PAOA COMES BEFORE PELE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
“It is true, and it is also true that, not until you had put to death Hopoe, did I bestow any dalliance or caress of love upon Lohiau.”
Hiiaka’s expression as she faced Pele was such as might have sat upon the countenance of a judge passing sentence on a confessed criminal at the bar.
Pele sat impenetrable, sphinxlike, deep in her own labyrinthine philosophy of the obligations due to a social autocrat and a goddess.
Paoa broke the silence: “Shall not Lohiau, then, live again?”
“Go back to Haena,” said Pele, “and when you hear that Lohiau lives again, then will be the time for you to come and take him home.”
“That would be well, then,” said Paoa.
A spell of confusion, of enchantment, seemed now to fall upon the man whilom so boastful. “But where is Pele?” he asked, looking from face to face.
“That is Pele,” said the goddess, pointing to her sister Wave (Hiiaka-i-ka-ale-i).
“I have a sign by which I may know Pele; let me apply the test to these women,” said Paoa.
The company could but agree to this; whereupon, beginning with Wave, he took each one of them in turn by the hand, carrying it to his cheek, the better to test its warmth, holding the hollow to his ear to catch any murmur that might reverberate from it. Each hand he found to be only of natural heat. Turning, then, to Pele herself, he proposed to inspect her hand. At this the goddess drew back.
“If none of these beautiful women is Pele, how can you think that a wrinkled old woman like me is the divine and beautiful Pele?”
Paoa insisted and Pele had to consent. He reached out and took her hand and, on the instant, dropped it; it was burning hot.
“This is Pele!” he exclaimed.
Paoa stood in awed silence before the goddess. Resentment and thoughts of revenge, like evil birds, had taken flight.
At Pele’s command, the women led him away to take refreshment in the sacred dining hall of Mauli-ola. Before seating himself, Paoa uttered this memorable pule, a mele that has drifted down to us from the wa po:
Hulihia ke au, ka papa honua o kona moku;
Hulihia, kulia mai ka moku o Kahiki—
Aina no Kahiki i ka la kahi,
Aina ho’owali’a e Haumea:
Ho-omoe aku la Kahiki-ku,
Kulapa mai ka ulu wela, o mai ke ahi.
Keehi aku la no e nalo2 kapua’i, e—
Kapua’i akua no Pele.
Ke ke’ekeehi wale la no i ka lani;
Haule, u’ina i Polapola;
Noho i ka lau ha’a o ka moku.
Hina Kukulu o Kahiki;
Hina ka omuku i ka makani;
Hina ka pae opua ki’i ke ao;
Hina ka onohi ula3 i ka lani;
Kanewenewe opua i ke kai.
Eä mai ana ma Nihoa,
Ma ka mole mai o Lehua,
Mai Kaua’i nui a Oahu, a Moloka’i,
Lana’i a Kanaloa, mai Maui a Hawaii,
Ka Wahine—o Pele—i hi’a i kana ahi
A á pulupulu, kukuni, wela ka lani:
He uwila ku’i no ka honua;
Hekili pa’apa’ina i ke ao;
Pohaku puoho, lele iluna;