LEGENDS
First Arrival on the Island—The Long Ears exterminated by the Short
Ears—The Struggle between Kotuu and Hotu Iti.
It remains to be seen what accounts the islanders give of their origin
and history in addition to the vague fragments already quoted. These
legends fall into three groups, which, though they touch at some points,
are in reality separate, and their relation to one another in point of
time cannot be certainly ascertained. It need hardly be said that, like
all such legends, they cannot be regarded as more than suggestive; when
the mysteries have been solved, it will no doubt be easy to see where
they have been founded on fact, and where error has crept in, and
essential points distorted or forgotten; meanwhile, the clues they
afford can only be partial. These groups deal respectively, firstly with
the arrival of the islanders under Hotu-matua; secondly with the
destruction of the Long Ears; and thirdly with the war between the two
sides of the island, Kotuu and Hotu Iti. The stories have necessarily
been somewhat abbreviated.
FIRST ARRIVAL ON THE ISLAND
The ancestors of the present inhabitants came, it is said, from two
neighbouring islands known as Marae Renga and Marae Tohio. Here, on the
death of the chief, Ko Riri-ka-atea, a struggle for supremacy arose
between his two sons, Ko Te Ira-ka-atea and Hotu-matua, in which Hotu
was defeated. Now there was on one of the islands a certain Haumaka, who
had tattooed Hotu, and received from him in return a present of
mother-of-pearl which had been given to Hotu’s father by an individual
called Tuhu-patoea. Tuhu had seen that the men who went down to get
pearls were eaten by a big fish, so he invented a net by which the
precious shell could be obtained without risk, and the pearl so procured
he had presented to his chief, Ko Riri. This man, Haumaka, had a dream,
and during it his spirit went to a far country, and when he awoke he
told six men, whose names are given, to go and seek for it; they were to
look for a land where there were three islets and a big hole, also a
long and beautiful road. So the six men went, each on a piece of wood,
and they found the three islets, Motu Nui, Motu Iti, Motu Kao-kao, and
the big hole, which was the crater of Rano Kao. They landed on that part
of the island and planted yams, and then walked round the island,
beginning by the south coast.
When they were near Anakena, one of them, Ira, saw a turtle and tried to
take it, but it was too heavy for him to lift, so the other five went to
help, but it was still too heavy for them, and it struck out and injured
one named Kuku; he was taken to a neighbouring cave and begged the
others not to leave him, but his companions made five cairns outside the
cave[68] and departed, and Kuku died in the cave. The men went to Hanga
Roa and on to Orongo. A sixth man then appeared on the scene, but whence
he came is not known, and the other five told him that “this was a bad
land,” for when they had planted yams, grass had grown up. Then the men
went to Motu Nui and slept there, and in the morning, when they woke,
two boats were seen approaching. The vessels were bound together, but as
they came near the land the cord which united them was cut. The name of
the one boat was “Oteka,” and in it were Hotu-matua and his wife,
Vakai-a-hiva; and the name of the other boat was “Oua,” and in it were a
certain Hinelilu and his wife, Avarepua. Ira called to them, and told
them also that “this was a bad land”; to which Hotu-matua replied that
they too came from a bad land, “when the sea is low we die few, when the
sea is high we die many.”
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.
Hotu-matua had many sons from whom the different clans are descended,
and whose names they bear. He quarrelled with the eldest, Tuumaheki, and
with his own wife, Vakai; the two having behaved badly to him, he
finally gave up his position to Tuumaheki and retired to the top of Rano
Kao, where he lived on the south side of the crater, that opposite to
Orongo. He was old and blind and became also very ill; his elder sons
came to see him, but he kept asking for Hotu-iti, the youngest, who was
his favourite. When Marama appeared, the old man felt the calf of his
leg, and said, “You are not Hotu-iti, you are Marama; where is
Hotu-iti?” Koro-orongo answered as if he were Hotu-iti, and said, “I am
here,” but he lied, and his father took hold of his leg, and said again,
“You are not Hotu-iti”; and the same thing happened with Ngaure, and
Raa, and Hamea, and the others; and at last came Hotu-iti, and
Hotu-matua knew him, for he was small, and his leg was slight, and said
to him, “You are Hotu-iti, of Mata-iti, and your descendants shall
prosper and survive all others.” And he said to Kotuu, “You are Kotuu,
of Mata-nui, and your descendants shall multiply like the shells of the
sea, and the reeds of the crater, and the pebbles of the beach, but they
shall die and shall not remain.” And when he had said this he left his
house, and went along to the cliff where the edge of the crater is
narrowest, and stood on it by two stones, and he looked over the islet
of Motu Nui towards Marae Renga, and called to four aku-aku in his old
home across the sea, “Kuihi, Kuaha, Tongau, Opakako, make the cock crow
for me,” and the cock crew in Marae Renga, and he heard it across the
sea; that was his death signal, so he said to his sons, “Take me away.”
