the way of ghosts or queer sights. For instance, just beyond the little
enclosure of our hereditary Amo, where the little sluggish river runs in
the woods beyond the ancient stone foundation, evergrown with trees,
there are spaces where occasionally the figure of a man appears and
disappears through the trees, and old rags of clothing flitter behind
him. There last Saturday, while two men were at work, what at I don’t
know, perhaps looking after vanilla, one of them looked up and saw on
the face of the little cliff, a small hole, not noticed before, out of
which at once stepped an old man dressed partly in an ancient manner,
who dusted his clothing as he got erect and then disappeared. The two
men went to the spot and found the hole. There was some talk of
enlarging it and digging into it, but the discoverer objected so
strongly, and has still kept up his objection so well that nothing more
has happened.
The shark is connected with our cousin Ariie’s family at Tautira and has
still power with them. Not so long ago Ariie’s mother came here worn out
and dusty, having ridden instead of having been carried in her canoe as
usual. She told the following story--she had intended to come but had
declined to bring her daughter with her. Now her daughter is a believer
in the shark, and she thereupon told her mother that she should not get
off. Nothing would induce her to say more but the mother was rowed up
inside the reef as we had been on the same course along the coast of
Pueu. I don’t know exactly where it was, but somewhere in the evening
the rowers complained that their path was obstructed by a large shark.
The old lady ordered them to row on; as they did so she looked up from
the bottom of the boat where she lay with her head wrapped up in the
usual loin-cloth or _pareu_. She saw before them, an enormous shark,
lying at right angles to the boat, partly out of the water, and all
along his back a row of lights like lamps lit up the water. Unwillingly
the men obeyed her orders to row on and struck the fish full on the side
without making it move away, the boat running up on his back. Then she
determined to return and when she got home, rebuked her daughter
angrily, for she knew that it was her daughter who had done this, and
rather than yield to her she had come the whole way with horses. Tati
says the girl is known to have power that way and that she calls upon
this protector when she is angry. Upon such occasions a special odour
easily to be recognized as the smell of the shark fills the air. As far
as I can see the shark is at least a cousinly god to us, somewhat of a
relation and protector, and henceforth, I think as I suggested above, we
ought to be safe from him at sea.
As in the story of the ancestress, Queen Hototu, so important and
aristocratic, freedom could belong to women where descent and
inheritance placed her above others. Daughters transferred to their
children rank and title, and consequently property, and in fault of
other heirs could become chief. The mother, therefore, of an heiress to
a title was another chief even to her husband, and had privileges that
he could not have; for instance, a seat in the family temple. All this
she transmitted to her child.
The mother of our old chiefess was known by at least thirteen different
names, each of which was a title, each of which conveyed land; so she
was, for instance, Marama in Moorea and owned almost all the island; so
she was Aromaiterai in Papara. This investiture would be received for a
child, as child to a chief, would be carried to the family temple to be
made sacred, as was done in this case, thirteen different temples having
received the child, the mother of our chiefess. As in all Polynesia the
Arii or chiefs were more or less sacred as was the ground upon which
they rested; but that was only among their own connections. There the
inferior chiefs, men or women, out of respect stripped themselves down
to the waist. That is why Captain Wallis relates that Tutaha as well as
Vairatoa, stripped in the presence of Amo, our ancestor, and his little
son. Why exactly the wife of Vairatoa uncovered herself _up to the
waist_ when she presented cloth to Wallis, I have not been exactly able
to find out, but Tati says it was probably from the same notion of very
great respect.
So you see the connection of the _marae_ with the chieftain’s power; a
knowledge of _maraes_ and of the origin and descent of families is
intimately connected. Each family had its stone in the _maraes_ where it
claimed family worship.
The Teva’s original _marae_ is said to be that of Opooa in the sacred
island of Raiatea; but their own tradition makes it, as I have said, at
Mataua, where the head of the Tevas wore the _maro tea._
When Temanutunu, the husband of Hototu, mother of Teva, brought back the
red feathers from the Pomotus, to be worn in _marae_ by his son, he
founded the temple or _marae_ of Punaauia. Thus the story indicates that
Vaiari and Papeari were the original centres, and Punauia and Papara
chiefs wore the red or yellow girdle in right of descent from Vaiari. We
must understand that power did not reside in the mere wearing of this
girdle; it was only a symbol of the power of descent which represented
alliances of families in a land where blood was everything, where a
chiefess killed her child if not of high enough birth.
