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Te Pito Te Henua, Or Easter Island

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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #30 on: February 27, 2010, 12:53:27 pm »

The numerous bills on this island have gently sloping sides, except where they approach the coast, falling at this point precipitously to the sea. The plains are irregularly shaped, and some of the smaller ones rise to a considerable height. The physical character of the soil is alluvial. The substratum is volcanic ash and stones, and the upper formation is composed of decayed vegetable matter mingled with a rich deposit of decomposed lava washed down from hills by the frequent rains. These plains being formed by the periodical eruptions of the volcanoes, some difference may be noted in the quantity of the soil, varying according to location.
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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #31 on: February 27, 2010, 12:53:40 pm »

After the successive discharges of lava from the craters of Rana Roraka and Rana-kao had prescribed the limits of the island and when

p. 452

this flow had ceased, there was a heavy deposit of mud, covering deeply both hill and dale. This condensed earth, after the lapse of centuries, has formed a soil that produces a natural grass affording an excellent pasturage for flocks and herds. The expiring energy of the volcanic power appears to have been directed, long after the formation of this
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« Reply #32 on: February 27, 2010, 12:53:54 pm »

soil, to sprinkling thickly the entire surface of the island with stones and small bowlders, thus providing the means of attraction and holding the moisture, nature's substitute, as it were, for trees. The natives have distinct names for the following varieties: Black and red tufa with volcanic cinder and pumice are called "Maea-Hane-hane," "maea" being the generic term applied to all stone. A soft gray tufa is ground down with the juice of the sugar-cane and used as a paint. This is known as "Kiri-kiri Teu." Hard slates, black, red, and gray, are used for stone axes and called "Maea-Toke." Granite used for the same purpose is known as "Maea-Nevhive." The hardest and finest stone implements are made of the flinty beach pebble known as "Maea-Rengrengo." The hard cellular stories from which the majority of the platforms are built are called "Maea-Pupura." The material from which images were constructed is called "Maea-Matariki," and the obsidian from which spear-heads were made is known as "Maea-Mataa."
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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #33 on: February 27, 2010, 12:54:09 pm »

VARIOUS NAMES OF THE ISLAND.

Previous to the general recognition of the name bestowed by Admiral Roggeveen in commemoration of the day upon which the land was discovered, it had not been regularly christened by either of the earlier navigators who claimed to have sighted it. The Spaniards afterwards gave it the name of San Carlos, but the Dutchman's title of Easter Island was preferred by the chart-makers and was adopted by the world in general.
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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #34 on: February 27, 2010, 12:54:18 pm »

The island is known to the natives as "Te Pito te Henua," the literal interpretation of the words signifying the "navel and uterus." This singular name was given to the land, according to the ancient traditions, by Hotu Metua immediately after its discovery, and has been handed down through succeeding generations unchanged. To the simple-minded Polynesian this name is suggestive, appropriate, and beautiful. The child of nature recognizing the volcanic origin of the island can see in the great volcano, Rana Roraka, a resemblance to the human "te pito" in relation to its shape and gently sloping sides surrounding the shallow crater. The same association of ideas would picture the majestic volcano, Rana Kao, at the southwest end, as "te henua," in whose womb was conceived the embryo and whose vitals brought forth the rocks and earth from which the island was formed.
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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #35 on: February 27, 2010, 12:54:31 pm »

"Kiti te eiranga" is stated by an English writer of some note to be the native name for the island, but we could not find any authority for it, nor did the natives with whom we came in contact recognize the name.

p. 453

Throughout southeastern Polynesia this island is known as Rapa Nui, but the name is of accidental origin and only traces back about twenty years. When the islanders,
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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #36 on: February 27, 2010, 12:54:43 pm »

kidnaped by the Peruvians, were being returned to their homes, there was for a time a question as to the identity of those from Easter Island. The native name of "Te Pito te Henua" was not recognized by the French officials, and finding certain fellow-sufferers hailing from Oparo, an island lying 2,000 miles to the westward, were more successful under the local appellation of Rapa iti (Little Rapa), the euphonious title was dropped and Rapa nui (Great Rapa) substituted. Teapy, Waihu, and various other names have been given to the island, but clearly without warrant. Vaihu was the name of a district and was occupied by the most powerful clan in the days of Cook and La Pérouse, but it was never applied to the entire island.
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« Reply #37 on: February 27, 2010, 12:55:01 pm »

CLIMATE.

