Hula mounds, shoddy roads, and inclement weather in Hilo, 1887.

Mr. Editor.

The road supervisor [luna alanui] of Hilo has not passed by these days; the road to the north of the twin cliffs [na pali mahoe] is left damaged and filthy. Perhaps he is on vacation these weeks as the public schools are on vacation; haiole [?], you are the best.¹

From Onomea until Aleamai, there are three Hawaiian hula mounds [pa hula] where men and women are being taught for the upcoming 12th. There are two green pa hula that are got on with anklets [kupee] on the legs as the women turn this way and that, while they rotate about [poahi apakau] their torsos; some people sit below while rasping [wa'uwa'u] against the outside of a gourd and then their various voices reverberate forth.

For over a week, there was a storm covering the docks here in Hilo, bewildering the ship captains on the Paliku side.

D. I. Wailana, Jr.

¹The Road Supervisor in Chief for Hawaii Island that year, according to Thrum, was C. N. Arnold.

(Kuokoa, 4/30/1887, p. 2)

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Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke XXVI, Helu 18, Aoao 2. Aperila 30, 1887.

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