane, it is said, took her in hand and weaned her from her bad practice; after which she was called Kini-maka, Forty-thousand-eyes. The phrase o ka la affixed to her name discountenances the idea that she is the one here intended. It becomes evident that the whole expression means rather the many eyes of the Sun, i.e., the many rays that dart from the Sun; and this is the way I construe it. [↑]
[8] Pau o ka wahine? The question as to the kind of pau, skirt, worn by the women—those of Pele’s fire-brigade, as I have termed them—is pertinent, from the fact that the answer will throw light on their mood and the character of their errand, whether peaceful, warlike, etc. The answer given in the text (line 20 of the translation) is Their skirts were fern and leaf of the ti. A pau of fern was said to be hanohano, dignified. Ua kapa ia ka palai he palai alii; o ka la-i, ua kapa ia he mea kala (the pau of fern was worn by chiefs; the pau of ti leaf was a sign of propitiation.) A woman wore a ti leaf during her period of monthly infirmity. The whole subject will bear further investigation. [↑]
[9] Kihi o ka Mahina, the horn of the Moon. The manner of fastening the pau, knotting or tucking it in at each hip, gave it a crescent shape, with an angle at each hip. This seems to have suggested to the poet a comparison with the horns of the young Moon. [↑]
[10] Akua lehe-oi, an undoubted reference to Pele,—the sharp devouring edge, lip, of her lava-flow. [↑]
[11] Akua lehe-ama. This also must refer to Pele—her gaping lips. [↑]
[12] Puke, this archaic form of pu’e, a hill of potatoes, yams and the like. [↑]
[13] The Hawaiians had no such thing as bread. The Hawaiian word ai, in line 20 of the original, means vegetable food. The necessities of the case seem to justify the use of the word bread in the translation. The reader will pardon the anachronism. [↑]