"Nani Wale Ku‘u ‘Ike ‘Ana" (also known as"Kalalea") is a mele inoa for Queen Emma that confers upon her the chant name "Pua ‘Oliva," olive blossom. Although the name is not without precedent in 19th century mele, this is perhaps the only time that pua ‘oliva is used as an epithet for the ali‘i who is usually associated with the chant names ‘Emalani, Kaleleokalani, Kaleleonālani, Nālani‘elua, and Kaleionāmoku. 

The olive tree, a semi-tropical evergreen, is known in colder climates to be sturdy, long-lived, and prolific. In Hawai‘i, however, the tree can only be grown ornamentally; the absence here of sufficient winter chilling inhibits the tree’s growth and prevents it, except on rare occasions, from producing its yellow flower and valuable fruit [1]. When applied to Emma, the symbolism of olive blossom speaks, then, of the great value placed by the Hawaiian people on their rare and delicate flower of fair complexion, part-haole ancestry, and "European" upbringing.

The significance of the olive branch as an emblem of peace and a sign of hope after troubled times must also be worked into our understanding of Emma’s chant name, for the resonance between this particular olive symbol and Emma’s peaceful nature and peace-bringing potential would not have been lost on an audience of the 1850s and ‘60s.

A final significance of the olive blossom epithet rests in Hawai‘i’s long unanswered desire for a royal child; because there had been no direct heir to the Kamehameha line since Kamehameha’s own sons Liholiho and Kauikeaouli,  Emma came to be looked upon as that dynasty’s last hope. As the only child of Fanny Kekelaokalani Young and George Naea, Emma was certainly one of the rare blossoms of her own generation; but as the bride of Alexander Liholiho, she found herself in the position of being compared to the olive tree itself. Would Emma, the beautiful olive-flower Queen, be able to flower and yield her own fruit? It is in this context that we interpret "Nani Wale Ku‘u ‘Ike ‘Ana" as subtly but unmistakably addressed to the issue of baby-making.

There is little in the way of first-hand documentation to pinpoint the mele’s date of composition or the occasion for which it was composed, but the consensus of present-day scholars is that it was written for a young Queen Emma in commemoration of her "visit to the place names mentioned in the chant" [2]. Although the language of the mele is ostensibly "innocent" -- a simple catalog of place-names and nature descriptions beginning with Kalalea peak in Anahola and ending with firebrands fluttering over Makuaiki ridge at Nā Pali -- the rich connotations of these place-names and images, the emphasis given certain words in the chant’s mā‘oki‘oki style of delivery, and the over-riding symbolism of the olive flower suggest that the composition was intended as a subtle, tastefully indirect love song. Indeed, we see "Nani Wale Ku‘u ‘Ike ‘Ana" as a chant of either encouragement or congratulations, one meant to inspire amorous activity between the newly enthroned couple on their wedding tour of 1856, or one meant to congratulate the new mother on their return visit of 1860.

Emma and Alexander are on record as having visited Kaua‘i on two occasions in the first four years of their marriage: first in the late summer of 1856 as part of their wedding tour of the kingdom; second, in September 1860 when they introduced their two-year-old son, Albert Edward Kauikeaouli, to the citizens of Manokalanipō. Records of the first tour are somewhat vague: we know that they stayed in Hanalei and that their visits took them as far as Kōloa to the southwest and Hā‘ena to the northwest. We do not know if a stop at Anahola was part of the royal itinerary or if Alex and Emma were offered the traditional ho‘okupu of ‘ōahi (the hurling of firebrands) at either Hā‘ena or Nā Pali, but it is difficult to imagine how a trip of this significance would not have included both activities. Josephine Wundenburg King, whose German born father, Godfrey, would soon become the manager of Robert C. Wyllie’s Princeville Sugar Plantation, was often in the company of the newlyweds and has written a detailed account of their return visit in 1860. Her memories of the first trip (she was nine at the time) are understandably less comprehensive; still, she leaves us with the impression that the wedding tour was marked by a steady stream of visits, visitors, gifts, and diversions:

