- O 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 pa`u and papale
- 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
- Kukui 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
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- You dip it in, and stir it round
- 'Tis difficult to learn
- And harder to describe the
- Proper scientific term
- Sometimes one finger, sometimes two
- And sometimes three employ
- According to your appetite
- When eating of the poi
To unaccustomed life, it has
- A most peculiar taste
- Some people even say it tastes
- Like old library paste
- But when you've cleaned 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 Nâ Leo Mele
Hawai`i O Nâ Home Hawai`i, a Hawaiian-language publication
compiled by Keakaokalani and J. M. Bright
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