"THE STORY OF THE
WOODEN IMAGES
Tu'u ko ihu
the priest and navigator, was the
tahunga who first carved images
in this land. When he was living at
Ahu te peu this chief decided
to go to the house at Hanga
Hahave called the House of
Cockroaches. He therefore left in
the early morning and climbed up to
Punapau. In front of the red
cliff there he saw two spirits,
sleeping. They had no flesh, those
spirits, their ribs were showing.
Their names were Hitirau and
Nuku-the-Shark.
Tu'u ko ihu
did not stop lest the spirits whould
know he had seen them. If they did
he would die. He went on his way
toward the House of Cockroaches, but
another spirit, Ha uriuri,
saw him, and he cried out to those
others, 'Wake up! The chief saw your
ribs!' They woke up with a start and
saw this human, they saw his back as
he walked up the mountain. Therefore
they quickly climbed and crossed the
way in front of him. They asked him:
'What do you know?' Tu'u ko ihu
answered, 'Nothing'. They said
again, 'Perhaps you noticed
something', but Tu'u answered
'No.' The spirits disappeared.
Tu'u ko ihu
went on his way, but the spirits
appeared in front of him again. They
asked him, 'What do you know about
us, O ariki?' He answered
still, 'I know nothing.' The chief
went on, the spirits met him again
at Pukurautea. 'What do you
know about us, O ariki?'
'Nothing.' If Tu'u ko ihu had
told those spirits he had seen them
they would have killed him. His
priestly wisdom held him safe. They
left, they disappeared. Afterwards
they prowled about his house with
their hands up to their ears,
listening to hear if he gossiped of
what he had seen; but the chief held
his tongue. He spoke to no-one of
what he had seen.
When Tu'u ko
ihu went down to the House of
Cockroaches the people were taking
the stones from the earth-oven and
were throwing out the ends of
burning wood. This wood was
toromiro. Tu'u ko ihu
took two flaming pieces of wood and
carried them into that house, into
Hare koka. He sat there, and
with his sharp pieces of obsidian he
carved them into moai
kavakava.
They were like men
who are dead, with their ribs
showing. They were likenesses of
Hitirau and Nuku-the-Shark.
Tu'u ko ihu spoke to no
person of what he had seen.
After he had made
these male images Tu'u ko ihu
fell asleep and dreamed of two
women. Their names were Pa'apa
ahiro and Pa'apa akirangi.
In his dream he saw that they were
hiding their Things with their
hands, they were covering them with
their fingers; therefore as soon as
it was daylight he got up and carved
two flat images exactly like those
women.
When he had
finished, Tu'u ko ihu loaded
all the images on his back - the
male images with ribs and the
moai paepae with their fingers
in a certain place; and he returned
to his house at Ahu te peu.
He left the moai standing in
that house.
Tu'u ko ihu
dwelt quietly in his house for some
time, and the people saw what he had
done, they saw his work with the
wood. Then they all went to this
chief with pieces of toromiro
to be carved. They wanted moai
kavakava, they wanted moai
paepae. They lit their
earth-ovens and cooked for him many
good things; seabirds, fish, yams
and kumara. They brought this
good food to Tu'u ko ihu so
that he would carve images for them.
The people got the
moai when they offered an
umu to the owner. If there was
no earth-oven, he kept all those
that he had made. He kept their
pieces of toromiro. One day
all the men who had given wood but
got no images went to Tu'u ko ihu
and said, 'O chief, give us back
our images.' 'You wait.' Then
Tu'u ko ihu went into his house
and made all the images walk. They
walked about inside the house! After
this the people called that house
the House of Walking Images. The
images walked, they made turns and
turns - karari-karari,
karari-karari, all about the
house.
Their owners saw
them doing this and said to one
another, 'See - these images are
moving in the house! What good fun
this, the images that move!' They
saw it, they were amazed, they were
filled with admiration. 'How funny
are these walking images!' In the
evening those people who had made no
ovens returned to their houses.
Tu'u ko ihu did not give them
their images." (Legends of the
South Seas) |