Home      Early witnesses      Contents      Previous page      Next page

Easter Island: Early Witnesses

William Thomson


527

two canoes met and, attracted by the smooth sand-beach, Hotu-Matua landed and named the island "Te-pito te-henua" or "the navel of the deep." The queen landed, and immediately afterwards, gave birth to a boy, who was named Tuumae-Keke. The landing place was named Anekena in honor of the month of August, in which the island was discovered. All the plants landed from the canoes were appropriated for seed, and the people immediately began the cultivation of the ground. For the first three months they subsisted entirely upon fish, turtle, and the nuts of a creeping-plant found growing along the ground, which was named "moki-oo-ne." After the lapse of a number of unrecorded years, during which the island had been made to produce an abundance of food, and the people had increased and multiplied in numbers, Hotu-Matua at an advanced age was stricken with a mortal illness. Before his end drew near, the chief men were summoned to meet in council. The king nominated his eldest son as his successor (Tuumae-Heke), an it was ordained that the descent of the kings should always be through the eldest son. This important matter having been settled, the island was divided up into districts and portioned out to the children of the king as follows: To Tuumae-Heke, the eldest, were given the royal establishment and lands extending from Anekena to the northwest as far as Mounga Tea-tea. To Meru, the second son, were given the lands between Anekena and Hanga-roa. To Marama, the third son, were given the lands between Akahanga and Vinapu. The land lying to the northward and westward of Mounga Tea-tea was the portion of the fourth son, Raa, and was called Hanga-Toe. To the fifth son, Korona-ronga, were allotted the lands between Anekena and the crater of Rana-Roraku. To the sixth and the last son were given the lands on the east side of the island. His name was Hotu-iti.
   The tradition here goes back before the advent of the people on the island, and states that Hotu-Matua and his followers came from a group of islands lying towards the rising sun, and the name of the land was Marae-toe-hau, the literal meaning of which is "the burial place." In this land, the climate was so intensely hot that the people sometimes died from the effects of the heat, and at certain seasons plants and growing things were scorched and shriveled up by the burning sun.
   The circumstances that led to the migration are related as follows: Hotu-Matua succeeded his father, who was a powerful chief, but his reign in the land of his birth, owing to a combination of circumstances over which he had no control, was limited to a very few years. His brother, Machaa, fell in love with a maiden famed for her beauty and grace, but a rival appeared upon the scene in the person of Oroi, the powerful chief of a neighboring clan. After the manner of the sex in all ages and climes, this dusky beauty trifled with the affections of her suitors and proved fickle-minded. When pressed to make a choice between the two, she announced that she would marry Oroi, provided he would prove his love by making a pilgrimage around the island,

527


Home      Early witnesses    Contents      Previous page      Next page