IX.—THE HULA ALA’A-PAPA
Every formal hula was regarded by the people of the olden time as a sacred and religious performance (tabu); but all hulas were not held to be of equal dignity and rank (hanohano). Among those deemed to be of the noblest rank and honor was the ala’a-papa. In its best days this was a stately and dignified performance, comparable to the old-fashioned courtly minuet.
We shall observe in this hula the division of the performers into two sets, the hoopa’a and the olapa. Attention will naturally bestow itself first on the olapa, a division of the company made up of splendid youthful figures, young men, girls, and women in the prime of life. They stand a little apart and in advance of the others, the right hand extended, the left resting upon the hip, from which hangs in swelling folds the pa-ú. The time of their waiting for the signal to begin the dance gives the eye opportunity to make deliberate survey of the forms that stand before us.
The figures of the men are more finely proportioned, more statuesque, more worthy of preservation in marble or bronze than those of the women. Only at rare intervals does one find among this branch of the Polynesian race a female shape which from crown to sole will satisfy the canons of proportion—which one carries in the eye. That is not to say, however, that the artistic eye will not often meet a shape that appeals to the sense of grace and beauty. The springtime of Hawaiian womanly beauty hastes away too soon. Would it were possible to stay that fleeting period which ushers in full womanhood!
One finds himself asking the question to what extent the responsibility for this overthickness of leg and ankle—exaggerated in appearance, no doubt, by the ruffled anklets often worn—this pronounced tendency to the growth of that degenerate weed, fat, is to be explained by the standard of beauty which held sway in Hawaii’s courts and for many ages acted as a principle of selection in the physical molding of the Hawaiian female.
The prevailing type of physique among the Hawaiians, even more marked in the women than in the men, is the short and thick, as opposed to the graceful and slender. One does occasionally find delicacy of modeling in the young and immature; but with adolescence fatness too often comes to blur the outline.
The hoopa’a, who act as instrumentalists, very naturally maintain a position between sitting and kneeling, the better to enable them, to handle that strangely effective drumlike instrument, the ipu, the one musical instrument used as an accompaniment in this hula. The ipu is made from the bodies of two larger pear-shaped calabashes of unequal sizes, which are joined together at their smaller ends in such a manner as to resemble a figure-of-eight. An opening is left at the top of the smaller calabash to increase the resonance. In moments of calm the musicians allow the body to rest upon the heels; as the action warms they lift themselves to such height as the bended knee will permit.
The ala’a-papa is a hula of comparatively moderate action. While the olapa employ hands, feet, and body in gesture and pose to illustrate the meaning and emotion of the song, the musicians mark the time by lifting and patting with the right hand the ipu each holds in the left hand. If the action of the play runs strong and stirs the emotions, each hoopa’a lifts his ipu wildly, fiercely smites it, then drops it on the padded rest in such manner as to bring out its deep mysterious tone.
At a signal from the kumu, who sits with the hoopa’a, the poo-pua’a, leader of the olapa, calls the mele (kahea i ka mele)—that is, he begins its recitation—in a tone differing but little from that of ordinary conversation, a sing-song recitation, a vocalization less stilted and less punctilious than that usually employed in the utterance of the oli or mele. The kumu, the leader of the company, now joins in, mouthing his words in full observance of the mele style. His manner of cantillation may be either what may be called the low relief, termed ko’i-honua, or a pompous alto-relievo style, termed ai-ha’a. This is the signal for the whole company to chime in, in the same style as the kumu. The result, as it seems to the untutored ear, is a confusion of sounds like that of the many-tongued roar of the ocean.
The songs cantillated for the hula ala’a-papa were many and of great variety. It seems to have been the practice for the kumu to arrange a number of mele, or poetical pieces, for presentation in the hula in such order as pleased him. These different mele, thus arranged, were called pale, compartments, or mahele, divisions, as if they were integral parts of one whole, while in reality their relation to one another was only that of the juxtaposition imposed upon them by the kumu.
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 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,
5E 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.
10Aia 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;
5The 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.
10See 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.
Footnote 126: (return) Ilina. A sink, a place where a stream sinks into the earth or sand.
PAUKU 2
Hoopono oe, he aina kai Waialua i ka hau;
Ke olelo 127 wale no la i ka lani.
