kapo-ula-kina’u, a relative of hiiaka—the maimed girl mana-mana-ia-kalu-ea
the canoe-men, having used their utmost expedition in landing the freight and hauling up the canoe and getting it under cover, hastened to meet the two women at the rendezvous they had suggested. but they were nowhere to be found. they had disappeared as completely as though the earth had swallowed them up. when pi’i-ke-a-nui asked the people of the village as to the whereabouts of the two young women who had just now landed as passengers from the canoe, they one and all denied having set eyes upon them.
hiiaka had planned a visit with her sister kapo; but, on reaching wailuku, the house was empty; kapo and her husband pua-nui had but just started to make a ceremonious call on ole-pau, a famous chief of the district. the receding figure of kapo was already hazy in the distance, so that it seemed more than doubtful if the words of hiiaka’s message reached the ears for which they were intended:
he ahui hala1 ko kapo-ula-kina’u,2
ko ka pili kaumaha;
i ka pili a hala, la, ha-la!
hala olua, aohe makamaka o ka hale
e kipa aku ai la ho’i i ko hale,
i kou hale, e-e!
translation
the clustered hala is kapo’s shield,
an omen portending disaster. [68]
the traveler came in your absence;
both of you gone, no one at home—
no lodge for the traveler within,
no hospitality within!
here is another version of this mele by hiiaka (furnished by pelei-oholani). as the version previously given is confessedly imperfect, in part conjectural, there having been several hiatuses in the text, i think it well to give an authorized version, though very different:
he ahui hala na ka makani:3
hala ka ua,4 noho i na pali, e—
i ka pali aku i pua-lehei,5 e.
loli iho la, pulu elo i ka ua, e.
aohe makamaka e kipa aku ai
i kou hale, e;
e noho ana i ke kai o kapeku;
e hoolono i ka uwalo, e!
translation
a hala bunch, snatched by the wind
that blows from the medicine man,
pushing the rain to pua-lehei:
cold is the traveler and soaking wet,
no friend to give welcome and cheer;
house empty—gone to the seashore;
no one to heed my entreaty.
as hiiaka passed along the cliff that overlooks the wave-swept beach at hono-lua, a pitiful sight met her eye, the figure of a woman crippled from birth—without hands. yet, in spite of her maimed condition, the brave spirit busied herself gathering shell-fish; and when a tumbling wave rolled across the beach she made herself a partner in its sport and gleefully retreated, skipping and dancing to the words of a song: [69]
aloha wale ka i’a lamalama o ku’u aina, la,
ka i’a kahiko pu no me ka wahine.
lilo ke hoa, ko’eko’e ka po;
akahi kona la o aloha mai, e-e!
aloha kona, ku’u aina i ka pohu, e-e!
translation
how dear the torch-caught fish of my home-land,
the fish embraced by the women folk!
gone one’s companion, chill grows the night:
love cheered for a day, then flew away.—
oh kona, thou land of peace and of calm!
search for the hidden meaning of this oli has brought out a marvellous diversity of opinion. the chief difficulty lies in the interpretation of the second verse: ka i’a kahiko pu no me ka wahine, and centers in the expression kahiko pu. one able critic finds in it an allusion to the co?peration of women with the men in the work of fishing. kahiko is a word of dignity meaning finely apparelled. the addition of the preposition pu amplifies it and gives it almost the meaning of wrapped together. it seems probable also that the word i’a, literally fish, is to be taken in an esoteric sense as a euphemism for man. putting this interpretation upon it, the meaning of the expression kahiko pu becomes clear as being wrapped together, as in the sexual embrace.
wahine-oma’o was greatly fascinated by the pathos and romance of the situation and declared she would like to have her for an aikane, an intimate friend.
hiiaka replied, “maimed folk seem to be very numerous in these parts.”
the maimed girl kept up her fishing, her light-hearted dancing and singing:
ua ino hono-kohau; he ulu-au nui ka makani;
ke ha’iha’i la i ka lau o ka awa.
la’i pono ai ke kai o hono-lua,
e hele ka wahine i ke kapa kahakai,
ku’i-ku’i ana i ka opihi,
wa’u-wa’u ana i kana limu,
o mana-mana-ia-kaluea,
ka wahine ua make, e-e!
