Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 12

The left hand was termed _Kaohi-lani_.]

[Footnote 124: _Kauna-lewa_. The name of a celebrated grove of coconuts at Kekaha, Kauai, near the residence of the late Mr.

Knudsen.]

After the ceremony of the pa-u came that of the lei, a wreath to crown the head and another for the neck and shoulders. It was not the custom in the old times to overwhelm the body with floral decorations and to blur the outlines of the figure to the point of disfigurement; nor was every flower that blows acceptable as an offering. The G.o.ds were jealous and nice in their tastes, pleased, only with flowers indigenous to the soil--the ilima (pl. VI), the lehua, the maile, the ie-ie, and the like (see pp. 19, 20). The ceremony was quickly accomplished. As the company knotted the garlands about head or neck, they sang:

_Oli Lei_

Ke lei mai la o Ka-ula i ke kai, e!

Ke malamalama o Niihau, ua malie.

A malie, pa ka Inu-wai.

Ke inu mai la na hala o Naue i ke kai.

5 No Naue, ka hala, no Puna ka wahine.[125]

No ka lua no i Kilauea.

[Translation]

_Wreath Song_

Ka-ula wears the ocean as a wreath; Nii-hau s.h.i.+nes forth in the calm.

After the calm blows the wind Inu-wai; Naue's palms then drink in the salt.

5 From Naue the palm, from Puna the woman-- Aye, from the pit, Kilauea.

Tradition tells a pathetic story (p. 212) in narrating an incident touching the occasion on which this song first was sung.

[Footnote 125: _Wahine_. The woman, Pele.]

BULLETIN 38 PLATE VI [Ill.u.s.tration: ILIMA (SIDA FALLAX) LEI AND FLOWERS]

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IX.--THE HULA ALA'A-PAPA

Every formal hula was regarded by the people of the olden time as a sacred and religious performance (_tabu_); but all hulas were not held to be of equal dignity and rank (_hanohano_). Among those deemed to be of the n.o.blest rank and honor was the _ala'a-papa_. In its best days this was a stately and dignified performance, comparable to the old-fas.h.i.+oned courtly minuet.

We shall observe in this hula the division of the performers into two sets, the _hoopa'a_ and the _olapa_. Attention will naturally bestow itself first on the olapa, a division of the company made up of splendid youthful figures, young men, girls, and women in the prime of life. They stand a little apart and in advance of the others, the right hand extended, the left resting upon the hip, from which hangs in swelling folds the pa-u. The time of their waiting for the signal to begin the dance gives the eye opportunity to make deliberate survey of the forms that stand before us.

The figures of the men are more finely proportioned, more statuesque, more worthy of preservation in marble or bronze than those of the women. Only at rare intervals does one find among this branch of the Polynesian race a female shape which from crown to sole will satisfy the canons of proportion--which one carries in the eye. That is not to say, however, that the artistic eye will not often meet a shape that appeals to the sense of grace and beauty. The springtime of Hawaiian womanly beauty hastes away too soon. Would it were possible to stay that fleeting period which ushers in full womanhood!

One finds himself asking the question to what extent the responsibility for this overthickness of leg and ankle--exaggerated in appearance, no doubt, by the ruffled anklets often worn--this p.r.o.nounced tendency to the growth of that degenerate weed, fat, is to be explained by the standard of beauty which held sway in Hawaii's courts and for many ages acted as a principle of selection in the physical molding of the Hawaiian female.

The prevailing type of physique among the Hawaiians, even more marked in the women than in the men, is the short and thick, as opposed to the graceful and slender. One does occasionally find delicacy of modeling in the young and immature; but with adolescence fatness too often comes to blur the outline.

The hoopa'a, who act as instrumentalists, very naturally maintain a position between sitting and kneeling, the better [Page 58] to enable them, to handle that strangely effective drumlike instrument, the _ipu_, the one musical instrument used as an accompaniment in this hula. The ipu is made from the bodies of two larger pear-shaped calabashes of unequal sizes, which are joined together at their smaller ends in such a manner as to resemble a figure-of-eight. An opening is left at the top of the smaller calabash to increase the resonance. In moments of calm the musicians allow the body to rest upon the heels; as the action warms they lift themselves to such height as the bended knee will permit.

The ala'a-papa is a hula of comparatively moderate action.

