Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 5

There is no stint of prayer-song. While the offering rests on the Imahu, the Joyful service continues:

_Mele Kualiu_

E Laka, e!

Pupu we'uwe'u e, Laka e!

E Laka i ka leo; E laka i ka loaa; 5 E Laka i ka waiwai; E Laka i na mea a pau!

[Translation]

_Altar-Prayer_

O G.o.ddess Laka!

O wildwood bouquet, O Laka!

O Laka, queen of the voice!

O Laka, giver of gifts!

5 O Laka, giver of bounty!

O Laka, giver of all things!

At the conclusion of this loving service of wors.h.i.+p and song each member of the troupe removes from his head and neck the wreaths that had bedecked him, and with them crowns the image of the G.o.ddess until her altar is heaped with the offerings.

Now comes the pith of the ceremony: the novitiates sit down to the feast of ai-lolo, theirs the place of honor, at the head of the table, next the kuahiu. The _ho'o-pa'a_, acting as carver, selects the typical parts--snout, ear-tips, tail, feet, portions of the vital organs, especially the brain (_lolo_). This last it is which gives name to the ceremony.

He sets an equal portion before each novitiate. Each one must eat all that is set before him. It is a mystical rite, a sacrament; as he eats he consciously partakes of the virtue of the G.o.ddess that is transmitted to himself.

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Meantime the _olohe_ and friends of the novitiates, inspired with the proper enthusiasm, of the occasion, lift their voices in joyful cantillations in honor of the G.o.ddess, accompanied with the clapping of hands.

The ceremony now reaches a new stage. The k.u.mu lifts the tabu by uttering a prayer--always a song--and declares the place and the feast free, and the whole a.s.sembly sit down to enjoy the bounty that is spread up and down the halau. On this occasion men and women may eat in common. The only articles excluded from this feast are _luau_--a food much like spinach, made by cooking the young and delicate taro leaf---and the drupe of the _hala_, the panda.n.u.s (pl. xviii).

The company sit down to eat and to drink; presently they rise to dance and sing. The k.u.mu leads in a tabu-lifting, freedom-giving song and the ceremony of ai-lolo is over. The pupils have been graduated from the school of the halau; they are now members of the great guild of hula dancers. The time has come for them to make their bow to the waiting public outside, to bid for the favor of the world. This is to be their "little go;" they will spread their wings for a greater flight on the morrow.

The k.u.mu with his big drum, and the musicians, the ho'o-pa'a, pa.s.s through the door and take their places outside in the lanai, where sit the waiting mult.i.tude. At the tap of the drum the group of waiting olapa plume themselves like fine birds eager to show their feathers; and, as they pa.s.s out the halau door and present themselves to the breathless audience, into every pose and motion of their gliding, swaying figures they pour a full tide of emotion in studied and unstudied effort to captivate the public.

DeBUT OF A HULA DANCER

The occasion is that of a lifetime; it is their _uniki_, their debut. The song chosen must rise to the dignity of the occasion. Let us listen to the song that enthralls the audience seated in the rushstrown lanai, that we may judge of its worthiness.

_He Mele-Inoa (no Naihe)_[38]

Ka nalu nui, a ku ka nalu mai Kona, Ka malo a ka mahiehie,[39]

Ka onaulu-loa,[40] a lele ka'u malo.

[Page 36] O kakai[41] malo hoaka,[42]

5 O ka malo kai,[43] malo o ke alii E ku, e hume a paa i ka malo.

E ka'ika'i [44] ka la i ka papa o Halepo;[45]

A pae o Halepo i ka nalu.

Ho-e'e i ka nalu mai Kahiki;[46]

10 He nalu Wakea,[47] nalu ho'ohua.[48]

Haki opu'u [49] ka nalu, haki kua-pa.[50]

Ea mai ka makakai [51] he'e-nalu, Kai he'e kakala [52] o ka moku, Kai-ka o ka nalu nui, 15 Ka hu'a o ka nalu o Hiki-au.[53]

Kai he'e-nalu i ke awakea.

Ku ka puna, ke ko'a i-nka.

Ka makaha o ka nalu o Kuhihewa.[54]

Ua o ia,[55] noha ka papa!

20 Nona Maui, nauweuwe, Nauweuwe, nakelekele.

Nakele ka ili o ka i he'e-kai.

Lalilali ole ka ili o ke akamai; Kahilihili ke kai a ka he'e-nalu.

25 Ike'a ka nalu nui o Puna, o Hilo.

[Footnote 38: Naihe. A man of strong character, but not a high chief. He was horn in Kona and resided at Nap.o.o.poo. His mother was Ululani, his father Keawe-a-heulu, who was a celebrated general and strategist under Kamehameha I.]

[Footnote 39: Mahiehie. A term conferring dignity and distinction.]

[Footnote 40: Onaulu-loa. A roller of great length and endurance, one that reaches the sh.o.r.e, in contrast to a Kalcala.]

[Footnote 41: _Kalai._ An archaic word meaning forty.]

[Footnote 42: _Hooka._ A crescent; the name of the second day of the month. The allusion is to the curve (downward) of a large number (kakai) of malo when hung on a line, the usual way of keeping such articles.]

[Footnote 43: _Malo kai._ The ocean is sometimes poetically termed the _malo_ or _pa-a_ of the naked swimmer, or bather.

It covers his nakedness.]

[Footnote 44: _Ka'ika'i._ To lead or to carry; a tropical use of the word. The sun is described as leading the board.]

[Footnote 45: _Hale-po._ In the opinion of the author it is the name of the board. A skilled Hawaiian says it is the name given the surf of a place at Nap.o.o.poo, in Kona, Hawaii. The action is not located there, but in Puna, it seems to the author.]

[Footnote 46: _Kahiki._ Tahiti, or any foreign country; a term of grandiloquence.]

[Footnote 47: _Wakea._ A mythical name, coming early in Hawaiian genealogies; here used in exaggeration to show the age of the roller.]

[Footnote 48: _Ho'ohua._ Applied to a roller, one that rolls on and swells higher.]

[Footnote 49: _Opu'u._ Said of a roller that completes its run to sh.o.r.e.]

[Footnote 50: _Kua-pa._ Said of a roller as above that dies at the sh.o.r.e.]

[Footnote 51: _Maka-kai._ The springing-up of the surf after an interval of quiet.]

[Footnote 52: _Kakala._ Rough, heaped up, one wave overriding another, a chop sea.]

[Footnote 53: _Hiki-au._ Said to be the name of a temple.]

[Footnote 54: _Kuhihewa._ Full name _Ka-kuhi-hewa_, a distinguished king of Oahu.]

[Footnote 55: _O iu._ Meaning that the board dug its nose into the reef or sand.]

[Translation]