Page:Pele and Hiiaka; a myth from Hawaii (IA pelehiiakamythfr00emeriala).pdf/66

Ho'okikí^[1] kanawai;
He kua^[2] á kanawai;
He kai oki'a^[3] kanawai;
He ala muku^[4] no Kane me Kanaloa;
He ki^[5] ho'iho'i kanawai,
No Pele, no ko'u Akua la, e!

TRANSLATION

Stand in the breach, O Uli;
Give heed to this plea for life;
To the front at the call of thy priest;
Come in the splendor of heaven!
I entreat these powers on high.
And who are these beings of might?
Ye somber Clouds that rampart the sky;
Ye warm Clouds and ye that gleam ruddy;
Ye Clouds that guard heaven's border;
Ye Clouds that mottle the heavenly vault;
Ye Clouds that embank the horizon;
Ye cloud-piles aglow in the sunlight.
Descend, O Rain; O Water, pour—
Torrential rush of the princes!
Rent be the wall of the crater;
Let its groans reëcho and fly!
Come, Ku who fashions the landscape;
She who crushes the leaves of aheä;
Goddess who guards the outer flame-tip;
Ye tall ones who dwell in the forest;
Ku, the hirsute god of the wilds;
With his fellows who carve the canoe;

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1. Ho'okiki kanawai, to enforce, to carry out the law.
2. He kua a kanawai. It was said of Pele that her back was hot like fire, and that a bundle of taro leaves laid thereon was cooked and turned into luau. It was an offense punishable by death for any one to stand at her back or to approach her by that way.
3. He kai oki'a kanawai, literally, an ocean that separates. Exclusiveness, to live apart, was the rule of Pele's life. This principle is enforced with further illustration in the next line:—
4. He ala muku no Kane me Kanaloa. Even to the great gods Kane and Kanaloa the path of approach to Pele was cut off by the edict, thus far shalt thou come and no further.
5. He ki ho'iho'i kanawai. The ki is said, to my surprise, to be the thong with which a door was made fast, ho'iho'i, in the olden times of Hawaii. I cannot but look upon this statement with some suspicion.