[Footnote 153: _Lehua_. An allusion to the ill-fated' young
woman Hopoe, who was Hiiaka's intimate friend. The allusion
is amplified in the next line.]

[Footnote 154: _Hopoe-lehua_. The lehua tree was one of the
forms in which Hopoe appeared, and after her death, due to
the jealous rage of Pele, she was turned into a charred lehua
tree which stood on the coast subject to the beating of the
surf.]

[Footnote 155: _Maka'u ka lehua i ke kanaka_. Another version
has it _Maka'u ke kanaka i ka lehua_; Man fears the lehua.
The form here used is perhaps an ironical allusion to man's
fondness not only to despoil the tree of its scarlet flowers,
but womanhood, the woman it represented.]

[Footnote 156: _Kea-au_. Often shortened in pronunciation to
_Ke-au_, a fishing village in Puna near Hilo town. It now has
a landing place for small vessels.]

[Footnote 157: _Hoolono_. To call, to make an uproar, to spread
a report.]

[Footnote 158: _Ia hoo-nee-nee ia pili mai_. A very peculiar
figure of speech. It Is as if the poet personified, the act
of two lovers snuggling up close to each other. Compare with
this the expression _No huli mai_, used by another poet in
the thirteenth line of the lyric given on p. 204. The motive
is the same in each case.]

The author of this poem of venerable age is not known. It is
spoken of as belonging to the _wa po_, the twilight of
tradition. It is represented to be part of a mele taught to
Hiiaka by her friend and preceptress in the hula, Hopoe.
Hopoe is often called _Hopoe-wahine_. From internal evidence
one can see that it can not be in form the same as was given
to Hiiaka by Hopoe; it may have been founded on the poem of
Hopoe. If so, it has been modified.

[Translation]

STANZA 5

From mountain retreat and root-woven ladder
Mine eye looks down on goddess Moana-Lehua;
I beg of the Sea, Be thou calm;
Would there might stand on thy shore a lehua--
5 Lehua-tree tall of Ho-poe.
The lehua is fearful o