PAOA COMES BEFORE PELE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
The eminence of Akani-kolea stood near at hand and offered Paoa a vantage ground for better contemplation of the mysterious earth-pit, and when the first tide of emotion had swept by thither he repaired. Looking down into the desolate abyss, his gaze centered on a group of human figures, beautiful women, seated on the vast plates of pahoehoe that made the floor of the caldera. He saw but four of them, Pele herself not being visible. He had no clue as to their identity and was only impressed as by the sight of beautiful women who were to him as goddesses. The grandeur and strangeness of the scene moved him to song:
Hulihia ka Mauna,
Wela i ke ahi a ka Wahine;
Wela na ohi’a o Kulili i ka ua;
Wela, a nopu ke ahi o ka Lua.
Ai kamumu, nakeke ka pahoehoe;
Wela, a iluna o Hale-ma’uma’u;
Malu ka pali o Ka-au-eä.
Auwe, e Hiiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele, e,
E ola, e, e ola Lohiau-ipo,
I ka pali o Keé, i Haena, e!
TRANSLATION
Destruction and turmoil in the Pit:
The fires of the Woman have done it—
Consuming the forests of Ku-lili—
Fires that boil from the depths of the Pit,
Shaking the stone-plates till they rattle.
It’s furnace-hot in that House-of-fern,
But there’s shelter at Ka-au-eä.
Oh Hiiaka of Pele’s heart,
Life to thee, and life to dear Lohiau—
Soul plucked by thee from death at Keé,
Death in the cliff Keé, at Haena.
Pele, in the retirement of her gloomy cavern, was quite out of the range of Paoa’s eye-shot, but his voice rang in her ears distinctly. “What a handsome man is that standing on the edge of the cliff at Akani-kolea!” exclaimed Pele’s women, unable to repress their admiration.
“Call to him and invite him to come down here where we can talk together,” said Pele. “Way up there on the pali wall—that’s no place for us to talk and become acquainted with each other. Tell him to come down here and we’ll discuss matters great and small, look upon the large stem and the small stem; see one another face to face; learn each other’s heart’s desire.”1
For all her fine words. Pele did not at once come forward and meet her visitor face to face. She lay unrecognized in her stygian boudoir, to all appearance a withered hag.
Paoa, well versed in the wiles of Woman, adept in the logomachies and etiquettes of court-life, was quite put to his trumps and found it necessary to summon all his diplomacy and exercise all his power of self-command in dealing with the shrewd and attractive women that surrounded him. It was evident to the watchful eye of our heroine—Hiiaka—that he was dangerously attracted by the voluptuous beauty of her sister, Hiiaka-of-the-waves. In the persistent silence of Pele, upon her fell the leading part of the conversation with Paoa:
“What might be the purpose of your pilgrimage?” she asked.
“I come in answer to the call of my friend, Lohiau.”
“But Lohiau is dead,” chorused the women.
“Yes, dead! And what was the cause of his death?”
“He kissed Hiiaka,” the woman answered.
“Ah! but who killed him?”
“Pele.” Her voice sank to a whisper, and the name she uttered was to be made out, or guessed at, rather by a study of the protruding lips and the sympathetic arching of the brow than by any sound emitted. Her eyes also made a half-turn in the direction of Pele’s cave.
“He came to Hawaii in the expectation that Pele would be his life.” Paoa spoke with thoughtful deliberation. “How came it about that she should cause his death?” … After a moment’s pause, he continued: “He tasted death once at Haena and, now, again, here, on this barren … a second death, and through the wrath of Pele!”
Pele roused herself at this and spoke up: “What is that you say? that Lohiau died at Haena?”
“Yes, he tasted of death there,” Paoa answered firmly.
“How, then, did he become alive again?” asked Pele sharply.
“Hiiaka, she treated him, and by her gracious skill and power brought his soul and body together again. That done, they sailed away for Hawaii.”
The eyes of Pele were literally, as well as metaphorically, opened. She turned herself about and, in a lowered voice, with a show of astonishment, for the first time, addressed Hiiaka: “Is this true, that you worked over Lohiau and restored him to life?”