Note 513 — XLI.—THE WATER OF KANE

Footnote 513: (return) Kau-lana-ka-la. When the setting sun, perhaps by an optical illusion drawn out into a boatlike form, appeared to be floating on the surface of the ocean, the Hawaiians named the phenomenon Kau-lana-ka-la—the floating of the sun. Their fondness for personification showed itself in the final conversion of this phrase into something like a proper name, which they applied to the locality of the phenomenon.