Chapter XXV · HIIAKA UTTERS MANY PRAYERS TO RESTORE LOHIAU TO LIFE

Before proceeding to her task Hiiaka instructed Malae ha’a-koa to call in the guards stationed at Lohiau’s sepulcher and to keep the hula going for the next ten days as an attraction to draw off the people from playing the spy on her performances.

Hiiaka and her companion conquered the impossible and scaled the mountain wall as if their feet had the clinging property of the fly. Lohiau’s ghost would have escaped, but with birdlike quickness she caught it. At her command Wahine-oma’o gathered certain aromatic and fragrant herbs of the wilderness, and having made a fire, they bruised and warmed the samples and spread them upon a sheet of leaves.

While Wahine-oma’o kept fast hold of the feet, Hiiaka forced the soul-particle to pass in through one of the eye-sockets. It went as far as the cavity of the chest, then turned back and strove to escape. Hiiaka guarded the ways of exit and with skillful manipulations compelled it to go on. Reaching the loins, it balked again; but Hiiaka’s art conquered its resistance and the human particle extended its journey to the feet. There was a twitching of these parts; the hands began to move, the eye-lids to quiver; breath once more entered the body. They lifted and laid it on the blanket of aromatics and restoratives, swathing it from head to foot.

Hiiaka set a calabash of water before her and, addressing Wahine-oma’o, said, “Listen to my prayer. If it is correct and faultless, our man will live; but if it is wrong or imperfect, he will die.”

“He will not survive,” replied Wahine-oma’o gloomily.

Kuli ke kahuna i-mua

Ia ku’i, nei, anapu, iluna, ilalo

He akua, ua lele i ka lani,

Halulu i ka manawa, he upe,

He waimaka—he waimaka aloha, e-e!

I e-e, holo ho’i, e-e!

TRANSLATION

Stand to the fore, O Priest; shrink not

Tho thunder’s growl and lightning’s flash

Fill heaven’s vault above, below.

Come Mistress of tabus; come ye who string leis,

And the Goddess who mixes the dyes.

Kanaloa, alert, soars aloft,

With hairy Ku,—the offspring of Kane—

And the Women who cheer with a touch,

On the back, the chest, or knock at the door;

Lest the charm depart, the prayer go wrong,

With damage to me and damage to you—

A pain in the head, a drooling nose,

A shedding of tears—of love and regret.

Now let the prayer speed on its way!

“How was my prayer?” asked Hiiaka, turning to Wahine-oma’o.

“It was a good prayer,” she replied. “Its only fault was that it sped on too quickly and came to an end too soon.”

“In its haste to obtain recovery, no doubt,” said Hiiaka.

“Perhaps so,” the woman replied.

“Listen now to this prayer,” Hiiaka said. “If it is a good prayer our man will recover:”

A Kilauea i ka Lua;

E hi’i kapu o Kanaloa,

O ke oahi maka a ka Ua la, e-e!

I e, holo e-e!

TRANSLATION

Ho, comrades from the sacred plateau!

Ho, comrades from the burning gulf!

Hither fly with art and cunning:

Ku, who fells and guides the war-boat;

Ku, who pilots us through dream-land;

All ye Gods of broad Hawaii;

Kanaloa, guard well your tabus;

Candle-maker, Candle-snuffer;

Goddess, too, of passion’s visions;

Lightning red all heaven filling—

Pitchy darkness turned to brightness—

Lono, come, thou god of all fire;

Come, too, thou piercing Eye of Rain:

Speed, speed my prayer upon its quest!

“How is my prayer?” said Hiiaka, turning to her companion. The answer was the same as before.

Hiiaka devotes herself to gentle ministrations of healing; but without intermitting the chanting of prayer-songs, the burden of whose petition is that the Spirit of Health shall prevail in Lohiau and restore him completely. After again sprinkling the body with water from the calabash, she breaks forth:

Ia ho’uluulu ia mai au,

Ia ulu Kini o ke Akua, la;

Ulu mai o Kane, o Kanaloa—

O Hiiaka, kaula mana ia, e-e,

Nana i ho’uluulu i na ma’i—

A a’e, a ulu, a noho i kou kuahu.

Eia ka wai la, he Wai Ola, e-e!

E ola, ho’i, e-e!

TRANSLATION

Come, enter, possess and inspire me;

Thou first, God of the flowery wild;

Ye roving sprites of the wildwood;

And master gods, Kane and Loa;—

Hiiaka, who calls you, lacks not

In power to heal and inspire—

Pray enter, and heal, and abide

In this one, your patron and guard.

Here is water, the Water of Life.

Give us this Life!

As in archery the character of the arrow, the skill of the archer, and the caprice of the air-currents that blow athwart the course of the arrow’s flight may severally or collectively make or mar success, so likewise with the kahuna and his praying, success or failure were spelled by the quality of his prayer-shaft, by the manner of his utterance of it, and lastly, by the physical and moral state of the atmosphere as to the existence or absence of noise and disturbance.

It was not, then, through a mere silly curiosity or pride of utterance that Hiiaka appealed to her attendant to learn what she thought of her prayer. Nor was it a vain and meaningless compliment when the latter declared the prayer to be good, the conditions favorable. At the same time she could not repress the criticism that from her emotional stand-point of view, the prayer seemed short.

Again Hiiaka sprinkled the body with water from the calabash while she uttered this prayer-song:

Ha’i pua o ka nahelehele,

Haki hana maile o ka wao,

Houluulu lei, ho’i, o Laká;

O Hiiaka, kaula mana ia, e-e,

Nana i ho’ouluulu na ma’i.

A a’e, a ulu, a noho i kou kahu:

Eia ka Wai la; he Wai Ola, e-e!

E ola, ho’i, e-e!

TRANSLATION

Here stand I in stress, Laká,

Thou husband of Haina-kolo.

What flowers have I plucked in the wild,

What maile stripped in the forest,

To twine into wreaths for Laká:

Thus toiled the seer Hiiaka;

And her’s was the magic of cure.

But come thou, mount, enter, possess;

Give life to thy servant and priest.

Here’s water, the Water of Life!

Grant life!

The work of completely restoring Lohiau by the necromancies of the kahuna, like a process of nature, required the ripening hand of time. The utterance of prayer must be unremitting.