HIIAKA DESCRIBES THE SCENE BEFORE HER
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
Hiiaka constantly showed a lively interest in the important features of the landscape, often addressing them as if they had been sentient beings. At Kai-papa’u, looking out upon cape Lani-loa, she greeted it as if it had been an old friend of the family:
Lele Lani-loa; ua malie;
Ke hoe a’e la ka Moa’e,
Ahu kai i na pali;
Kaiko’o lalo, e.
Ua pi’i kai i uka, e.
TRANSLATION
Fly, Lani-loa, fly in the calm.
At the moaning of Moa’e,2
Mist veils the mountain walls.
The breakers roll ever below,
While Ocean climbs to the hills.
They passed through the lands of Laie, Malae-kahana and Keana and at Kahipa they saw the crouching figures of Punahe’e-lapa and Pahi-pahi-alua, who stole away into the shelter of the pandanus groves without deigning to give them any salutation. At this show of disrespect, Hiiaka called out:
Komo i ka nahele ulu hinalo,
Nahele hala o Po’o-kaha-lulu;
Oia nahele hala makai o Kahuku.
Heaha la ho’i ka hala3
I kapu ai o ka leo, e?
I Hookuli ai oe i ka uwalo, e?
E uwalo aku ana au;
Maloko mai oe, e!
TRANSLATION
We enter the fragrant groves,
Hala groves whose heads make a calm,
Wild growths by the sea of Kahuku,
But what, indeed, are your halas?
Shall their murmur forbid you speech?
Make you dumb to my salutation?
I make this kindly entreaty
To you who sit in the grove.
They crossed the Waimea stream on the sand-bar, which in ordinary weather dams its mouth and, climbing the rocky bluff Kehu-o-hapu’u, had a fine view of the ocean surges tossing up their white spray as they ceaselessly beat against the near-by elevated reef-fringe that parapets this coast, as well as of the Ka-ala mountains, blue in the distance.
(This bluff of Kehu-o-hapu’u until within a few years was the site of a little heiau, the resort of fishermen; and in it stood a rude stone figure of the fish-god Ku-ula. From the non-mention of this interesting object, we have to argue either that the discovery and worship of this idol was of later date than the times of Hiiaka or that she ignored it.)
Hiiaka, casting her eye about for objects of interest, was attracted by the odd appearance of the lily-like water-plant uki, the detached floating clumps of which looked as if they had been fire-smitten:
Ke ai’na mai la e ka wai
Ka maha uki o Ihu-koko;
Ke puhi ia la e ka makani.
Hako’i ka ua, ka wai iluna:
Ke kina’i ia ho’i ka iwi o ka wai a éha.
E há i ka leo—he leo wale no.
TRANSLATION