HIIAKA DESCRIBES THE SCENE BEFORE HER
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
No dream of disaster at sea.
The story of Cape Ka-ena, that finger-like thrusts itself out into the ocean from the western extremity of Oahu, touches Hawaiian mythology at many points: Its mountain eminence was a leina uhane, jumping-off place, where the spirits of the deceased took their flying leap into ghost-land. Here it was that the demigod Mawi had his pou sto when he made the supreme effort of his life to align and unite the scattered group of islands; and here can still be seen Pohaku o Kauai, the one fragment of terra firma his hook could wrench from its base. Here, too, it was that Pele stood when she chaffed the old demi-god for having lured her on, as she supposed, with drum and fife to the pursuit of Lohiau; and now her sister Hiiaka stands in the same place. The subject was well worthy Hiiaka’s muse:
Lele ana o Ka-ena
Me he manu la i ka malie;
Me he kaha na ka uwa’u6 la
Na pali o Nene-le’a;7
Me he upa’i na ke koa’e8 la
Ka ale iwaho o Ka-ieie;9
Me he kanáka hoonu’u la i ka malie
Ka papa kea i ke alo o ka alá;
Ua ku’i ’a e ke kai,
A uli, a nono, a ula
Ka maka o ka alá,
E no-noho ana i ke kai o Ka-peku.10
Ka-peku ka leo o ke kai—
O Hoo-ilo11 ka malama.—
Ke ku mai la ka pauli i kai,
Ka hoailona kai o ka aina:
A’e kai o Ka-hulu-manu;12
Kai a moana ka aina.
Ahu wale ka pae ki’i,
Ka pae newe-newe,
Ka pae ma nu’u a Kana-loa:—
A he hoa, a oia.
Hoohaehae13 ana ka Lae-o-ka-laau,14
I kihe15 ia e ke kai o Wawalu,16
Na owaewae17 pali o Unu-lau
Inu aku i ka wai o Kohe-iki i ka pali—
I ka pali ka wai,
Kau pu me ka laau.
Hoole ke kupa, huná i ka wai.18
Ehá ka muli-wai, wai19 o Ka-ena.
Ena iho la e ka la o ka Maka-li’i;
O-i’o mai ana ke a me he kanaka koa la,
Maalo ana i ku’u maka;
Me he hauka’i la o ia kalana pali,
Kuamo’o loa, pali o Lei-honua.
Hiki iho nei no ka hauoli
I ka hiki’na mai a nei makani.
Heaha la ka’u makana i ku’u hilahila?