Note 49 — Chapter XXIII · THE LAME FISHERMAN—HIS EPIC RECITAL CELEBRATING PELE

Ku-ihi-malanai-akea, one of the forms or attributes of god Ku, the Trade-wind. The word Malanai by itself is often used in modern Hawaiian poetry to signify the same thing.

N.B.—The occurrence of the preposition e in verse 147 illustrates the somewhat vague and, at times illogical, use of prepositions in Hawaiian poetry. If I read this passage correctly, Kane-ula-a-Pele and Ku-ihi-malanai-akea are in apposition with hoalii, the subject of the verb noho; and, that being the case, instead of the preposition e we should have the particle o standing before Kane-… as we find it before Ku-.… The explanation of this anomaly, it seems to me, is to be found in the demand of the Hawaiian ear for tone-color, at any cost, even at the expense of grammar. ↑