Lohe ka uka o ka pehu i Ku-kani-loko. 128
I-loko, i-waho kaua la, e ka hoa,
5I kahi e pau ai o ka oni?
Oni ana i ka manawa o ka lili.
Pee oe, pee ana iloko o ka hilahila.
I hilahila wale ia no e oe;
Nou no ka hale, 129 komo mai maloko.
The lines from, the fourth to the ninth in this stanza (pauku) represent a dialogue between two lovers.
[Translation.]
STANZA 2
Look now, Waialua, land clothed with ocean-mist—
Its wilderness-cries heaven’s ear only hears,
The wilderness-gods of Ku-kani-loko.
Within or without shall we stay, friend,
5Until we have stilled the motion?
To toss is a sign of impatience.
You hide, hiding as if from shame,
I am bashful because of your presence;
The house is yours, you’ve only to enter.
PAUKU 3
(Ko’i-honua)
Pakú Kea-au, 130 lulu Wai-akea; 131
Noho i ka la’i Ioa o Hana-kahi, 132
O Hilo, i olokea 133 ia, i au la, e, i kai,
O Lele-iwi, 134 o Maka-hana-loa. 135
5Me he kaele-papa 136 la Hilo, i lalo ka noho.
Kaele 137 wale Hilo i ke alai ia e ka ua.
Oi ka niho o ka ua o Hilo i ka lani;
Kua-wa’a-wa’a Hilo eli ’a e ka wai;
Kai-koo, haki na nalu, ka ua o Hilo;
10Ha’i lau-wili mai ka nahele.
Nanalu, kahe waikahe o Wai-luku;
Hohonu Waiau, 138 nalo ke poo o ka lae o Moku-pane; 139
Wai ulaula o Wai-anue-nue; 140
Ka-wowo nui i ka wai o Kolo-pule-pule; 141
15Halulu i ha-ku’i, ku me he uahi la
Ka puá, o ka wai ua o-aka i ka lani.
Eleele Hilo e, pano e, i ka ua;
Okakala ka hulu o Hilo i ke anu;
Pili-kau 142 mai Hilo ia ua loa.
20Pali-ku laau ka uka o Haili 143
Ka lae ohi’a e kope-kope,
Me he aha moa la, ka pale pa laau,
Ka nahele o Pa-ie-ie, 144
Ku’u po’e lehua iwaena konu o Mo-kau-lele; 145
25Me ka ha’i laau i pu-kaula hala’i i ka ua.
Ke nana ia la e la’i i Hanakahi.
Oni aku Hilo, oni ku’u kai lipo-lipo,
A Lele-iwi, ku’u kai ahu mimiki a ka Malua. 146
Lei kahiko, lei nalu ka poai.
30Nana Pu’u-eo 147 e! makai ka iwi-honua, 148 e!
Puna-hoa la, ino, ku, ku wau a Wai-akea la.
Footnote 127: (return) Olelo. To speak, to converse; here used figuratively to mean that the place is lonely, has no view of the ocean, looks only to the sky. “Looks that commerce with the sky.”
Footnote 128: (return) Ku-kani-loko. A land in Waialua, Oahu, to which princesses resorted in the olden times at the time of childbirth, that their offspring might have the distinction of being an alii kapu, a chief with a tabu.
Footnote 129: (return) Hale House; a familiar euphemism of the human body.
Footnote 130: (return) Kea-au. An ahu-pua’a, small division of land, in Puna adjoining Hilo, represented as sheltering Hilo on that side.
Footnote 131: (return) Waiakea. A river in Hilo, and the land through which it flows.
Footnote 132: (return) Hana-kahi. A land on the Hamakua side of Hilo, also a king whose name was a synonym for profound peace.
Footnote 133: (return) Olo-kea. To be invited or pulled many ways at once; distracted.
Footnote 134: (return) Lele-iwi. A cape on the north side of Hilo.
Footnote 135: (return) Maka-hana-loa. A cape.
Footnote 136: (return) Kaele-papa. A large, round, hollowed board on which to pound taro in the making of poi. The poi-board was usually long and oval.
Footnote 137: (return) Kaele. In this connection the meaning is surrounded, encompassed by.
Footnote 138: (return) Waiau. The name given to the stretch of Wailuku river near its mouth.
Footnote 139: (return) Moku-pane. The cape between the mouth of the Wailuku river and the town of Hilo.
