Emerson, Nathaniel B.

American Anthropologist

eVols at University of Hawaii at Manoa

1 It has been pointed out by the editor of GroJ1tlands Hi"storiske Mindesnuzrkerthat the geographic term utiblik, used by the Greenland sagas, cannot be Icelandic and isprobably a corruption of the Eskimo word itiblik. If that be so, it would go to showearlier contact with the Eskimo than other sources would lead us to accept.Considering the historical and archeological evidences together,it seems probable that the Icelandic colony in Greenland was de-stroyed by tbe Eskimo rather than assimilated with them. Appar-ently there are few, if any, traces of early Scandinavian influenceupon the culture of the natives, and the word for sheep is said to bethe only Icelandic. term that has survived in the language of theEskimo.1 There are Icelandic traditions, probably not well founded,to the effect that the main body of the Eastern colony moved overto Markland (America); this is especially discredited by the almostcertain knowledge we have that the Greenlanders of the time werein possession of no -seaworthy ships.When the colony came to an end will probably always remaindoubtful. When connection with the outer world ceased their powerof resistance may have declined faster than it did before, though itis certain that the period of highestprospetity had already beenpassed, owing to the oppressive trade monopoly long maintained byNorway·through the merchants of Bergen. The colonists possiblysurvived into the sixteenth century j the Pope appointed. bishops ofGarthr as late as 1520, but this fact may evidence a desire to be-stow an office rather than a genuine belief in the existence of thecolony. The Eskimo traditions represent a period of struggle wheretheir enemies held out for a long time even after there was but onefarm left to them. This, the same traditions say, the Eskimo at_last succeeded in burning. As already stated, several of the ruinsshow evidences of destruction by fire, and this final conflagrationmay have taken place while the country's last bishop, Vincentius,held the title" Episcopos Gardensis" in Europe, toward the middle....of the sixteenth century._PEABODY MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY,CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.27° A.MERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 8, J906~,UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII IBy NATHANIEL B, EMERSONThe hula-the dance, with its songs and ceremonies-stoodfor vel}' much to the ancient Hawaiian; it was to him in place ofour concert-hall and lecture-room, our opera and theater, and thusbecame one of his chief means of social enjoyment. Besides this itkept the communal imagination in JiVing touch with the nation'slegendary past.. The hula had songs proper to itself, but it founda mine of inexhaustible wealth in the epics and wonder-myths thatcelebrated the doings of the yolcanic goddess Pele and her com-peers. Thus in the cantillations of the old-time hula we find aready-made anthology that includes every species of composition inthe whole range of Hawaiian poetry,This epic of Pele was chiefly a more or less detached series ofpoems forming a story addressed not to the closet reader, but tothe eye and ear and heart of the assembled chiefs and people; andit was sung. The Hawaiian song, its note of joy par excellence, wasthe oli,. but it must be noted that in every species of Hawaiianpoetry - mele - whether epic, or eulogy, or prayer, soundingthrough them all we shall find the lyric note.The most telling record of a people's intimate life is the recordwhich it unconsciously makes in its songs. This record which theHawaiian people have left of themselves is full and specific. When,therefore, we ask what emotions stirred the heart of the old-timeHawaiian as he approached the great themes of life and death, ofambition and jealousy, of sexual love, conjugal love, and parentallove; what his attitude toward nature and the dread forces of earth-quake and storm, and the mysteries of spirit and the hereafter-weshall find our answer in the songs and prayers and recitations ofthe hula,I Introduction to an unpublished manuscript, The Unwritten Litera!U1"e of Hawaz"z".Presented at the meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco,August, 1905.271The hula, it is true, has been unfortunate in the mode and man-mer of its introduction to us moderns. An institution of divine,that is, religious, origin, the hula has in modem times wandered sofar and fallen so low that foreign and critical esteem has come toassociate it with the riotous and passionate ebullitions of Polynesiankings and the voluptuous posturings of their flesh-pots. We must,however, make a just distinction between the gestures and bodilycontortions presented by the men and women, the actors in thehula, and their uttered words. Of The voice is Jacob's voice, butthe hands are the hands of Esau." In trnth the actors in the hulano longer suit the action to the word. The utterance harks backto the golden age; the gestures are trumped up by the passion ofthe hour, or dictated by the master of the hula, to whom the realmeaning of the old bards is ofttimes a sealed casket.Whatever indelicacy attaches in modern times to the gesturesand contortions of the hula dancers, the old-time hula songs werein large measure untainted with gros'sness. If there ever was aPolynesian Arcadia, and if it were possible for true reports of thedoings and sayings of the Polynesians to reach us from that happyland _ reports of their joys and sorrows, their love-makings andtheir jealousies, their family spats and reconciliations, their wor-ship of beauty and of the gods and goddesses who walked inthe garden of beauty - we may, I think, say that such a re-port would be in substantial agreement with the report that ishere offered.If anyone finds himself unable to tolerate the nude, he mustnot enter the galleries of art. If one's virtue will not endure thelove-making of Arcadia, let him banish that myth from his imagina-tion and hie to a convent or a nunnery.For an account of the first hula we may look to the story ofPele. On one occasion that goddess begged her sisters to danceand sing before her; but they all excused themselves, saying theydid not know· the art. At that moment in came little Hiiaka, theyoungest and the favorite. Unknown to her sisters, the littlemaiden had practised the dance under the tuition of her friend, thebeautiful, hut ill-fated, Hopoe. When the invitation was banteringlypassed on to her, to the surprise of all Hiiaka modestly consented.The wave-beaten sand-beach was her floor, the open air her hall.Feet and hands and swaying form kept time to her improvisation:~..e:.