leaves.

_Maka-weli, Maka-li'i, Koae'a_, and _Pa-ie-ie_ are names of
places on Kauai.

_Puu-ka-Pele_ (verse 20) as the name indicates, is a volcanic
hill, situated near Waimea.

The key or answer (_puana_), to the allegory given in verse
20, _Ke kahuna kalai-hoe o Puu-ka-Pele_, the paddle-making
kahuna of Pele's mount, when declared by the poet
(_haku-mele_), is not very informing to the foreign mind; but
to the Hawaiian auditor it, no doubt, took the place of our
_haec fabula docet_, and it at least showed that the poet was
not without an intelligent motive. In the poem in point the
author acknowledges his inability to make connection between
it and the body of the song.

One merit we must concede to Hawaiian poetry, it wastes no
time in slow approach. The first stroke of the artist places
the auditor _in medias res_.

[Page 113]

XIV.--THE HULA PUILI

The character of a hula was determined to some extent by the
nature of the musical instrument that was its accompaniment.
In the hula _puili_ it certainly seems as if one could
discern the influence of the rude, but effective, instrument
that was its musical adjunct. This instrument, the _puili_
(fig. 1), consisted of a section of bamboo from which one
node with its diaphragm had been removed and the hollow
joint at that end split up for a considerable distance into
fine divisions, which gave forth a breezy rustling when the
instrument was struck or shaken.

The performers, all of them hoopaa, were often placed in two
rows, seated or kneeling and facing one another, thus
favoring a responsive action in the use of the puili as well
as in the cantillation of the song. One division would
sometimes shake and brandish their instruments, while the
others remained quiet, or both divisions would perform at
once, each individual clashing one puili against the other
one held by himself, or against that of his vis-a-vis; or
they might toss them back and forth to each other, one bamboo
passing another in mid air.

[Illustration: FIG. 1