t clash in Pan'-ewa--
15 Pan'-ewa, whose groves of lehua
Are nourished by lava shag,
Lehua that bourgeons with flame.

Night, it is night
O'er Puna and Hilo!
20 Night from the smoke of my land!
For the people salvation!
But the land is on fire!

The Hawaiian who furnished the meles which, in their
translated forms, are designated as canto I, canto II, and so
on, spoke of them as _pale_, and, following his
nomenclature, the term has been retained, though more
intimate acquaintance with the meles and with the term has
shown that the nearest English synonym to correspond with
pale would be the word division. Still, perhaps with a
mistaken tenderness for the word, the author has retained the
caption Canto, as a sort of nodding recognition of the old
Hawaiian's term--division of a poem. No idea is entertained
that the five _pale_ above given were composed by the same
bard, or that they represent productions from the same
individual standpoint. They do, however, breathe a spirit
much in common; so that when the old Hawaiian insisted that
they are so far related to one another as to form a natural
series for recitation in the hula, being species of the same
genus, as it were, he was not far from the truth. The man's
idea seemed to be that they were so closely related that,
like beads of harmonious colors and shapes, they might be
strung on the same thread without producing a dissonance.

Of these five poems, or _pale_ (pah-lay), numbers I, II, and
IV were uttered in a natural tone of voice, termed _kawele_,
otherwise termed _ko'i-honua_. The purpose of this style of
recitation was to adapt the tone to the necessities of the
[Page 90] aged when their ears no longer heard distinctly. It would
require an audiphone to illustrate perfectly the difference
between this method of pronunciation and the _ai-ha'a_, which
was employed in the recitation of cantos III and V. The
_ai-ha'a_ was given in a strained and guttural tone.

The poetical reciter and cantillator, whether in the halau or