Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 32

The formalities just described speak for themselves. They mark better than any comments can do the superst.i.tious devotion of the old-timers to formalism, their remoteness from that free touch of social and artistic pleasure, the lack of which we moderns often lament in our own lives and sigh for as a lost art, conceiving it to have been once the possession of "the children of nature."

The author has already hinted at the form and character of the entertainments with which hula-folk sometimes beguiled their professional interludes. Fortunately the author is able to ill.u.s.trate by means of a song the very form of entertainment they provided for themselves on such an occasion. The following mele, cantillated with an accompaniment of expressive gesture, is one that was actually given at an awa-drinking bout indulged in by hula-folk. The author has an account of its recital at Kahuku, island of Oahu, so late as the year 1849, during a circuit of that [Page 130] island made by King Kamehameha III. This mele is reckoned as belonging to the ordinary repertory of the hula; but to which particular form of the dance it was devoted has not been learned:

_Mele_

Ua ona o Kane i ka awa; Ua kau ke keha[281] i ka uluna; Ua hi'o-lani[282] i ka moena.

Kipu mai la i ke kapa o ka noe.

5 Noe-noe na hoku o ka lani-- Imo-imo mai la i ka po a'e-a'e.

Mahana-lua[283] na kukui a Lanikaula,[274]

He kaula no Kane.[285]

Meha na pali o Wai-pi'o 10 I ke kani mau o Kiha-pu; A ono ole ka awa a ke alii I ke kani mau o Kiha-pu; Moe ole kona po o ka Hooilo; Uluhua, a uluhua, 15 I ka mea nana e hull a loaa I kela kupua ino i ka pali, Olali la, a olali.

[Translation]

_Song_

Kane is drunken with awa; His head is laid on the pillow; His body stretched on the mat.

A trumpet sounds through the fog, 5 Dimmed are the stars in the sky; When the night is clear, how they twinkle!

Lani-kaula's torches look double, The torches that burn for Kane.

Ghostly and drear the walls of Waipio 10 At the endless blasts of Kiha-pu.

The king's awa fails to console him; 'Tis the all-night conching of Kiha-pu.

Broken his sleep the whole winter; Downcast and sad, sad and downcast, 15 At loss to find a brave hunter Shall steal the d.a.m.ned conch from the cliff.

Look, how it gleams [through the fog]!

[Footnote 281: _Keha_ is an elegant expression for the side of the head.]

[Footnote 282: _Hi'o-lani_, literally to turn the side to heaven, is a cla.s.sic expression of refinement.]

[Footnote 283: _Mahana-lua_, literally to see double, was an accepted test of satisfactory drunkenness. It reminds the author of an expression he once heard used by the comedian Clarke in the play of Toodles. While in a maudlin state from liquor he spoke of the lighted candle that was in his hand as a "double-barreled candle."]

[Footnote 284: _Lani-kaula_ was a prophet who lived on Molokai at a place that still bears his name. He had his residence in the midst of a grove of fine kukui trees, the remnants of which remain to this day. Torches made from the nuts of these trees were supposed to be of superior quality and they furnished the illumination for the revelries of Kane and his fellows.]

[Footnote 285: _He kaula no Kane_. A literal translation would be, a prophet of Kane.]

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE XIV [Ill.u.s.tration: HAWAIIAN TRUMPET, PU (Ca.s.sIS MADAGASCARENSIS)]

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Kane, the chief G.o.d of the Hawaiian pantheon, in company with other immortals, his boon companions, met in revelry on the heights bounding Wai-pi'o valley. With each potation of awa they sounded a blast upon their conch-sh.e.l.ls, and the racket was almost continuous from the setting of the sun until drowsiness overcame them or the coming of day put an end to their revels.

The tumult of sound made it impossible for the priests to perform acceptably the offices of religion, and the pious king, Liloa, was distressed beyond measure. The whole valley was disturbed and troubled with forebodings at the suspension of divine wors.h.i.+p.

The chief offender was Kane himself. The trumpet which he held to his lips was a conch of extraordinary size (pl. XIV) and credited with a divine origin and the possession of supernatural power; its note was heard above all the others.

This sh.e.l.l, the famed Kiha-pu, had been stolen from the heiau of Paka'a-lana, Liloa's temple in Waipi'o valley, and-after many-adventures had come into the hands of G.o.d Kane, who used it, as we see, for the interruption of the very services that were intended for his honor.

