E ala, ua ao, ua malamalama;
Ke kau aku la ka La i Kawaihoa:
Ke kolii aku la ka La i ka ili o ke kai;
Ke anai mai la ka iwa auai-maka o Lei-no-ai,
I ka lima o Maka-iki-olea,
I ka poll wale o Leliua la.
E ala oe!
Footnote 352:[ (return) ] Hawaiians conceived of the dome of heaven as a solid structure supported by walls that rested on the earth’s plain. Different names were given to different sections of the wall. Kahiki-ku and Kahiki-moe were names applied to certain of these sections. It would, however, be too much, to expect any Hawaiian, however intelligent and well versed in old lore, to indicate the location of these regions.
Footnote 353:[ (return) ]
The words apapa nu’u and apapa lani, which convey to the mind of the author the picture of a series of terraced plains or steppes—no doubt the original meaning—here mean a family or order of gods, not of the highest rank, at or near the head of which stood Pele. Apropos of this subject the following lines have been quoted:
Hanau ke apapa nu’u:
Hanau ke apapa lani;
Hanau Pele, ka hihi’o na lani.
[Translation.]
Begotten were the gods of graded rank;
Begotten were the gods of heavenly rank;
Begotten was Pele, quintessence of heaven.
This same expression was sometimes used to mean an order of chiefs, alii. Apapa lani was also used to mean the highest order of gods, Ku, Kane, Kanaloa, Lono. The kings also were gods, for which reason this expression at times applied to the alii of highest rank, those, for instance, who inherited the rank of niau-pi’o or of wohi.
Footnote 354:[ (return) ] Lani. Originally the heavens, came to mean king, chief, alii.