Footnote 140: (return) Wai-anue-nue. Rainbow falls and the river that makes the leap.
Footnote 141: (return) Kolo-pule-pule. Another branch of the Wailuku stream.
Footnote 142: (return) Pili-kau. To hang low, said of a cloud.
Footnote 143: (return) Haili. A region in the inland, woody, part of Hilo.
Footnote 144: (return) Pa-ieie. A well-wooded part of Hilo, once much resorted to by bird-hunters; a place celebrated in Hawaiian song.
Footnote 145: (return) Mokau-lele. A wild, woody region In the interior of Hilo.
Footnote 146: (return) Malua. Name given to a wind from a northerly or northwesterly direction on several of the islands. The full form is Malua-lua.
Footnote 147: (return) Pu’u-eo. A village in the Hilo district near Puna.
Footnote 148: (return) Iwi-honua. Literally a bone of the earth: a projecting rock or a shoal; if in the water, an object to be avoided by the surf-rider. In this connection see note e, p. 36.
[Translation.]
STANZA 3
(With distinct utterance)
Kea-au shelters, Waiakea lies in the calm,
The deep peace of King Hana-kahi.
Hilo, of many diversions, swims in the ocean,
’Tween Point Lele-iwi and Maka-hana-loa;
5And the village rests in the bowl,
Its border surrounded with rain—
Sharp from the sky the tooth of Hilo’s rain.
Trenched is the land, scooped out by the downpour—
Tossed and like gnawing surf is Hilo’s rain—
10Beach strewn with a tangle of thicket growth;
A billowy freshet pours in Wailuku;
Swoll’n is Wai-au, flooding the point Moku-pane;
And red leaps the water of Anue-nue.
A roar to heaven sends up Kolo-pule,
15Shaking like thunder, mist rising like smoke.
The rain-cloud unfolds in the heavens;
Dark grows Hilo, black with the rain.
The skin of Hilo grows rough from the cold;
The storm-cloud hangs low o’er the land.
20A rampart stand the woods of Haili;
Ohi’as thick-set must be brushed aside,
To tear one’s way, like a covey of fowl,
In the wilds of Pa-ie-ie—
Lehua growths mine—heart of Mokau-lele.
25A breaking, a weaving of boughs, to shield from rain;
A look enraptured on Hana-kahi,
Sees Hilo astir, the blue ocean tossing
Wind-thrown-spray—dear sea—’gainst Point Lele-iwi—
A time-worn foam-wreath to encircle its brow.
30Look, Pu’u-eo! guard ’gainst the earth-rib!
It’s Puna-hoa reef; halt!
At Waiakea halt!
PAUKU 4
(Ai-ha’a)
Kua loloa Kea-au i ka nahele;
Hala kua hulu-hulu Pana-ewa i ka laau;
Inoino ka maha o ka ohia o La’a.
Ua ku kepakepa ka maha o ka lehua;
5Ua po-po’o-hina i ka wela a ke Akua.
Ua u-ahi Puna i ka oloka’a pohaku,
I ka huna pa’a ia e ka wahine.
Nanahu ahi ka papa o Olu-ea;
Momoku ahi Puna hala i Apua;
10Ulu-á ka nahele me ka laau.
Oloka’a kekahi ko’i e Papa-lau-ahi;
I eli ’a kahi ko’i e Ku-lili-kaua.
Kai-ahea a hala i Ka-li’u;
A eu e, e ka La, ka malama-lama.
15O-na-naka ka piko o Hilo ua me ke one,
I hull i uka la, i hulihia i kai;
Ua wa-wahi ’a, ua na-ha-há,
Ua he-hele-lei!
[Translation.]
STANZA 4
(Bombastic style)
Ke’-au is a long strip of wildwood;
Shag of pandanus mantles Pan’-ewa;
Scraggy the branching of Laa’s ohias;
The lehua limbs at sixes and sevens—
5They are gray from the heat of the goddess.
Puna smokes mid the bowling of rocks—
Wood and rock the She-god heaps in confusion,
The plain Oluea’s one bed of live coals;
Puna is strewn with fires clean to Apua,
10Thickets and tall trees a-blazing.
Sweep on, oh fire-ax, thy flame-shooting flood!
Smit by this ax is Ku-lili-kaua.
It’s a flood tide of lava clean to Kali’u,
And the Sun, the light-giver, is conquered.
