inability to
understand their meaning, averring that they are "classical
Hawaiian," meaning, doubtless, that they are archaic slang.
As to the ninth line, the practice of "sitting in the door"
seems to have been the fashion with such folk as far back as
the time of Solomon.

Let us picture this princess of Maui, this granddaughter of
Wahieloa, Wewehi, as a Helen, with all of Helen's frailty, a
flirt-errant, luxurious in life, quickly deserting one lover
for the arms of another; yet withal of such humanity and
kindness of fascination that, at her death, or absence, all
things mourned her--not as Lycidas was mourned:

"With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
.............................................
And daffodillies fill their cups with tears,"

but in some rude pagan fashion; all of which is wrought out
and symbolized in the mele with such imagery as is native to
the mind of the savage.

The attentive reader will not need be told that, as in many
another piece out of Hawaii's old-time legends, the path
through this song is beset with euphuistic stumbling blocks.
The purpose of language, says Talleyrand, is to conceal
thought. The veil in this case is quite gauzy.

The language of the following song for the marionette dance,
hula ki'i, as in the one previously given, is mostly of that
[Page 97] kind which the Hawaiians term _olelo kapekepeke_, or _olelo
huna_, shifty talk, or secret talk. We might call it slang,
though, it is not slang in the exact sense in which we use
that word, applying it to the improvised counters of thought
that gain currency in our daily speech until they find
admission to the forum, the platform, and the dictionary. It
is rather a cipher-speech, a method of concealing one's
meaning from all but the initiated, of which the Hawaiian,
whether alii or commoner, was very fond. The people of the
hula were famous for this sort of accomplishment and prided
themselves not a little in it as an effectual means of giving
appropriate flavor and gusto to their performances.

_M