The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Part 1

The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai.

by Anonymous.

PREFACE

This work of translation has been undertaken out of love for the land of Hawaii and for the Hawaiian people. To all those who have generously aided to further the study I wish to express my grateful thanks. I am indebted to the curator and trustees of the Bishop Museum for so kindly placing at my disposal the valuable ma.n.u.scripts in the museum collection, and to Dr.

Brigham, Mr. Stokes, and other members of the museum staff for their help and suggestions, as well as to those scholars of Hawaiian who have patiently answered my questions or lent me valuable material--to Mr. Henry Parker, Mr. Thomas Thrum, Mr. William Rowell, Miss Laura Green, Mr. Stephen Desha, Judge Hazelden of Waiohinu, Mr. Curtis Iaukea, Mr. Edward Lilikalani, and Mrs. Emma Nawahi. Especially am I indebted to Mr. Joseph Emerson, not only for the generous gift of his time but for free access to his entire collection of ma.n.u.script notes. My thanks are also due to the hosts and hostesses through whose courtesy I was able to study in the field, and to Miss Ethel Damon for her substantial aid in proof reading.

Nor would I forget to record with grateful appreciation those Hawaiian interpreters whose skill and patience made possible the rendering into English of their native romance--Mrs. Pokini Robinson of Maui, Mr. and Mrs.

Kamakaiwi of Pahoa, Hawaii, Mrs. Kama and Mrs. Supe of Kalapana, and Mrs.

Julia Bowers of Honolulu. I wish also to express my thanks to those scholars in this country who have kindly helped me with their criticism--to Dr. Ashley Thorndike, Dr. W.W. Lawrence, Dr. A.C.L. Brown, and Dr. A.A.

Goldenweiser. I am indebted also to Dr. Roland Dixon for bibliographical notes. Above all, thanks are due to Dr. Franz Boas, without whose wise and helpful enthusiasm this study would never have been undertaken.

MARTHA WARREN BECKWITH.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY,

October, 1917.

INTRODUCTION

I. THE BOOK AND ITS WRITER; SCOPE OF THE PRESENT EDITION

The _Laieikawai_ is a Hawaiian romance which recounts the wooing of a native chiefess of high rank and her final deification among the G.o.ds.

The story was handed down orally from ancient times in the form of a _kaao_, a narrative rehea.r.s.ed in prose interspersed with song, in which form old tales are still recited by Hawaiian story-tellers.[1] It was put into writing by a native Hawaiian, Haleole by name, who hoped thus to awaken in his countrymen an interest in genuine native story-telling based upon the folklore of their race and preserving its ancient customs--already fast disappearing since Cook's rediscovery of the group in 1778 opened the way to foreign influence--and by this means to inspire in them old ideals of racial glory. Haleole was born about the time of the death of Kamehameha I, a year or two before the arrival of the first American missionaries and the establishment of the Protestant mission in Hawaii. In 1834 he entered the mission school at Lahainaluna, Maui, where his interest in the ancient history of his people was stimulated and trained under the teaching of Lorrin Andrews, compiler of the Hawaiian dictionary, published in 1865, and Sheldon Dibble, under whose direction David Malo prepared his collection of "Hawaiian Antiquities," and whose History of the Sandwich Islands (1843) is an authentic source for the early history of the mission. Such early Hawaiian writers as Malo, Kamakau, and John Ii were among Haleole's fellow students. After leaving school he became first a teacher, then an editor. In the early sixties he brought out the _Laieikawai_, first as a serial in the Hawaiian newspaper, the _Kuokoa_, then, in 1863, in book form.[2] Later, in 1885, two part-Hawaiian editors, Bolster and Meheula, revised and reprinted the story, this time in pamphlet form, together with several other romances culled from Hawaiian journals, as the initial volumes of a series of Hawaiian reprints, a venture which ended in financial failure.[3] The romance of _Laieikawai_ therefore remains the sole piece of Hawaiian, imaginative writing to reach book form. Not only this, but it represents the single composition of a Polynesian mind working upon the material of an old legend and eager to create a genuine national literature. As such it claims a kind of cla.s.sic interest.