[The King and Queen] visited Hanalei at Charles Titcomb’s Coffee Plantation, at which time the place was given the name of Emmaville, in honor of the young Queen. During the stay of their majesties, a series of hookupus were given, attended by great throngs of people and a large ti-leaf pavilion was completed for the entertainment of the guests. [3}

Records of Emma’s second visit are considerably more detailed. She and her son (along with a number of traveling companions) arrived in Hanalei by steamer on September 7, 1860, and were joined by the King two weeks later. They were the guests of the Wundenburgs at Kikiula, Robert Wyllie’s red-roofed plantation house on the bluffs above Hanalei River. Wyllie was not there but made it known that his estate would thereafter be called Princeville in honor of the young prince. Josephine King’s memoirs include revealing accounts of Emma’s love for children ("[The Queen] loved to go upstairs to the children’s room in the evening and have a romp with the Wundenburg girls and enjoyed a pillow fight as well as they did"), light-hearted personality ("She was just a happy girl with the rest of them"), and after-dinner amusements with Alex ("...their majesties were both very fond of dancing, and were delighted with a pretty Tyrolean waltz which the Wundenburg’s taught them") [4].

While King’s writing does much to capture the tone of the 1860s visit, an article published in an 1861 edition of the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Hae Hawaii contributes details more significant to our opinion that an Anahola visit and a Hā‘ena ‘ōahi display were obligatory items in the royal itinerary. On September 13, 1860, the Queen and her party (a group that included the Queen’s mother, the Governor of Hawai‘i, Theo H. Davies, and the Prince) traveled by boat to Hā‘ena; that evening after tea, they walked back down to the seashore to watch the "native Fire Works."

That night [September 13] the firebrands were hurled from the cliffs of Makana. Everyone including Ka Haku O Hawaii saw the firebrands soar and drop into the sea. Many firebrands soared out to sea that night.

Five days later, the Queen and her traveling party were reported to have made a visit to the kalo farming community of Anahola in the Kawaihau district; here the Prince is described as the central figure in a scene of royal welcome that was to be repeated in Nāwiliwili and Kōloa:

[On September 18, they went to Anahola] to Warriner’s, the District Judge’s house. The people and small children of the place saw them and came to greet Emma Rooke, the Queen, and Ka Haku O Hawaii. The Prince saw the children and began to speak to them as an adult would, thus, "Aloha oukou a pau loa." The people praised him saying "The child is Kauikeaouli’s -- the King who loved the common people!". . . The school children of Anahola, 22 in number, gave Ka Haku O Hawaii 11 live chickens, 11 cooked chickens with expressions of praise to their Prince. These are their words of praise, "To our beloved Prince, Ka Haku O Hawaii, we are very grateful to see you, a good young chief that is fit to reign over us in the future, if God wills. May you live through God." [5]

Either of the royal visits, then, would have provided ample opportunity and "fuel" for the composition of "Nani Wale." The wonderful sight of Kalalea ("protruding, prominent"), whose shape and "puka" are suggestive of another kind of topography, sets the stage for the mele and introduces us to its double perspective as travelogue and wooing song. Two facts -- first, that Emma visited Anahola five days after the Hā‘ena fireworks display; and second, that Kalalea stands at quite a distance from the places around which the remainder of the poem is centered (Anahola is easily 20 miles southeast of Hā‘ena) -- are perhaps indicative of the value the poet assigned to opening his piece with a name, shape, and significance that only Kalalea could fill.

Where the first couplet of "Nani Wale" acquaints us with the masculine contours of Kalalea, the second verse introduces us to its feminine counterpart and to the activity by which the two are joined. Ko‘amano is glossed by Emerson as a part of the ocean into which the stream Waialoha falls [6]. It is identified and defined by Pukui as a "Stone at Hā‘ena, Kaua‘i, representing a predatory shark, Lit., shark shrine" [7].  And it is described by Kelsey as a large coral head in the waters off Kamaile:

"Waialoha, aia i waena o ka pali o Kamaile. Kilohi oe i lalo a ike oe ua wai ala, he kiowai nui iluna o ka pali. O ke kai o Koamano, aia ilalo i ka aina i kahi o ka nalu e pii mai ai; he pukoa nui. Hele mai ke kai a uhi iluna o ua koa; he papa koa nui ilalo o kekai, a ua puka ae maluna o ke ili kai hookahi anana paha..." 

