Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/388

 354 ^^^^ Bird Cult of Easter Island.

or " bird child." No specific benefit was alleged to result from it, but a child whose parents had not performed the ceremony, and whose love affairs for instance went wrong, might even kill his father in revenge for the omission. An expert, known as " tangata tapa manu," the man who, as Dr. Marett would tell us, " knew the right things to say," was called in and given a hen's egg ; on this last point much stress was laid ; he was at the same time told the child's name, which was subsequently inserted in the ritual. The child was shaved and adorned with white bands and hung round with coco-nuts, or, as these were not readily obtainable in Easter Island, with pieces of wood carved to represent them called " tahonga." A number of children each with an expert then went up to Orongo, as the correct month was December, the Ao were not yet there. An old man, Jotefa, on whose final account I principally rely, stated that he and nine other children with their parents and ten tangata-tapa-manu, and bringing ten chickens, went to Orongo from his home on the north coast, a distance of some eleven miles. The party danced in front of all the houses, went to the carved rocks at the end, and coming back stood in a semicircle in front of the door of Taura-renga, the house of the statue, the experts being behind and all singing ; no offering was made to the image ; according to anotheraccount the parents and children went on the roof of the house, the experts being below, and the parents gave chickens to the men. Jotefa's party returned to their home, had a feast, and gave more food to the professionals. The tangata-tapa-manu sub- sequently repeated the ritual at any " koros " (a special kind of festival), which were being held in the island, and the object apparently being to make public the child's initiation. If it was not possible to go to Orongo the ceremony could take place at any of the big ahu with images. An old woman who came from near Raraku said with much pride that she was a " poki manu," she