HIIAKA VISITS PELE-ULA AT KOU—THE HULA KILU
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
For shame, my man, such clamor and haste!
The eye of day is open just now.
Make love, aperch, a bird in a tree!
You clamor for bed in the open:
To bed with yourself!—to bed!
Source notes
1Wa’a-hila is said to have been the name of a favorite hula of Pele-ula; so called after a princess who, with her brother Ka-manu-wai, excelled in the performance of this dance. Her name has been perpetuated in an old saying that has come down to us: Ka ua Wa’a-hila o Nu’uanu. This is a gentle rain that extends only as far down Nu’uanu valley as to Wyllie or Judd street. ↑
2Po Puna. Puna, as the home-center of volcanic action, knew what it was to be darkened by a volcanic eruption. Puna here stands for Hiiaka and her companion whose home it was. The night that overshadows Puna represents allegorically the intriguing designs of Pele-ula. ↑
3Maka lehua. The lehua buds stand for the harmony, kindly affection and love that up to this time had existed between Lohiau and the two women escorting him. Pele-ula is the smoke that blights the lehua buds. ↑
4Kihei-hei, frequentative form of kihei, to wear. ↑
5Paü heihei. The pau heihei was a fringe of vegetable ribbons strung together and worn about the loins, thus serving as the conventional shield of modesty among the people of the olden time. The modifying expression, o uka, implies that the use of this particular form of pau was rather a sign of rusticity. ↑
6Papa lohi o Mau-kele, glistening lava plates of Mau-kele. Mau-kele was a land in Puna. The implication is that these women, Pele-ula, Waikiki and the rest of them are plotting to steal away the affections of Lohiau. ↑
7Ha’a ho’i ka papa, the lava plates rock: that is the plot is a shaky fabrication and will.… ↑
8Kahuli, topple over. ↑
9Puna. There is a punning double entendre involved in the use of this word here. A puna-lua was one who shared with another the sexual favors of a third party. The implication is that Hiiaka and Wahine-oma’o stood thus towards Lohiau. See also note (a). ↑
10Lau o ka lima, leaves of the hand. The spasmodic working (ha’a) of the fingers was deemed to be a sign of lustful passion. It is here attributed to Lohiau. ↑
11Loha, to droop, to be fooled; here to be understood in the latter sense of Pele-ula. ↑
12Wahine-kapu, one of the female deities of the Pele family who had her seat on an eminence at the brink of the caldera of Kilauea which was reverenced as a tabu place. ↑
13Mai O’olu-eä. O’olu-ea, as a place-name calls for a preposition in mai. O’olu-ea, however, contains within it a verb, olu, to be easy, comfortable, and as a verb olu decides the mai to be an adverb of prohibition. In this meaning the caution is addressed to Lohiau. ↑
14Ahi-a-Laka, a land in Puna. The double sense, in which it is here used, gives it a reference to the fires of passion. ↑
15La anoano, literally, quiet day. ↑
16 The kilu, which gave name to the sport, was an egg-shaped dish made by cutting a coconut or small gourd from end to end and somewhat obliquely so that one end was a little higher than the other. ↑
17Au-hula-ana. When the road along a steep coast is cut off by a precipice with the ocean tossing at its base, the traveler will often prefer to swim rather than make a wide inland detour. Such a place or such an adventure is called an au-hula or au-hula-ana. ↑
18Laau ku’i, literally, spliced sticks; a ladder, or some contrivance of the sort to aid the traveler in climbing a pali. ↑
19Lalo, below, to leeward; therefore to the west, meaning Lohiau, who came from the leeward island of Kauai. ↑
20Manawa, the fontanelles; the heart and affections. ↑
21Wai-lua, a river on Kauai. ↑
22Lehua-wehe, a land in Honolulu; here meaning Pele-ula herself. ↑
23Moe-awakea, a hill in Puna; here used for its etymological signification—literally, to sleep at noontime—which is brought out in the translation. ↑
24 The ami was a vigorous action of the body, often employed by dancers. Its chief feature was a rotation of the pelvis in circles of elipses. Though sometimes used with amorous intent, it was not necessarily an attempt to portray sexual attitudes. The ami honua, or ami ku’u pau, was an exaggerated action of the same description. ↑
25Kalukalu, a place in Puna which supported extensive forests of hala (pandanus), a tree whose sword-shaped leaves were edged with fierce thorns. In contrast with the smart they produced the poet adduces the delights of the wilds in his own island of Kauai, instancing the laua’e, a fragrant vine that abounds in its mountains. ↑
26Mohole, an unusual form for pohole, to be lacerated, but not quite so strong. ↑
27Na-pali (the cliffs), a name given to the precipitous side of Kauai, where is the wild valley of Ka-lalau. ↑
28Pu’u o Moe-awa. The full form is Moe-awakea (noonday sleep), the name of a hill in Puna. By omitting kea, the word awakea (noon) comes to mean bitter, thus imparting to the meaning a cutting irony. Cf. note (a), page 176. ↑
29Hana-lei, literally, to make a wreath; a valley on Kauai. ↑
30Hala. It was ill luck to wear a wreath of the hala drupe. ↑