In times past, many places in Hawaii had terms of endearment, or pet names1. For Kaupo, the most famous term of endearment was ua pee pa pohaku, or the rain that makes one hide behind rock walls. The importance of this nickname has warranted an entire article on this site.
However, there are other terms of endearment for Kaupo in general and for specific areas within the region. A selection of these are reviewed here.
Kaupo, where the wind kisses the cheek
Apart from the term "rain that makes one hide behind rock walls", perhaps the most common poetic reference for Kaupo is the land where the wind kisses the cheek (makani honihoni papalina).
In September 1879, an article in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa about a meeting of Kaupo cooperative associations included the following sentence:
I ka la mua, he ahina ka lole o ka Hui Kumunui me na uhi balu e welo ana i ka makani honihoni papalina o ka aina.
(On the first day, the Kumunui Association wore gray and had blue streamers fluttering in the native wind that kisses the cheek.)
A decade later, in 1889, a riddle in the same paper about lighthouses included a clue that pairs the sayings about the wind and rain of Kaupo.
Aia keia uwila i ka Uapeepapohaku, hoa pili o ka makani honihoni papalina, aloha wale ia aina.
(This lighthouse is in that beloved rain that makes one hide behind rock walls, companion of the wind that kisses the cheeks. Beloved is this land.)
The final example comes from a 1907 newspaper article about a gathering of the Sunday schools of East Maui, published under the heading "He Wahi Hoololi" (A Slight Change).
E oluolu hou mai kou ahonui i kekahi wahi kaawale o kou mau kolamu, i wahi keena no kela mau wahi huaolelo e kau ae la maluna a nau la e uwila hou aku i ike hou mai ai kuu mau Kula Sabati apau o Maui Hikina ame na Ahahui Hooikaika Kristiano mai ka Waikau o Keanae, a hiki mai i ka makani honihoni Papalina o Kaupo. Ua hoololi ia ka la e hoike ai o na Kula Sabati o Maui Hikina, aole o ka la 27 o Dekemaba, o ka pololei, Dekemaba 29, 1907.
(Please be so kind as to find space in your columns for the words above, that you may send it like lightning and inform all my Sunday schools and Christian Endeavor Society branches in East Maui, from the high water2 of Keanae to the wind of Kaupo that kisses the cheek. The date has been changed for the exhibition of the Sunday schools of East Maui. It will not be on December 27. The correct date is December 29, 1907.)
Also note the capitalization in the final example, indicating that the term had achieved "proper noun" status through established usage.
Nuu, where the sea rustles the pebbles
Nuu, a large area in western Kaupo, is most well-known for its calm bay. The poetic term for Nuu, "where the sea rustles the pebbles" (kai nehe i ka iliili), appears in numerous articles from the 1880s through the 1930s. A typical usage is seen in a subscription notice in Ka Oiaio in July 1895:
He leo kanaenae aloha ia oukou e o’u mau hoa i ka ua pee papohaku o Kaupo a me ke kai nehe i ka iliili o Nuu. Nolaila, ma keia ke nonoi ia aku nei ko oukou oluolu e ka poe i hookaa mua mai, hookahi dala, e hookaa mai i ke koena i koe, i lawa ai na dala elua o ka oukou mau nupepa KA OIAIO.
(A gentle urging to you, my friends of Kaupo, where the rain makes one hide behind rock walls, to Nuu, where the sea rustles the pebbles. This is a request for you who have already paid one dollar to please remit the remaining so that you have paid the full two dollars for your issues of KA OIAIO newspaper.)
Separately, an obituary in Nupepa Kuokoa in August 1916 offers an oblique reference Nuu.
Ua malamaia he halawai haipule nona ma ka home o na makua; i ka hookuu ana, ua maneleia kona kino wailua no kona home lua e kona mau kaikuaana liilii no lakou ka huina he ewalu, e ukali pu ana hoi ka ohana no lakou ka huina he kanaha, ma keia huakai hoolewa i alakai ia e ke Kainehe Club, ua komo pu ae iloko o keia club o Leonard Kahua, kekahi limahei ma ka lawe palanehe ana i na kaula eono o Uwehone. Auwe! He u’i, he nani, he hone ka leo o na pila, me he manu la e kikiko’u ana i ka liko o ka lehua, e hea ana i ke kama ma kona poli pumehana.
