Ax of broadest edge I’m hight; The island groups I’ve visited, Islands of Mala-la-walu, Seat of Ka-maulu-a-niho, 5 Grandam of Kama, the swine-god. I have seen Pi’i-lani’s glory, Whose fame spreads over the islands. Enamored was I of Pele; Her beauty holds court at the fire-pit, 10 Given to ravage the plains of Puna. Mischievous son of Ku, and of Hina, Whose cloud-bloom hangs in ether, The pig-shaped cloud that shadows Haupu. An impulse comes to return to Kahiki— 15 The chains of the pit still gall me, The tabu cliff of Ka-moho-alii, The mount that is ever ablaze. I thought to have domiciled with her; Was driven away by mere shame— 20 The shameful abuse of the goddess! Go thou, go I—a truce to the shame. It was your manners that shamed me. Free to you was the house we lived in. These were the deeds of Broad-edged-Ax, 25 Who has seen the whole group of islands. Olopana’s firstborn am I, Nursed in the arms of Ku-ula; [Page 231] Hers were the roosts for the gamecocks. The wilds of Ka-liu-wa’a my home, 30 That too my craft back to Kahiki; This my farewell to Hawaii, Land of the God’s immigration. Strangers we came to Hawaii; A stranger thou, a stranger I, 35 Called Broad-edged-Ax: I’ve read the cloud-omens in heaven. It curls, it curls! his tail—it curls! Look, it clings to his buttocks! Faugh, faugh, faugh, faugh, uff! 40 What! Ka-haku-ma’a-lani your name! Answer from heaven, oh Kane! My song it is done! If one can trust, the statement of the Hawaiian who communicated the above mele, it represents only a portion of the whole composition, the first canto—if we may so term it—having dropped into the limbo of forgetfulness. The author’s study of the mele lends no countenance to such a view. Like all Hawaiian poetry, this mele wastes no time with introductory flourishes; it plunges at once in medias res.