Waialoha is in the midst of Kamaile pali. When you gaze down, you see this water, a large pool on the cliff. As for the ocean of Ko‘amano, it is down below at the place where the waves rise; it is a large coral head. The sea comes and covers this coral head; there is a large coral bank under the water, and Ko‘amano projects above the surface by about a meter.  [8]

Despite our uncertainty over its exact location (Hā‘ena or Nā Pali), the water-surrounded, slightly protuberant coral outcropping of Ko‘amano can be interpreted as the female balance and counterpart to Kalalea, the Emma to its Alexander. The appropriateness of this juxtaposition, he to the mountains and she to the sea, finds interesting parallel in Josephine King’s description of the favorite pastimes of the royal pair during their 1860 visit. While Alexander enjoyed taking horses and dogs into the mountains on hunting trips:

The Queen was fond of sea bathing and spent a few days at Manini with some of her party, indulging in that sport, and in hunting shells, opihis, and sometimes eels, which were common there among the rocks. [9]

A fascinating reference to remote Kū‘auhoe concludes the second verse of the chant and joins, by the action of canoe paddlers drinking from a waterfall, the separate geographies of mauna and kai. As Pukui explains it, the full name of this location, "Ka-wai-kū‘au-hoe-a-ka-lawai‘a," is to be translated: "The water of the paddle handle of the fisherman" [10]. The name refers to a once-famous (and now nearly forgotten) trickling waterfall on the cliffs of the Nā Pali coast where thirsty fishermen carefully paddled their canoes, "stuck their paddle handles (kū‘au hoe) into the cliff, and let the water trickle [down the handle and blade] into their mouths" [11]. 

Once this union is accomplished, the chant indulges in a bit of theme and variation. In the next four lines, we shift, in image but not meaning, from paddle handle/waterfall to firebrand/piko. Up above Makuaiki ("Little Parent" -- female/mother) a pāpala branch ("firebrand" -- male/father) is "kau-ing." The word kau has so many meanings that it defies simple translation, especially in this case where the conjunction of branch and recumbent ridge invites a heap of connotations. Where the traditional translation is "standing," each of the following synonyms has merit: perching, resting, poising, hanging, alighting, mounting, entering, appearing, arriving.  That pāpala branch, the mele continues, is the little firebrand ("iki ‘auhau") that will flutter and stream "i ko piko," a phrase that politely translates as "over the summit or peak" but is more literally: "to your center." The beauty of this language lies in its absolute credibility as a description of an actual ‘ōahi display off any of three towering ridges (Makana, Kamaile, and Makuaiki) on Kaua‘i’s north shore.

Papala or hau wood was cut, thoroughly dried, and carried up the hillside to where an imu lay ready to be lighted. When dusk descended the imu was lighted and the logs placed in it. When the blowing of the wind was just right, the lighted log was hurled into the wind and borne seaward, high over the heads of the spectators, before dropping into the sea. [12]

At night each performer lit one of these inflammable sticks and cast it into the air to the delight of the spectators gathered in canoes hundreds of feet below. The blazing wood was buoyed up by the strong trade wind and able to drop only very slowly into the ocean. As fast as these sticks were lighted the performers cast them into space until, to the spectators below, the sky appeared to be ablaze with scores of comets and shooting stars rising and falling, darting seaward or receding toward the cliffs, crossing and recrossing each other in the most fantastic way. This weird spectacle, sometimes supplemented with glowing kukui nuts that quickly reached their goal, continued long into the night.  One by one the oiled sticks were consumed and the blazing firebrands flickered and disappeared, or the winds gradually subsided and they glided slowly and gracefully into the ocean where eager hands were outstretched to receive them. With those burning sticks the agile youths branded their arms as proof of having witnessed the oahi. [13]

