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Volume 49 1940 > Volume 49, No. 193 > Tuamotuan concepts of creation, by Kenneth P. Emory, p 69-136
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- 69
 TUAMOTUAN CONCEPTS OF CREATION
PART 1.
ANCIENT Tuamotuan chants and genealogies which have survived reveal concepts of creation held by the learned natives before contact with Europeans. Now that the Tuamotuans are Christianized, these ideas have been overlaid and obscured by native efforts to bring the ancient lore in line with Biblical teachings. Any present-day recording of Tuamotuan beliefs is sure to meet with Biblicized accounts. To inform the Tuamotuans that these accounts are not ancient, and to inquire as to what their ancestors actually were taught concerning creation, is to invite reconstructions based upon whatever the informants may have learned but turned in whatever direction he believes may please the investigator. The chants which informants recite before they are questioned, the chants, recitations, songs, and genealogies which they have written for themselves in their manuscript books, copying from other manuscripts or writing down from the dictation of members of their own families, contain the most reliable information we have. I have essayed in this article to set forth and evaluate main concepts of creation as revealed by this material. Written in a manuscript of genealogies and chants, belonging to Fariua a Makitua of Fangatau island, in the central part of the Tuamotu archipelago, is the genealogy of their great chief Mahi-nui, who lived twelve generations before 1900. It begins with Tumu-ruia at 62 generations from 1900, and runs as follows: 1
At another place in Fariva's manuscript occurs a genealogy of a line that established itself at Fangatau 15 generations before 1900, and it begins with Tumu-po, at 32 generations from 1900: 3
A chant written in Fariva's book and headed No te tumu henua (Concerning the foundations or sources of the world), incorporates names at the beginning of one or the other of the above genealogies:
And so on for Tumu-ngatata (Source-of-rendering), Tumu-kere-henua (Source-of-soil-of-the-earth), Tapatapaiaha (Cutter), Tumu-ruia (Source-of-earthquakes). - 72  FIG. 1.—Chart of the evolved world, by Paiore of Anaa Island, dated 1869. Copy of photograph of the original. Photograph in B. P. Bishop Museum. The curved object on the first stratum represents Te Tumu and the thick horizontal bar below it, Te Papa. The circle of dots at the base of the picture represents the world before it burst producing the horizontal layers each supporting its own sky.
 FIG. 2.—Tuamotuan conception of the construction of the world as implied by Paiore's chart, figure 1, and the cosmogonic recitations in Tuamotuan manuscripts. It expresses in graphic form the ancestry of Earth (Fakahotu-henua, Fruitfulness-of-earth), and Sky (Atea, Space), the pair from whom gods and men are descended.
 FIG. 3—Main points of Tahitian creation graphically represented. Based on accounts in Ancient Tahiti, by Teuira Henry. a, The world in the beginning (in the form of an egg spinning in space, in absolute darkness. The god Ta'aroa, called Te Tumu (The Foundation), dwells in Fa'a-iti (Little-valley), the region within the shell Tumu-iti (Little-foundation), 1, enclosed within an outer shell, Rumia, 2. b, The developing world, primal Havai'i. Ta'aroa's inner shell, 1, was taken by Ta'aroa for 3, a tumu nui (main foundation) and a papa (stratum rock) of this world. His outer shell, 2, was taken for the sky Rumia, held close to the earth by the octopus, 4, Tumu-ra'i-fenua (Foundation-of-the-earth's-sky). Ta'aroa has Te Tumu (The Foundation) into which he has put his spirit, and Te Papa, bring props, 5, to prop the sky Rumia. He invokes a spirit to pervade the resulting space, atea, and so the god Atea comes into being. Ta'aroa dwells in the lower world of darkness, 3, known as te po.
 FIG. 4—Tuamotuan and Tahitian creation graphically compared: a-b, the Tuamotuan conception of creation; a'-b', the Tahitian conception of creation; a, the world while in the form of an egg and containing Te Tumu and Te Papa; a', Ta'aroa within his two shells, the inner one of which becomes Te Tumu and Te Papa; b and b’, the present world with the sky raised to its final height through Tane aided by Ru and others. Tane's abode, is in the ten skies; Atea's abode is the space over the earth represented by Hotu or Fakahotu; Tangaroa's abode is the nether world containing Te Tumu and Te Papa.
