Te Pito Te Henua, Or Easter Island

[Jennifer Murdoch]

OBVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND WOODEN TABLET "KA IHI UIGA"
(From photographs presented by George Davidson to the California Academy of Sciences)

[Jennifer Murdoch]

REVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND WOODEN TABLET "KA IHI UIGA"
(From photographs presented by George Davidson to the California Academy of Sciences)

[Jennifer Murdoch]

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TRANSLATION OF EASTER ISLAND TABLET.

"Ate-a-renga-hokan iti poheraa."
LOVE SONG.
(Plates XLIV and XLV.)

Ka tagi, Renga-a-manu ---- hakaopa;
  Chiu runarame a ita metua.
Ka ketu te nairo hihi ---- O to hoa!
  Eaha ton tiena ---- e te hoa ---- e!

Ita haga ta poapatu ---- O te hoa!
  Kahii te riva forani ---- O te hoa e!
Auwe ka tagi ati ---- u ---- a ---- iti iti.
  Eha ton tiena ---- e ta hoa ---- e.

Ta hi tiena ita have.
   Horoa ita have.
   Horoa moni e fahiti;
          Ita ori miro;
          Ana piri atu;
          Ana piri atu;
          Ana taga atu.

[Jennifer Murdoch]

ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
NATIVE LOVE SONG,

Who is sorrowing? It is Renga-a-manu Hakopa?
A red branch descended from her father.
Open thine eyelids, my true love.
Where is your brother, my love?
At the feast in the Bay of Salutation
We will meet under the feathers of your clan.
She has long been yearning after you.
Send your brother as a mediator of love between us,
Your brother who is now at the house of my father.
O, where is the messenger of love between us?
When the feast of drift-wood is commemorated
There we will meet in loving embrace.

[Jennifer Murdoch]

OBVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND WOODEN TABLET "ATE A-RENGA-HOKAN ITI POHERAA"
(From photographs in possession of Bishop of Axieri. From photograph by Paymaster W. J. Thompson, U. S. N.)

[Jennifer Murdoch]

REVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND WOODEN TABLET "ATE A-RENGA-HOKAN ITI POHERAA "
(From photographs in possession of Bishop of Axieri. From photograph by Paymaster W. J. Thompson, U. S. N.)

[Jennifer Murdoch]

OBVERSE AND REVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND TABLET.
(From a cast lent by Parke, Davis & Co.)

[Jennifer Murdoch]

REVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND TABLET, OBTAINED BY THE CHILIAN CORVETTE "O'HIGGINS"
(Original in Santiago Museum, Chili)

[Jennifer Murdoch]

OBVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND TABLET, OBTAINED BY THE CHILIAN CORVETTE "O'HIGGINS"
(Original in Santiago Museum, Chili)

[Jennifer Murdoch]

.

OBVERSE AND REVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND TABLET, OBTAINED BY THE CHILIAN CORVETTE "O'HIGGINS"
(Original in Santiago Museum, Chili)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/ei/ei54.htm

[Jennifer Murdoch]

TRADITION IN REGARD TO THE ORIGIN OF THE ISLANDERS.

The island was discovered by King Hotu-Matua, who came from the land in the direction of the rising Sun, with two large double canoes and three hundred chosen followers. They brought with them potatoes, yams, bananas, tobacco, sugar-cane, and the seeds of various plants, including the paper mulberry and the toromiro trees. The first landing was made on the islet of Motu Nui, on the north coast, and there the first food was cooked that had been tasted for one hundred and twenty days. The next day the queen started in one of the canoes to explore the coast to the northwest, while the other canoe, in charge of the king, rounded the island to the southeast. At Anekena Bay the

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[Jennifer Murdoch]

two canoes met and, attracted by the smooth sand-beach, Hotu-Matua landed and named the island "Te-pito te-henua" or "the navel of the deep." The queen landed, and immediately afterwards, gave birth to a boy, who was named The landing place was named Anekena in honor of the. month of August, in which the island was discovered. All the plants landed from the canoes were appropriated for seed, and the people immediately began the cultivation of the ground. For the first three mouths they subsisted entirely upon fish, turtle, and the nuts of a creeping-plant found growing along the ground, which was named "moki-oo-ne." After the lapse of a number of unrecorded

[Jennifer Murdoch]

years, during which the island had been made to produce an abundance of food, and the people had increased and multiplied in numbers, Hotu-Matua at an advanced age was stricken with a mortal illness. Before his end drew near, the chief men were summoned to meet in council. The king nominated his eldest son as his successor (Tuumae-Heke), and it was ordained that the descent of the kings should always be through the eldest son. This important matter having been settled, the island was divided up into districts and portioned out to the children of the king as follows: To Tuumae-Heke, the eldest, were given the royal establishment and lands extending from Anekena to the northwest as far as Mounga Tea-tea. To Meru, the second son, were given the lands between Anekena and Hanga-roa. To Marama, the third son, were given the lands between Akahanga and Vinapu. The land lying to the northward and westward of Mounga Tea-tea was the portion of the fourth son, Raa, and was called Hanga-Toe. To the fifth son, Korona-ronga, were allotted the lands between Anekena and the crater of Rana-Roraku. To the sixth and the last son were given the lands on the east side of the island. His name was Hotu-iti.

[Jennifer Murdoch]

The tradition here goes back before the advent of the people on the island, and states that Hotu-Matua and his followers came from a group of islands lying towards the rising sun, and the name of the land was Marae-toe-hau, the literal meaning of which is "the burial place." In this land, the climate was so intensely hot that the people sometimes died from the effects of the heat, and at certain seasons plants and growing things were scorched and shriveled up by the burning sun.

[Jennifer Murdoch]

The circumstances that led to the migration are related as follows: Hotu-Matua succeeded his father, who was a powerful chief, but his reign in the land of his birth, owing to a combination of circumstances over which he had no control, was limited to a very few years. His other brother, Machaa, fell in love with a maiden famed for her beauty and grace, but a rival appeared upon the scene in the person of Oroi, the chief of a neighboring clan. After the manner of the sex in all ages and clinics, this dusky beauty trifled with the affections of her suitors and proved fickle-minded. When pressed to make a choice between the two, site announced that she would marry Oroi, provided he would prove his love by making a pilgrimage around the island,

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