finest quality. Experiment soon satisfied him that for the
best production of the tone it was necessary to strike the
bamboo cylinder smartly upon some firm, inelastic substance,
such as a bag of sand. The tone produced was of crystalline
purity, and by varying the size and length of the cylinders
it proved possible to represent a complete musical scale. The
instrument was the germ of the modern organ.

The first mele to be presented partakes of the nature of the
allegory, a form of composition not a little affected by the
Hawaiians:

_Mele_

A Hamakua au,
Noho i ka ulu hala.
Malihini au i ka hiki ana,
I ka ua pe'epe'e pohaku.
5 Noho oe a li'u-li'u,
A luli-luli malie iho.
[Page 123]
He keiki akamai ko ia pali;
Elima no pua i ka lima.
Kui oe a lawa
10 I lei no ku'u aloha;
Malama malie oe i ka makemake,
I lei hooheno no ke aloha ole.

Moe oe a ala mai;
Nana iho oe i kou pono.
15 Hai'na ia ka puana:
Keiki noho pali o Hamakua;
A waka-waka, a waka-waka.

[Translation]

_Song_

It was in Hamakua;
I sat in a grove of Pandanus,
A stranger at my arrival,
A rock was my shelter from rain.
5 I found it a wearisome wait,
Cautiously shifting about.

There's a canny son of the cliff
That has five buds to his hand.
You shall twine me a wreath of due length,
10 A wreath to encircle my love,
Whilst you hold desire in strong curb,
Till love-touch thaws the cold-hearted.

When you rise from sleep on the mat,
Look down, see the conquest of love.
15 The meaning of this short story?
What child fondly clings to the cliff?
Waka-waka, the shell-fish.

The scene of this idyl, this love-song, _mele hoipoipo_, is
Hamakua, a district on the windward side of Hawaii, subject
to rain-squalls. The poet in his al