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The Easter Island Tablets: Decipherments

A. Carroll


Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol.1 (1892)

246

TRANSLATION OF AN EASTER ISLAND INSCRIPTION ON A TABLET
MARKED No 1 (FRONT).

(Kindly lent By S. Percy Smith, Esq., F.R.G.S.)


    "The bones of our ancestors of the Sun-fires, the masters of the beloved tribe of our sacred dead ancestors of the holy Sun-people, the people of the mountains, the Charcas, a holy clan. The wise teachers place them as of the dead ancestors. The Eagle chief was of these dead ancestors and their fires of the Sun. The Eagle chief, wearing the tribal plume, and a master of the free Chunchas; of the Sun's tribes a master and a warrior beloved of the tribe, the master abounding with their love. The mothers of the Sun's people in their dwelling-place with the Eagle chief and his people, the holy dead ancestors; this Eagle chief of the plumes; of the Sun-fires, the sacred chief. The men of the two-sailed vessel came, attacked the Quichua Sun's men and the Quito people and their rulers, the masters of the beloved tribes. These gorging barbarians, the Sun-mothers, in their dwelling-places attacked, they injured them; they overwhelmed them and the sacred ancestral fires. They, the Snakes, took their places. The Snakes the places of the Sun's men they took. The sacred ancestral fires in the coast-lands for seven years were extinguished, and among the Rapa people for six years. Then the chief of the Eagle tribes fought in the coast-lands for six years, and again the chief and the Eagle clan went to the coast lands for other five years. Then this chief of the Eagle tribes died, and the tribes fled from the coast-lands to the region of the head waters; and the Snakes occupied after the Eagle chief, and tribes were overwhelmed and ended on the coastlands. Five years after the Eagle tribes were overthrown the clan of the royal bands struggled before the Snakes, them replaced. They were then seen to be seized by the barbarians, who gorged upon these loved tribes for five years. Our ancestors they had turned off__they had mastered them, these free men in five years. This clan of the Sun and its chiefs was overthrown, was mastered, was homeless, were these Sun's men. The great Caña were homeless. The Sun's men, the mountain clansmen, were dead, and the fires of this clan, and the chiefs of this clan of the mountains. Then the Charcas under their chiefs fought for the freedom of their homes. The Quichuas were overthrown, and their freedom thus ended, their Sun-fires and their clan's chief was dead, and the people on the coast had mastered these beloved tribes. The Cha-Rapas, a branch of the Eagle tribes, with the Guanacas, living on a part of the coast; the main body of the Eagle tribes nearest the coast, with assistance from Quilago, beloved of the tribe, under a chief of chiefs of the Sun's men, returned, and with their weapons ended all__overthrew all, and thus finished the trouble.
   The master of the Lord of Lican, a child of our ancestors, and of

246


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