a wild bird of gay feather, standing
forth in the decorous finery of his rank, girded and
flowerbedecked after the manner of the halau, eager to win
applause for his party not less than to secure for himself
the loving reward of victory. In his hand is the instrument
of the play, the kilu; the artillery of love, however, with
which he is to assail the heart and warm the imagination of
the fair woman opposed to him is the song he shoots from his
lips.

The story of the two songs next to be presented is one, and
will show us a side of Hawaiian life on which we can not
afford entirely to close our eyes. During the stay at Lahaina
of Kamehameha, called the Great--whom an informant in this
matter always calls "the murderer," in protest against the
treacherous assassination of Keoua, which took place at
Kawaihae in Kamehameha's very presence--a high chiefess of
his court named Kalola engaged in a love affair with a young
[Page 237] man of rank named Ka'i-ama. He was much her junior, but this
did not prevent his infatuation. Early one morning she rose,
leaving him sound asleep, and took canoe for Molokai to serve
as one of the escort to the body of her relative, Keola, on
the way to its place of sepulture.

Some woman, appreciating the situation, posted to the house
and waked the sleeper with the information. Ka'iama hastened
to the shore, and as he strained his vision to gain sight of
the woman of his infatuation the men at the paddles and the
bristling throng on the central platform--the _pola_--of the
craft, vanishing in the twilight, made on his imagination the
impression of a hazy mountain thicket floating on the waves,
but hiding from view some rare flower. He gave vent to his
feelings in song:

_Mele_

Pua ehu kamalena[452] ka uka o Kapa'a;
Luhi-ehu iho la[453] ka pua i Maile-huna;
Hele a ha ka iwi[454] a ke Koolau,
Ke pua mai i ka maka o ka nahelehele,
5 I hali hoo-muu,[455] hoohalana i Wailua.
Pa kahea a Koolau-wahine,
O Pua-ke'i, e-e-e-e!
He p