So they took him back to his house, and he died. Thus Hotu-matua came to
his end and was buried at Akahanga.
Many of the gods of Marae Renga, who were the ancestors of Hotu-matua,
came with him in his boat, and he knew they were there though the others
did not see them. The names of eleven of them were given, four of which
were independently quoted as amongst the aku-aku associated with
Akahanga.
THE STORY OF THE LONG EARS
Now the Long Ears (“Hanau Epé”) and Short Ears (“Hanau Momoku”) lived
together mixed up all over the land, but one of the Long Ears, Ko Ita by
name, who lived at Orongo, had in his house the bodies of thirty boys,
whom he had killed to eat. Among his victims were the seven sons of one
man, Ko Pepi. Ko Pepi went mad, and ran round and round till he fell
down, and his brothers took their mataa and killed the Long Ears at
Vinapu and at Orongo. They were joined by the other Short Ears, till the
Long Ears took refuge in the eastern headland, across which they then
dug a ditch and filled it with brushwood in order to make a fire in
self-defence. Now a body of the Short Ears were drawn up in array in
front of the ditch, but another party were shown the way round at night
by an old woman, and thus turned their flank; so when morning dawned the
Long Ears found themselves attacked both from behind and before, and
then were swept into the ditch of their own making.[69] There they were
all burnt except two, who made their way to a cave, near Anakena, where
they hid, but they were dug out of it and killed, calling aloud
“Oroini,” the meaning of which is not known.
Such is the outline of these stories; the most definite and agreed
points are the most incomprehensible—namely, the landing of the six men
prior to that of the main wave, and the concealed arrival of Oroi. The
sons of Hotu-matua are not known exactly. Kotuu is sometimes identified
with Ko Tuumaheki, and is sometimes a separate person. Miru occasionally
figures as one of them, which is inconsistent with the statement that
four of Tuukoihu’s descendants are the ancestors of four subdivisions of
that clan. Miru is also the name given in all the lists to Tuumaheki’s
son, the third ariki. Hotu Iti was always a district, never the name of
a clan. On the most interesting point—namely, the origin of the Long
Ears—there is the most vagueness. According to Kilimuti, who was a
recognised authority, and whose account of the landing has been
followed, Hotu-matua and those in his boat were the Short Ears, Hinelilu
and the crew of the second boat the Long Ears. When asked how it was
that the two came together, he merely replied that it was in the same
way as we ourselves had various nationalities on the yacht. According to
this authority, the destruction in the ditch took place in the time of
Hotu-matua’s children. Another version, given by three old men in
conclave, was that the Long Ears came into existence on the island
through the “mana” of the third ariki. Discussion one day waxed quite
fierce on the point till Te Haha’s wife, who was a shrewd middle-aged
woman, turned and said, “Never mind them, Mama, they don’t know anything
about it,” which probably summed up the situation. The story of the
ditch and the final extinction is well-established legend. The term Long
Ears seemed to convey to the natives not the custom of distending the
ears, but having them long by nature.
It is interesting to compare the versions of these stories given to the
Expedition with those taken down from Salmon by Paymaster Thomson of the
_Mohican_. The statement made by him, and repeated by various
travellers, probably from the same source, that Hotu-matua came from the
east, was never met with by us. Kilimuti did not know whence he came;
the direction in which Hotu-matua looked when dying would be west, or
more accurately, south-west. Juan put the home of the first immigrants
in the Paumotu; as a young man his knowledge of legend was a step
further from the original, but it was often useful as summing up the
general impression he had received. According to the _Mohican_ story the
six early arrivals included the brother of Hotu-matua and his wife; Oroi
had been the rejected suitor of this lady, and it was the competition
for her favour which had caused the quarrel with the family. The same
authority states that Hotu was in the boat which went by the south and
east and his wife Vakai in the other; Hinelilu does not appear. Hotu is
depicted as dividing the land between his sons, but there is no mention
of the ultimate triumph of the descendants of Hotu-iti over those of
Kotuu, which, as told to us on more than one occasion, was the chief
point in the story. The finale, in which the old man looked towards his
old home, is omitted. The Long Ears suddenly appear on the island at a
much later time.[70] The story of the ditch is much the same.
