HIIAKA CONTINUES HER PRAYERS
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
The living Water of Kanaloa,
Which flows in the east, flows in the west,
In the bubbling fount, in heaven’s rain.
Speed now, urge on the cure!
Prayer quickly followed prayer, like the moving pictures in a shifting scene:
Eia ana au, e Laká,35
Kane a Ha’i-wahine;
Ha’i pua o ka nahelehele,
Ha’i hana maile o ka wao,
Houluulu lei ho’i o Laká;
O Hiiaka kaula mana ia, e;
Nana i ho’uluulu na ma’i;
A a’e, a ulu, a noho i kou kahu.
Eia ka wai la, he Wai ola, e!
E ola, ho’i, e-e!
TRANSLATION
Here stand I in stress, Laká,
Thou husband of Ha’inakolo;
What flowers have I plucked in the wild,
What maile stripped in the forest,
To twine into wreaths for Laká!
Thus toiled the seer Hiiaka;
For hers was the magic of cure.
But come thou, mount, enter, possess;
Give life to thy servant and priest.
Here’s water, the Water of Life!
Grant life in abundance, life!
The conclusion of this prayer saw Lohiau quite restored to consciousness, but in a state of utter bewilderment as to his surroundings. He found himself most unaccountably in a small rocky chamber with two women who were utter strangers in attendance on him. Before him, as he looked out, hung the apron of a mountain precipice, while in the distance and far below tossed the ocean, a familiar sight that called him back to earth at once, stirring pleasant fancies in his mind and waking in him a yearning for the sea.
Source notes
1Uli, the chief aumakua of sorcery, but at the same time having power as a healer if she would but exercise it. ↑
2Alohi-lani (literally, the shining heavenly ones); the notions that prevail as to its precise meaning in this place are vague. ↑
3Kupukupu, a benevolent deity who healed diseases and who caused vegetation to flourish. ↑
4Uli. In this connection the word means black. Ilio is a cloud. ↑
5Mea, yellow. Ilio mea, a yellow cloud. ↑
6Ku-ke-ao-iki, a form of the god Ku, a small cloud—hand-size—that grew and grew until it became ominous and seemed to fill the heavens. ↑
7Ku-ke-ao-loa, a cloud-omen grown to full size. ↑
8Ku-ke-ao-poko, said to be a cloud that quickly dissolved itself in rain. ↑
9Ku-ke-ao-apihapiha, a sky full of small clouds, probably the same as our “mackerel sky.” All these different kinds of clouds are forms in which Ku showed himself. ↑
10Kanaka o ka mauna. This undoubtedly means Ku-pulupulu, a god of the canoe-makers. He seems to have had much influence over the lawless Kini Akua. He it was who contracted for the building of a canoe for the hero Laka. ↑
11Ulu laau, another form of ulu; a shady place. ↑
12Hina, to sit or kneel for prayer. ↑