hiiaka alone with lohiau
it has come at last, the situation to which the logic of events has for many days pointed the finger of a relentless fate. for the first time hiiaka finds herself alone with lohiau. the history of her life during the past two months seems but a prologue to the drama, the opening scene of which is about to be enacted in the dressing room, as we must call it. for hiiaka, having gathered a lapful of that passion-bloom, the scarlet lehua, and having plaited three wreaths, with a smile on her face, hangs two of the wreaths about the neck of lohiau, using the third for her own adornment.
they are sitting on the sacred terrace of ka-hoa-lii, at the very brink of the caldera, in full view of the whole court, including the sisters of hiiaka who gather with pele in the pit. “draw nearer,” she says to lohiau, “that i may tie the knot and make the fillet fast about your neck.” and while her fingers work with pliant art, her lips quiver with emotion in song:
o hiiaka ka wahine,
ke apo la i ka pua;
ke kui la, ke u? la i ka manai.
ehá ka lei, ka apana lehua lei
a ka wahine la, ku’u wahine,
ku’u wahine o ka ehu makani o lalo.
lulumi aku la ka i kai o hilo-one:
no hilo ke aloha—aloha wale ka lei, e!
translation
’twas maid hiiaka plucked the bloom;
this wreath her very hands did weave;
her needle ’twas that pierced each flower;
her’s the fillet that bound them in one.
four strands of lehua make the lei—
the wreath bound on by this maid—
maid who once basked in the calm down there:
her heart harks back to hilo-one;
wreath and heart are for hilo-one.
the wreath is placed, the song is sung, yet hiiaka’s arm still clasps lohiau’s neck. her lithesome form inclines to him. with [192]a sudden motion, hiiaka throws her arms about lohiau and draws him to herself. face to face, lip touches lip, nose presses nose.
the women of pele’s court, chokefull of curiosity and spilling over with suspicion, watchful as a cat of every move, on the instant raise their voices in one mother-grundy chorus: “oh, look! hiiaka kisses lohiau! she kisses your lover, lohiau!”
the excitement rises to fever heat. pele is the coolest of the lot. at the first outcry—“they kiss”—pele remarks with seeming indifference, “the nose was made for kissing.”1 (the hawaiian kiss was a flattening of nose against nose). but when hiiaka and lohiau sink to the earth wrapped in each other’s arms, and the women of pele’s court raise the cry, “for shame! they kiss; they embrace!” at this announcement, the face of pele hardens and her voice rings out with the command: “ply him with fire.”
from pele’s viewpoint, the man, her lover, lohiau was the sinner. the role played by the woman, her sister, hiiaka—the one who had, in fact, deliberately planned this offensive exhibition of insubordination and rebellion—was either not recognized by pele or passed by as a matter of temporary indifference. hiiaka’s justification in motives of revenge found no place in her reasoning.
when the servants of pele—among them the sisters of hiiaka—found themselves under the cruel necessity of executing the edict, they put on their robes of fire and went forth, but reluctantly. in their hearts they rebelled, and, one and all, they agreed that, if, at close view, they found him to be the supremely handsome mortal that fame had reported him to be, they would use every effort to spare him. on coming to the place, their admiration passed all bounds. they could not believe their eyes. they had never seen a manly form of such beauty and grace. with one voice they exclaimed:
mahina ke alo,
pali ke kua.
ke ku a ke kanáka maikai,
e ku nei i ke ahu’ a ka-hoa-lii.
translation
front, bright as the moon.
back, straight as a mountain wall:
so stands the handsome man,
this man on thy terrace, hoa-lii.
[193]
pele’s fire-brigade went through the form of obeying their orders. they dared not do otherwise. acting, however, on their preconcerted plan, they contented themselves with casting a few cinders on the reclining form of lohiau and, then, shamefaced, they ran away—an action that had the appearance of reproof rather than of punishment.
the effect on the mind of hiiaka, whose insight into the character of pele was deeper than that of lohiau, was far different from that of mere admonition or reproof. she recognized in the falling cinders a threat of the direst import and at once braced herself to the task of averting the coming storm and of disarming the thundercloud that was threatening her lover. “have you not some prayer to offer?” she said to lohiau.