Written in a western Tuamotuan manuscript of Rau a Hirihiri and called e tumu no te henua, appears this chant similar to the Fangatau chant:
And so on for the following pairs of names:
The recitation ends: Ko te hau pakora ia Tane, kaore (e) rangi (The glorious realm of Tane [i.e., the present sky] was not yet a sky). In the manuscript of our informant Paea a Avehe of Anaa atoll, a recitation of these very same names occurs, called e tumu henua, but after the first of each pair of names appears simply e henua (a land), and after the second name, e arorangi (a sky). Now if we look at the “creation chart,” figure 1, drawn by and dated 1869 by Paiore of Anaa, a high chief and one-time regent of the Tuamotus, we will see written in pairs all but the last three of these names, which were obviously crowded out of this chart for lack of space, and we shall see also, as the third pair, the names Ngarue-te-fatu-moana and Tapatapaiaha. This pair, as we have just seen, occurs as third in the series in the genealogy beginning with Tumu-po, written in the Fangatau manuscript. The Paiore chart, figure 1, has ten parallel horizontal lines, and, if Paiore had not made a slip in drawing, there would have been, instead of nine, ten parallel arcs representing skies. The name on the right of each of the pairs of names written on the Paiore chart is called in Paea's manuscript a land, the other name of the pair is called a sky. If the arcs represent skies, then the horizontal lines must represent lands, and the names on the right, being names of lands, should be applied to the horizontal strata, and the names on the left, to the arched skies attached to them. - 77 The Tahitian account of creation dictated in 1822 by Paora'i of Borabora, has Ta'aroa, the creator, dwelling within one shell, called Tumu-iti, which is inclosed within an outer shell called Rumia, and this outer shell is regarded as the older (pa'a tahito). 6 Ta'aroa hatches himself and takes the shell Tumu-iti for a tumu nui (great foundation), a papa f enua (earth stratum), and a repo (soil), for the earth, and the shell Rumia he takes for the primal sky clinging to the earth. 7 (See figure 3.) In the Tuamotuan account of creation given by Paiore to Carnet, 8 the universe is first “like an egg,” which contained Te Tumu (The Foundation) and Te Papa (The Stratum-rock). They are hatched by the egg “exploding,” producing superposed layers each supporting its own sky. 9 Upon the lowest layer remained Te Tumu and Te Papa. Paiore represented Te Papa as a horizontal rock and Te Tumu like a pointed tree trunk (tumu) curving over it (fig. 1), recalling the lines of Mare's Tahitian creation chant: 10
It should be recalled that in the Tahitian account Ta'aroa acts through Te Tumu whom he is accredited with having conjured forth (rahu) and into whom he put his spirit named Haruru-papa (Reverberations-of-the-foundation). 11 Atea and Hotu (=Fakahotu), according to the Paiore account given Caillet and Caillet's chart illustrating the account, are offspring of Te Tumu and Te Papa. 12 However, the chart drawn by Paiore in 1869, probably ten years after Caillet drew his chart, 13 and incorporating the names in the cosmogonic chants appearing in Anaa manuscripts, makes Atea and his mate descendants of Tumu-po and Tumu-ao. Can the two be reconciled? The lands Tumu-po, Tumu-haruru and so forth, ending with Hotu or Fakahotu may have been considered manifestations or successive phases of Te Tumu; and the skies Tumu-ao, Tumu-ngatata, and so forth, ending with Atea, as manifestations or phases of Te Papa—the skies are often referred to by the Tuamotuans as Te Paparangi (The Sky-strata). But if this were so, Fakahotu, strictly speaking, would be male and Atea female. It would seem that the Tahitian priests were conscious of such an inconsistency and circumvented it by the curious Tahitian myth of the exchange of sexes between Atea and Fa'ahotu, in which “all that was masculine” (te huru tape) of Fa'ahotu was exchanged with “all that was feminine” in Atea, that their children which were being nursed on the “flat bosom” of Fa'ahotu would no longer die for lack of nourishment. 14 On the other hand, Tumu-po with Tumu-ao may have been considered offspring of Te Tumu and Te Papa, but we have not found a genealogy in which this relationship is expressed. However, Te Tumu appears on a genealogy of the Pomare family of Tahiti, purporting to show their Tuamotuan connection, as the father of Tahito-fenua, the father of Atea. 15 In the Tahitian conception of creation, the sky Rumia was clamped down over the land Havai'i by the octopus Tumu-ra'i-fenua. 16 Te Tumu and Te Papa brought posts to prop this sky and Ta'aroa propped it sufficiently to allow - 79 This preliminary propping of the primal sky by Ta'aroa is celebrated in Tahitian lore by a chant which I have presented in a previous paper and which is covered also in an account given by Henry. 18 A chant on the same theme was dictated for us at Reao in the extreme eastern Tuamotus by Keha a Kamore and Te Pano a Te Pito, both now deceased.