While the olapa employ hands, feet, and body in gesture and pose to ill.u.s.trate the meaning and emotion of the song, the musicians mark the time by lifting and patting with the right hand the ipu each holds in the left hand. If the action of the play runs strong and stirs the emotions, each hoopa'a lifts his ipu wildly, fiercely smites it, then drops it on the padded rest in such manner as to bring out its deep mysterious tone.

At a signal from the k.u.mu, who sits with the hoopa'a, the _poo-pua'a_, leader of the olapa, calls the mele (_kahea i ka mele_)--that is, he begins its recitation--in a tone differing but little from that of ordinary conversation, a sing-song recitation, a vocalization less stilted and less punctilious than that usually employed in the utterance of the oli or mele. The k.u.mu, the leader of the company, now joins in, mouthing his words in full observance of the mele style. His manner of cantillation may be either what may be called the low relief, termed _ko'i-honua_, or a pompous alto-relievo style, termed _ai-ha'a_. This is the signal for the whole company to chime in, in the same style as the k.u.mu.

The result, as it seems to the untutored ear, is a confusion of sounds like that of the many-tongued roar of the ocean.

The songs cantillated for the hula ala'a-papa were many and of great variety. It seems to have been the practice for the k.u.mu to arrange a number of mele, or poetical pieces, for presentation in the hula in such order as pleased him. These different mele, thus arranged, were called _pale_, compartments, or _mahele_, divisions, as if they were integral parts of one whole, while in reality their relation to one another was only that of the juxtaposition imposed upon them by the k.u.mu.

The poetical pieces first to be presented were communicated to the author as mahele, divisions--hardly cantos--in the sense above defined. They are, however, distinct poems, though there chances to run through them all a somewhat similar motive. The origin of many of these is referred to a past so remote that tradition a.s.signs them to what the Hawaiians call the _wa po_, the night of tradition, or they say of them, _no ke akua mai_, they are from the G.o.ds. It [Page 59] matters not how faithful has been the effort to translate these poems, they will not be found easy of comprehension.

The local allusions, the point of view, the atmosphere that were in the mind of the savage are not in our minds to-day, and will not again be in any mind on earth; they defy our best efforts at reproduction. To conjure up the ghostly semblance of these dead impalpable things and make them live again is a problem that must be solved by each one with such aid from the divining rod of the imagination as the reader can summon to his help.

Now for the play, the song:

_Mele no Ka Hula Ala'a-papa_

MAHELE-HELE I

PAUKU 1

A Koolau wau, ike i ka ua, E ko-kolo la-lepo ana ka ua, E ka'i ku ana, ka'i mai ana ka ua, E nu mai ana ka ua i ke kuahiwi, 5 E po'i ana ka ua me he nalu la.

E puka, a puka mai ka ua la.

Waliwali ke one i ka hehi'a e ka ua; Ua holo-wai na kaha-wai; Ua ko-ke wale na pali.

10 Aia ka wai la i ka ilina,[126] he ilio, He ilio hae, ke nahu nei e puka.

[Translation]

_Song for the Hula Ala'a-papa._

CANTO I

STANZA 1

'Twas in Koolau I met with the rain: It comes with lifting and tossing of dust, Advancing in columns, das.h.i.+ng along.

The rain, It sighs In the forest; 5 The rain, it beats and whelms, like the surf; It smites, it smites now the land.

Pasty the earth from the stamping rain; Full run the streams, a rus.h.i.+ng flood; The mountain walls leap with the rain.

10 See the water chafing its bounds like a dog, A raging dog, gnawing its way to pa.s.s out.

This song is from the story of Hiiaka on her journey to Kauai to bring the handsome prince, Lohiau, to Pele. The region is that on the windward, _Koolau_, side of Oahu.

[Footnote 126: _Ilina_. A sink, a place where a stream sinks into the earth or sand.]

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PAUKU 2

Hoopono oe, he aina kai Waialua i ka hau; Ke olelo[127] wale no la i ka lani.

Lohe ka uka o ka pehu i Ku-kani-loko.[128]

I-loko, i-waho kaua la, e ka hoa, 5 I kahi e pau ai o ka oni?

Oni ana i ka manawa o ka lili.

Pee oe, pee ana iloko o ka hilahila.