old word _oulu_, meaning a paddle, are
archaisms now obsolete.]

[Footnote 349: Niheu. One of the mythological heroes of an
old-time adventure, in which his elder brother Kana, who had
the form of a long rope, played the principal part. This one
enterprise of their life in which they joined forces was for
the rescue of their mother, Hina, who had been kidnaped by a
marauding chief and carried from her home in Hilo to the bold
headland of Haupu, Molokai. Niheu is generally stigmatized as
_kolohe_ (verse 11), mischievous, for no other reason
apparently than that he was an active spirit, full of
courage, given to adventure and heaven-defying audacities,
such as put the Polynesian Mawi and the Greek Prometheus in
bad odor with the gods of their times. One of these offensive
actions was Niheu's theft of a certain _ulu_, breadfruit,
which one of the gods rolled with a noise like that of
thunder in the underground caverns of the southern regions of
the world. Niheu is represented as a great sport, an athlete,
skilled in all the games of his people. The worst that could
be said of him was that he had small regard for other
people's rights and that he was slow to pay his debts of
honor.]

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 38 PLATE XXI
PALA-PALAI FERNS]

After the death of Lohiau, his best friend, Paoa, came before
Pele determined to invite death by pouring out the vials of
his wrath on the head of the goddess. The sisters of Pele
sought to avert the impending tragedy and persuaded him to
soften his language and to forego mere abuse. Paoa, a
consummate actor, by his dancing, which has been perpetuated
in the hula Pele, and by his skillfully-worded prayer-songs,
one of which is given above, not only appeased Pele, but won
her.

The piece next appearing is also a song that was a prayer,
and seems to have been uttered by the same mouth that,
groaned forth the one given above.

It does not seem necessary to take the language of the mele
literally. The sufferings that the person in the mele
describes in the first person,