[Footnote 368: _Paláni_, French, so called at Moanalua because a woman who was its chief exponent was a Catholic, one of the “poe Paláni.” Much odium has been laid to the charge of the hula on account of the supposed indecency of the motion termed _ami_. There can be no doubt that the ami was at times used to represent actions unfit for public view, and so far the blame is just. But the ami did not necessarily nor always represent obscenity, and to this extent the hula has been unjustly maligned.] In the mele now to be given the poet calls up a succession of pictures by imagining himself in one scenic position after another, beginning at Hilo and passing in order from one island to another—omitting, however, Maui—until he finds himself at Kilauea, an historic and traditionally interesting place on the windward coast of the garden-island, Kauai. The order of travel followed by the poet forbids the supposition that the Kilauea mentioned is the great caldera of the volcano on Hawaii in which Pele had her seat. It is useless to regret that the poet did not permit his muse to tarry by the way long enough to give us something more than a single eyeshot at the quickly shifting scenes which unrolled themselves before him, that so he might have given us further reminiscence of the lands over which his Pegasus bore him. Such completeness of view, however, is alien to the poesy of Hawaii. [Page 203] _Mele_ A Hilo au e, hoolulu ka lehua[369]; A Wai-luku la, i ka Lua-kanáka[370]; A Lele-iwi[371] la, au i ke kai; A Pana-ewa[372], i ka ulu-lehua; 5 A Ha-ili[373], i ke kula-manu; A Mologai, i ke ala-kahi, Ke kula o Kala’e[374] wela i ka la; Mauna-loa[375] la, Ka-lua-ko’i[376], e; Na hala o Nihoa[377], he mapuna la; 10 A Ko’i-ahi[378] au, ka maile lau-lu la; A Makua[379] la, i ke one opio-pio[380], E holu ana ke kai o-lalo; He wahine a-po’i-po’i[381] e noho ana, A Kilauea[382], i ke awa ula. [Translation.] _Song_