[Footnote 415: To the question _Nohea ka ai?_, whence the food? that is, the bird, the poet answers, _No Kahiki mai_, from Kahiki, from some distant region, the gift of heaven, it may be, as implied in the next line, _Hiki mai ka Lani_. The coming of the king, or chief, _Lani_, literally, the heaven-born, with the consummation of the love. Exactly what this connection is no one can say.] [Footnote 416: In the expression _Pili me ka’u manu_ the poet returns to his figure of a bird as representing a loved one.] [Footnote 417: _O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kahiki_. In declaring that the egg of the kolea is laid in a foreign land, Kahiki, the poet enigmatizes, basing his thought on some fancied resemblance between the mystery of love and the mystery of the kolea’s birth.] [Translation.] A plover at the full of the sea— What, pray, is it saying to me? It keeps bobbing its noddy. To do what would you counsel? 5 Why, eat its plump body! Whence comes the sweet morsel? From the land of Kahiki. When our sovereign appears, Hawaii gathers for play, 10 Stumble-blocks cleared from the way— Fit rule of the king’s highway. Let each one embrace then his love; For me, I’ll keep to my dove. Hark now, the signal for bed! 15 Attentive then to love’s tread, While a wee bird sings in the soul, My love comes to me heart-whole— Then quaff the waters of bliss. Say what is the key to all this? 20 The plover egg’s laid in Kahiki. Your love, when it comes, finds me dumb. The plover—kolea—is a wayfarer in Hawaii; its nest-home is in distant lands, Kahiki. The Hawaiian poet finds in all this something that reminds him of the spirit of love. [Page 221] XXXI.—THE HULA MANÓ The hula _manó_, shark-dance, as its name signifies, was a performance that takes class with the hula kolea, already mentioned, as one of the animal dances. But little can be said about the physical features of this hula as a dance, save that the performers took a sitting position, that the action was without sensationalism, and that there was no instrumental accompaniment. The cantillation of the mele was in the distinct and quiet tone and manner which the Hawaiians termed ko’i-honua.