Do you remember, or have you read, in the “Voyage of the _Duff_,” the
terrible time the missionaries had with “Iddeah,” the wife of the older
Pomaré? It is almost a pity not to quote it in full; and if I had the
“Voyage” by me I should do so. Like Oberea, she was more or less
separated from her husband, and had, like the great Catherine or the
great Elizabeth, a young favourite who went about with her everywhere,
as the missionaries saw. He was of low blood; hence the necessity of
putting the child to death; and as all this was openly understood, the
missionaries undertook to persuade “Iddeah” (as the missionaries called
her) to abandon the hereditary notion. Notwithstanding every
exhortation, she declined to do so, and killed her child according to
custom; though like a politic person, she promised not to do so again.
And I have told you about the late Queen Pomaré and her affairs.
Hence again, everywhere the _marae_ comes into the story of the islands;
with it, of course, begins the families--no _marae_, no family--and with
the building of the greatest _marae_ of all, the one that Cook saw and
described in its new importance, the power of the Tevas culminated and
was broken forever. You know that we saw its ruins on the beach of
Atimaono, and walked up the crumbling slopes of coral, with Pri and
Winfred Brander, whose ancestors built the family temple.
The pride of the Tevas, the pride of Oberea, brought on the revenge of
the offended. But that part of the story I must put off, and tell you
some of those that go further back.
The Tevas were proud and domineering, but the family of Papara, of which
was Amo, and where flourished Oberea his wife, were still more so; for
Papara was the leader politically. Historically the chieftainesses of
Vaiari and Punaauia, as we saw by the story of the origin of the Tevas,
were older and of greater dignity; but it was the Chief of Papara who
called out the Tevas, who presided over them, and who alone had the
right to order human sacrifices for the clans.
There were, as you know, eight Tevas, inner and outer, the inner ones
Papara, Atimaono, Mataiae, and Papeari; the four outer ones, the four
districts of the peninsula of Taiarapu; Paea and Punaauia were
tributary. The origin of this limitation, the origin of this power, goes
back to some great and uncertain distance which I have not been able to
ascertain, but it may be a thousand years back or not more than five or
six hundred. That could perhaps be determined more closely by a more
extended inquiry. At that time Papara was subject or tributary to
Vaiari, and when Mataiea belonged to the Chief of Vaiari.
For this liberation of Papara, and placing it at the head of the Tevas,
Oro, not the god, but a chief of that name, is the cause. He was a small
chief within Papara. His father’s name was Tiaau; you will remember my
speaking of him in connection with the little chiefery of Amo, to which
Adams and I have succeeded; and you may remember the story of the chief
and of his _paepae_[25] there, all grown over now, and of the cocoanut
that served as a watch-tower. It all comes into the story, if told in
detail.
There were thus battles and wars within the Tevas, and there is another
story of Papara and our ancestors into which a woman comes again, and
not only one woman but another. I leave it as I first wrote it down,
though it suggests in itself much alteration and explanation. I shall
call it:
THE STORY OF TAURUA OR THE LOAN OF A WIFE
Tavi ruled in Taiarapu, known for his wild generosity, and for the
beauty of his wife, Taurua Paroto. To him Tuiterai of Papara sent
messengers, begging the loan of his wife for the space of seven days.
There may have been hesitation on the chief’s part, but his habits of
giving prevailed, and Taurua came to Papara, to spend her seven days
with Tuiterai. At the end of that term she was not returned to her lord,
who sent messengers for her.
But Tuiterai refused. “I will not give her up,” he said, “I, Tuiterai of
the six skies, her who has become to me like an _ura_ to my eyes, rich
_ura_ brought from Raratoa--my dear gem! I have treasured her now, and I
treasure her yet, as the _uras_ of Faaa; and I shall not give her up
now. No, I shall not give her--why should I give her up--I, Tuiterai, of
the six skies; for she has become precious beyond the _uras_ of
Raratoa?” Thus the song preserves his refusal; so Tavi made war upon
him, and Tuiterai was defeated and made prisoner, and was upon the point
of being put to death. But he pleaded with his captors who had bound
him, claiming that he should be taken to Tavi, and, if killed, then
killed by him a chief. So that they carried him away in a canoe, all
tied up, that he could neither move nor see; and his bonds increased the
faintness caused by his wounds. But he pressed his captors to hurry, for
fear that he should die by his cords; and he knew how far he had gone,
for his fingers, touching the waters, recognized the “_feeling of each
river, as every skilful swimmer knows_.” At length he was brought before
Tavi, and set before him, along with Taurua.
But Tavi said to his men, “Why did you not kill him when you had caught
him? It is not meet that I, a chief, should put him, a chief, to death.”
