Sensible safety

Hawaiian chant, rich in poetic power

The Kumulipo (Beginning in deep darkness), a Hawaiian creation chant translated and edited with a com mentary by Martha Warren Beck with, is a genealogical prayer chant linking a family of Hawaiian alii not only to the primary god but to the stars, heavens, plants and animals within the cycle of birth, life and death.

In pre-European Hawaii, the Kumulipo was composed and trans mitted from generation to generation in the oral tradition. This chant, 2,000 lines in length, provides an extended family genealogy tracing the family history from the world’s beginning and the gods.

It is a rare find in ancient Hawaiian literature, a Hawaiian composition not only rich in its poetic power but as an authentic source of information concerning pre-European Hawaiian religion, politics, mythology, and way of life. It offers us a unique view of the Hawaiian mind and world before it was utterly changed by the Euro pean. As a poetic composition, Martha Beckwith rightly compares it to the Greek creation chants and Genesis in the bible.

From a manuscript belonging to King Kalakaua, the original text of the Kumulipo was first published in 1889. Other translations were made later. None of these translations was available in English when Martha Beckwith made her own translation and detailed study of the Kumulipo, and published it in 1951. This 1972 edition is a reprint of the 1951 one.

Beckwith’s study and translation is an extremely scholarly and detailed work. It is also well-written and documented. Her study is divided into three parts. The first part gives us the social and historical back ground concerning the discovery of the Kumulipo and studies interpreting it. (This section contains a fascinating chapter on Captain Cook as the gold Lono). She also relates the Kumulipo to an all-over picture of Hawaiian life and history out of which it emerged.

The second part deals with the Kumulipo chant itself. This is the most fascinating section of the book.

The Hawaiian creation, translated and studied line by line, passage by passage, comes alive again. The power and beauty of the poetry (of the images and the philosophy behind the images weaving them into a cohensive unity) takes on a universal

appeal transcending its particular set ting, Hawaii.

The third part deals with other Polynesian accounts of creation in relation to the Kumulipo.

In the appendices, the full Kala kaua text of the Kumulipo is provided for us. Not only does Beckwith’s book provide students of pre- European Hawaii with the most authoritative text and translation of the Kumulipo, it also brings to any one interested in Polynesia a pro found glimpse into the creative depths of the pre-European Hawaiian mind.

Albert Wendt.

(The Kumulipo, A Hawaiian

CREATION CHANT, translated and edited by Martha Warren Beckwith.

University Press of Hawaii. Price un available.

Sensible safety

for seamen

Far be it from me to suggest that commonsense and seamanship can be had from the pages of a book, or that it can ensure a safe, uneventful cruise. But it can, if properly written with authority, supply all the information to make that cruise as safe and idyllic as you allow it to become.

Such a book then, is Richard Henderson’s Sea Sense, a book written from the experience of a man who has obviously spent many years on many different types of craft.

All kinds of offshore boats are covered, mono and multi-hull, power and sail, open and closed, with hints on safety and how to get the most out of your boat, without thumbing your nose at Davy Jones.

Mr Henderson manages to impart his information without resorting to hard and fast rules that leave one either bored stiff or worried that he’s forgotten something. Rather he tends to stick to causes and effect, with plenty of explanation and illustration through photographs and line drawings executed by the author himself.

Throughout, Henderson uncovers information and methods, so far unique. Of these there is a way to right a large catamaran from a 90 deg capsize by flooding and pumping;

and rescuing a man overboard single handed.

One set of eight photographs will be quite enough to chill the blood of the average armchair skipper.

These illustrate just what happens to a husky wooden keelboat that is caught on a lee shore in a big wind; from graceful lines to matchwood (and I mean matchwood) inside an hour!

If you want to find out how to cook a cheese omelette in a force 9 gale, then this is not the book for you. Nor is it meant for the runabout and water-ski set, or the dreamer, but rather a textbook for the relatively inexperienced offshore cruising man.

Sea Sense is one way to learn what reaction to expect for a given action, before you cast-off, and in imparting this knowledge, Richard Henderson must be considered an eminently

qualified teacher.-

John Collins.

(SEA SENSE. By Richard Henderson.

International Marine Publishing Company, Elm St., Camden, Maine, USA. Price un available).

The news from.

Pitcairn

Each week, Tom Christian, descen dant of Fletcher Christian of HMS Bounty and Pitcairn Island, contacts by short-wave radio from the island the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s international radio-broadcast centre in California. In his talks he repeats the island’s gossip, incidents, births, deaths, and accidents encountered by Pitcairners. The radio centre, The Voice of Prophecy, retails the stories to the world.

Now, Mr Herbert Ford, the station’s public information officer, has collected many of Tom Christian’s reports and published them in an attractive 126-page paperback.

Thirty-five pages of pictures unveil modern Pitcairn, probably the most famous but most inaccessible island in the world. (PITCAIRN. By Herbert Ford. Anchor Titles, 9349 Belvoir Avenue. La Crescenta, California 91214, USA. $U52.00.)