THE ROUT OF THE MAHIKI
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
E kiu, e kiu ia auane’i kou ahiahi;
E maka’i ia olua auane’i.
He akua Mo’o-lau, o Mo’o-lau akua, e!
TRANSLATION
In the jungle of Mo’o-lau,
The uhi-uhi’s season of bloom;
The flower of the rootless kau-no’a
Is wilted and bent in the sun;
My bower in Kekaha’s invaded:
Some creature is playing the spy.
I, in turn,—be warned—will spy out
Your quiet and rest of an evening:
This to you, you, god Mo’o-lau!
Pele, perceiving that the crisis of the conflict had now come, called upon all the male and female relatives of Hiiaka (hoaiku) to go to her assistance; “Go and help your sister Hiiaka. There she is fighting desperately with Mo’o-lau—fighting and resting, fighting and resting, well nigh exhausted. Go and help her; all of you go. It’s a fight against Mo’o-lau.”
When the battalion of gods moved against the mo’o, it was a rout and a slaughter. Then the cry arose: “No fight has been made against the Mahiki dragon; he yet survives.” Thereupon they turned their attack against that old dragon and his guards. Hiiaka then celebrated the double victory in this paean:
Kaiko’o Pu’u-moe-awa, wawá ka laau;
Nei o Pu’u-owai ma, e:
Nahá ka welowelo; he’e na’e ho’i, e!
E Pu’u-owai ma, e, ke holo la!
E Miki-aloalo, e, nawai ka make?
Ke i-o nei, e!
TRANSLATION
A roar as of surf on the hill Moe-awa:
The tumult resounds through the forest:
Pu’u-owai and his band lead the rout,
Your battallions are torn into tatters—
You are running, Captain Owai!
And you, Captain Spry, whose the defeat?
The answer is made by the shouting!
Hiiaka’s chief weapon of attack seems to have been her magical paú. With this as a besom she beat them down as a husbandman might beat down a swarm of locusts. The Mahiki and the Mo’o-lau had ceased to exist as organized bodies. But from the rout and slaughter of the armies many individuals had escaped with their lives, and these had hid themselves away in caves and secret places, some of them even, presuming apparently upon their power of disguise, had taken refuge in the remote scattered habitations of the people. Such an inference seems to be justified by the language of the mele now to be given:
Note.—The gods that came to the assistance of Hiiaka such times as circumstances pinched her and whose spiritual power at all times reënforced her feeble humanity were limited in their dominion to certain vaguely defined provinces and departments. Thus, if there was any sea-fighting to be done, it fell to the shark-god, the Admiral Ka-moho-alii, to take charge of it. On the other hand, the conduct of a battle on terra firma would be under the generalship of Kane-milo-hai; while to Kana-loa belonged the marshalling of the celestial hosts, the moon and the stars. But the orb of day, the Sun, belonged to Lono. Hence, if the fighting was during the hours of daylight, Lono would logically assume the command. The rule of the great god Ku was also exercised principally by day. It was he who arranged the calendar and settled the order of the seasons, the days and the nights. The subdivisions and departmental complications under these general divisions were numerous.
Lilo i Puna, lilo i Puna,
Lilo i Puna, i ke au a ka hewahewa;
Popo’i aku ka i na hale:
Ua piha na hale i ke ’kua—
O Kini Akua o Wai-mea,
O ka Lehu Akua o Maná.
Kini wale Wai-mea
I ka pihe o ke ’kua o Uli, e.
Po wale Mahiki;