Song of the Tree-shell
Trill a-far,
Trill a-near,
A dainty song-wreath,
Wreath akolea.
Kolea, Kolea,
Fetch me some dew,
Dew from pink akolea.
This little piece of rustic imagination is said to have been used in the hula, but in connection with what dance the author has not been able to learn.
Footnote 255:[ (return) ] The akolea is a fern (by some classed as a Polypodium) which, according to Doctor Hillebrand (Flora of the Hawaiian Islands), “sustains its extraordinary length by the circinnate tips which twine round the branches of neighboring shrubs or trees.”