| 83 | ʻAi nō i kalo moʻa. | One can eat cooked taro. |
| | [The work is done; one can sit at ease and enjoy himself.] |
| 340 | E! Loaʻa akula ke kalo, ʻo ka ʻapowale. | Say! You’ll obtain a taro, the ʻapowale. |
| | [You are wasting your time. A play on ʻapo-wale (grasp-at-nothing), a variety of taro.] |
| 666 | He kalo paʻa. | Unpounded taro. |
| | [A spinster or a bachelor.] |
| 671 | He kanu Mahoemua, he kalo pūʻali. | When one plants in [the month of] Mahoemua, he will have irregularly shaped taro. |
| 892 | He pili kauawe paha ke kumu i moʻa ʻole ai ke kalo. | Perhaps the reason for the partly cooked condition of the taro is because it is the one closest to the leaves that cover over the imu. |
| | [Said of an imperfect or defective task, or of a person whose ideas are “half-baked.”] |
| 1030 | Hoʻi i Hīlea i kalo ʻekaʻeka. | Go to Hīlea of the dirty taro. |
| | [Said of a careless person. Once, Kohāikalani, a chief of Kaʻū, was living at Punaluʻu. Poi was brought for him from various parts of the district, and a tiny speck of taro peeling was found in the poi from Hīlea. The makers of the poi were put to death. To say that someone hails from Hīlea is to say that he is unclean.] |
| 1127 | Hui aku, hui mai, hui kalo me ka nāwao. | Mixed there, mixed here, all mixed together are the cultivated and the wild taros. |
| | [Said of a great mix-up.] |
| 1232 | I maikaʻi ke kalo i ka ʻohā. | The goodness of the taro is judged by the young plant it produces. |
| | [Parents are often judged by the behavior of their children.] |
| 1447 | Kalo kanu o ka ʻāina. | Taro planted on the land. |
| | [Natives of the land from generations back.] |
| 1509 | Kanu ke kalo i Welo, ʻaʻole e ulu nui ʻia e ka ʻohā. | Plant taro in Welo and the offshoots will not be many. |
| | [The corm of taro planted in the month of Welo grows very large but the offishoots are few.] |
| 1735 | Ke kalo paʻa o Waiahole. | The hard taro of Waiahole. |
| | [A reminder not to treat others badly. One day, a man went to Waiahole, Oʻahu, to visit his sister, whom he had not seen for many years. She was absent, and her husband neither asked the stranger in nor offered him any food. When hunger possessed the visitor he asked if he might have some taro to eat. His brother-in-law directed him to his taro patches and told him to get some from there. The man went to the patches and then continued on his way. When the woman returned she was told of the visitor, and by her husband’s description she knew that it was her brother. She rebuked him for his lack of hospitality. When they went to their taro patches they found all the taro pulled up and hacked to pieces.] |
| 2106 | Make nō ke kalo a ola i ka naio. | The taro dies but lives again in the pinworm. |
| | [The matter may be thought dead, but it is likely to come alive again. Naio (pinworms) were sometimes found in poi and caused itching in the anal passage.] |
| 2107 | Make nō ke kalo a ola i ka palili. | The taro may die but lives on in the young plants that it produces. |
| | [One lives on in his children.] |
| 2135 | Mānā, i ka puʻe kalo hoʻoneʻeneʻe a ka wai. | Mānā, where the mounded taro moves in the water. |
| | [Refers to Mānā, Kauaʻi. In ancient days there were five patches at Kolo, Mānā, in which deep water mound-planting was done for taro. As the plants grew, the rootlets were allowed to spread undisturbed because they helped to hold the soil together. When the rainy season came, the whole area was flooded as far as Kalamaihiki, and it took weeks for the water to subside. The farmers built rafts of sticks and rushes, then dived into the water. They worked the bases of the taro mounds free and lifted them carefully, so as not to disturb the soil, to the rafts where they were secured. The weight of the mounds submerged the rafts but permitted the taro stalks to grow above water just as they did before the flood came. The rafts were tied together to form a large, floating field of taro.] |
| 2705 | Pūʻali kalo i ka wai ʻole. | Taro, for lack of water, grows misshapen. |
| | [For lack of care one may become ill.] |