WARS BETWEEN KOTUU AND HOTU ITI
Kainga was a great man, and he lived near Tongariki. He had three young
sons; two of them lived with him, one of whom was named Huriavai, and
the other was called Rau-hiva-aringaerua (literally, “Twin two faces”),
for he had been born with two faces, one of which looked before and the
other behind. Kainga’s third son was named Mahanga-raké-raké-a-Kainga;
he was not treated well at home, and had been adopted by a woman who
lived not far away, and there he had much fish to eat. Now one day two
men came to Kainga’s house and slept there; they were Marama from Hanga
Roa, and their names were Makita and Roké-ava. Kainga killed two
chickens, and cooked the food and took it to his guests. Roké was
asleep, and Makita said, “What is this?” and Kainga replied, “Chicken,”
and Makita said, “I do not like it; I want man.” Kainga did not like to
refuse, and went outside and said to his two boys, “Go and tell Mahanga
to come here.” So the children went and gave the message. When Mahanga
heard it, he cried, but when he had done weeping he went back with his
brothers. Kainga said to him, “Lie down and go to sleep,” and Kainga
took a club and hit the child on the head and killed him. Then he cooked
part of the body and gave it to Makita, saying, “Here is food,” and went
back to the cooking-place. Makita saw that it was human flesh, and
wakened Roké and told him, and Roké was alarmed, and said, “I do not
like it.” He broke the house of Kainga, and hurried away. Makita also
departed quickly. Kainga was very angry, and said to the two men, “Why
do you throw away my food?” And he took the body of the child and
wrapped it in reeds and put it on the ahu.
Kainga then said, “Bring me much wood to make a boat”; and all men
worked at the boat of Kainga, and he gave them much food—chickens and
potatoes and bananas, sugar-cane, hens and fish and eels—but they did
not make it well. Then Kainga sent for Tuukoihu, the chief who lived at
Ahu Tepeu, on the western side, and said, “Come to me to make the boat”;
and Tuukoihu came, and he made a good boat twenty fathoms long, and when
it was finished it was launched, and thirty men went in it to row. Now
Makita and Roké and the people from Hanga Roa and that part of the
island had taken refuge on Motu Nui and other islets of the coast off
Rano Kao. Kainga went in the boat to Motu Nui and rowed all round it,
and Kainga called to the people on the island, “Come out that I may see
you”; and they were all very frightened of Kainga because he was a big
man, so one after another all the men on the island came out that he
might see them, and he said, “Are there no more?” and they looked and
saw that there were two more hidden; so they brought them out, and they
were Makita and Roké, and Makita he slew, but Roké he let go.
* * * * *
Now there was war between one side of the island and the other side. The
Koro-orongo, the Tupahotu, the Ureohei and Ngaure fought the Haumoana,
Miru, Marama, Hamea, and the Raa. Kainga fought with his spear against
one of the Miru named Toari, and was angry because he could not kill
him. He went to his house and killed a white cock and gave it to the
child Huriavai to eat, and then he took five mataa and bound them on
wood. That evening Huriavai went to sleep; he dreamed that the white
cock was coming towards him, and that he threw a stone at the bird and
killed it, and he waked up afraid. Kainga said, “What is it, child?” and
the boy answered, “It is the white cock; he is dead”; and Kainga was
glad of the dream, and said joyfully, “He is dead! To-morrow morning
early, at five o’clock, we will go and fight.” So on the morrow he took
the five mataa in his hand and Huriavai on his back. The men of Hotu Iti
fought the men of Anakena and Hanga Roa. Kainga did not go into the
battle, but he stood a little way off with the child, and he saw that
Toari no one could kill, and he said to the child, “Go, boy, and take
two spears.” Huriavai was frightened, but he took two spears and went
into the battle. The men of Anakena came to kill the boy, but he did not
run away. They threw their spears, but they glanced off the child. Then
all Kainga’s men came forward, and they threw their spears at Toari; but
Huriavai threw one spear, and he killed him and he lay dead. Kainga saw
his enemy was slain, and took the boy on his back and went away quickly.
When Kainga was gone, all the people of Hotu Iti fled, and the people of
Anakena pursued, and they killed all the people of Hotu Iti, thousands
and thousands and thousands, women and children and little children, big
children and young men, and old men who could not walk away quickly.
