Note 619 — A Wakea Creation Chant.

Lepo, the general term for dirt, earth, dust or ground, is here particularized as dust by the appended e-a, which is represented as the warming garment of the people of the district. At first this was thought to imply a dusty section of country, in passing through which one would literally bathe in dust, as the saying is. Not having had such an experience in our travels through Kaù, it was evident that some characteristic of the district was used here by the poet to belittle his opponents. Research revealed the following:

At Paiehaa, not far distant from Kaalualu, in olden time was a dust-pit known by the name of Kaumaia, that was famous as a sport place for the youth of the district and even their elders, into which they would leap from the side cliff, some ten or twelve feet high, and flounder about in its dust as if splashing around in a bathing pool. Tradition hath it that its dust was credited with possessing remedial qualities and became in more recent years an asset to certain of the kahuna class. One such, on Kauai, directed a patient to go to Kaù and leap into the dust-pit of Kaumaia, which resulted in the poor dupe breaking both his legs in his jump. ↑