[70]
translation
rough weather at hono-kohau;
the ulu-au blows a gale;
it snaps off the leaves of the awa,
but the sea lies calm at hono-lua
and the woman can fish along shore,
pounding her shell-fish, rubbing her moss—
this maiméd girl kalu-é-a,
the girl that is dead.
as the wild thing ran from the dash of an incoming wave, by some chance the gourd that held her fish slipped from her and the retreating water carried it beyond her reach, a loss that she lightly touched in her song:
ha’a ka lau o ka i’a;
ha’a ka lima i ke po’i;
ha’a ke olohe6 i ke awakea:
kina’i aku la i ke kai, la.
lilo ka i’a, lilo ka i’a
i ka welelau o ku’u lima,
a lilo, e-e!
translation
my fish are adance on the waves:
my hand just danced from the basket:
the skilled6 one dances at noontide
and deafens the roar of ocean.
gone are my fish, lost out of hand,
snatched clean away from my hand-stumps;
they are gone, gone, gone from my hand!
there was a shark lurking in the ocean and when mana-mana-ia-kalu-ea saw it she uttered a little song:
o ka i’a iki maka inoino,
ihu me’ume’u o ka moana;
ke a’u lele ’ku o kai,
i ka puo’a o kai uli, e.
auwé, pau au i ka manó nui, e!!
[71]
translation
little fish with wicked eye;
snub-nosed fish that swims the deep;
sworded fish that darts and stabs
among the blue sea coral-groves—
alas, the shark has done for me,
the mighty shark, mine enemy!
wahine-oma’o could not repress her admiration for the girl and her desire to have her as an aikane (an intimate friend); and she was full of regret that their presence on the cliff had driven away the fish and interfered with the girl’s occupation.
“the figure you see dancing down there is not a human body; it is only a spirit,” said hiiaka.
“what!”
“yes, only a spirit, and i’ll prove it in this way,” she plucked a hala drupe from a wreath about her neck;—“i’ll throw this down to her; and if she flies away, it will prove she is a spirit; but, if she does not disappear, it will prove her to be a human body.”
hiiaka threw the hala, and the moment the poor soul saw it fall in front of her she vanished out of sight. but in a short time she reappeared and, seizing the hala with her fingerless hand-stumps, she pressed it to her nose with an extravagant display of fondness and, looking up to hiiaka, she chanted:
no luna ka hala, e;
onini pua i’a i ke kai.
no pana-ewa ka hala e;
no puna ka wahine—
no ka lua, e-e!
translation
the hala, tossed down from the cliff,
ruffs the sea like a school of sprats:
the hala’s from pana-ewa,
the woman’s homeland is puna—
that wonderful pit of puna!
the loss of her fish still weighed upon the mind of mana-mana-ia-kaluea. [72]sitting down on a convenient rock, she mourned aloud:
aloha wale ka pali o pi-na-na’i,
ka lae iliili ma-kai o hono-manú, e!
he u ko’u, he minamina, e-e,
i ka lilo ka i’a i ka poho o ka lima—
a lilo, e-e!
translation
how dear the cliff of pi-na-na’i,
and the pebbly cape at hono-manú!—
how i mourn for the loss of my fish!
they were swept from the reach of my hand;
they are gone, forever gone!
mana-mana-ia-kalu-ea, sitting on the rock, wrapped in her own little garment of trouble, seemed for the moment quite oblivious to the presence of hiiaka, who was intently watching her. suddenly she looked up and, with brightening eye, exclaimed, “i know where you are from:”
a pu’u-lena, i wahine-kapu i pua, e,
a ilalo o hale-ma’u-ma’u, e:
nolaila, e; nolaila paha, e!
translation
the land of wahine-kapu,
the land of the pu’u-lena,
exhaled from the depths of the pit—
the fire-pit hale-ma’u-ma’u—
it comes to me: that is your home!
hiiaka had conceived a strong prejudice against the girl almost from the first, but now she softened and, turning to wahine-oma’o, said, “if you really want this girl for an aikane, i think it can be managed. the only trouble will be to hold her after she is caught.”
hiiaka, using her magical power, caught the spirit of mana-mana-ia-kalu-ea and, in the lack of a more suitable receptacle, they wrapped it carefully in the free end of wahine-oma’o’s loin-cloth and went on their way, traveling towards wailuku. [73]
1hala. the fruit of the hala was so often worn in the form of a wreath by kapo that it came to be looked upon almost as her emblem. to ordinary mortals this practice savored of bad luck. if a fisherman traveling on his way to the ocean were to meet a person wearing a lei of this description he would feel compelled to turn back and give over his excursion for that day. in this instance kapo was on her way to visit a sick man—a bad omen for him. ↑
2kapo-ula-kina’u. this was the full name of kapo, who was one of the goddesses of the kahunas who practiced anaana (po’e kahuna anaana). ula-kina’u is a term applied to a feather cloak or cape made of yellow feathers which had in them black spots. ↑
3makani. the reference is to the halitus, spirit, or influence that was supposed to rest upon and take possession of one obsessed, even as the tongues of fire rested upon the multitude in pentecostal times. kapo herself had this power. ↑
4ua, literally, rain, is by a much employed figure of speech used to mean the guests or people of a house. thus, if one sees a great number of guests arriving to share the hospitality of a house, he might say, “kuaua ua nui ho’i keia e hele mai nei.” ↑
5pua-lehei, a pali mauka of wai-he’e. ↑
6olohe, an expert in the hula.
