[Footnote 362: According to one authority, at the close of the first canto the stranger gods—_akua malihini_—who consisted of that multitude of godlings called the _Kini Akua_, took their departure from the ceremony, since they did not belong to the Pele family. Internal evidence, however, the study of the prayer itself in its two parts, leads the writer to disagree with this authority. Other Hawaiians of equally deliberate judgment support him in this opinion. The etiquette connected with ceremonious awa-drinking, which the Samoans of to-day still maintain in full form, long ago died out in Hawaii. This etiquette may never have been cultivated here to the same degree as in its home, Samoa; but this poem is evidence that the ancient Hawaiians paid greater attention to it than they of modern times. The reason for this decline of ceremony must be sought for in the mental and esthetic make-up of the Hawaiian people; it was not due to any lack of fondness in the Hawaiian for awa as a beverage or as an intoxicant. It is no help to beg the question by ascribing the decline of this etiquette to the influence of social custom. To do so would but add one more link to the chain that binds cause to effect. The Hawaiian mind was not favorable to the observance of this sort of etiquette; it did not afford a soil fitted to nourish such an artificial growth.] [Footnote 363: The meaning of the word _Ku-ka-la-ula_ presented great difficulty and defied all attempts at translation until the suggestion was made by a bright Hawaiian, which was adopted with satisfaction, that it probably referred to that state of dreamy mental exaltation which comes with awa-intoxication. This condition, like that of frenzy, of madness, and of idiocy, the Hawaiian regarded as a divine possession.] [Translation.] _A Prayer to Pele_ CANTO I Lo, Pele’s the god of my choice: Let heaven and earth in silence wait Here is awa, potent, sacred, Bitter sea, great Hiiaka’s root; 5 ’Twas cut at Mauli-ola— Awa to the women forbidden, Let it tabu be! Exact be the rite of your awa, O Pele of the sacred land.