The language, although retaining many old words unfamiliar to the Hawaiian of to-day, and proverbs and expressions whose meaning is now doubtful, is that employed since the time of the reduction of the speech to writing in 1820, and is easily read at the present day. Andrews incorporated the vocabulary of this romance into his dictionary, and in only a few cases is his interpretation to be questioned. The songs, though highly figurative, present few difficulties. So far as the meaning is concerned, therefore, the translation is sufficiently accurate. But as regards style the problem is much more difficult. To convey not only the meaning but exactly the Hawaiian way of seeing things, in such form as to get the spirit of the original, is hardly possible to our language. The brevity of primitive speech must be sacrificed, thus accentuating the tedious repet.i.tion of detail--a trait sufficiently characteristic of Hawaiian story-telling. Then, too, common words for which we have but one form, in the original employ a variety of synonyms. "Say" and "see" are conspicuous examples. Other words identical in form convey to the Polynesian mind a variety of ideas according to the connection in which they are used--a play upon words impossible to translate in a foreign idiom. Again, certain relations that the Polynesian conceives with exactness, like those of direction and the relation of the person addressed to the group referred to, are foreign to our own idiom; others, like that of time, which we have more fully developed, the Polynesian recognizes but feebly. In face of these difficulties the translator has reluctantly foregone any effort to heighten the charm of the strange tale by using a fict.i.tious idiom or by condensing and invigorating its deliberation. Haleole wrote his tale painstakingly, at times dramatically, but for the most part concerned for its historic interest. We gather from his own statement and from the breaks in the story that his material may have been collected from different sources. It seems to have been common to incorporate a _Laieikawai_ episode into the popular romances, and of these episodes Haleole may have availed himself. But we shall have something more to say of his sources later; with his particular style we are not concerned. The only reason for presenting the romance complete in all its original dullness and unmodified to foreign taste is with the definite object of showing as nearly as possible from the native angle the genuine Polynesian imagination at work upon its own material, reconstructing in this strange tale of the "Woman of the Twilight" its own objective world, the social interests which regulate its actions and desires, and by this means to portray the actual character of the Polynesian mind.

This exact thing has not before been done for Hawaiian story and I do not recall any considerable romance in a Polynesian tongue so rendered.[4] Admirable collections of the folk tales of Hawaii have been gathered by Thrum, Remy, Daggett, Emerson, and Westervelt, to which should be added the ma.n.u.script tales collected by Fornander, translated by John Wise, and now edited by Thrum for the Bishop Museum, from which are drawn the examples accompanying this paper. But in these collections the lengthy recitals which may last several hours in the telling or run for a couple of years as serial in some Hawaiian newspaper are of necessity cut down to a summary narrative, sufficiently suggesting the flavor of the original, but not picturing fully the way in which the image is formed in the mind of the native story-teller. Foreigners and Hawaiians have expended much ingenuity in rendering the _mele_ or chant with exactness,[5] but the much simpler if less important matter of putting into literal English a Hawaiian _kaao_ has never been attempted.

To the text such ethnological notes have been added as are needed to make the context clear. These were collected in the field. Some were gathered directly from the people themselves; others from those who had lived long enough among them to understand their customs; others still from observation of their ways and of the localities mentioned in the story; others are derived from published texts. An index of characters, a brief description of the local background, and an abstract of the story itself prefaces the text; appended to it is a series of abstracts from the Fornander collection, of Hawaiian folk stories, all of which were collected by Judge Fornander in the native tongue and later rendered into English by a native translator. These abstracts ill.u.s.trate the general character of Hawaiian story-telling, but specific references should be examined in the full text, now being edited by the Bishop Museum. The index to references includes all the Hawaiian material in available form essential to the study of romance, together with the more useful Polynesian material for comparative reference. It by no means comprises a bibliography of the entire subject.

_Footnotes to Section I: Introduction_

[Footnote 1: Compare the Fijian story quoted by Thomson (p. 6).]

[Footnote 2: Daggett calls the story "a supernatural folklore legend of the fourteenth century," and includes an excellent abstract of the romance, prepared by Dr. W.D. Alexander, in his collection of Hawaiian legends. Andrews says of it (Islander, 1875, p. 27): "We have seen that a Hawaiian Kaao or legend was composed ages ago, recited and kept in memory merely by repet.i.tion, until a short time since it was reduced to writing by a Hawaiian and printed, making a duodecimo volume of 220 pages, and that, too, with the poetical parts mostly left out. It is said that this legend took six hours in the recital." In prefacing his dictionary he says: "The Kaao of Laieikawai is almost the only specimen of that species of language which has been laid before the public. Many fine specimens have been printed in the Hawaiian periodicals, but are neither seen nor regarded by the foreign community."]