Even the naming of the pāpala as the shrub from which this ‘auhau is made is consistent with traditional accounts of such displays. As Valdemar Knudsen informs us, the fire-brand of a king was not made of (or comparable to) ordinary stuff, nor was its activity characterized by (or comparable to) ordinary flaring and streaming:

An oahi required months of preparation. Two kinds of wood were used, the hau and the papala. The hau was easy to get and was cut into ten or twenty foot lengths, the bark peeled off, and then dried until it was as light as a feather. The papala grew in the high mountains and was hard to get, so it became the king’s special fireworks.  It had a hollow core when dry, and the flame ran through it as it fell, giving the effect of a shooting star. [14]

The word play of this section is further enhanced by the more subtle meanings of welo and ko, whose grammatical context in the eighth line of the mele requires translation as "flutter, stream" and "your," but whose connotations contribute mightily to what we’ve already labeled as the chant’s baby-making focus. Welo can mean "progeny, ancestry, breed, family trait...heritage" (Dictionary, 384); kō can mean "to fulfill, come to pass, succeed...to become pregnant; fulfilled" [15]. It takes little imagination, therefore, to understand that the ultimate purpose of the joyful activity celebrated by the complete text of "Nani Wale Ku‘u ‘Ike ‘Ana" is to bring success to the union of Emma and Alexander in the form of a child, an heir to the throne, and a fulfillment of the Kamehameha heritage.

Whether one takes the point of view that the chant was written to encourage the newlyweds or to congratulate their success (we, ourselves, are of two minds on this issue), the composition has clearly accomplished its own double purpose: that of commemorating a tour and extolling the delights (and fruits) of love. The chant concludes with a call to Emma, with the request that she respond, and with the conferring of her chant name "Pua ‘Oliva." Had the epithet been introduced in the opening lines, it might have stirred a mild curiosity and moderate ripple of imagery. Employed here at the very end of the piece, the olive tree -- Emma -- blossoms with a greater fullness of meaning.

Māpu learned "Nani Wale Ku‘u ‘Ike ‘Ana" from Aunty Maiki Aiu Lake in March 1975 as part of her ‘Ilima class’s ‘ūniki repertoire. Aunty Maiki taught the number as a hula noho with a single ‘ulī‘ulī; she explained that the motions of the dance were created to complement the rising, floating, and falling of "streamers" -- eight to twelve ribbons of different lengths, some up to two feet long -- that were sewn to the center of the ‘ulī‘ulī in authentic performances of this mele. At the time, Māpu was under the impression that these streamers were a tribute to Emma’s love for lipine and lace (as celebrated, for example, in the line "kōwelo kou lipine lā -- your ribbons flutter and wave" in the song "Wahine Holo Lio"); we are now of the opinion that the streamers are also used as a visual representation of the ‘ōahi, the streaming firebrand display, that is the central image of "Nani Wale Ku‘u ‘Ike ‘Ana."

Aunty Maiki also explained that the mele was to be chanted in a style called mā‘oki‘oki ("cut into small pieces; streaked").  This explains why the text of the chant reads quite differently from the way that text is delivered in performance. Where, for example, the opening lines read:

Nani wale ku‘u ‘ike ‘ana lā, a, lā
I ka luna o Kalalea lā, a, lā
Noho ana a‘o Ko‘amano lā, a, lā
I Kawaikū‘auhoe lā, a, lā,

these same lines, when chanted, are cut up and re-assembled into:

Nani wale ku‘u ‘ike
‘Ana lā a lā i ka luna a‘o Kala
Le‘a lā a lā noho ana a‘o Ko‘a
Mano lā, a, lā i Kawaikū‘au
Hoe lā, a, lā . . .

Maiki explained that the effect of mā‘oki‘oki was to emphasize certain "hidden meanings" in the composition. It was not until researching this chant on our own that we began to appreciate just what those meanings were ("Ana i ka luna a‘o" -- is both a description of how the chanter "streaks" through certain sections of the mele and how that streaking is an aural equivalent of the same streaming, floating, and fluttering firebrands. 

