The poetical pieces first to be presented were communicated to the author as mahele, divisions—hardly cantos—in the sense above defined. They are, however, distinct poems, though there chances to run through them all a somewhat similar motive. The origin of many of these is referred to a past so remote that tradition assigns them to what the Hawaiians call the _wa po_, the night of tradition, or they say of them, _no ke akua mai_, they are from the gods. It [Page 59] matters not how faithful has been the effort to translate these poems, they will not be found easy of comprehension. The local allusions, the point of view, the atmosphere that were in the mind of the savage are not in our minds to-day, and will not again be in any mind on earth; they defy our best efforts at reproduction. To conjure up the ghostly semblance of these dead impalpable things and make them live again is a problem that must be solved by each one with such aid from the divining rod of the imagination as the reader can summon to his help. Now for the play, the song: _Mele no Ka Hula Alá’a-papa_ MAHELE-HELE I PAUKU 1 A Koolau wau, ike i ka ua, E ko-kolo la-lepo ana ka ua, E ka’i ku ana, ka’i mai ana ka ua, E nu mai ana ka ua i ke kuahiwi, 5 E po’i ana ka ua me he nalu la. E puka, a puka mai ka ua la. Waliwali ke one i ka hehi’a e ka ua; Ua holo-wai na kaha-wai; Ua ko-ké wale na pali. 10 Aia ka wai la i ka ilina,[126] he ilio, He ilio hae, ke nahu nei e puka. [Translation.] _Song for the Hula Alá’a-papa._ CANTO I STANZA 1 ’Twas in Koolau I met with the rain: It comes with lifting and tossing of dust, Advancing in columns, dashing along. The rain, it sighs in the forest; 5 The rain, it beats and whelms, like the surf; It smites, it smites now the land. Pasty the earth from the stamping rain; Full run the streams, a rushing flood; The mountain walls leap with the rain. 10 See the water chafing its bounds like a dog, A raging dog, gnawing its way to pass out. This song is from the story of Hiiaka on her journey to Kauai to bring the handsome prince, Lohiau, to Pele. The region is that on the windward, _Koolau_, side of Oahu.