[Footnote 3: The changes introduced by these editors have not been followed in this edition, except in a few unimportant omissions, but the popular song printed below appears first in its pages:

"Aia Laie-i-ka-wai I ka uka wale la o Pali-uli; O ka nani, o ka nani, Helu ekahi o ia uka.

"E nanea e walea ana paha, I ka leo nahenahe o na manu.

"Kau mai Laie-i-ka-wai I ka eheu la o na manu; O ka nani, o ka nani, Helu ekahi o Pali-uli.

"E nanea, etc.

"Ua lohe paha i ka hone mai, O ka pu lau-i a Malio; Honehone, honehone, Helu ekahi o Hopoe.

"E nanea, etc."

Behold Laieikawai On the uplands of Paliuli; Beautiful, beautiful, The storied one of the uplands.

REF.--Perhaps resting at peace, To the melodious voice of the birds.

Laieikawai rests here On the wings of the birds; Beautiful, beautiful, The storied one of the uplands.

She has heard perhaps the playing Of Malio's ti-leaf trumpet; Playfully, playfully, The storied one of Hopoe.]

[Footnote 4: Dr. N. B. Emerson's rendering of the myth of _Pele and Hiiaka_ quotes only the poetical portions. Her Majesty Queen Liluokalani interested herself in providing a translation of the _Laieikawai,_ and the Hon. Sanford B. Dole secured a partial translation of the story; but neither of these copies has reached the publisher's hands.]

[Footnote 5: The most important of these chants translated from the Hawaiian are the "Song of Creation," prepared by Liliuokalani; the "Song of Kualii," translated by both Lyons and Wise, and the prophetic song beginning _"Haui ka lani,"_ translated by Andrews and edited by Dole. To these should be added the important songs cited by Fornander, in full or in part, which relate the origin of the group, and perhaps the name song beginning "The fish ponds of Mana," quoted in Fornander's tale of _Lonoikamakahiki_, the canoe-chant in _Kana_, and the wind chants in _Pakaa_.]

II. NATURE AND THE G.o.dS AS REFLECTED IN THE STORY

1. POLYNESIAN ORIGIN OF HAWAIIAN ROMANCE

Truly to interpret Hawaiian romance we must realize at the start its relation to the past of that people, to their origin and migrations, their social inheritance, and the kind of physical world to which their experience has been confined. Now, the real body of Hawaiian folklore belongs to no isolated group, but to the whole Polynesian area. From New Zealand through the Tongan, Ellice, Samoan, Society, Rarotongan, Marquesan, and Hawaiian groups, fringing upon the Fijian and the Micronesian, the same physical characteristics, the same language, customs, habits of life prevail; the same arts, the same form of worship, the same G.o.ds. And a common stock of tradition has pa.s.sed from mouth to mouth over the same area. In New Zealand, as in Hawaii, men tell the story of Maui's fishing and the theft of fire.[1] A close comparative study of the tales from each group should reveal local characteristics, but for our purpose the Polynesian race is one, and its common stock of tradition, which at the dispersal and during the subsequent periods of migration was carried as common treasure-trove of the imagination as far as New Zealand on the south and Hawaii on the north, and from the western Fiji to the Marquesas on the east, repeats the same adventures among similar surroundings and colored by the same interests and desires. This means, in the first place, that the race must have developed for a long period of time in some common home of origin before the dispersal came, which sent family groups migrating along the roads of ocean after some fresh land for settlement;[2] in the second place, it reflects a period of long voyaging which brought about interchange of culture between far distant groups.[3] As the Crusades were the great exchange for west European folk stories, so the days of the voyagers were the Polynesian crusading days. The roadway through the seas was traveled by singing bards who carried their tribal songs as a race heritage into the new land of their wanderings. Their inns for hostelry were islets where the boats drew up along the beach and the weary oarsmen grouped about the ovens where their hosts prepared cooked food for feasting. Tales traveled thus from group to group with a readiness which only a common tongue, common interests, and a common delight could foster, coupled with the constant compet.i.tion of family rivalries.

