HIIAKA RESTORES TO LIFE MANA-MANA-IA-KALU-EA
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
To hurl this prayer-shaft at Ole-pau:
He’ll become but a houseless ghost;
The maggots shall batten like gods.
Waihe’e crouches in the cold blast
Of the raging Kili-o’opu.
This atom soul I plucked from the grave,
From a fastness desolate now:
The spirit flits from Ole-pau,
Goes down the steep to destruction,
To the somber caverns of Milu.
With this she dashed the captive soul against the rock, and that was the end of Ka-ula-hea.
There was something in the manner of Hiiaka as she called the name of the kahuna Kau-akahi that chilled the courage of the group of sorcery gods. They saw that their game was played out, and they sneaked away and hid themselves.
Source notes
1Aoaoa, an imitative word, meaning dog. ↑
2 The most acceptable bonne bouche that could be offered to Pele, or to Hiiaka, by way of refreshment, was the tender leaf of the taro plant. We of this day and generation eat it when cooked under the name of lu-au. In the old old times, when the gods walked on the earth, it was acceptable in the raw state under the name of paha; but, when cooked, it was called pe’u. The word luau seems to be modern. ↑
3Po’ipo’i.Po’i uhane, soul catching, was one of the tricks of Hawaiian black art and sorcery. ↑
4 There seems to be a disagreement in the different versions as to who is the king with whom Hiiaka is now contending, whether Ole-pau or Ka-ula-hea. For historical reasons I deem it to be Ole-pau, unless, indeed, the two names represent the same person. ↑
5Kau, offered, literally put upon the altar. ↑
6Lohelohe. By some inadvertence, this word was wrongly written as kohekohe, and I was cudgelling my wits and searching heaven and earth, and all the dictionaries, to learn the meaning of this artifact, this false thing. After having vainly inquired of more than a score of Hawaiians, one man, wiser than the rest, suggested that it should be lohelohe, not kohekohe, meaning underdone, or half-baked dog. The word-fit was perfect; the puzzle was solved. ↑
7Kanaloa, a name given to Kaho’olawe, the island that faces East Maui, lying opposite to Lahaina, and acts as a sort of buffer against the blasts of the south wind, allusion to which is made, as I believe, in the word A-a, in the same line. ↑
8Ele. Some critics claim that ka and ele properly form one word (kaele), meaning overturned. The grammatical construction of the sentence forbids this claim, and favors the interpretation I have given it. The figure is that of a canoe whose black body has turned turtle. ↑
9Pa’iauma. This is a word that has presented some difficulties in the discovery of its meaning. The reference, I believe, is to breast-beating practiced by persons distracted with grief. Uma, the final part of the word, I take to be the shortened form of umauma, the bosom. ↑
10Pili, to meet, the point or line of meeting, the boundaries of a land, therefore, the whole land. ↑
11Ka-ma’o-ma’o, the name given to the sandy plain between Kahului and Wailuku, Maui. ↑
12 Female deities of necromancy. ↑
13Akua, literally, a god, or godlike, i.e., in an awe-inspiring manner. ↑
14Ke-olo-ewa, an akua ki’i, i.e., a god of whom an image was fashioned. Some form of cloud was recognized as his body (Ke-ao-lewa(?)). One of his functions was rain-producing. Farmers prayed to him: “Send rain to my field; never mind the others.” S. Percy Smith of New Zealand (in a letter to Professor W. D. Alexander) says that in Maori legend Te Orokewa, also called Poporokewa, was one of the male apa, guardians and messengers of Io, the supreme god who presided over the 8th heaven.
According to Hawaiian tradition Ke-olo-ewa was, as Fornander has it, the second son of Kamauaua, a superior chief, or king of Moloka’i, and succeeded his father in the kingship of that island. His brother, Kau-pe’e-pe’e-nui-kauila, it was who stole away Hina, the beautiful wife of Haka-lani-leo of Hilo, and secreted her on the famous promontory of Haupu on Moloka’i. For the story of this interesting tradition see Fornander’s “The Polynesian Race,” Vol. II, p. 31. After death he became deified and was prayed to as a rain god. ↑
15Kama-ua, literally, the son of rain. ↑
16Ulu-nui, meaning the crop-giver. This was the name of a king, or chief of Makawao, Maui, under whom agriculture greatly flourished. ↑
17Me-ha’i-kana, the goddess of the bread-fruit tree; said to be one with Papa. ↑
18Kele honua, an instance of a noun placed after its adjective. The meaning of kele honua, literally, the miry soil, a deep taro patch. ↑