Some of those who escaped took refuge in the cave known as Ana Te
Ava-nui, and others fled to the island of Marotiri (fig. 123). Kainga
went to Marotiri, but Huriavai hid in a hole on the mainland opposite;
his brother, who had two faces, was killed by a man named
Pau-a-ure-vera. The face behind said, “I see Pau-a-ure-vera; he comes to
me with a spear in his hand. You look too.” But the face in front said,
“I do not like to look; you look.” The face behind was angry, and said,
“You look too.” And while the two faces talked, Pau struck the boy with
his spear in the neck, and he fell dead, and Kainga saw from the island
the fall of his son.
[Illustration:
FIG. 123.
EASTERN HEADLAND AND ISLAND OF MAROTIRI.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 124.
ANA HAVEA.
The figure in the sea stands at a spring of fresh water.
]
The day after the battle, when Hotu Iti had been vanquished, Poié, who
was one of the Haumoana and a big man, came to live at Ana Havea, the
cave near Tongariki (fig. 124), and took a large boat with thirty men
and went to the island of Marotiri. On the island were many thousands of
the people of Hotu Iti, but among them there was one man, Vaha; his
father was of Hotu Iti, but his mother was of Anakena. He was the father
of Toari, who was killed by Huriavai, so he hated the men of Hotu Iti,
but no man dared kill him. When Poié came in his boat, he said to Vaha,
“Give me men to cook.” Vaha gave him one thousand in the boat, and Poié
went back to the shore and gave each of the men of Anakena a man to eat;
he took thousands of children by the leg and dashed them against the
stone. Every day he did the same again, and brought a thousand men from
Marotiri. One day, when the boat came back, a man called Oho-taka-tori,
a Miru, was at Ana Havea and saw Poié throwing the men on shore, and
among them a man named Hanga-mai-ihi-te-kerau; and Oho-taka-tori said to
Poié, “Give me for my fish that man with a fine name.” Poié said, “I
give no fish with a fine name to you who begin work at nine o’clock in
the morning.” Oho was angry with Poié; he was wearing a hat with cocks’
feathers sticking out in front, and he turned it round back side front,
and went to the house of his daughter, who had married a man of Hotu Iti
called Moa, and lived near Tongariki. He said to her, “Do not let your
husband mourn for the men of Hotu Iti”; the girl replied, “He does not
tell me, but I think he mourns much.” She gave her father food to eat,
and he went to his own home, the other side of the island. When Moa came
in from digging potatoes, his wife said, “Your father-in-law has been
here, and he said that you were not to cry for the men of Hotu Iti”; and
Moa replied, “I must mourn, but you are of Hanga Roa,” and he did not
eat any potatoes, but wept.
The men who had not taken refuge on Marotiri were, as has been told, in
Ana Te Ava-nui,[71] and the men of Anakena had made twenty holes in a
row in the cliff above, and they stood in the holes one behind the
other, and lowered a net over the edge of the cliff with two men in it
with spears, and the men in the holes held the rope and let down the
net, and the men in the net shouted to them “Pull up,” or “Give way,”
till they were opposite the cave, and then they killed the men in the
cave with their spears, and three brothers of Oho worked with these men.
At five o’clock in the evening, when his wife did not know, Moa took all
sorts of food, and buried them so that no man should see, and at seven
o’clock he said to his wife, “Give me the big net,” and she said, “Are
you going to take fish?” and he said, “Yes,” but he lied; he was going
to Te Ava-nui. He took the net and the food. By and by he left the net
behind, but he kept the food and went to Maunga Tea-tea.[72] There were
many of Poié’s men there, and all over Poike, but they were asleep. He
gathered there eight branches of palm, put them on his back, and went to
the cave, and all the men on the top of the cliff were asleep, and Moa
went down the cliff by the track and entered the cave. The men inside
did not sleep. They said, “Who are you?” and he said, “Hush, I am Moa.”
There were only thirty men alive. For two and a half months they had had
nothing to eat in the cave, and only the strongest were left. Moa gave
the men the juice of the sugar-cane like water, and little bits of
potato, and then he asked, “Where are the bones of the warrior
Peri-roki-roki?” They replied, “He is down there.” So Moa said, “Bring
them to me”; and Moa made fish-hooks of bone, and bound a hook to a palm
branch; then he said to the men, “I have made one for you; make seven,”
and he went back. When the net came down in the morning, the men in the
cave caught it with the hooks on the branches of palm, and the men in
the net called to those above to “drag up,” but the men gave more line,
and the men in the cave killed the men in the net, and then they climbed
up the rope and killed all the men at the top except the brothers of
Oho, those they did not kill.