Hawaiian tradition reflects these days of wandering.[4] A chief vows to wed no woman of his own group but only one fetched from "the land of good women." An ambitious priest seeks overseas a leader of divine ancestry. A chief insulted by his superior leads his followers into exile on some foreign sh.o.r.e. There is exchange of culture-gifts, intermarriage, tribute, war. Romance echoes with the canoe song and the invocation to the confines of Kahiki[5]--this in spite of the fact that intercourse seems to have been long closed between this northern group and its neighbors south and east. When Cook put in first at the island of Kauai, most western of the group, perhaps guided by Spanish charts, perhaps by Tahitian navigators who had preserved the tradition of ancient voyages,[6] for hundreds of years none but chance boats had driven upon its sh.o.r.es.[7] But the old tales remained, fast bedded at the foundation of Hawaiian imaginative literature. As now recited they take the form of chants or of long monotonous recitals like the _Laieikawai_, which take on the heightened form of poetry only in dialogue or on occasions when the emotional stress requires set song.

Episodes are pa.s.sed along, from one hero cycle to another, localities and names vary, and a fixed form in matter of detail relieves the stretch of invention; in fact, they show exactly the same phenomena of fixing and reshaping, that all story-telling whose object is to please exhibits in transference from mouth to mouth. Nevertheless, they are jealously retentive of incident. The story-teller, generally to be found among the old people of any locality, who can relate the legends as they were handed down to him from the past is known and respected in the community. We find the same story[8] told in New Zealand and in Hawaii scarcely changed, even in name.

_Footnotes to Section II, 1: Polynesian Origin of Hawaiian Romance_

[Footnote 1: Bastian In Samoanische Schopfungssage (p. 8) says: "Oceanien (im Zusammenbegriff von Polynesien und Mikronesien) reprasentirt (bei vorlaufigem Ausschluss von Melanesien schon) einen Flachenraum, der alles Aehnliche auf dem Globus intellectualis weit ubertrifft (von Hawaii bis Neu-Seeland, von der Oster-Insel bis zu den Marianen), und wenn es sich hier um Inseln handelt durch Meeresweiten getrennt, ist aus solch insularer Differenzirung gerade das Hilfsmittel comparativer Methode geboten fur die Induction, um da.s.selbe, wie biologiseh sonst, hier auf psychologischem Arbeitsfelde zur Verwendung zu bringen." Compare: Kramer, p. 394; Finck, in Royal Scientific Society of Gottingen, 1909.]

[Footnote 2: Lesson says of the Polynesian groups (I, 378): "On sait ...

que tous ont, pour loi civile et religieuse, la meme interdiction; que leurs inst.i.tutions, leurs ceremonies sont semblables; que leurs croyances sont foncierement identiques; qu'ils ont le meme culte, les memes coutumes, les memes usages princ.i.p.aux; qu'ils ont enfin les memes moeurs et les memes traditions. Tout semble donc, a priori, annoncer que, quelque soit leur eloignement les uns des autres, les Polynesiens ont tire d'une meme source cette communaute d'idees et de langage; qu'ils ne sont, par consequent, que les tribus disperses d'une meme nation, et que ces tribus ne se sont separees qu'a une epoque ou la langue et les idees politiques et religieuses de cette nation etaient deja fixees."]

[Footnote 3: Compare: Stair, Old Samoa, p. 271; White, I, 176; Fison, pp. 1, 19; Smith, Hawaiki, p. 123; Lesson, II, 207, 209; Grey, pp.

108-234; Baessler, Neue Sudsee-Bilder, p. 113; Thomson, p. 15.]

[Footnote 4: Lesson (II, 190) enumerates eleven small islands, covering 40 degrees of lat.i.tude, scattered between Hawaii and the islands to the south, four showing traces of ancient habitation, which he believes to mark the old route from Hawaii to the islands to the southeast.

According to Hawaiian tradition, which is by no means historically accurate, what is called the second migration period to Hawaii seems to have occurred between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries (dated from the arrival of the high priest Paao at Kohala, Hawaii, 18 generations before Kamehameha); to have come from the southeast; to have introduced a sacerdotal system whose priesthood, symbols, and temple structure persisted up to the time of the abandoning of the old faith in 1819.

Compare Alexander's History, ch. III; Malo, pp. 25, 323; Lesson, II, 160-169.]

[Footnote 5: _Kahiki_, in Hawaiian chants, is the term used to designate a "foreign land" in general and does not refer especially to the island of Tahiti in the Society Group.]