[Page 200] 10 Proclaim it, mother. Haumea,
Of the goddess of Kilauea;
She who dug the pit world-deep,
And Mau-wahine and Kupu-ena,
Who prepare the awa for drink.
15 A health to the stranger gods!
CANTO II
Bedeck now the board for the feast;
Fill up the last bowl to the brim;
Then pour a draught in the sun-cave
Shall flow to the mellow haze,
20 That tints the land of the gods.
All hail to the stranger gods!
This my offering, simply a voice,
Only a welcoming voice.
Turn in!
25 Lo, the feast!
This prayer, though presented in two parts or cantos, is
really one, its purpose being to offer a welcome, _kanaenae_,
to the feast and ceremony to the gods who had a right to
expect that courtesy.
One more mele of the number specially used in the hula Pele:
_Mele_
Nou paha e, ka inoa
E ka’i-ka’i ku ana,
A kau i ka nuku.
E hapa-hapai a’e;
5 A pa i ke kihi
O Ki-lau-é-a.
Ilaila ku’u kama,
O Ku-nui-akea.[364]
Hookomo a’e iloko
10 A o Hale-ma’u-ma’u;[365]
A ma-ú na pu’u
E óla-olá, nei.
E kulipe’e nui ai-ahua.[366]
E Pele, e Pele!
15 E Pele, e Pele!
Huai’na! huai’na!
Ku ia ka lani,
Pae a huila!
[Footnote 364: Kalakaua, for whom all these fine words are
intended, could no more claim kinship with Ku-nui-akea, the
son of Kau-i-ke-aouli, than with Julius Cæsar.]
[Footnote 365: _Hale-mau-mau_. Used figuratively of the mouth,
whose hairy fringe—moustache and beard—gives it a fancied
resemblance to the rough lava pit where Pele dwelt. The
figure, to us no doubt obscure, conveyed to the Hawaiian the
idea of trumpeting the name and making it famous.]
[Footnote 366: _E kuli-pe’e nui ai-ahua_. Pele is here figured
as an old, infirm woman, crouching and crawling along; a
character and attitude ascribed to her, no doubt, from the
fancied resemblance of a lava flow, which, when in the form
of _a-á_, rolls and tumbles along over the surface of the
ground in a manner suggestive of the motions and attitude of
a palsied crone.]
[Page 201]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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