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TRANSLATIONS
There was a famous beast on Easter Island: "The carvers of the big images sent the people to get fish and crayfish in all the places. The fishermen arrived at Kikiri-mariu. They dived after a crayfish and then entered a hole where there were the body, the tail, and the legs of the crayfish.
The divers came up to the surface and said to the people above that the crayfish was so large that it could not be caught. Other people came and dived, but they died. The people to whom the crayfish belonged made a big net. Although six men had already died on account of the big crayfish with the long tail, they went to capture it amidst the cries of the crowd. They entered the sea, and swam until they arrived above the hole. One young man dived down to the crayfish and opened his net. Two others drove the crayhfish into it. When the crayfish was in it, the two young men pulled the rope and brought the net to the surface. They made for the shore with the crayfish. The people shouted, 'Eh, eh, the large crayfish with the long tail has been caught.'
All admired the crayfish that the young men were carrying to Oiohie.
They presented the crayfish to the image carvers, who shouted to an old magician woman: 'Light the earth oven to cook the large crayfish with the long tail, Te-tu-kote-ura-rarape-nui.'
The old woman lit the earth oven, put in the crayfish and sweet potatoes, and said to the carvers, 'When the food is done, take it out of the earth oven, but leave some of the crayfish for me.' The stone carvers said, 'All right.' The old woman went to the house of her brothers where she stayed to talk. When the crayfish was cooked, the image carvers opened the earth oven and ate everything without thinking of the old woman. Then they returned to the statue Te Tokanga which they were carving.
They had finished the face, the neck, and the hands. They were undercutting it to remove it and erect it on the ahu Vinapu and the ahu Mataitai. The old woman returned and saw that the earth oven had been opened and the crayfish eaten; only the shell remained. She said angrily, 'Where is my share of the crayfish?' They said, 'There is no more. We forgot you and that is why nothing has been left.' The magician shouted, 'Men who are standing, fall down. This is because nothing has been left of the large crayfish with the long tail, and to teach you never to take my belongings again.' All the statues fell down, for the heart of the magician was full of anger." (Métraux) I think this story tells much. The great beast down in the hole in the water is the sun at the darkest time. He is put to death (quite in order), but there remains (toka - a wordplay because toka also means 'rock under water') nothing to relit the fire of the sun with again. Of course there are double-meanings, for example, they forgot to share, they forgot the magic old Nuahine káumu à ragi kotekote, i.e. they had lost contact with the roots of their sun-worshop.
I remember from the account in Heyerdahl 5 that on the 17th day of the Easter Islanders' work with raising a statue according to old customs, showing how it was possible, an old woman appeared. Her task was to put a half circle of pebbles (in size as eggs) in front of the stone giant. There was a risk that the statue otherwise would fall on his face at the last moment when moved by his own weight up into vertical. At that time the story about the giant crayfish was still living in their minds. When statues fell on their faces, that was equivalent to men falling on their faces - they died. Their faces (mata) were no longer visible. Lots of noteworthy pieces are found in the story. 6 men had already died. Of course, I think, because they correspond to the 6 extra dark nights (cfr the death of Kuukuu and the 6 who were cruelly murdered by Oroi). The 'long tail' of the beast is mentioned repeatedly. I guess the 'tail' is the long end of the year after autumn equinox and up to new year. Names contain important clues: The place Kikiri-mariu, for instance. The pebbles (kikiri) allude to the pebbles needed in front of the new statue before it was raised. As to mariu I haven't found that word, and I guess that once it was Kiri-maripu (scrotum, the sack with 2 eggs for a new generation). As to Ohiohie, the place to which the crayfish was beeing carried, I imagine that the first part of the word alludes to 'devastate', 'uproot' (oi), but the possibilities are many. The total spectrum of allusions is not possible to reconstruct. However, a great part probably may be retrieved from the following words:
