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Easter Island: Early Witnesses

William Thomson

532

corners with stones. A lanyard was fastened to the center, and the net was thrown over an antagonist, who was beaten to death while entangled in its meshes. It is worthy of remark that nothing of this sort has been discovered among the Polynesians or their contemporaries on the coast of America.
   The suddenness with which the tradition jumps into the warfare between the descendants of the first king and the "long-eared race" is startling, because no previous reference has been made to such a race on the island. It is hardly possible that the "long-ears" were descended from people who landed with them on the island, for those that came with Hotu-Matua were of the same clan, and it is fair to presume that the same customs obtained among them all. Besides, the legends all make a distinction between the "long-eared" race and the descendants of the first king. The "long-ears" appear to have been a power in the land at an early period in the history of the island, though they were eventually defeated an exterminated by the others.
   It is possible that there has been more than one migration of people to the island, and that their traditions have been mingled together, but there can be no reasonable doubt about the progenitors of the present islanders being of the Malayo-Polynesian stock. It is difficult to account for the statement, so frequently repeated throughout the legends, that Hotu-Matua came from the eastward and discovered the land by steering towards the setting sun, because the chart shows no islands in that direction which would answer the description of "Marae-toe-hau."

TRADITION REGARDING OBSIDIAN SPEAR-POINTS.

The implements of warfare brought to the island by King Hotu-Matua and his followers were few in number, and in the course of time became broken, lost, or destroyed. The clans were continually at war with each other, but from the want of proper weapons the most desperate encounters resulted in little loss of life. Spears were improvised with heads made of the sharp edges of the calabash, but they proved inefficient weapons and did little execution. During the reign of Aturaugi, the sixth king, a man living near the crater of the Rana Kau, while returning to his home after sundown from Temanevai, where he and his companions had been engaged in a useless struggle, stepped in the darkness upon a sharp stone that cut his foot like a knife. He carried the stone home with him, and in the morning found it to be black volcanic glass, which upon being broken showed vitreous edges such as had cut his foot. Believing he bad discovered an effective material for the manufacture of spear-heads, he substituted the obsidian for the calabash points and went forth to meet his enemies. The new weapon proved more puissant than he had hoped for, and havoc was created in the ranks of his opponents. Armed with spear-heads obtained from the obsidian mountain Orito, the discoverer and his clan swept everything before them until the new material became known to all the

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