- Oh, dear! Oh, dear! a very queer
- And curious thing I've seen,
- Which takes the shine completely off;
- The wearing of the green;
- Potatoes constitute a dish
- That Irishmen enjoy.
- But it can't hold a candle to
- The eating of the poi.
I met a fat kanaka, and he
- Asked me to his hale,
- He wore no clothes to speak of,
- But a pāʻū and pāpale,
- Upon a mat cross-legged we sat,
- And there, and then, my boy,
- I was initiated in
- The eating of the poi.
A calabash between us stood,
- Tutui in a dish,
- And in another one, some
- Animated shrimps and fish;
- We pitched in, and did
- No cutlery employ,
- The finger is the instrument
- For the eating of the poi.
- You dip it in, and stir it round
- 'Tis difficult to learn
- And harder to describe, the
- Proper scientific turn,
- Sometimes one finger, sometimes two,
- And sometimes three employ,
- According to your appetite
- When eating of the poi.
To unaccustomed lips, it has
- A most peculiar taste,
- A strong similarity
- To very ancient paste
- But when you've clean'd the calabash,
- You want to hiamoe,
- And soon get fat as butter, just
- From eating of the poi
-
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Source: Wayne Reis - The first hapa-haole
song published, appeared in 1888, in Ka Buke O Nā Leo Mele
Hawaiʻi O Nā Home Hawaiʻi, a Hawaiian-language publication
compiled by Keakaokalani and J. M. Bright |