Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/386

 352 The Bird Cult of Easter Island.

which the competition for the egg continued and it was still taken to be interred at Raraku. The cult thus sur- vived in a mutilated form the conversion of the island to Christianity, which was completed in 1868, and even the assembly of the remains of the clans into one place which took place about the same time ; but it was finally crushed by the secular exploiters of the island, whose house is built at Mataveri with the foundation stones of the cannibal habitations. The request to be given the names of as many bird years as could be remembered met with an almost embarrassing response, eighty-six being quoted straight away ; some of these may be the official names of bird-men and not represent a year, but they probably do so in most cases. Chronological sequence was achieved with fair certainty for eleven years prior to Rokunga, and in each case, in addition to the bird-name, the winner's own name was obtained as well as his clan and his family or sub-division ; the hopu's name w^as also ascertained and his clan and subdivision. This list, though it doubtless is not complete, stood reasonably well the test of re-examin- ation and extraneous evidence. Further back, though there is every reason to suppose that the year names given are authentic, the clans and other data supplied were not so reliable. The names of the iviatua who prophesied the event have not survived in the same manner.^

Legend relates that the manu-tara were not originally on Motu Nui. They lived, it is said, at one time, on a rock off the east end of the island, but every one came and ate them, so Hawa and Make-make sent them to a place on the mainland on the south coast, but still every one ate them ; then they went up to the top of Rano Kao on the opposite side of the crater from Orongo and here was held the first festival ; finally the birds went to Motu Nui.

' This folk-memory for bird chronicles is in curious contrast with the impos- sibility experienced in obtaining any satisfactory list of the "ariki" or chiefs, though they are said to have been only thirty in number.