THE LAME FISHERMAN—HIS EPIC RECITAL CELEBRATING PELE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
Inhales the scent of mokihana—
The bath-water of Hiiaka.
She once had a contest there;
She had no tenant to guard the place.
Pele spurns with her feet the long waves;
They give back a flash like her eye,
A flash that’s repeated on high.
Wonder and awe possess me!
When Pele came voyaging from the east
And landed at Mo’o-kini—
The rain poured down at Ku-malae—
Her people set up an image,
And there they made their abode,
With the workmen who carve the canoe;
And they offered prayers and gave thanks.
Then Pele led them in journey
To the cape of Lele-iwi,
Where they breathed the incense of hala.
With Mokau-lele’s rich lehua
Goddess Pele weaved her a wreath.
They built a village at Pu’u-lena,
Her bedroom at Papa-lau-ahi,
A mighty hall at Kilauea.
Wonder and awe possess me!
When Pele fell through from Kahiki
Bitter the rain, lightning and quaking—
The big-dropped rain that shatters the leaves
Of the women folk in Mau-kele’s wilds.
Pele came in the dusk of the night,
With toss and sway of the long-backed waves.
The ocean heaved at Pele’s rush;
The great god thundered in heaven;
The strata of earth were uptorn;
The reef-plates broken, crushed; and rent
Was the surf-plank of Kane at Maui.
What a piling of portents by the Sun-god
Over the Green Lake Ka-hala-loa!
Wonder and awe possess me!
It was Wa’a gazed on the fishing fleet,
His watch-tower the cliffs of Kohala;