HIIAKA FINDS A RELATIVE IN MAKA-PU’U—KO’OLAU WEATHER—MALEI
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
Hiiaka’s adventurous tour of Moloka’i ended at Kauna-ka-kai, from which place she found no difficulty in obtaining the offer of transportation to Oahu. The real embarrassment lay in the super-gallantry of the two sailors who manned the canoe. When the two men looked upon Hiiaka and Wahine-oma’o, they were so taken with admiration for their beauty and attractiveness, that they sneaked out of a previous engagement to take their own wives along with them, trumping up some shuffling excuse about the canoe being overladen.
Arriving at the desolate landing near the wild promontory of Maka-pu’u, it was only by a piece of well-timed duplicity that Hiiaka and her companion managed to shake off the sailors and relieve themselves from their excessive attentions.
While in mid channel, in sight of Ulu-ma-wao, a promontory whose name was the same as a near relative of the Pele family, Hiiaka poured out this reminiscence in song:
Ku’u kane i ka pali kauhuhu,
Kahi o Maka-pu’u1 huki i ka lani
Ka Lae o Ka-laau,2
Kela pali makua-ole3 olaila:—
Anu ka ua i ka pali o Ulu-ma-wao,4 e;
E mao wale ana i ka lani kela pali:
Ku’i, ha-ina i ke kai.
I ke kai ho’i ke Akua,
A pololi a moe au, e-e!
Ku’u la pololi, a ola i kou aloha:
Ina’i pu me ka waimaka, e-e!
A e u’wé kaua, e-e!
TRANSLATION
O fellow mine on the stair-like cliff,
Where Maka-pu’u climbs to the sky,
Companioned by Cape-of-the-woods,
That fatherless bluff over yonder:
Cold cheer the rain on Ulu-ma-wao;
That lone steep faints away in the sky,
While Ocean pounds and breaks at its base—
The sea is the home of the gods.
I lay in a swoon from hunger
What time I awoke from love’s dream,
Love, salt with the brine of our tears.
Let us mingle our tears.
It was a question with Hiiaka whether to follow the Koolau or the Kona side of the island. The consideration that turned the scale in favor of the Koolau route was that thus she would have sight of a large number of aunts and uncles, members of the Pele family, whose ghosts still clung to the dead volcanic cones and headlands which stood as relics of their bygone activities, and where they eked out a miserable existence. The region was thickly strewn with these skeleton forms. Hiiaka first addressed herself to Maka-pu’u:
Noho ana Maka-pu’u i ka lae,
He wahine a ke Akua Pololi:—
Pololi, ai-ole, make i ka pololi, e-e!
TRANSLATION
Maka-pu’u dwells at the Cape,
Wife to the god of Starvation—
Hunger and death from starvation.
To this Maka-pu’u answered: “We love the place, the watch-tower, from which we can see the canoes, with their jibing triangular sails, sailing back and forth between here and Moloka’i.” To this she added a little chanty:
E Maka-pu’u nui, kua ke au e!
Na mauü moe o Malei, e-e,
I ai na maua, i ai na maua, e-e!