CHAPTER XVI

[Footnote 51:  The ieie vine and the sweet-scented fern are, like the maile vine, common in the Olaa forests, and are considered sacred plants dedicated to ceremonial purposes.]

[Footnote 52:  The fight between two kupua, one in lizard form, the other in the form of a dog, occurs in Hawaiian story.  Again, when Wahanui goes to Tahiti he touches a land where men are gathering coral for the food of the dead.  This island takes the form of a dog to frighten travelers, and is named Kanehunamoku.]

[Footnote 53:  The season for the bird catcher, kanaka kia manu, lay between March and May, when the lehua flowers were in bloom in the upland forest, where the birds of bright plumage congregated, especially the honey eaters, with their long-curved bill, shaped like an insect’s proboscis.  He armed himself with gum, snares of twisted fiber, and tough wooden spears shaped like long fishing poles, which were the kia manu.  Having laid his snare and spread it with gum, he tolled the birds to it by decorating it with honey flowers or even transplanting a strange tree to attract their curiosity; he imitated the exact note of the bird he wished to trap or used a tamed bird in a cage as a decoy.  All these practical devices must be accompanied by prayer.  Emerson translates the following bird charm: 

  Na aumakua i ka Po,
  Na aumakua i ka Ao,
  Ia Kane i ka Po,
  Ia Kanaloa i ka Po,
  Ia Hoomeha i ka Po,
  I ko’u mau kapuna a pau loa i ka Po.

  Spirits of darkness primeval,
  Spirits of light,
  To Kane the eternal,
  To Kanaloa the eternal,
  To Hoomeha the eternal,
  To all my ancestors from eternity.

  Ia Ku-huluhulumanu i ka Po,
  Ia pale i ka Po,
  A puka i ke Ao,
  Owau, o Eleele, ka mea iaia ka mana,
  Homai he iki,
  Homai he loaa nui,
  Pii oukou a ke kuahiwi,
  A ke kualono,
  Ho’a mai oukou i ka manu a pau,
  Hooili oukou iluna o ke kepau kahi e pili ni,
  Amama!  Ua noa.

  To Kuhuluhulumanu, the eternal. 
  That you may banish the darkness. 
  That we may enter the light. 
  To me, Eleele, give divine power. 
  Give intelligence. 
  Give great success. 
  Climb to the wooded mountains. 
  To the mountain ridges. 
  Gather all the birds. 
  Bring them to my gum to be held fast. 
  Amen, it is finished.]

CHAPTER XVII

[Footnote 54:  For the cloud sign compare the story of Kualii’s battles and in Westervelt’s Lepeamoa (Legends of Honolulu, p. 217), the fight with the water monster.]

[Footnote 55:  Of Hawaiians at prayer Dibble says:  “The people were in the habit of praying every morning to the gods, clapping their hands as they muttered a set form of words in a singsong voice.”]