Obviously, though, Tokaga (the name of the statue they were making ready) refers to the 'remnants' (tokaga) of the crayfish which they neglected to leave behind to the Nuahine. On another level, however, there is a distinct flavour of 'abundance' (cfr '... 666 is an abundant number ...'), because '... Mq.: toka, a bank where the fishing is good ...' and '... large, smooth rock in the sea not covered by seaweeds (eels are often found between such rocks) ...' The lastmentioned definition of toka is curious. First we learn that there is a large, smooth single rock out in the sea, not covered by seaweeds, then we should understand that there are (presumably) two 'rocks', where 'eels' are often found in between. The beast in the deep is a crayfish in our story, not an eel. Métraux: "Another legend explains not only the overthrowing of the images but also the sudden interruption of the work in the quarry. It was heard first by Father Butaye ... in 1898. The natives showed him the place where a big earth oven had been dug out to cook a huge tuna fish. The same legend was told to Routledge ... a crayfish taking the place of the tuna ..." Presumably, there was a misunderstanding - it was not a tuna fish. Tuna means a 'rolling stone' (which cannot be covered by seaweed), but tuna also means the slippery eel:
... Soon afterwards Maui took a wife, and this led to the first of the exploits that he performed with the help of the jawbone of his ancestress. His wife went one day to wash herself in a still stream, and while she was in the water Tuna roa, the ancestor of eels, came slithering around her and made himself objectionable. That is, he touched her most improperly. When she went home she said to Maui: 'There is a man in that pool with very smooth skin.' Maui at once felt jealous and decided to kill Tuna. He dug a trench beside the pool, and laid down nine logs as skids, so that Tuna might slide over them as when a canoe is launched. Then he told his wife to sit near the trench while he put up a screen to hide himself. Soon Tuna was seen swimming towards her, and as he slithered over the skids Maui ran out and slew him with the enchanted weapon. One end of Tuna went into the sea and became the ngoiro, or conger eel. The other end of Tuna became the fresh-water eel and is still called tuna. A part of him became the kareaou, or supple-jack, whose smooth black canes, like eels among the river-weed, entangle the forest undergrowth today. And the blood of Tuna was absorbed by the rimu, the totara, and other trees, giving their wood its reddish colour ... The sexual allusions in the original tuna presumably made the aboriginals on Easter Island choose a more harmless creature to represent the beast in the deep (they were at that time converted to Christianity). ... I think that fingers are important signs and therefore it is interesting to note that the Egyptians sometimes chose other finger(s) than the index finger for sucking:
The sun child here is enclosed in a loop (signifying eternity) in form of a snake. Possibly this snake is the origin of the great Tuna who everywhere in Polynesia is involved with the origin of niu (the coconut palm) ...
... The black cat on Easter Island, located at midwinter, should be a reflection of this Egyptian cat, I think, and its opponent, Apophis in Egypt, would be Tuna in Polynesia. The eel is a better symbol than the snake, because midwinter is in the midst of the 'watery' region ... ... Saturn is effectively telling the time by cutting it to pieces, which reminds us about Marduk dividing the night in half by a slash and Maui cutting Tuna into 9 pieces. Similarly I find in Wilkinson that the Apophis snake is 'killed' by knives:
Wilkinson comments that magic knives were involved in destroying the enemies of the sun at each dawn and that the two sycomore trees between which the sun rises each morning were called the 'two knives' ... ... Maui came out again; he cut off Tuna's head to take it to his ancestor. But Huahega his mother took it from him and she said: 'You must bury this head of Tuna beside the post in the corner of our house.' Maui did so, and that head grew up, it sprouted, it became a coconut tree. On the nut which is its fruit we see the face of Tuna, eyes and mouth. All coconuts have this ... At midwinter, in the dark, means a position in the deepest part of the 'water', i.e. the darkest part of the year. At that point new year is being born and we cross our fingers, hoping the cosmic lottery will give us a new year which is abundant. |