And addressing Tuiterai he said, “It is you that have bound me with
cords that bind my heart and make the skies gloomy, as if you had drawn
them down and bound them over me. You have taken one who lay in my arms,
and tied a knot between her and me, and you have broken the ropes that
tied us together--her and me. Take her!”
So Tuiterai won Taurua.
But dark fate seems to have pursued the generous man, and later Tavi was
defeated in war and fled to the Pomotu Islands, where he disappeared.
The war again came from Taurua the beautiful: she had a son by Tavi, a
son called Tavi Hauroa, and Teritua also, and names had been given him
from other places, as Taurua came from Hitiaa. For this child Tavi put
a taboo (_rahui_) on his land, and tried to extend it further on,
wherever he might claim. But Taaroa Manahune had married Tetuae-huri,
the daughter of Vehiatua, and was expecting the birth of Teu.[26] “Your
wife should eat pigs,” was said to Taaroa; so they eat the pigs,
resisting the claim of Tavi, who being at Pai crossed at Tehaupo, and
was beaten by Vehiatua. A part of the defeated returned from the Pomotu,
and were granted the holding of Afaiti, under the boy Tavi Hauroa. But
in an evil moment, he flew his kite over the _marae_ of Fareupua, so
that it was caught in the _aito_ (ironwood--casuarina) trees; and at the
instigation of Tunau, the high-priest, he was put to death. How and why?
By whom? Was his companion also killed?
There would seem to be a moral to this tale, which would run this way:
that generosity is a doubtful quality, and that it is wiser to take
another man’s wife than to let go your own.
Some explanations I should have woven into this story for you, but I
write almost directly from Marau’s recitation, and it was only afterward
that I got from her some more details.
In reality, the right of Tavi to place a general taboo or _rahui_ on
Taiarapu generally was a very questionable one. It might have been
merely a question of pride that made him insist upon it when his claim
was weak. It was also, it would seem, a general desire in the other
members of the clan to weaken its power or limit its range.
By making a general _rahui_ or taboo, as we call it, the chief had
everything that grew, everything that was made, everything that was
caught, set aside for a time, for some particular use: to make further
feasts or for the food or the property of an heir, for instance. Hence
its frequency after the birth of a young prince or princess. Or it might
have been that some great feasts or generosities had depleted, if I may
so call it, the treasury. Later even, some of the missionaries in
Catholic Islands have found it useful to preserve the plants, and allow
them to increase so as to prevent the recurrence of a famine.
Tavi had only undisputed claim over Tautira, Afaahiti, Hiri, and in Tai.
Vehiatua ruled over the southern and western parts of Taiarapu, as far
as Teahupo and Vairoa.
The little Teu, who was born of Tetuae-huri, the daughter of the
Vehiatua that defeated poor Tavi, became the big and important Teu
founder and first of the Pomarés, called kings by the missionaries, who
did much to establish them in that position, unknown to the mind and the
customs of the Polynesians of the East Pacific. The son of Tavi, who
came back from the Pomotus, and was received in royal style and given
the district now called Afaahiti, was killed at the _marae_ of Farepua
of Vaiari, as I have just related.
Among the chiefs who helped Teu to his new position was Terii nui o
Tahiti, who bears a very interesting name: The Great Chief of Tahiti. In
this case the word Tahiti refers to a _marae_ of Vaieri, not to the
island. Besides Farepua, Vaieri had this _marae_ of Tahiti, which very
probably gave its name to the island at some remote period; and it must
have been a Teva name.
The fortune of the Papara family seems to have come up at various times,
and to have culminated at the time of Purea (our Oberea). Her pride and
the pride of the Tevas brought about disaster long after she had passed
from power. The woman began and the woman ended. She was married to Amo
(of Cook), as we know (Teviahitua), and was herself the daughter of
Vaetua, Chief of Faaa, the district between the Tevas and the Purionu;
whence later were to come the Pomarés, enemies of the Tevas and of the
house of Papara. Her real name was, as I have said before, Te Vahine
Aviorohe i Ahurai. Her brother Teihohe i Ahurai had a daughter who
married Vairatoa, whose daughter Marama was the mother of our old
chiefess, and consequently the grandmother of _our_ queen and
princesses. In this way, then, Pomaré II, who became king, was the
second cousin of this last Marama; and, as in Tahiti cousins are
brothers and sisters, Pomaré called her sister.
