The " Mele Olioli" or love songs compose another type, and the "Mele Hula" or dancing songs, still another. First may be mentioned the "Mele Koihonua," or royal chants.
The Hawaiians of the olden times bad three or four distinctive types of songs. The music of the Hawaiian when once heard, like the music of the Italian boatman as he sends his gondola along, is never forgotten, whether heard on native soil or foreign shore.
There is in it an inexplicable something which never fails to charm. The music of the Hawaiians of the olden times, when the white man's foot was unknown on these sea-girt shores, was typical in its nature, and, although the influences of civilisation, bringing with it - the music of the Anglo-Saxon, have changed to a very marked degree the original form, its type is still distinct for all that. So it is the islands over-music and flowers, and poetry pervading the very atmosphere. Indeed, in this land of sunshine and perpetual springtime, with the sea stretching far to the horizon and the mountains pointing toward the skies amidst a display of coloring that has never failed to delight the eye of the artist, it seems but natural that music should be the accompaniment to such beauty and grandeur. The soul of the Hawaian is filled to overflowing with poetry, and he must needs sing if he is to be happy. Invariably it is with wreaths of flowers surrounding his hat and neck, and with song bursting forth from his lips. Take, for instance, the native Hawaiian as he goes forth on some errand. This is a fact that even the most casual observer will notice time and again. HAWAII, Land of Music and Flowers," is an oft repeated phrase heard not only on the lips of visitors to the land of the Kamehamehas, but echoed even by those who have lived in the country for years and, indeed, music and flowers do go hand in hand in more intimate a sense in Hawaii than in perhaps any other country the world over.