HIIAKA LEARNS OF THE DEATH OF LOHIAU
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
Hiiaka now perceived two female figures squatted at the entrance of the cavern, which they had carefully blocked and were guarding. These were the creatures that had stolen away the body of Lohiau. She at once raised her voice and addressed them with this threatening language:
E Aka, e Kilioe-i-ka-pua, e-e!
Na wahine kapa ole e nene’e wale nei
I ka hapapa ku’i opihi,
O ka luna i Hala-aniani,10 la;
Na wahine kapa ole.
TRANSLATION
Ah!—Aka, and you Kilioë,
Dowered with flowerlike beauty,
You women with naked bodies,
Who sometime flit o’er the reef-plates,
Now squat over Hala-aniani!
You shameless, you naked ones!
The magic of these words worked their death-purpose. The way to the sepulchral cave was now unobstructed. As they came, however, to the base of the cliff, they found that the ladder had been removed—the mischievous work of the witches. Wahine-oma’o was aghast. “There is no ladder for us to climb up by,” said the woman.
“Turn your face to the cliff,” was Hiiaka’s answer.
The girl did so and used her best efforts to climb the mountain wall. The day was far spent and darkness would soon come on. Thereupon Hiiaka invoked the Sun, bidding it stand still at the mouth of the river Hea:
E Kini, e hiki i Kauai, i kou aina;
O koa maka-iwa11 o Halawa,12
Paia Kona i ou kino,
Akua nui o Hiiaka, la.
Hiki e, pi’i e, iho e!
E kau i ka muli o Hea;13
Kau malie oe, e ka La!
TRANSLATION
Come to your land to Kauai, ye hosts!
Ye warrior-gods, keen eyes of pearl!
Put forth your strength, O Kona—
The mighty goddess Hiiaka!
I bid you rise, climb, and descend!
Now stay your flight, O Day!
Stand still, O Sun, o’er Hea’s water!
Source notes
1 These Honopu women, two in number, were mo’o, witches, related to Kilioe, a famous witch-mo’o of Hawaii, and their names were Kili-oe-i-ka-pua and Ka-lana-mai-nu’u. ↑
2Kili-hau, the name given to a local wind accompanied by a fine rain. ↑
3Kili-opu, a name descriptive of a wind and rain-shafts that, plunging into the water, made as little splash as a skillful diver. ↑
4Pu’e. This word is here used in an unusual sense to mean cold. ↑
5Hanehane, the shrill, seemingly far-off, wailing of a ghost; ghostly. ↑
6Pololei, an archaic name applied to the land shell, now known as pupu-kanioi. This was supposed to utter a delicate trilling cry similar to that of the cricket. ↑
7Lima-loa, the god Mirage. ↑
8Wawae-nohu, the name given to a red cloud seen at sunset in the west from Mana, Kauai. ↑
9Ka-halau-a-ola, literally, the hall of health. The more commonly used appellation Mauli-ola, was both the name of a deity and of a mystical place. One may infer from their use that Halau-a-ola meant rather a sort of house-of-refuge, a place of security from the attack of an enemy, while Mauli-ola had in view a mystical, beatific, condition. The former is illustrated in the line describing Kama-pua’a’s escape from Pele’s onslaught: