[94] E ke alii, the poet speaks to the chief Kahahana or his departed spirit. [↑]
[95] Lou, the instrument (a long pole with fixture at the end) for reaching and picking breadfruit; loua, is the action of picking breadfruit with that instrument. [↑]
[96] Muo, the tender leaf-bud; Kahahana is called the tender bud of heaven, and death has plucked him; loua, for louia. [↑]
[97] Ka lani hoikea, the chief is exhibited; ka mea paha ia nei, this is what has just been done. [↑]
[98] Ka hiamoe kapu, etc., the sacred or forbidden sleep of niolopua, name of a sleep. Kumahana, the Oahu chief immediately preceding Kahahana, was famous for his sleeping; when the people and lower chiefs came with food or presents, he was always asleep, the people called his sleeping “niolopua he kapu,” because everything belonging to the high chief was kapu, and such sleeping was peculiar to him,—niolo, a nodding blossom, who slept throughout the day. [↑]
[99] Moku i ke a’u, etc., torn, rent, “pierced is my chief by the a’u,” i.e., a large fish with a horn like the swordfish, which kills men. [↑]
[100] Ko kino loa—ko, genitive case, the length of whose body is like that of Kana. [↑]
[101] I anana ia, who was a fathom long, i.e., Kahahana, a puehu ka loa, and more too; puehu is some indefinite measure, above, a larger one. If one measures a fathom, or a yard, and some is over, they say he anana a puehu, meaning there is some over. [↑]
[102] Hoi ha, he oiaio, that indeed is the truth, even so, that is the length of the chief, i.e., of Kahahana. [↑]
[103] Like ole paha, or aole ona mea like, there is not his like. [↑]