We have learned, through conversations with Maiki’s cousin and hula sister, Lani Kalama, that "Nani Wale Ku‘u ‘Ike ‘Ana" was given to Maiki by Kawena Pukui. Aunty Nana (Lani) says that Maiki learned it independently, "not when we [Maiki, Lani, and Sally Wood-Naluai] were studying under Lōkālia." Although Aunty Nana didn’t learn it with her cousin, Maiki later gave Nana a sheet of 6 x 8 notebook paper on which Tūtū Kawena had written out the chant’s translation.  We have a xeroxed copy of that translation, and we have recently discovered it to be a near "twin" of the handwritten translation that accompanies Joseph ‘Īlālā‘ole’s text of the mele in the Bishop Museum Archives [16]. ‘Īlālā‘ole’s is the only text of "Nani Wale Ku‘u ‘Ike ‘Ana" that we have been able to locate (with the exception, of course, of Huapala Mader’s later "scripts" of ‘Īlālā‘ole‘s material).  Except for some minor variations, his Hawaiian text is the same as that which Māpu learned from Maiki. Since ‘Īlālā‘ole was a favorite of Queen Emma [17] and later a teacher of Kawena Pukui, we feel fairly comfortable with the assumption that the "Nani Wale" we know has its roots with Emma’s own po‘e hula.

TEXT

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NOTES

1. Marie Neal, In Gardens of Hawai‘i, 678.

2. Ka‘upena Wong, liner notes for the audio CD Maiki: Chants and Mele of Hawai‘i, Hula Records, 1992:20.

3. "Queen Emma on Kaua‘i," Josephine Wundenburg King, hand-written manuscript in Emma Collection, AH-09, Hawai‘i State Archives. Lady Franklin, who stayed with the Wundenburgs in May 1860, described each of the seven Wundenburg children. Of Josephine she wrote: ". . . 13, tall, handsome, fair & clever" (Alfons Korn, The Victorian Visitors, Honolulu 1958:329 n.13.) 

4. Josephine King, Emma Collection, AH-09, Hawai‘i State Archives.

5. The Makana and Anahola excerpts are from the newspaper article "The Trip Taken by the Queen and Ka Haku O Hawaii to Kauai," by Kaehali‘i, Ka Hae Hawaii, January 2, 1861, in HEN Newsp. Bishop Museum Archives.  Theo Davies, who was present at the fireworks display, corroborates Kaehali‘i’s Hā‘ena account: Barerre, Pukui, Kelly, Hula: Historical Perspectives, Honolulu 1980:115. It is his account that describes "wandering down to the seashore" after tea.

6. Nathaniel Emerson, Unwritten Literature of Hawaii, 102.

7. Mary Kawena Pukui, Place Names of Hawai‘i, 114.

8. Notes for the mele "Aia i Kamaile Ko Lei Nani," Kuluwaimaka Collection 80-81, Ms Case 4 M 51-1, Bishop Museum Archives; KdS translation.

9. Emma Collection, AH-09, Hawai‘i State Archives. *Wundenburg’s handwriting is difficult to decipher at this point. She indicates later that Manini is "a small sea beach place on the coast about 2 miles over the hills from Princeville."

10. Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Elbert, Hawaiian Dictionary, 171.

11. Pukui offers three similar explanations for the name: Dictionary,171; Place Names, 224; and notes to "Aloha Kuu Pua Melia," Roberts Collection Bk 3:50-51, Bishop Museum Archives.

12. Mary Kawena Pukui, ‘Ōlelo No‘eau, #1532. Several other sayings for firebrand hurling are in-cluded in Pukui’s collection: #1669, #1910, #2392, #2735, #2736.

13. Otto Degener, Plants of Hawai‘i National Parks, Ann Arbor 1945:218; cited in Kelly, Hula: Historical Perspectives, Honolulu 1980:115.

14. Valdemar Knudsen, Teller of Hawaiian Tales, Honolulu 1945:144; cited by Marion Kelly in Hula: Historical Perspectives, 116. Emphasis ours.

