Those who sing outside the hula house
singers · Hawaii · before the 19th century
Anyone wishing to enter a house where hula was taught (a hālau) asked leave in song from outside the door. The song was handed down by word of mouth and its maker is unknown. The physician Nathaniel B. Emerson took it down from Hawaiians and published it in 1909.
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before the 19th century · The last two lines of the song sung outside the door by someone asking to enter a hula school. The earlier lines sing of the mountains and streams of Kauaʻi. The spelling is as Emerson took it down, without the marks of modern Hawaiian spelling.
Do not hold back your voice! There is no call in answer!
Mai pa'a i ka leo! He ole ka hea mai, e!
The song at the door (mele kāhea) · in N. B. Emerson, Unwritten Literature of Hawaii: The Sacred Songs of the Hula (1909)
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