“yes,” he answered, and at her request he uttered the following:
ua wela pu’u-lena i ke ahi;
ua wela ka mauna ou, e kahuna.
uwé au, puni ’a i ke awa;
kilohi aku au o ka mauna o ka lua,
e haoa mai ana ke a;
ka laau e ho’o-laau—
ho’o-laau mai ana ke ki’i,
ke moe, i o’u nei.
ia loaa ka hala, ka lili, kaua, paio;
paio olua, e.
translation
pu’u-lena breathes a furnace blast;
your mount, kahuna, is a-blaze;
i choke in its sulphurous reek.
i see the mountain belching flame—
a fiery tree to heaven upspringing;
its deadly shade invades my stony couch.
is there fault, blame, strife, or reproach;
let the strife be between you two.
to this proposal of her chivalric companion, who would throw upon the woman the whole burden of fault, punishment, and strife, hiiaka made answer in this address to pele: [194]
puka mai ka wahine mai loko mai o ka lua,
mai loko mai o muliwai o ka lena,2
mai ka moku3 po’o a kane.
e noho ana o kane-lau-apua4 i ke one lau a kane;
ninau mai uka, “nowai he wa’a?”5 [195]
no ka hoa-paio o ai-moku6 wahine:
ninau a’e i kona mau kaikaina;
a lele e na hoali’i—
ka owaka o ka lani,
ka uwila nui, maka ehá i ka lani.
lele mai a huli, popo’i i ka honua;
o ke kai uli, o ke kai kea;
o ke ala-kai a pele i hele ai.
e hele ana e kini7 maka o ka la o hu’e-ehu’e,
e nana ana ia luna o hualalai;
aloha mai ka makani o kaú.
heaha la ka paú8 o ka wahine?
he palai, he lau-i, ka paú hoohepa o ka wahine, e kini, e.
ha’aha’a iluna ke kihi9 o ka mahina;
pau wale ke aho i ke akua lehe-oi;10
maka’u wale au i ke akua lehe-ama.11
eli-eli kapu, eli-eli noa!
ua noa ka aina i ka puké12 iki, i ka puké nui, [196]
i ka hakina ai, i ka hakina i’a,—
i kou hakina ai ia kuli-pe’e i ka lua, la.
eli-eli, kau mai!
ma ka holo uka, ma ka holo kai.
eli-eli kapu, eli-eli noa!
ua noa ka aina a ke akua!
translation
the woman comes forth from the pit,
forth from the river with yellow tide,
from the fissured head of kane,
kane-apua, the cheater of death,
presides o’er his much-thronged sandy plain:
the mountains re-echo the question,
“gainst whom do they launch the canoe?”
against her foes, the land-grabber’s.
to her sisters she puts a question,
up spring the high-born, the princes—
what splendor flashes in heaven!
the fourth eye of heaven, its flaming bolt.
with swell of wave and break of surf a-land
was her flight o’er the blue sea, the gray sea—
the voyage pele made from kahiki.
from his western gate fly the sun-darts,
their points trained up at hualalai—
the wind from kaú breathes a blessing.
pray tell me, what skirts wear the women?
their skirts are fern and leaf of the ti
bound bias about the hips, o kini;
one horn of the sickle moon hangs low;
my patience faints at her knife-like lips
and i fear the goddess’s yawning mouth.
deep, deep is the tabu, deep be the peace!
the land is fed by each hill, small or big,
by each scrap of bread13 and of meat—
food that is ravaged by kuli-pe’e.
plant deep the foundations of peace, [197]
a peace that runs through upland and lowland.
deep, deep the tabu, deep be the peace!
peace fall on the land of the goddess!