15. Pukui and Elbert, Hawaiian Dictionary, 156.

16. Joseph ‘Īlālā‘ole Collection, 40; Ms Grp 81 Box 7:17, Bishop Museum Archives.

17. George Kanahele, Hawaiian Music and Musicians, Honolulu 1979:163.

18. Kalalea. The word forms an interesting relationship with Ko‘amano in that the phrase "lālani kalalea" refers to a "protruding line of dorsal fins of sharks [manō] above the water" (Dictionary, 121). Among other things, the manō is figurative of a "passionate lover" (Dictionary, 239). An additional figurative meaning of kalalea is "haughty, important," (Dictionary, 121) a comment, perhaps, on the high rank of Kamehameha IV.

Kalalea peak itself is distinguished by a "conspicuous hole" hole near the top (Place Names, 74). There are a number of legendary explanations for the puka: some say that it was pecked open by a supernatural bird; some say that the Kaua‘i warrior hero Kawelo cast his spear completely through the peak (Place Names, 74). An 1876 newspaper article offers the following opinion:

A ma ka aoao hema o keia puu he puka poepoe, o Kapukalani ka inoa, no keia puka ka moolelo pahaohao i ka kamaaina i olelo mai, oia keia: I kihele ia ka e Maui i ka makau ia Manaiakalani huki ia o ia, a oia ke kela pohaku e moe la iloko o ke kai, i ka lae o Kaena, Oahu, ua kapaia ua pohaku la, o Pohaku o Kauai.

On the left [south?] side of this peak is a round hole named Kapukalani.  There is an amazing story that the kama‘aina tell with regards to this hole, namely: it was caught and yanked out by Maui’s hook, Mānaiakalani, and this [the part that was hooked] is the rock that rests in the sea at Ka‘ena Point, O‘ahu, and is called Pōhaku o Kaua‘i.

 ["Huakai Makaikai ia Kauai," Mr. D. Keawemahi, Ka Lahui Hawaii, August 10 etc., 1876; in HEN Thrum 203-249, Bishop Museum Archives. KdS translation.] 

19. Ko‘amano. Pukui notes that the place-name is pronounced today without emphasis on the final syllable: mano rather than manō (Place Names, 114). The meaning of the word varies, then, between "numerous, thick; aim at and hit" and "shark." The ambiguities of interpretation that result from the mā‘oki‘oki line: "Mano la a la i Kawaikū‘au" produce a connotative richness that delights the Hawaiian ear.

20. Makuaiki. Our U.S. Geological Survey Map of the Nā Pali coast (1985) shows Makuaiki to be at the western point of the bay that fronts Nu‘alolo Valley. The Makuaiki ridge, although not as famous as Makana or Kamaile, was nevertheless a recognized ‘ōahi site:

 Pulelo ke ahi o Makuaiki.
The firebrand of Makuaiki rises triumphant.
Said of one who rises from obscurity or gains victory.
[‘Ōlelo No‘eau, #2736.]

Present day confusion over the exact location of these sights -- Ko‘amano, Waikū‘auhoe, and Makuaiki -- makes it difficult to interpret the extent of the poet’s own familiarity with them. Our guess, however, is that the symbolic value of certain place-names overrode, to some extent, their exact geographic relationships. Pukui says that Ko‘amano is in Hā‘ena; Kelsey says that Waikū‘auhoe is at Nu‘alolo; although this separates the coral head and waterfall by a number of miles and valleys, the poet chooses to describe the coral head as standing at or near the waterfall; he does so because the conjunction of male and female images is simply too delightful to avoid. Another of his choices is between three north shore ‘ōahi sites: Makana ("Gift"), Kamaile ("The Maile"), and Makuaiki ("Little Parent"). The third site is the least known and most geographically remote, but again the conjunction of images, firebrand and female, strikes us as irresistible.

21. This text and translation are those given by Ka‘upena Wong in Maiki: Chants and Mele of Hawai‘i, Hula Records, 1992:20.

© Kīhei and Māpuana de Silva, 2007