nd. If the action of
the play runs strong and stirs the emotions, each hoopa'a
lifts his ipu wildly, fiercely smites it, then drops it on
the padded rest in such manner as to bring out its deep
mysterious tone.

At a signal from the kumu, who sits with the hoopa'a, the
_poo-pua'a_, leader of the olapa, calls the mele (_kahea i ka
mele_)--that is, he begins its recitation--in a tone
differing but little from that of ordinary conversation, a
sing-song recitation, a vocalization less stilted and less
punctilious than that usually employed in the utterance of
the oli or mele. The kumu, the leader of the company, now
joins in, mouthing his words in full observance of the mele
style. His manner of cantillation may be either what may be
called the low relief, termed _ko'i-honua_, or a pompous
alto-relievo style, termed _ai-ha'a_. This is the signal for
the whole company to chime in, in the same style as the kumu.
The result, as it seems to the untutored ear, is a confusion
of sounds like that of the many-tongued roar of the ocean.

The songs cantillated for the hula ala'a-papa were many and
of great variety. It seems to have been the practice for the
kumu to arrange a number of mele, or poetical pieces, for
presentation in the hula in such order as pleased him. These
different mele, thus arranged, were called _pale_,
compartments, or _mahele_, divisions, as if they were
integral parts of one whole, while in reality their relation
to one another was only that of the juxtaposition imposed
upon them by the kumu.

The poetical pieces first to be presented were communicated
to the author as mahele, divisions--hardly cantos--in the
sense above defined. They are, however, distinct poems,
though there chances to run through them all a somewhat
similar motive. The origin of many of these is referred to a
past so remote that tradition assigns them to what the
Hawaiians call the _wa po_, the night of tradition, or they
say of them, _no ke akua mai_, they are from the gods. It
[Page 59] matters not how faithful has been the effort to translate
th