Three days before this the men on Marotiri had rid themselves of Vaha;
it was in this way. The boy Huriavai, who was in a hole on the mainland,
was very hungry, for he was not old enough to catch fish, and he ate
seaweed. Vaha on the island opposite took the stem of a banana and cut
it into pieces, so that it looked like yams, and put it where the boy
could see it, and Huriavai said, “My father has plenty of food.” So he
swam across, and Vaha killed him. Then Vaha took the corpse and swam
with it to the mainland. It was dark, but Kainga listened, and heard the
swish of the water, and he too went into the sea and followed him, and
when he got to shore he hid behind a big stone, and when he saw Vaha
coming, carrying on his back the body of the child, he wept, and Kainga
said, “Who are you?” and he replied, “I am Vaha”; and Kainga said, “I am
Kainga, the slayer of Vaha.” And he slew him, and took the corpse of
Huriavai to the ahu, and then came and took the body of Vaha as fish-man
for food, brought it to Marotiri, and gave pieces to all the people on
the island. There were thirty men then left there, but they had no fire,
so they cooked the flesh in their armpits.
Three days after this the men from Te Ava-nui came along, and they
shouted across from the mainland, “We have killed the men in the net”;
and Marotiri shouted back, “We too have killed a man,” and they were all
full of joy. The island men swam ashore, and they killed all the men at
Ana Havea. The men from Marotiri went in one direction and the men from
Te Ava-nui in another, killing and slaying every one; but Kainga went
with neither, for he wished to find Poié. He went to Ana Havea, but his
enemy had fled, and he followed him all along the south coast, till they
were not far from Vaihu. Poié was a very big man, but Kainga was a
little one, and he had nothing to eat. He called to Poié, “You have
food, I have none; I shall not kill you, I will go back; but another day
I will kill you.” The two parties of Hotu Iti men had now joined one
another, and Kainga went with them. Men and old men, old women and
children they killed all, but the fine women they took; the sixty men
divided the women between them. A man would say to a woman, “Do you like
me?” and if she said “No,” then he killed her. Kainga told the men from
Te Ava-nui to go to one place, and the men from Marotiri to go to
another, and live with their wives and beget children, and so they did;
but Poié went to Hanga Roa.
* * * * *
Kainga told a Tupahotu called Maikuku to give his daughter to Poié, so
she went to him and bore him many children, and one day, when years had
gone by, Kainga called together his men and went over at night to the
other side of the island to fight. Maikuku was staying in the house of
his daughter, and Kainga had told him, “If Poié is not in the house,
sleep with your head outside the door”; and Kainga came and looked and
saw that the head of Maikuku was outside, and he said to him, “Then Poié
is not here?” and he said, “No, he has gone to the sea.” The
grand-daughter of Maikuku heard, and was angry for her father, and she
went a little way up the hill outside, and cried aloud, “The enemy are
coming to fight, and your father-in-law is very bad, although he has had
bananas and fish and much to eat.” Poié heard the child speak, and he
and his five brothers hid their net and the fish, and they ran along the
coast towards Rano Kao, and Kainga went too, and then they swam to Motu
Nui. Kainga followed, and they went on to Motu Iti and then swam to the
land again, and came ashore at the foot of the cliff below Orongo, and
Poié’s brothers tried to run up the hill, but Kainga’s men caught them
and killed four. As Poié came up, the blood of his brothers flowed down,
and he wept; but Poié they did not kill, because he had married the
daughter of Maikuku, and because they were all afraid. Now Kirireva, a
child of Hotu Iti, whose father had been killed by Poié, stayed at
Orongo, and the child asked if they were not going to kill Poié, and the
old men said, “No, we have already killed four.” Kirireva shaved all his
hair and his eyebrows, and put on red paint and told Poié to stand up,
and he ran three times between his legs, and the third time Poié fell,
and the boy killed him with a club because he had slain his father. Now,
when Poié was dead, Kotuu was finished and Hotu Iti victorious according
to the words of Hotu-matua.
The middle part of this story is briefly told by Thomson, but his
account differs in important points from the foregoing. Moa is
represented as the son of Oho-taka-toré, instead of his son-in-law, and
his action is designed to avenge his father; this is a more
comprehensible version. Kainga is dead. Huriavai is on Marotiri, and on
swimming ashore is killed by one of the enemy. Vaha is Huriavai’s
friend, who kills the slayer, and swims back to Marotiri with the
enemy’s body.
Our informant, Kapiera, was quite positive that the events took place
during the time of Ngaara’s grandfather, and refused to be dislodged
from his position because Juan pertinently pointed out that this was
inconsistent with the boat being made by Tuukoihu, who landed with
Hotu-matua.