ar to every hunter.]

[Footnote 413: Usually the bobbing motion, _ku-nou_, is the
prelude to flight; but the snared bird can do nothing more, a
fact which suggests to the poet the nodding and bowing of two
lovers when they meet.]

[Footnote 414: _E ai kakou_. Literally, let us eat. While this
figure of speech often has a sensual meaning, it does not
necessarily imply grossness. Hawaiian literalness and
narrowness of vocabulary is not to be strained to the
overthrow of poetical sentiment.]

[Footnote 415: To the question _Nohea ka ai?_, whence the food?
that is, the bird, the poet answers, _No Kahiki mai_, from
Kahiki, from some distant region, the gift of heaven, it may
be, as implied in the next line, _Hiki mai ka Lani_. The
coming of the king, or chief, _Lani_, literally, the
heaven-born, with the consummation of the love. Exactly what
this connection is no one can say.]

[Footnote 416: In the expression _Pili me ka'u manu_ the poet
returns to his figure of a bird as representing a loved one.]

[Footnote 417: _O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kahiki_. In
declaring that the egg of the kolea is laid in a foreign
land, Kahiki, the poet enigmatizes, basing his thought on
some fancied resemblance between the mystery of love and the
mystery of the kolea's birth.]

[Translation]

A plover at the full of the sea--
What, pray, is it saying to me?
It keeps bobbing its noddy.
To do what would you counsel?
5 Why, eat its plump body!
Whence comes the sweet morsel?
From the land of Kahiki.
When our sovereign appears,
Hawaii gathers for play,
10 Stumble-blocks cleared from the way--
Fit rule of the king's highway.
Let each one embrace then his love;
For me, I'll keep to my dove.
Hark now, the signal for bed!
15 Attentive then to love's tread,
While a wee bird sings in the soul,
My love comes to me heart-whole--
Then quaff the waters of bliss.
Say what is the key t