Episode Details

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One long legend of old Hawaii, read whole and as printed. Ke-ao-mele-mele, the Maiden of the Golden Cloud, is born from the head of Hina and reared by Mo-o-inanea among the clouds of Ke-alohi-lani, with every cloud of the sky for her watchmen and servants. Her brother Kahanai, brought up by the gods at Waolani, is married by the gods' command to their sister Paliula — and then forsakes her for Poliahu, the maiden of the snow mantle on Mauna Kea. Paliula wanders the islands and learns the dances of Kauai; Ke-ao-mele-mele hears her singing in dreams, learns the hula from Kapo, the goddess of the dance, persuades her brother home, and at last is married herself to Kau-mai-liula, Twilight Resting in the Sky — while the dragons come to watch over the islands, and the wonderful trees Makalei and Makuukao are brought to the wedding feast.

From "Legends of Gods and Ghosts" (1915) — legends of Hawaii collected and translated from the Hawaiian by W. D. Westervelt. Read as printed in the 1915 text, with one period descriptor rendered in neutral modern terms.

Notes on the reading, at the weight the tale itself gives them: the marriages in this legend are made within the divine family, as the ancient myth orders them — Kahanai and Paliula are brother and sister, and Ke-ao-mele-mele marries her half-brother — presented by the text as the command of the gods and ancestors for the highest divine blood. Kane's word that the deserting chief "should be punished" is an order only; no punishment is depicted, and the brother is persuaded home. The chapter closes with the noisy fairy folk driven from Waolani and scattered over the islands, and with the natural death of the Maid and her husband and their rising as guardian spirits.

Other chapters of this book are not read here. Excluded by name from "Legends of Gods and Ghosts": "The Ghost of Wahaula Temple," "Maluae and the Under-World," "A Giant's Rock-Throwing" and "Legendary Canoe-Making." Excluded by name from "Legends of Ma-ui": all chapters except "Maui's Kite Flying," including "Maui Snaring the Sun" and "Maui Finding Fire" — each turns on killing, on beating or on human sacrifice, which this programme does not carry. No completeness claim is made for either collection.

Narrated by Bruno. Music: opening and closing theme, "The Longest Night by the River 2".

Chapters:

00:00 Opening theme — "The Longest Night by the River 2"

00:36 Introduction

01:14 Ke-ao-mele-mele, the Maid of the Golden Cloud

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