The climate is not unlike that of Madeira, with one wet and one dry season. From April to October the rainfall is copious, and in summer it is limited to passing showers. The mean temperature at the time of our visit (midsummer), in the shade, at 2 o'clock p. m., was between 78° and 80° Fah., and at 2 o'clock a. m. there was a fall of about 6 degrees. The southeast trades blow fresh at the beginning and end of the season, and make the climate salubrious and healthful. Our long fatiguing matches, while making the exploration of the island, were not accompanied with inconvenience from exposure to the direct rays of the sun, the constant breezes making the sensible temperature always appear lower than that recorded by the thermometer. Violent exercise induced profuse perspiration, but evaporation was always free and rapid. Electric storms are unknown.
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« Reply #38 on: February 27, 2010, 12:55:21 pm »

VILLAGES AND HABITATIONS.

The Catholic missionaries built at Vaihu, on the south coast, near Cape Koe Koe, a commodious and substantial church, a parsonage containing three rooms, and several outbuildings. The house is now the residence of Mr. Salmon, the outbuildings are occupied by his employés, and the church has degenerated into a storehouse for wool. The principal native settlement is at Mataveri, on the southwest coast, and about a mile distant, at Hanga Roa, a small neat church has been erected. Here the islanders assemble on Sundays and other occasions to hear the service read by one of their number, who was ordained especially to take charge of this congregation upon the departure of the French missionaries. At the southwest end of the island, and near the base of Rana Kas, is the residence of Mr. Brander.
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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #39 on: February 27, 2010, 12:55:32 pm »

The house is of modern structure, with large and convenient rooms, but is in a state of bad repair, and is more attractive when viewed from a distance, surrounded by the shrubbery and vines that have been Planted about it, than it is upon close inspection.

p. 454

The native priest and a few of his connections reside at Hanga Roa, only those in the employ of Mr. Salmon live at Vaihu, and the only settlement on the island that may be termed a village is the one at Mataveri. The primitive huts formerly used by the natives (Fig. 1) have

 
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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #40 on: February 27, 2010, 12:55:53 pm »



FIG. 1. NATIVE HOUSES BUILT OF BULRUSHES.
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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #41 on: February 27, 2010, 12:56:03 pm »

been abandoned for more comfortable dwellings constructed under the direction of a Danish carpenter out of material obtained from the wreckage of several vessels loaded with Oregon lumber. These buildings are of a style of architecture commonly met with in small cheap barns and stables, but to the simple-minded islanders they supply all the comforts that could be desired.
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« Reply #42 on: February 27, 2010, 12:56:11 pm »

These houses are usually about 25 feet long and 15 feet wide with undressed weather-boards and rooted with the same material. Hinged doors open in the center and admit light and ventilation, though a few of the more pretentious buildings are furnished with small glazed windows. The floors are of bare earth strewn with a litter of dried grass, filthy and vermin-infested from long use. Mats made of bulrushes are spread out for sleeping; several rough bedsteads and chests were seen, but the majority of the houses are destitute of furniture or ornament. Several families occupy the same dwelling, men, women, and children lie down together like dogs in a kennel, and with about the same ideas of what constitutes the comforts of life.
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« Reply #43 on: February 27, 2010, 12:56:28 pm »

FLORA.

The native traditions agree in the statement that the discoverers of the island found it destitute of trees and all vegetation except grasses and a creeping vine bearing a dehiscent fruit to which the name Moki-oo-ne

p. 455
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« Reply #44 on: February 27, 2010, 12:56:41 pm »

was given. Hotu-Matua and his followers are believed to have brought with them potatoes, yams, bananas, sugar-cane, and the seed of various plants, including the paper-mulberry and toromiro trees. The newly discovered species of legume, together with fish and turtle, enabled the first settlers to exist while the first crop was being planted and cultivated.
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