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Finally, to the influence of song, as to the dramatic requirements of oral delivery, are perhaps due the retention of certain constructive elements of style. No one can study the form of Hawaiian poetry without observing that parallelism is at the basis of its structure. The same swing gets into the prose style. Perhaps the necessity of memorizing also had its effect. A composition was planned for oral delivery and intended to please the ear; tone values were accordingly of great importance. The variation between narrative, recitative, and formal song; the frequent dialogue, sometimes strictly dramatic; the repetitive series in which the same act is attempted by a succession of actors, or the stages of an action are described in exactly the same form, or a repetition is planned in ascending scale; the singsong value of the antithesis;[1] the suspense gained by the ejaculation[2]—all these devices contribute values to the ear which help to catch and please the sense.

Footnotes to Section III, 5: Constructive Elements of Style

[Footnote 1: The following examples are taken from the Laieikawai, where antithesis is frequent:

"Four children were mine, four are dead."

"Masters inside and outside" (to express masters over everything).

"I have seen great and small, men and women; low chiefs, men and women; high chiefs."

"When you wish to go, go; if you wish to stay, this is Hana, stay here."

"As you would do to me, so shall I to you."

"I will not touch, you, you must not touch me."

"Until day becomes night and night day."

"If it seems good I will consent; if not, I will refuse."

"Camped at some distance from A's party and A's party from them."

"Sounds only by night, … never by day."

"Through us the consent, through us the refusal."

"You above, our wife below."

"Thunder pealed, this was Waka's work; thunder pealed, this was Malio's work."

"Do not look back, face ahead."

"Adversity to one is adversity to all;" "we will not forsake you, do not you forsake us."

"Not to windward, go to leeward."

"Never … any destruction before like this; never will any come hereafter."

"Everyone has a god, none is without."

"There I stood, you were gone."

"I have nothing to complain of you, you have nothing to complain of me."

The balanced sentence structure is often handled with particular skill:

"If … a daughter, let her die; however many daughters … let them die."

"The penalty is death, death to himself, death to his wife, death to all

his friends."

"Drive him away; if he should tell you his desire, force him away; if he is

very persistent, force him still more."

"Again they went up … again the chief waited … the chief again sent a

band."

"A crest arose; he finished his prayer to the amen; again a crest arose,

the second this; not long after another wave swelled."

"If she has given H. a kiss, if she has defiled herself with him, then we lose the wife, then take me to my grave without pity. But if she has hearkened … then she is a wife for you, if my grandchild has hearkened to my command."

A series of synonyms is not uncommon, or the repetition of an idea in other words:

"Do not fear, have no dread."

"Linger not, delay not your going."

"Exert your strength, all your godlike might."

"Lawless one, mischief maker, rogue of the sea."

"Princess of broad Hawaii, Laieikawai, our mistress."

"House of detention, prison-house."

"Daughter, lord, preserver."]

[Footnote 2: In the course of the story of Laieikawai occur more than 50 ejaculatory phrases, more than half of these in the narrative, not the dialogue, portion:

1. The most common is used to provide suspense for what is to follow and is printed without the point—aia hoi, literally, "then (or there) indeed," with the force of our lo! or behold!

2. Another less common form, native to the Hawaiian manner of thought, is the contradiction of a plausible conjecture—aole ka! "not so!". Both these forms occur in narrative or in dialogue. The four following are found in dialogue alone:

3. Auhea oe? "where are you?" is used to introduce a vigorous address.

4. Auwe! to express surprise (common in ordinary speech), is rare in this story.

5. The expression of surprise, he mea kupapaha, is literally "a strange thing," like our impersonal "it is strange"

6. The vocable e is used to express strong emotion.

7. Add to these an occasional use, for emphasis, of the belittling question, whose answer, although generally left to be understood, may be given; for example: A heaha la o Haua-i-liki ia Laie-i-ka-wai? he opala paha, "What was Hauailiki to Laieikawai? 'mere chaff!'", and the expression of contempt—ka—with which the princess dismisses her wooer]