The relief from this novel and unprecedented situation came from an unexpected quarter. King Liloa's awa-patches were found to be suffering from the nocturnal visits of a thief. A watch was set; the thief proved to be a dog, Puapua-lenalena, whose master was a confirmed awa-toper. When master and dog were brought into the presence of King Liloa, the shrewd monarch divined the remarkable character of the animal, and at his suggestion the dog was sent on the errand which resulted in the recovery by stealth of the famed conch Kiha-pu. As a result of his loss of the conch, Kane put an end to his revels, and the valley of Wai-pi'o again had peace.

This mele is an admirable specimen of Hawaiian poetry, and may be taken as representative of the best product of Hawaii's cla.s.sical period. The language is elegant and concise, free from the redundancies that so often load down Hawaiian compositions. No one, it is thought, will deny to the subject-matter of this mele an unusual degree of interest.

There is a historic side to the story of the conch-sh.e.l.l Kiha-pu. Not many years ago the Hawaiian Museum contained an ethnological specimen of great interest, the conch-sh.e.l.l Kiha-pu. It was fringed, after the fas.h.i.+on of a witch-doll, with strings, beads, and wampumlike bits of mother-of-pearl, and had great repute as a _kupua_ or luckbringer. King Kalakaua, who affected a sentimental leaning to the notions of his mother's race, took possession of this famous "curio"

and it disappeared from public view.

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XIX.--THE HULA MAU-KANI

The hula _niau-kani_ was one of the cla.s.sic dances of the halau, and took its name from the musical instrument that was its accompaniment. This was a simple, almost extemporaneous, contrivance, constructed, like the Jew's-harp, on the principle of a reed instrument. It was made of two parts, a broad piece of bamboo with a longitudinal slit at one end and a thin narrow piece of the same material, the reed, which was held firmly against the fenestra on the concave side of part number one. The convexity of the instrument was pressed against the lips and the sound was produced by projecting the breath through the slit in a speaking or singing tone in such a way as to cause vibrations in the reed. The manner of constructing and operating this reed instrument is suggestive of the jew's-harp. It is a.s.serted by those who should know that the niau-kani was an instrument of purely Hawaiian invention.

The performer did not depend simply upon the musical tone, but rather upon the modification it produced in the utterances that were strained through it. It would certainly require a quick ear, much practice, and a thorough acquaintance with the peculiarities of Hawaiian mele to enable one to distinguish the words of a song after being transformed by pa.s.sage through the niau-kani.

As late as about thirty or forty years ago the niau-kani was often seen in the hands of the native Hawaiian youth, who used it as a means of romantic conversations and flirtation.

Since the coming in of the Portuguese and their importation of the _uku-lele_, the _taro-patch-fiddle_, and other cheap stringed instruments, the niau-kani has left the field to them and disappeared.

The author's informant saw the niau-kani dance performed some years ago at Moana-lua, near Honolulu, and again on the island of Kauai. The dance in each case was the same. The k.u.mu, aided by a pupil, stood and played on the niau-kani, straining the cantillations through the reed-protected aperture, while the olapa, girls, kept time to the music with the movements of their dancing,

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_Mele_

E pi'i ka wai ka nahele, U'ina, nakolo i na Molo-kama;[286]

Ka ua lele mawaho o Mamala-hoa.

He manao no ko'u e ike 5 I na pua ohi'a o Kupa-koili,[287]

I hoa kaunu no Manu'a-kepa;[288]

Ua like laua me Maha-moku.[289]

Anapa i ke kai o Mono-lau.[290]

Lalau ka lima a noa ia ia la, 10 I hoa pili no Lani-huli.[291]

E huli oe i ku'u makemake, A loa'a i Kau-ka-opua.[292]

Elua no pua kau A ka manao i makemake ai.

15 Hoohihi oe a hihi I lei kohu no neia kino.

Ahea oe hiki mai?

A kau ka La i na pali;[293]

Ka huli a ka makani Wai-a-ma'o,[294]

20 Makemake e iki ia ka Hala-mapu-ana, Ka wai halana i Wai-pa.[295]

NOTE.--The proper names belong to localities along the course of the Wai-oli stream.

[Footnote 286: _Molokama_ (more often given as _Na Molo-kama_).

The name applied to a succession of falls made by the stream far up in the mountains. The author has here used a versifier's privilege, compressing this long word into somewhat less refractory shape.]

[Footnote 287: _Kupa-koili_. A grove of mountain-apples, _ohia ai_, that stand on the bank of the stream not far from the public road.]

[Footnote 288: _Manu'a-kepa_. A sandy, gra.s.s-covered meadow on the opposite side of the river from Kupa-koili.]