15The bones of wet Hilo rattle from drought;
She turns for comfort to mountain, to sea,
Fissured and broken, resolved into dust.
This poem is taken from the story of Hiiaka. On her return from the journey to fetch Lohiau she found that her sister Pele had treacherously ravaged with fire Puna, the district that contained her own dear woodlands. The description given in the poem is of the resulting desolation.
PAUKA 5
No-luna ka Hale-kai 149 no ka ma’a-lewa, 150
Nana ka maka ia Moana-nui-ka-lehua. 151
Noi au i ke Kai, e mali’o. 152
Ina ku a’e la he lehua 153 ilaila!
5Hopoe-lehua 154 kiekie.
Maka’u ka lehua i ke kanáka, 155
Lilo ilalo e hele ai, e-e,
A ilalo hoi.
O Kea-au 156 ili-ili nehe ke kai,
10Hoo-lono 157 ke kai o Puna
I ka ulu hala la, e-e,
Kai-ko’o Puna.
Ia hooneenee ia pili mai 158 kaua, e ke hoa.
Ke waiho e mai la oe ilaila.
15Ela ka mea ino la, he anu,
A he anu me he mea la iwaho kaua, e ke hoa;
Me he wai la ko kaua ili.
Footnote 149: (return) Hale-kai. A wild mountain, glen back of Hanalei valley, Kauai.
Footnote 150: (return) Ma’alewa. An aerial root that formed a sort of ladder by which one climbed the mountain steeps; literally a shaking sling.
Footnote 151: (return) Moana-nui-ka-lehua. A female demigod that came from the South (Ku-kulu-o-Kahiki) at about the same mythical period as that of Pele’s arrival—If not in her company—and who was put in charge of a portion of the channel that lies between Kauai and Oahu. This channel was generally termed Ie-ie-waena and Ie-ie-waho. Here the name Moana-nui-ka-lehua seems to be used to indicate the sea as well as the demigoddess, whose dominion it was. Ordinarily she appeared as a powerful fish, but she was capable of assuming the form of a beautiful woman (mermaid?). The title lehua was given her on account of her womanly charms.
Footnote 152: (return) Mali’o. Apparently another form of the word malino, calm; at any rate it has the same meaning.
Footnote 153: (return) Lehua. An allusion to the ill-fated’ young woman Hopoe, who was Hiiaka’s intimate friend. The allusion is amplified in the next line.
Footnote 154: (return) Hopoe-lehua. The lehua tree was one of the forms in which Hopoe appeared, and after her death, due to the jealous rage of Pele, she was turned into a charred lehua tree which stood on the coast subject to the beating of the surf.
Footnote 155: (return) Maka’u ka lehua i ke kanaka. Another version has it Maka’u ke kanaka i ka lehua; Man fears the lehua. The form here used is perhaps an ironical allusion to man’s fondness not only to despoil the tree of its scarlet flowers, but womanhood, the woman it represented.
Footnote 156: (return) Kea-au. Often shortened in pronunciation to Ke-au, a fishing village in Puna near Hilo town. It now has a landing place for small vessels.
Footnote 157: (return) Hoolono. To call, to make an uproar, to spread a report.
Footnote 158: (return) Ia hoo-nee-nee ia pili mai. A very peculiar figure of speech. It Is as if the poet personified, the act of two lovers snuggling up close to each other. Compare with this the expression No huli mai, used by another poet in the thirteenth line of the lyric given on p. 204. The motive is the same in each case.
The author of this poem of venerable age is not known. It is spoken of as belonging to the wa po, the twilight of tradition. It is represented to be part of a mele taught to Hiiaka by her friend and preceptress in the hula, Hopoe. Hopoe is often called Hopoe-wahine. From internal evidence one can see that it can not be in form the same as was given to Hiiaka by Hopoe; it may have been founded on the poem of Hopoe. If so, it has been modified.
[Translation.]
STANZA 5
From mountain retreat and root-woven ladder
Mine eye looks down on goddess Moana-Lehua;
I beg of the Sea, Be thou calm;
Would there might stand on thy shore a lehua—
5Lehua-tree tall of Ho-poe.
The lehua is fearful of man;
It leaves him to walk on the ground below,
To walk the ground far below.
The pebbles at Ke’-au grind in the surf.
