[6] A’aka, an ocean cave (definition not given in the dictionary). [↑]
[7] Nawele ka maka o Hina-ulu-ohi’a. By metonymy, a figure of speech for which the Hawaiian poets showed great fondness, the name of the goddess, or superior being, Hina-ulu-ohi’a, is here used instead of the fruit which seems to have been her emblem. This fruit, the ohi’a puakea, is a variety of the ohi’a ai, or mountain apple, as it is commonly called. The common variety is of a deep red color shading into purple; but this variety, departing from the usual rule, is of a pale lemon color. This pale variety shows a faint pink or reddish ring about the maka, or eye where the flower was implanted. The poet’s fancy evidently makes a comparison between this delicate aureole and the dim glow by which the volcanic fire made itself perceived in its periphery at Kahiki. [↑]
[8] Kahaea, a pile of white cumulus clouds, or a single large cloud, which was regarded by weather prophets, soothsayers and diviners as a significant portent. [↑]
[9] Ku-lani-ha-ko’i. The old Hawaiians imagined that somewhere in the heavens was an immense reservoir of water, and that a heavy downpour of rain was due to the breaking of its banks. When the clouds of storm and rain gathered thick and black, they saw in this phenomenon a confirmation of their belief, which gained double assurance when the clouds discharged their watery contents. [↑]
[10] Eleua … Eleao. When a Hawaiian house had a door at each end, the door at one end was named Ele-ua, that at the other end Ele-ao. [↑]
[11] Kula-manu. A plain or tract of land that was flooded in wet weather and thus converted for a time into a resort for water-fowl, was termed a kula-manu or bird plain. [↑]
[12] Wahi’a ka lani. This passive form of the verb has here the force of entreaty almost equivalent to the imperative. The opening here spoken of was the parting and drawing aside of the dark clouds that shut in the heavens, an opening that would be equivalent to the restoration of peace and good will. [↑]
[13] Ku-lili-ka-ua, the name applied to a grove of pandanus in Puna. [↑]
[14] Pohaku-loa, the name of a rocky ledge or cliff in Puna. [↑]
[15] Lau-ahea. This was a deceitful voice, a vocal Will-o’-the-wisp, that was sometimes heard by travelers and that enticed them into the wilderness or thicket there to be entrapped in some lua meke or fathomless pit. [↑]