of Kauai, most western of the group, perhaps guided by Spanish charts,
perhaps by Tahitian navigators who had preserved the tradition of
ancient voyages,[6] for hundreds of years none but chance boats had
driven upon its shores.[7] But the old tales remained, fast bedded at
the foundation of Hawaiian imaginative literature. As now recited they
take the form of chants or of long monotonous recitals like the
_Laieikawai_, which take on the heightened form of poetry only in
dialogue or on occasions when the emotional stress requires set song.
Episodes are passed along, from one hero cycle to another, localities
and names vary, and a fixed form in matter of detail relieves the
stretch of invention; in fact, they show exactly the same phenomena of
fixing and reshaping, that all story-telling whose object is to please
exhibits in transference from mouth to mouth. Nevertheless, they are
jealously retentive of incident. The story-teller, generally to be found
among the old people of any locality, who can relate the legends as they
were handed down to him from the past is known and respected in the
community. We find the same story[8] told in New Zealand and in Hawaii
scarcely changed, even in name.



_Footnotes to Section II, 1: Polynesian Origin of Hawaiian Romance_

[Footnote 1: Bastian In Samoanische Schöpfungssage (p. 8) says:
"Oceanien (im Zusammenbegriff von Polynesien und Mikronesien)
repräsentirt (bei vorläufigem Ausschluss von Melanesien schon) einen
Flächenraum, der alles Aehnliche auf dem Globus intellectualis weit
übertrifft (von Hawaii bis Neu-Seeland, von der Oster-Insel bis zu den
Marianen), und wenn es sich hier um Inseln handelt durch Meeresweiten
getrennt, ist aus solch insularer Differenzirung gerade das Hilfsmittel