4. The curious notion of the Medusa head turning the onlooker to stone should be investigated. I will here take the opportunity to present the story of the first old king in the list of Manuscript E, viz. Oto Uta (the father of Tangaroa):
"... At the time of the loading of the emigrant canoe, Hotu Matua ordered his assistant Teke to take a (stone) figure (moai) named 'Oto Uta' on board the canoe, along with the people (aniva) who were emigrating. However, the figure was left behind 'out in the bay' (E:73). After the arrival in the new land, after disembarkation in the bay of Anakena, and after the return of the explorers to the homeland, our source continues with the following account [E:87-90]. On the thirtieth day of the month of October ('Tangaroa Uri'), Hotu asked about the stone figure (moai maea) named Oto Uta. Hotu said to Teke, 'Where is the figure Ota Uta (corrected in the manuscript for Hina Riru)? Teke thought about the question and then said to Hotu, 'It was left out in the bay.' Hotu said to Pure O, to Pure Ki, and to Pure Vanangananga: 'You fellows (kope), sail to the friend (hoou), to Oto Uta. Bring him here, he who is resting out in the bay. Move him carefully (? nee), you fellows, so that the king, that Oto Uta is not damaged!' Pure O, Pure Ki, and Pure Vanangananga took the canoe, put it into the water, and sailed to Hiva. The canoe of Pure O left on the fifth day of the month of November ('Ruti'). After the canoe of Pure O had sailed and had anchored out in the bay, in Hanga Moria One, Pure saw the figure, which had been lying there all this time, and said to his younger brothers (ngaio taina), 'Let's go my friends (hoa), let us break the neck of this mean one (or, ugly one, rakerake). Why should we return to that fragment of earth (te pito o te kainga, i.e., Easter Island)? Let us stay in our (home)land!' After the canoe of Pure O had departed, King Hotu contacted his guardian spirits (atua akuaku), namely, first, Kuihi and, second, Kuaha ... ... Pure O picked up a large round stone (pureva) and hit the top of the figure. Because of the stone, the neck of Oto Uta was broken.Then the wind started blowing, the billow rose, the waves broke, the rain started falling, the flame (i.e., lightning) shone brightly, and the thunder rolled. As soon as the wind started blowing, the waves broke, the rain fell, and thunder rolled, King Hotu knew that Pure O had done harm to Oto Uta. Hotu spoke: 'These fellows have done a mean thing to King Oto Uta!' After the neck of Oto Uta had been broken, Kuihi and Kuaha arrived. They picked up the neck of King Oto Uta, took it, and brought it with them. They arrived out in the bay, in Hanga Rau. (There) Kuihi and Kuaha left (the fragment). After the neck of Oto Uta had been brought on land, out in the bay of Hanga Rau, the wind, the rain, the waves, and the thunder subsided. Kuihi and Kuaha arrived and told the king the following: 'King Oto Uta is out in the bay of Hanga Rau'. Hotu said to his servant (tuura) Moa Kehu, 'Go down to king Oto Uta and take him up out of the bay of Hanga Rau!' Moa Kehu arose, went down, picked up (the fragment), and carried (it) on his shoulders to the house. There he left it for King Hotu. King Hotu sat down and wept over King Oto Uta. This is Hotu's lament (tanginga): ka hati toou ngao e oto uta e te ariki e / mo tau papa rangaranga o haho i te tai / mo tuu huehue rangaranga o haho i te tai / mo tau hahave rere ai ka pae / mo tae ngu rere ai ka pae / mo te ika aringa riva nei he aku renga ai ka pae Broken is your neck, oh Oto Uta, oh king! / Floating (?) like a raft (?) out at sea. / To be erected for the drifting huehue (fish) out at sea. / Able (?) to put an end to the flight of the flying fish hahave; / Able (?) to put and end to the flight of the flying fish ngu; / Put an end to this fish, a dorado, with the good face! (E:87-90)" (The Eighth Island) This rather cryptic account is clear at one point - the head of the old stone king was severed. Furthermore, he was left behind down in the water and the goal was to get him to 'the house' (up on land). Barthel tried to explain: "The transportation of the stone figure from Hiva is not a historical authentic voyage because all the protagonists are spirits. Kuihi and Kuaha, the guardian spirits of the immigrant king, who are at his side at crucial moments (Oroi conflict, hour of death), transport the (deliberately severed) head of the stone figure to the beach of the royal residence. From there, a servant of the king, who is mentioned by name, carries the fragment of Oto Uta to Hotu Matua's house. If the last segment of the tradition is to be taken literally, the stone ancestor's head did not weigh more than what a man can carry. The three 'fellows' (kope), commissioned by the king to bring the figure of Oto Uta unharmed from Hiva, all have names of spirits (akuaku) that live in the sea near Vai Hū and Hanga Tee on the southern shore. My informants (Laura Hill and Vincente Pons) gave me the names of four spirits, 'Pure Henguingui', 'Pure Ki', 'Pure O' and 'Pure Vanangananga', in connection with the traditional instruction to speak softly while gathering mussles at night on the beach (of the same coastal stretch). The instruction can be explained in the following way: pure means both 'cowrie' (PPN. *pule 'cowrie') and 'prayer' - in the Easter Island script both are represented by Rongorongo 25 [my glyph type pure] - while the qualifying additions refer to various ways of speaking. RAP. henguingui is synonymous with MGV. henguingui 'to whisper, to speak low' and goes back to west Polynesian forms (SAM. fenguingui 'to talk in a low tone'; UVE. fegui 'murmurer'). In many of the Polynesian languages, ki is the spoken word; in some few, ki refers to the process of thinking; (MGV., MAO., HAW.) and in some instances, it indicates special noises (MQS. ki 'to whistle with two fingers'; SAM. 'i 'to call like a bird'; TON. ki 'to squeal'). Generally, o is the affirmative answer to the caller, while vanangananga indicates repeated speaking. The four spirits represents, on one hand, the sound scale of empty conch shells and, on the other hand, a classification of types of prayers ..." He did not say anything about the possibility that the servant who carried the 'fragment' of Oto Uta was an allusion to the Mayan idea of 'year bearers'. "The Bacabs 'were four brothers whom God placed, when he created the world, at the four points of it, holding up the sky so that it should not fall. (...) They escaped when the world was destroyed by the deluge.' Their names were Hobnil, Cantzicnal, Saccimi, and Hosanek. Each ruled one of the directions and the associated Year Bearer day (one of four New Year days). The four brothers were intimately associated with the four Chaacs, or rain deities, and the Pauahtuns, or wind deities, who were equally associated with the four directions ..." (Wikipedia) And 'down in the water' surely must refer to that part of the sky roof. Stones are prone to sink: ... He then set off to look for his wife and children; he found them again and gave them food, for his rival had deprived the children of food in the hope that they would quickly die of hunger. The hero then hid in a meat sack, jumped on the Trickster and killed him. The corpse was cut up and the pieces scattered. However, the Trickster came back to life. He went away and stopped to rest by a lake, and meditated on death: should death be final or not? On seeing that a stick, then a buffalo turd, and lastly a piece of pith remained afloat after he had thrown them into the lake, he opted for resurrection. However, when a pebble sank, he reversed his decision. It was better that people should die, he concluded, otherwise the earth would quickly become overpopulated. Since that time, people only live for a certain period and die for ever ... |