HIIAKA LEARNS OF THE DEATH OF LOHIAU
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
With a nice feeling of etiquette, Hiiaka’s hosts allowed the day of her arrival to pass with no inquiry as to the purpose of her visit. But on the morning of the morrow Malae-ha’a-koa asked the question that put himself in sympathetic touch with his guests.
“I have come to escort Lohiau as a lover to the bed of Pele,” said Hiiaka.
“Lohiau has been dead many days,” they both exclaimed. “He took his own life out of a passionate infatuation for one of the Hono-pú1 women.”
“Let that be as it may,” Hiiaka answered; “I will go and see for myself.”
Now Kahua-nui, the sister of Lohiau, had laid his body to rest in a sepulcher close to her own residence; but on examination the place was found to be empty. It was evident that the body had been spirited away. Hiiaka, turning her gaze to the mountain, discerned a ghostly form standing at the mouth of a cave. It was the ghost of Lohiau. In an effort to soothe and attract him, Hiiaka, with arms extended and face uplifted, in passionate utterance gave vent to her emotions:
Ku’u kane i ka pali o Haena,
Mai na aina pali a pau loa,
Mai Hoolulu no a Poli-hale la;
Ku’u kane ho’i, e-e!
TRANSLATION
At last, my dear man, at last,
On this rugged cliff of Haena!
I have searched the whole mountain side,
From Ho’o-lulu’s booming fall
To Poli-hale’s buttressed flank.
I have found thee at last, my man!
Again she scanned the lineaments of the shadowy form if she might find there the picture her mind had imaged. At second view, the ghostly unreality of the tenuous image so greatly shocked her imagination by its contrast to her ideal of a true flesh-and-blood lover, that she amended her first utterance:
Aole a’e nei ke kane,
He hoa pili no ke ahiahi,
He hoa kaunu no ke aumoe,
No ka waena po loloa
O ke hooilo, la:
Ku’u kane ho’i, e-e!
TRANSLATION
This, surely, is not the lover
To cling to one in the twilight,
To fondle in the midnight watch
Of a long, long, wint’ry night.
Where, oh where art thou, my man?
A creepy thrill came over Hiiaka as she saw the bloodless lips open and heard these answering words from the mouth of the weird object that stood on the pali wall:
Ku’u wahine, e-e!
Hoohewahewa oe ia’u, la.
Eia au la i Ka-lalau, e-e;
I ka pali au o Hoo-lulu, la;
Ku’u wahine ho’i, e-e!
TRANSLATION
Alas, my woman, alas!
You wail in soul-recognition.
I was yonder at Ka-lalau,
Or some time perched at Ho’o-lulu.