Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 9

_An Altar-Prayer_ (to the Kini Akua)

Gather, oh gather, ye hosts of G.o.dlings!

Come Kane with Ka.n.a.loa!

Come leafy Ohi'a and I-e!

Possess me and dwell in your altar!

5 Here's water, water of life!

Life, give us life!

The visitor, having satisfied his sense of what the occasion demands, changes his tone from that of cantillation to ordinary speech, and concludes his wors.h.i.+p with a pet.i.tion conceived in the spirit of the following prayer:

E ola ia'u, i ka malihini; a pela hoi na kamaaina, ke k.u.mu, na haumana, ia oe, e Laka. E Laka ia Pohaku i ka wawae. E Laka i ke kupe'e. E Laka ia Luukia i ka pa-u; e Laka i ke kuhi; e Laka i ka leo; e Laka i ka lei. E Laka i ke ku ana imua o ke anaina.

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[Translation]

Thy blessing, O Laka, on me the stranger, and on the residents, teacher and pupils. O Laka, give grace to the feet of Pohaku; and to her bracelets and anklets; comeliness to the figure and skirt of Luukia. To (each one) give gesture and voice. O Laka, make beautiful the lei; inspire the dancers when they stand before the a.s.sembly.

At the close of this service of song and prayer the visitor will turn from the kuahu and exchange salutations and greetings with his friends in the halau.

The song-prayer "Now, Kane, approach, illumine the altar" (p.

45) calls for remark. It brings up again the question, previously discussed, whether there were not two distinct cults of wors.h.i.+pers, the one devoted to Laka, the other to Kapo. The following facts will throw light on the question.

On either side of the approach to the altar stood, sentinel-like, a tall stem of hala-pepe, a graceful, slender column, its head of green sword-leaves and scarlet drupes making a beautiful picture. (See p. 24.) These are said to have been the special emblems of the G.o.ddess Kapo.

The following account of a conversation the author had with an old woman, whose youthful days were spent as a hula dancer, will also help to disentangle the subject and explain the relation of Kapo to the hula:

"Will you not recite again the prayer you just now uttered, and slowly, that it may be written down?" the author asked of her. "Many prayers for the kuahu have been collected, but this one differs from them all."

"We Hawaiians," she answered, "have been taught that these matters are sacred (_kapu_) and must not be bandied about from mouth to mouth."

"Aye, but the time of the tabus has pa.s.sed. Then, too, in a sense having been initiated into hula matters, there can be no impropriety in my dealing with them in a kindly spirit."

"No harm, of course, will come to you, a _haole_ (foreigner).

The question is how it will affect us."

"Tell me, were there two different cla.s.ses of wors.h.i.+pers, one cla.s.s devoted to the wors.h.i.+p of Laka and another cla.s.s devoted to the wors.h.i.+p of Kapo?"

"No," she answered, "Kapo and Laka were one in spirit, though their names were two."

"Haumea was the mother of Kapo. Who was her father?"

"Yes, Haumea was the mother, and Kua-ha-ilo [86] was the father:"

"How about Laka?"

[Footnote 86: _Kua-ha-ilo._ A G.o.d of the _kahuna anaana;_ meaning literally to breed maggots in the back.]

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"Laka was the daughter of Kapo. Yet as a patron, of the hula Laka stands first; she was wors.h.i.+ped at an earlier date than Kapo; but they are really one."

Further questioning brought out the explanation that Laka was not begotten in ordinary generation; she was a sort of emanation from Kapo. It was as if the G.o.ddess should sneeze and a deity should issue with the breath from her nostrils; or should wink, and thereby beget spiritual offspring from the eye, or as if a spirit should issue forth at some movement of the ear or mouth.

When the old woman's; scruples had been laid to rest, she repeated slowly for the author's benefit the pule given on pages 45 and 46, "Now, Kane, approach," ... of which the first eight lines and much of the last part, to him, were new.

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VIII.--COSTUME OF THE HULA DANCER

The costume of the hula dancer was much the same for both s.e.xes, its chief article a simple short skirt about the waist, the pa-u. (PL I.)

When the time has come for a dance, the halau becomes one common dressing room. At a signal from the k.u.mu the work begins. The putting on of each article of costume is accompanied by a special song.

First come the _ku-pe'e_, anklets of whale teeth, bone, sh.e.l.l-work, dog-teeth, fiber-stuffs, and what not. While all stoop in unison they chant the song of the anklet:

_Mele Ku-pe'e_

Aala kupukupu[87] ka uka o Kane-hoa.[88]

E ho-a![89]

Hoa na lima o ka makani, he Wai-kaloa.[90]

He Wai-kaloa ka makani anu Lihue.

5 Alina[91] lehua kau ka opua-- Ku'u pua, Ku'u pua i'ini e ku-i a lei.

Ina ia oe ke lei 'a mai la.

[Translation]

_Anklet-Song_

Fragrant the gra.s.ses of high. Kane-hoa.

Bind on the anklets, bind!

Bind with finger deft as the wind That cools the air of this bower.

5 Lehua bloom pales at my flower, O sweetheart of mine, Bud that I'd pluck and wear in my wreath, If thou wert but a flower!

[Footnote 87: _Kupukupu_. Said to be a fragrant gra.s.s.]

[Footnote 88: _Kane-hoa_. Said to be a hill at Kaupo, Maul.

Another person says it is a hill at Lihue, on Oahu. The same name is often repeated.]

[Footnote 89: _Ho-a_. To bind. An instance of word-repet.i.tion, common in Hawaiian poetry.]

[Footnote 90: _Wai-kaloa_. A cool wind that Wows at Lihue, Kauai]

[Footnote 91: _Alina_. A scar, or other mark of disfigurement, a moral blemish. In ancient times lovers inflicted injuries on themselves to prove devotion.]

The short skirt, _pa-u_, was the most important piece of attire worn by the Hawaiian female. As an article of daily wear it represented many stages of evolution beyond the primitive fig-leaf, being fabricated from a great variety of [Page 50] materials furnished by the garden of nature. In its simplest terms the pa-u was a mere fringe of vegetable fibers. When placed as the s.h.i.+eld of modesty about the loins of a woman of rank, or when used as the full-dress costume of a dancing girl on a ceremonious occasion, it took on more elaborate forms, and was frequently of _tapa_, a fabric the finest specimens of which would not have shamed the wardrobe of an empress.