HIIAKA CHOOSES THE ROUTE THROUGH PANA-EWA
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
Ua wawahia, ua nahahá,
Ua he-helelei ka papa i Pua-le’i, e!
TRANSLATION
Long is the reach of Keäau’s palms;
Bristly-backed Pana-ewa’s woodlands;
Spoiled are the restful groves of La’a;
Ragged and patchy the tree-clumps—
Gray their heads from the ravage of fire.
A blanket of smoke covers Puna—
All paved with the dump from Her stone-yard.
The Goddess’ fire bites Olu-eä—
One cinder-heap clean to Apua;
Food for Her oven are wildwood and brush—
The finish that to Lau-ahi’s glory:
Her robe now is changed to jetty black,
At the onset of Ku-lili-kaua,
Ka-liu’s palms plucked root and branch.
The Sun and the Moon are blotted out;
Hilo is shaken to its foundation,
Its lands upheaved, despoiled to the sea,
Shattered, fissured, powdered, reduced;
Its plain is ashes and dust!
The battle that ensued when Pana-ewa sent to the attack his nondescript pack of mo’o, dragonlike anthropoids, the spawn of witchcraft, inflamed with the spite of demons, was hideous and uncanny. Tooth and claw ran amuck. Flesh was torn, limbs rent apart, blood ran like water. If it had been only a battle with enemies in the open Hiiaka would have made short work of the job. Her foes lay ambushed in every wood and brake and assumed every imaginable disguise. A withered bush, a bunch of grass, a moss-grown stone, any, the most innocent object in nature, might prove to be an assailant ready to spit venom or tear with hook and talon. Hiiaka had need of every grain of wit and every spark of courage in her nature. Nothing could withstand her onset and the billows of attack against her person were broken as by a solid rock. Some described her as wielding a flaming battle-ax and hurling missiles of burning sulphur. They might well be deceived. The quickness of her every motion was a counterfeit of the riving blade or blazing fire-ball. Some assert that, in her frenzy, she tore with her teeth and even devoured the reeking flesh until her stomach rose in rebellion. Such a notion seems incompatible with the violence of her disgust for the reptilian blood that besmeared her from sole to crown.
Paú-o-pala’e, using her magical paú as a besom of destruction, was transformed into a veritable Bellona; and Wahine-oma’o displayed the courage of an amazon. These both escaped serious injury. The unhappy fate of Pa-pulehu realized that girl’s premonition. She fell into the hands of the enemy and, as if to fulfill the prediction of Pele, became “food for the gods of Pana-ewa.”
As Hiiaka glanced heavenward, she saw the zenith filled with cloud-forms—Kane, Kanaloa, Ka-moho-alii, Poha-kau and others, encouraging her with their looks. The sight, while it cheered, wrung from her a fervent prayer:
Kela pae opua i ka lani, e,
Ke ka’i a’e la mauka o Poha-kau.
He kaukau, aloha keia ia oe,
Ia oe no, e-e-e!
TRANSLATION
Yon group of god-forms, that float
And sail with the clouds heaven-high,
Mustered and led by Poha-kau;
This prayer is a love-call to you!
“Our sister is in trouble,” said Ka-moho-alii, “let us go to her assistance!” Such was the call of Ka-moho-alii when he saw his little friend and quondam protegé Hiiaka in trouble, and theirs were the god-forms that sailed through the sky to reinforce her.
Source notes
1Kamaaina, a resident, one acquainted with the land. ↑
2Ele-i. One Hawaiian says this rare word means blue-black, shiny black (J. W. P.); another says it means rich, choice, select (T. J. P.) ↑
3Ka, to remove, clean up entirely, as in bailing a canoe. ↑
4Hea, destroyed, flattened out. ↑
5Ne, an elided poetical form of nele, meaning gone, blotted out. ↑