10The sea at Ke’-au shouts to Puna’s palms,
“Fierce is the sea of Puna.”
Move hither, snug close, companion mine;
You lie so aloof over there.
Oh what a bad fellow is cold!
15’Tis as if we were out on the wold;
Our bodies so clammy and chill, friend!
The last five verses, which sound like a love song, may possibly be a modern addition to this old poem. The sentiment they contain is comparable to that expressed in the Song of Welcome on page 39:
Eia ka pu’u nui o waho nei, he anu.
The hill of Affliction out there is the cold.
MAHELE-HELE II
Hi’u-o-lani, 159 kii ka ua o Hilo 160 i ka lani;
Ke hookiikii mai la ke ao o Pua-lani; 161]
O mahele ana, 162 pulu Hilo i ka ua—
O Hilo Hana-kahi. 163
5
Ha’i ka nalu, wai kaka lepo o Pii-lani;
Hai’na ka iwi o Hilo,
I ke ku ia e ka wai.
Oni’o lele a ka ua o Hilo i ka lanu
Ke hookiikii mai la ke ao o Pua-lani,
10Ke holuholu a’e la e puka,
Puka e nana ke kiki a ka ua,
Ka nonoho a ka ua i ka hale o Hilo.
Like Hilo me Puna ke ku a mauna-ole 164
He ole ke ku a mauna Hilo me Puna.
15He kowa Puna mawaena Hilo me Ka-ú;
Ke pili wale la i ke kua i mauna-ole;
Pili hoohaha i ke kua o Mauna-loa.
He kuahiwi Ka-ú e pa ka makani.
Ke alai ia a’e la Ka-ú e ke A’e; 165
20Ka-u ku ke ehu lepo ke A’e;
Ku ke ehu-lepo mai la Ka-ú i ka makani.
Makani Kawa hu’a-lepo Ka-ú i ke A’e.
Kahiko mau no o Ka-ú i ka makani.
Makani ka Lae-ka-ilio i Unu-lau,
25Kaili-ki’i 166 a ka lua a Kaheahea, 167
I ka ha’a nawali ia ino.
Ino wa o ka mankani o Kau-ná.
Nana aku o ka makani malaila!
O Hono-malino, malino i ka la’i o Kona.
30He inoa la!
Footnote 159: (return) Hi’u-o-lani. A very blind phrase. Hawaiians disagree as to its meaning. In the author’s opinion, it is a word referring to the conjurer’s art.
Footnote 160: (return) Ua o Hilo. Hilo is a very rainy country. The name Hilo seems to be used here as almost a synonym of violent rain. It calls to mind the use of the word Hilo to signify a strong wind:
[Translation.]
Blow, blow, thou wind of Hilo!
Leave the little calabash,
Bring on the big one!
Footnote 161: (return) Pua-lani. The name of a deity who took the form of the rosy clouds of morning.
Footnote 162: (return) Mahele ana. Literally the dividing; an allusion to the fact, it is said, that in Hilo a rain-cloud, or rain-squall, as it came up would often divide and a part of it turn off toward Puna at the cape named Lele-iwi, one-half watering, in the direction of the present town, the land known as Hana-kahi.
Footnote 163: (return) Hana-kahi. Look at note f, p. 60.
Footnote 164: (return) Mauna-ole. According to one authority this should be Mauna-Hilo. Verses 13, 14, 16, and 17 are difficult of translation. The play on the words ku a, standing at, or standing by, and kua, the back; also on the word kowa, a gulf or strait; and the repetition of the word mauna, mountain—all this is carried to such an extent as to be quite unintelligible to the Anglo-Saxon mind, though full of significance to a Hawaiian.
Footnote 165: (return) A’e. A strong wind that prevails in Ka-u. The same word also means to step on, to climb. This double-meaning gives the poet opportunity for a euphuistic word-play that was much enjoyed by the Hawaiians. The Hawaiians of the present day are not quite up to this sort of logomachy.
Footnote 166: (return) Kaili-ki’i. The promontory that shelters the cove Ka-hewa-hewa.
Footnote 167: (return) Ka-hea-hea. The name of the cove Ka-hewa-hewa, above mentioned, is here given in a softened form obtained by the elision of the letter w.
Footnote 168: (return) Hilo, or Whiro, as in the Maori, was a great navigator.
[Translation.]
CANTO II