The mystery of Easter island: the story of an expeditionRoutledge, Katherine
History
The mystery of Easter island: the story of an expedition
Routledge, Katherine
Easter Island; Oceania -- Description and travel; Voyages and travels
Then the boats divided, and Hotu-matua went round the south and east
coasts, and Hinelilu by the west and north. Hotu wished to be the first
to reach Anakena, which the previous arrivals had told him was a good
place to land, so when he saw the other vessel approaching, he “said to
himself a word,” which made his own boat go fast and Hinelilu’s go slow;
so he got first to the cove. A son was born there to Vakai and named Ko
Tuumaheke. Hinelilu was a man of intelligence, and wrote rongo-rongo on
paper he brought with him. Amongst those who came in the boats was the
ariki Tuukoihu, the maker of the wooden images; two of his sons and two
grandsons have given their names to four subdivisions of the Miru clan.
Among Hotu-matua’s company there was a concealed passenger whose name
was Oroi; he was an enemy of Hotu, who had killed his children in the
place whence they came, and had hidden himself on board. He got on shore
at Anakena, without anyone having guessed at his presence, and killed
everyone. One day the five children of a man named Aorka went to bathe
at Owaihi, a small cove east of Anakena, and as they lay on a rock in
the sea, Oroi came from behind and killed them and took out their
insides. When they did not return, the father said to the mother, “Where
are the children?” The mother said, “On the rock”; but when Aorka went
to look, the rock was covered with water, for it was high tide; when by
and by the water went down, he saw the five children and that they were
dead. Aorka then told Hotu-matua: “Oroi, that bad man, is here, for he
has killed my children.” Now Hotu-matua went to see his daughter who was
married, and as he went Oroi put a noose in his path and tried to catch
his foot in it, but Hotu stepped on one side. When he had finished his
visit to his daughter, he said to her and her husband, “Follow me as I
go home.” And as he returned he saw that the cord was still there, and
his enemy hidden behind the rock. This time Hotu-matua intentionally
stepped on to the rope and fell, and when Oroi came up, he got hold of
him and killed him, and then called to his daughter and son-in-law to
see that he was dead. When, however, they put the corpse in the oven to
cook him he came to life again, so they had to take him over to the
other side of the island to where the ahu is called Oroi (fig. 122), and
there he cooked quite satisfactorily, and they ate him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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