Hence, again, the tendency between the last Pomarés and the old lady to
make matters right again, and to join the families by marriage, as when
Marau married the last Pomaré (V), or when Pomaré III wished our old
chiefess to be queen, instead of the famous lady whom we know as Queen
Pomaré, with whom our adopted chiefess was always most friendly and
intimate.
And so at the time of the last century, Purea, or Oberea, had no
superior, unless the head of the older Vaiari branch. Teriirere, the son
of Amo and Purea, was a child when Wallis came, hence must have been
born in the neighbourhood of 1760; and in his honour and for his
advantage, a _rahui_ or taboo was placed upon all the Tevas for the
child. The might of the _rahui_ was great; the power to impose it, as it
confirmed rights and prestige, gave great umbrage, and there was a way
of breaking it without war that could be resorted to. That was to have a
chief or person of equal rank, or a relation of the same degree, come as
a guest to the place where the _rahui_ existed. According to custom the
guest was entitled to receive as guest all that could be given, and that
meant all the accumulations of the _rahui_. Terii Vaetua, Purea’s own
mother, determined to break it, and came from their home in Faaa, in
her double canoe, with the tent upon it indicative of royalty
(_fare-oa_).
The canoe bearing her mother entered the sacred pass in the reef
opposite the _outu_ of Mataiatea. This pass was reserved for princes
alone. Purea was living at that time opposite the pass, some little way
(two miles) from Papara, and called out to the canoe as it entered:
“Who dares venture through our sacred pass? Know they not that the Tevas
are under the sacred _rahui_ for Teriirere i Tooarai? Not even the cocks
may crow or the ocean storm.”
Her mother answered, “It is (I am) Terri Vaetua, Queen of Ahurai.”
“How many royal heads can there be?” said Purea. “I know no other than
Teriirere. Down with your tent!”
In vain Vaetua wept and cut her head, according to custom, with a
shark’s tooth, until the blood flowed. She was obliged to return without
a reception from Purea. Then a grand-daughter of Terii Vaetua, a girl
under twenty, a niece of Purea’s, made an attempt in the same direction.
But the same cry came from Purea: “Down with your tent!”
Tetuanui (Reaiteatua) the girl, came ashore, sat down upon the beach,
and in the same way cut her head until the blood flowed into the sand,
according to the old custom, asking, if unredeemed, blood for blood.
Manea,[27] the high-priest, her brother-in-law, then came upon the
scene. He feared the danger of making enemies of the Auhrai princesses,
and he said thus: “Hush, Purea! Whence is the saying, the _pahus_
(drums) of Matairea call Tutunai for a _maro ura_ for Teriirere i
Tooarai. Where will they wear the _maro ura_? _Maro ura_--the red girdle
of royalty and surpreme chiefhood. In Nuura i Ahurai. One end of the
_maro_ holds the Purionu, the other end the Tevas; the whole holds the
Oropoa.”
(Words that I do not quite understand, as given by Marau, but which
implied the danger of breaking up their union.)
“I recognize no head here but Teriirere,” answered Purea.
Then Manea, unable to do more than to clear himself, and make what
amends were in his power, for the insult he could not prevent or turn
away, wiped with a cloth the blood shed by Tetuanui, and took her to his
house. When, forty years after, Tetuanui took her revenge in the
massacre of the family of Papara, this action of Manea saved part of
them; and through him we descend, in the male line, from the Tuiterai of
the preceding generation. From Tetuanui, by her marriage with Varatao,
the first Pomaré chief of the unfriendly Purionu, was born Pomaré II,
the first king and he who became the chief enemy of the Tevas.
Marau, in relating all this story, on different occasions, felt, I
believe, the old pride of Purea beat through her: her voice rose in
repeating the words: “Down with your tent!” and “I know no other royal
head than Teriirere.” I could almost believe that it was she who
asserted herself in the person of her great ancestress.
But for all that, now before the final disaster, the house Papara seems
to have met a great check again, in a display of the power and pride of
Purea. She and Amo built for Teriirere a new _marae_ on that same point
where the ladies of Ahurai shed their blood in protest--Mahaiatea and
Amo took its foundation stone (if I may so call it) from the original
_marae_ of Taputuoarai. Cook has described it as he saw it in 1764--the
most important building of the kind he had seen. And over its remains I
have scrambled, as you know, unawares of all that it had meant. How much
better can I understand the resistance made by our old chiefess to
letting it be used as a quarry for the buildings of the great plantation
of Atimaono, the great sugar estate of the adventurer Stuart; now
involved in a ruin like to that of the old temple. The chiefess, for
this refusal, was removed from her position for a time; how reinstated I
do not know. You know that I told you before, she is a chiefess,
recognized by the French Government, as well as by inheritance, Tati
acting for her. It was one of those outrages that the new generations
perpetrate on the old; and in this case more disgraceful than usual. But
few people sympathize with the “_lachrymae rerum_” that touched the
pagan poet.