(A memorial service was held at her parents’ home. When the service was over, her body was carried to the grave by her eight sisters, accompanied by 40 family members. This procession was led by the Rustling-sea Club. Among the members of this club is Leonard Kahua, a deft strummer of the six strings of the guitar. How beautiful and sonorous the instruments were, like a bird chirping on a lehua bud calling the child to her warm breast.)
When the article above was published in 1916, many readers may have caught that the "Kainehe Club" indicated that the band was from Nuu. However, the reference is likely lost on many modern readers since the phrase "kai nehe i ka iliili" is not preserved in language reference sources such as the book Olelo Noeau.
Another notable example of the Nuu term is a November 1903 article in Ke Aloha Aina about a murder at Nuu. The author of the articles signs with the pen name "Kai Nehe ka Iliili o Nuu".
Manawainui, where the water leaps from the summit
Manawainui is the largest valley in Kaupo, and the towering cliffs at the head of the valley contains a series of picturesque waterfalls.
A number of 19th-century newspaper articles pair Manawainui with the poetic term "where the water leaps from the summit" (wai luu poo o Manawainui).
As an example, an elegy in 1862 for a woman named Poliokeawe includes the following lines:
Kuu kaikamahine mai ka ai nana iuka ke ola e,
Mai ka ia huli pohaku o Kepio la,
Mai ka ua pili papohaku o Kaupo e,
Mai ka wai luu poo o Manawainui la
(My daughter of the sustaining food of the uplands,
Of the rock-seeking fish of Kepio,
Of the Kaupo rain that makes one cling to rock walls,
Of the water that dives from the summit of Manawainui)
Sixteen years later, in 1878, Kaupo native J. P. Iwa wrote about a visit to Hawaii Island:
Ua hiki mai i kahi e noho nei ko oukou Kakauolelo, he malihini au, he keiki no ka ua pee papohaku o Kaupo, no ka wai luu poo o Manawainui, kuu aina hanau ia, eia au iwaena o ka apana kaulana o Makuu-halala, Keau.
(Your correspondent arrived at the place he would be staying. I was an outsider, a child of the Kaupo rain that makes one hide behind rock walls, of the water that dives from the summit of Manawainui, my homeland. Here I was now in the famous district of Makuu-halala, Keaau.)
Maalo, where the hau trees grow crooked
Maalo, in eastern Kaupo, is a less prominent geographical area than Nuu and Manawainui. There are fewer references to Maalo in historical articles, but when the area does appear it often is called by the phrase "the crooked hau of Maalo" (ke kekee hau o Maalo). Hau trees (Hibiscus tiliaceus) grow there to this day.
An article in 1903 in Nupepa Kuokoa placed this term for Maalo along other well-known phrases for areas of Maui such as "Hana of the low-lying heavens" and "Kipahulu of the love-snatching wind".
In 1920, the same paper carried an article about a feast held by the League of Women Voters of Kaupo:
He paina luau keia i hoolako pono ia me na meaai Hawaii, bipi ame puaa laulau, kulolo ame piepiele, uala ame ka niu, na limu eleele pahee o na pa ala o Punahoa ame Waiokume, na opihipihi koele ame maku’eku’e o na olaelae o ke kekeehauomaalo, na kukui inamona i lawaluia ame na waimomona hu’ihu’i kaomipuu.
(This feast was supplied with all kinds of Hawaiian dishes: Beef and pork laulau, sweet potato and coconut pudding, slippery black seaweed from the rocks of Punahoa and Waiokume, giant, dark opihi from the bluffs of the crooked hau of Maalo, kukui nut relish, and sweet refreshments that tickled the throat.)
It appears that the term had a metaphorical meaning as well. Renowned Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui in her book Olelo Noeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings, writes that the term is "A humorous saying. The hau grove of Maʻalo, Maui, was known as a place for illicit love affairs." Supporting this are newspaper articles from July 1916 and September 1918 that say that the crooked hau of Maalo will be "corrected by fire" (ahi ka mea e pololei ai), possibly a reference to hell.
- For an extensive list, see “Hawaiian Poetical Names for Places” in the Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1887 (p. 79)
- this term is a common nickname for Keanae
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