-;Look Puna's a-dance in the wind jThe palm-groves of Kea-au shaken.Haena and the woman Hopoe dance and sway,On the beach Nana-huki-A dance of purest delight-Down by the sea Nana-huki.273UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAIIThe hula was a religious service, in which poetry, music, pan-tomime, and the dance lent themselves under the forms of dramaticart to the refreshment of men's minds. Its view of life was idyllicand it gave itself to the celebration of those mythical times whengods and goddesses moved upon the earth as men and women andwhen men and women were as gods. As to subject-matter, itswarp was spun largely from the bowels of the old-time mythology,that became cords through which the race maintained vital con-nection with its mysterious past. Interwoven with those, formingthe woof, were threads of a. thousand hues and of many fabrics,representing the imaginations of the poet, the speculations of thephilosopher, the aspirations of many a thirsty soul, as well as theravings and flame-colored pictures of the sensualist, the mutteringsand incantations of the kahuna, the mysteries and paraphernalia ofPolynesian mythology, the annals of the nation's history - themateIial, in fact, which in another nation and under different cir-cumstances would have gone to the making of its poetry, itsdrama, its literature.The people w~re superstitiously religious-; one finds their dramasaturated with religious feeling, hedged about with tabu, loadeddown with prayer and sacrifice. They were poetical; nature wasfull of voices for their ears; their thoughts came to them as images jnature was to them an allegory; all this found expression in theirdramatic art. They were musical; their drama must needs be castin forms to suit their ideas ·of rhythm, of melody and harmony-poetic harmony. They were, moreover, the children of passion,sensuous, worshipful of whatever lends itself to pleasure. HowEMERSON][N. s., 8, 1906AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST272then could the dramatic efforts of this primitive people, still in thebonds of animalism, escape the smirch of passion? It is interestingto note that the songs and poetical pieces which have come downto us from the remotest antiquity are generally inspired with a purersentiment and a loftier purpose than the modern; but it can he saidof them all that when they do step into the mud of animalism it isnot to tarry and wallow in it; it is rather with an unconsciousnaivete, as of a child thinking no evil.The most advanced modern is no doubt better able to harkback to the sweetness and light and music of the primeval worldthan the veriest wigwam-dweller that ever chipped an arrowhead ortwanged a bow. It is not so much what the primitive man cangive us as what we can find in him that is worth our while. Thelight that a Goethe, a Tho.reau, or a Kipling can project intoArcadia is only that mirrored in their own nature.If one mistakes not the temper and mind of this generation, weare living in an age that is not content to let perish one seed ofthought, or one single phase of life that can be rescued from thedrift of time. We mourn the extinction of the buffalo of the plainsand the birds of the islands, thinking - rightly - that life is some-what less rich and full without them. What of the people of theplains and of the islands of the sea - is their contribution sonothingIess that one can affirm that the orbit of man's mind iscomplete without it ?Comparison is uriavoidable between the place held by the dancein ancient Hawaii and that occupied by the dance in our modernsociety. The, ancient Hawaiians did not as a rule personally and'informally indulge in the dance for their own amusement as doespleasure-loving society at the present time. Like the Shah of Per-sia, but for very different reasons, Hawaiians of the old time left itto be done for them by a paid body of trained performers. Thiswas not because the art and practice of the hula was held in disre-pute - quite the reverse - but because it was an accomplishmentrequiring special education and arduous training both in song anddance, and more especially because it was a ,religious matter andmust be guarded against profanation by the observance of tabus andthe'performance of priestly rites.HONOLULU,HAWAII.This f~Ft, which we find paralleled in every form of commonamusement, sport, and entertainment in ancient Hawaii, sheds astrong light on the genius of the Hawaiian. We are wont to thinkof the old-time Hawaiians as light-hearted children of naturegiven to spontaneous outbursts of song and dance as the moodseized, quite as the rustics of Of merrie England" joined hands andtripped If the light fantastic toe" in the joyous month of May, orshouted the harvest home at a later season. The genius of theHawaiian was different. With him the dance was an affair of pre-meditation, an organized effort, guarded by the traditions of a som-ber religion. And this characteristic, with qualifications, will befound to belong to every variety of popular Hawaiian sport andamusement. Exception} of course, must be made of the unorgan-ized sports of childhood. One is almost inclined to generalize andto say that those children of nature, as we are wont to call them,were in this regard less free and spontaneous than the more ad-vanced race to which we are proud to belong. But if the approachesto the temple of Terpsichore with them were more guarded, we mayconfidently assert that their enjoyment therein was more deep andabandoned.275UNfVRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAIIEMERSON][N. s., 8, 1906AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST274

Unwritten Literature of Hawaii

http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/11919/1/1906Emerson.pdf

Unwritten Literature of Hawaii

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

eVols at University of Hawaii at Manoa