1 “i hana ia ka ihu i mea honi.” ↑
2muliwai o lena. there is a stream of this name in waianae, it is said. lena is also said to be the name of a place in kahiki. the word lena, yellow, strongly suggests the thought of sulphur. ↑
3moku po’o a kane, literally, the fissured head of kane. the first land formed by kane. ↑
4kane-lau-apua, the same as kane-apua. one of the numerous avatars or characters of kane. he appeared in kahiki—kukulu o kahiki—and gained a reputation as a benevolent deity, whose benign function—shared by kane-milo-hai—was to pluck from the jaws of death those who lay at the last gasp (mauli-awa), or whose vital spark was at the last flicker (pua-aneane). he healed the palsied, the helpless and hopeless, those who were beyond the reach of human aid. on one occasion he restored himself to perfect health and soundness by the exercise of his own will; hence his name, kane-apua. on another occasion he illustrated his power by restoring to life some okuhekuhe which the fisherman had already scaled and laid upon the fire. the motive for this act seems to have been that this fish was a form in which he sometimes appeared. the story of his adventure with kane-lelei-aka is worthy of mention. at one time while standing on a headland that reached out into the ocean like the prow of a ship, his eye caught a gleam from something moving swiftly through the water. he saw it repeatedly passing and repassing and wondered what it was. it was the shadowy form of kane-lelei-aka, but he knew it not. he scanned the surrounding mountains and cliffs, if perchance he might get sight of the body, bird, or spirit that produced this reflection. he discovered nothing. in pursuit of his quest, he started to go to kukulu-o-kahiki. on the way he met his relative kane-milo-hai, out in mid ocean.
“are you from kanaloa?” asked kane-milo-hai. that meant are you from lana’i, kanaloa being the name formerly given to that little island.
“aye, i am from kanaloa and in pursuit of a strange shadowy thing that flits through the ocean and evades me.”
“you don’t seem to recognize that it is only a shadow, a reflection. the real body is in the heavens. what you are pursuing is but the other intangible body, which is represented by the body of kane-mano. he is speeding to reach his home in ohe-ana” (a cave in the deep sea, in the kai-popolohua-a-kane).
“how then shall i overtake him?” asked kane-pua.
“you will never succeed this way. you are no better off than a kolea (plover) that nods, moving its head up and down (kunou). your only way is to return with me and start from the bread-fruit tree of lei-walo (ka ulu o lei-walo). you must make your start with a flying leap from the topmost branch of that tree. in that way you can come up to him and catch him.”
the rest of the story: how he followed the advice given him by kane-milo-hai and succeeded is too long for insertion here. ↑
5nowai he wa’a? to speak of a lava flow as a wa’a, a canoe, is a familiar trope in hawaiian mele. (see u. l. of h., p. 194). the canoe in this case is the eruption of fire sent against lohiau, the hoapaio, against whom it is launched, lohiau and hiiaka. ↑
6aimoku wahine. an aimoku is one who eats up the land, a conqueror, a literal description of pele. ↑
7kini maka o ka la. in the original text from which this is taken the form is kini-maka, offering the presumption that it is intended as a proper name. kini-maka was a malevolent kupua, demigod, against whom, it is charged that she was given to scooping out and eating the eyes of men and her fellow gods. her name was then called walewale-o-ku. kane, it is said, took her in hand and weaned her from her bad practice; after which she was called kini-maka, forty-thousand-eyes. the phrase o ka la affixed to her name discountenances the idea that she is the one here intended. it becomes evident that the whole expression means rather the many eyes of the sun, i.e., the many rays that dart from the sun; and this is the way i construe it. ↑
8pau o ka wahine? the question as to the kind of pau, skirt, worn by the women—those of pele’s fire-brigade, as i have termed them—is pertinent, from the fact that the answer will throw light on their mood and the character of their errand, whether peaceful, warlike, etc. the answer given in the text (line 20 of the translation) is their skirts were fern and leaf of the ti. a pau of fern was said to be hanohano, dignified. ua kapa ia ka palai he palai alii; o ka la-i, ua kapa ia he mea kala (the pau of fern was worn by chiefs; the pau of ti leaf was a sign of propitiation.) a woman wore a ti leaf during her period of monthly infirmity. the whole subject will bear further investigation. ↑
9kihi o ka mahina, the horn of the moon. the manner of fastening the pau, knotting or tucking it in at each hip, gave it a crescent shape, with an angle at each hip. this seems to have suggested to the poet a comparison with the horns of the young moon. ↑
10akua lehe-oi, an undoubted reference to pele,—the sharp devouring edge, lip, of her lava-flow. ↑
11akua lehe-ama. this also must refer to pele—her gaping lips. ↑
12puke, this archaic form of pu’e, a hill of potatoes, yams and the like. ↑
13 the hawaiians had no such thing as bread. the hawaiian word ai, in line 20 of the original, means vegetable food. the necessities of the case seem to justify the use of the word bread in the translation. the reader will pardon the anachronism. ↑