You must look up Cook’s description, which I have not by me. Everything
in the way of books here is fragmentary, the public library usually
unvisited, and many of its possessions scattered carelessly.
The completion of this monument coincided with the beginning of the war
that drove Amo and Oberea away, and ruined Papara for a time; a war
which occurred between Cook’s first and second voyages; so that he found
his former friends reduced in power and dignity. The Vehiatua of that
time, with Taiarapu and the Purionu, joined in the attack upon Papara
thus breaking the Teva power from within.
There is a poem, difficult to render, which is associated with this
completion of the _marae_, and which seems to bring the war from that.
There has been much trouble to make a settled translation of it. The one
which I add is a revised translation by Moetia, conferring with the
others, whose translation in the rough I have kept separate. I give you
Marau’s own copy.
“A standard is raised at Tooarai
Like the crash of thunder
And flashes of lightning
And the rays of the midday sun
Surround the standard of the King
The King of the thousand skies.
Honour the standard
Of the King of the thousand skies!
“A standard is raised at Matahihae
In the presence of Vehiatua
The rebels Taisi and Tetumanua
Who broke the King’s standard
And Oropaa is troubled.
If your crime had but ended there!
The whole land is laid prostrate.
Thou art guilty O Purahi (Vehiatua)
Of the Reva _ura_ of your King.
Broken by the people of Taiarapu
By which we are all destroyed
Thou bringest the greatest of armies
To the laying of stones
Of the _marae_ of Mahaitea.
“Poahutea at Punaavia
Tepau at Ahurai
Teriimaroura at Tarahoi
Maraianuanua the land where the
Poor idiot was killed!
Eimeo the land that is decked
By the _ura_ and the _pii_.
“The prayers are finished
And the call has been given
To Puni at Farerua (Borabora)
To Raa at Tupai (an island belonging to Borabora)
To the high priest Teae,
Go to Tahiti
There is an _oroa_ at Tahiti
Auraareva for Teriirere of Tooarai.
Thou hast sinned O Purahi!
Thou hast broken the
Reva _ura_ of the King.
Taiarapu has caused
The destruction of us all
The approach of the front rank
Has unloosed the _ura_.
One murderous hand
Four in and four out.
If you had but listened
To the voice of Amo, Oropaa!
Let us take our army
By canoe and by land,
We have only to fear the
Mabitaupe and the dry reef of Uaitoata.
“There we will die the death
Of Pairi Temaharu and Pahupua.
The coming of the great army of Tairapu
Has swept Papara away
And drawn its mountains with it (the King)
Thou hast sinned Purahi
Thou and Taiarapu
Hast broken the Reva _ura_ of the King
And hast caused the
Destruction of us all.”
This is Moetia’s and Marau’s translation, I do not know whose copy it
is--Moetia’s or Marau’s. I got it from the latter. This song of reproof,
cherished by the Teva, as a protest against fate, explains how the
dissensions among the different branches of the eight clans allowed them
to become a prey to the rising power of the Purionu clans, headed by
Pomaré, the son of one of those Ahurai princes whose blood ran into the
sand near where the great _marae_ of Oberea was built, as I have told
you a little further back. The vicissitudes of wars, the changes brought
about by the influence of the foreigner, all of which worked in favour
of the Pomaré, culminated in a final struggle in December, 1815. The
partisans of the old order, both social and religious, were headed by
Opufara, the brother of Tati, the Chief of Papara. On the other side
were the partisans of Pomaré, the Christians, the white men and their
guns. To accentuate still more the character of the contest, the final
battle began on a Sunday, the attack being made by the pagans during the
service which Pomaré attended. As in mediæval times, in our own history,
the Christians did not begin the fight until the conclusion of the
prayers in which they were engaged. On the other side the inspired
prophets who guided the pagans urged them to predicted victory. The
cannon of the Christians checked the fierce onslaught of the men of
Opufara; though for a short time their courage had seemed to prevail,
and Opufara fell first, at the head of his men. He urged them bravely to
continue the fight, and at least to avenge his death, and the struggle
continued long enough for him to see their brave resistance to the
superior advantages of the guns in their enemies’ hands. But the end
came, as we can well imagine, and Opufara drew his last breath as he saw
the utter rout of his clan and their supporters.