There was a peculiar class of hulas named after animals, in each one of which the song-maker developed some characteristic of the animal in a fanciful way, while the actors themselves aimed to portray the animal’s movements in a mimetic fashion. To this class belongs the hula _kolea_.[411] It was a peculiar dance, performed, as an informant asserts, by actors who took the kneeling posture, all being placed in one row and facing in the same direction. There were gestures without stint, arms, heads, and bodies moving in a fashion that seemed to imitate in a far-off way the movements of the bird itself. There was no instrumental accompaniment to the music. The following mele is one that was given with this hula: Kolea kai piha![412] I aha mai nei? Ku-nou[413] mai nei. E aha kakou? 5 E ai kakou.[414] Nohea ka ai?[415] No Kahiki mai.[415] Hiki mai ka Lani,[415] Olina Hawaii, 10 Mala’ela’e ke ala, Nou, e ka Lani. Puili pu ke aloha, Pili me ka’u manu.[416] Ka puana a ka moe? 15 Moe oe a hoolana [Page 220] Ka hali’a i hiki mai; Ooe pu me a’u Noho pu i ka wai aliali. Hai’na ia ka pauna. 20 O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kahiki.[417] Hiki mai kou aloha, mae’ele au. [Footnote 411: The plover.] [Footnote 412: _Kolea kai piha_. The kolea is a feeder along the shore, his range limited to a narrower strip as the tide rises. The snare was one of the methods used by the Hawaiians for the capture of this bird. In his efforts to escape when snared he made that futile bobbing motion with his head that must be familiar to every hunter.] [Footnote 413: Usually the bobbing motion, _ku-nou_, is the prelude to flight; but the snared bird can do nothing more, a fact which suggests to the poet the nodding and bowing of two lovers when they meet.] [Footnote 414: _E ai kakou_. Literally, let us eat. While this figure of speech often has a sensual meaning, it does not necessarily imply grossness. Hawaiian literalness and narrowness of vocabulary is not to be strained to the overthrow of poetical sentiment.]