Note 167 — A Lamentation for Kahahana.12
Reading edition
Kai mahamoe, kai moa, while referred to in the original notes as gravy for fish and fowl, carries no weight in its being located at Kailua over other places on Oahu, and has no connection with the cloud condition of the preceding line, or the wind effects which follow. It is rather the sea conditions at Kailua the poet refers to. Kai mahamoe is the smooth, glassy distant sea in a calm; kai moa, the feathery, foamy waves of Kailua’s shore. ↑