Note 239 — CONTENTS. (continued 5)

After he has cut down the weeds he waits for the rain to fall; during the month of Welo,239 Pookole (short head) is the rain, that is the rain which we style a cloud-burst; then the farmer proceeds to crop off stalks. Here are the names of the different kinds of stalks which he gathers: pae, apo, kapapa, mohihi, uli and paa.240 He wraps these stalks in bundles and leaves them until the days when the Pleiades rise in the morning, when he proceeds to plant them. He plants them thus: he takes six stalks and keeps them separated as mentioned above; after planting, he waits for a number of days; then during the month of Nana,241 on the day of Kane,242 he goes to look at the potato field, and finds it is injured; that is, the stalks are all eaten by cutworms, some have come off and some are dead. During the month of Kaulua,243 on the day called Lono, in the evening, he goes to crop off some more stalks. These are the names of the stalks he gathers: hualani, poni, loepaa, awapuhi, uahiapele, pikonui and kupa.244 He bundles these and sets them aside as described above. He waits until the month of Kaelo,245 on the day called Mauli246 in the evening when the moon sets; that is the time to plant the stalks. He plants them in this way: he first distributes the stalks among the hills, eight to each hill; then he plants them. When this is done he waits until the stormy months are over, and long after that, in the month of Kaaona, he goes to throw up the earth on the hills of the potatoes; when he first obtains potato, whether in between hills or from the running vine, he returns with wood, lights the fire in the imu and cooks the potato until it is done. He prays in this manner: “Keaonui, hanging below the eye of the narrow pointed clouds, come to partake of the food.” When the months of Welehu,247 Makalii248 and Hinaiaeleele are past, and during the month of Nana on the day called Mauli, he shows off before men and women, and placing a wreath of flowers on his head, he would sally forth to dig potatoes in the presence of these men and women. Then the improvidents would call out, “Say, this is my potato hill;” [and another] “And this is mine;” they would forbid each other by saying, “Don’t you come to get mine.” They would then dig and obtain potatoes. But they are not of large size; they are small. There is one way of keeping the family in food, [that is] to care for the leaves [of the potato]; that is the food with which to feed the family if there be no tubers. One would say thus: “Anyway, these are not the months when potatoes bear plentifully; these are months when leaves grow rank and the stalks swell large. This month is the time to plant in order to bear.” On the day called Hilo the planter obtains some stalks, the ones called kola, nika, pukeleawe, hiiaka, lapa, and huamoa.249 Prepare them in the manner previously stated. When the day called Hoaka arrives then is the time to plant; set them out in the manner explained above; and when Ikiiki is past the planter would be relieved, for he realizes that his family is saved; the days called Olekukahi, Olekulua and Olekupau are the days during which to hill up potatoes; then he waits until the days called Mohalu, Hua, Akua, Hoku, Mahealani and Kulu, and the last day, Akua, he visits the potato field at the time that the constellation called Taurus rises; arriving at the corner of his field, he prays in this manner: “O Kanepuaa,250 root towards the mountain, root towards the sea; root towards the wind, root towards the calm, root in the middle of this our potato field! O Kanepuaa! do thou root from that corner to this corner, from that border to this border, from that side to this side, so fruit would appear at the end of the stalk, along the stalk, and the roots which creep between hills.”