Читать книгу Unwritten Literature of Hawaii - The Sacred Songs of the Hula - Nathaniel Bright Emerson - Страница 33

Song

Lift Mahu'ilani on high;

Thy palms Kauna-lewa a-waving!

After the ceremony of the pa-ú came that of the lei, a wreath to crown the head and another for the neck and shoulders. It was not the custom in the old times to overwhelm the body with floral decorations and to blur the outlines of the figure to the point of disfigurement; nor was every flower that blows acceptable as an offering. The gods were jealous and nice in their tastes, pleased, only with flowers indigenous to the soil--the ilima (pl. VI), the lehua, the maile, the ie-ie, and the like (see pp. 19, 20). The ceremony was quickly accomplished. As the company knotted the garlands about head or neck, they sang:

Oli Lei

Ke lei mai la o Ka-ula i ke kai, e!

Ke malamalama o Niihau, ua malie.

A malie, pa ka Inu-wai.

Ke inu mai la na hala o Naue i ke kai.

5

No Naue, ka hala, no Puna ka wahine. 125

No ka lua no i Kilauea.