The song goes on for many verses, each exactly like the first, except that in place of popo, there appears, and in this order, turuturu (erecting of pillars), tahuhu (placing of ridge-pole), ahua (sills), tarava (horizontal purlins), kahonui (principal rafters), kaho-riki (thatch rafters), rauoro (thatch), fakahongi (joining), potupotu (ridge thatch), fakahuki (thatch pinning), fakarou, pangepange, fariki. The first cosmogonic chant or recitation written in a book of Rua, son of Hirihiri, who, I believe is a native of Anaa, is headed e iho tupu no te henua (development of life on the earth):
And so on for rito (swelling), kao (maturing), rau (leafing), mahora (outspreading), hipu (up-welling), rara (branching), and taupepe (?). - 80 Following the above, in the same manuscript, and under the heading e iho no Tumu-haruru (a genealogy of Tumuharuru), is this recitation:
And so on, for Tapatapaiaha, Te Pu (=Pou)-henua, Rangi-tape (=Rangi-take), Matau-heti, Te Kohuariki, (O) rovaru, Turihono, Kororupo, Te Tumu-kuporu, Tu-rikiriki, Tuaraki, Havaiki, Peaha, Fakahotu, Atea, Te Hau-pakora. The recitation then ends: Kua tupu te henua (The earth has developed). The next recitation in the manuscript begins E tuharahara atua i po, hakapu hanga tama na Atea (A stirring of gods in the period of darkness, a birth of children of Atea). It continues:
And so on for ra (sun), hau (dew), manuka (dark cloud), reva (sky), putaheo (=putake). Then follows:
Following the above is the recitation e tumu note henua (recitation of the foundations of the earth), already given, and illustrated by Paiore's 1869 chart, figure 1. If we turn now to the manuscript book which Paea of Anaa brought to us to be copied when first we knew him, we will find almost identical versions of the same recitations, - 81 It is interesting now to look into the manuscript book of Fariva, of Fangatau island, and to find there that his first cosmogonic recitation is the one beginning Tumu-po, e tumu ia no te po, which I have already presented, and that this is followed by a version of the recitation with which both the Paea and Rua manuscripts begin. The recitation in Fariva's book is headed fanau te uho kite henua (life springs up in the world):
And so on for hare (turbidity), nato (contracting), and twenty-five other aspects including tupu (growth), rito (swelling), toro (extending), aka (rooting), hihio (fine rooting), peka (crossing), mau (establishing), kao (maturing), manga (branching), rara (dispersing). 20 Then follows:
When we compare this version with the other two given and with a third which I reproduced in a previous article, 21 it is apparent that Tumu-ruia has been put on the end of this Fangatau version because he is the first name on the genealogy of their king Mahi-nui. But the name has been put here, I feel sure, because of assuming that Tumu-ruia, being the first name on the genealogy, is the first man, a belief which is current at Fangatau. Of the notes collected for us by Monsieur Hervé at Fangatau in 1929, the first reads: “The first man known was Tumu-ruia, situated at 73 generations [actually 62 before 1900] … he belongs to the period of the kapi rua, that is to say, to the time when sky and earth touched each other …” A careful inspection of the genealogy of Tumu-ruia reveals it as a typical cosmogonic genealogy from Tumu-ruia to god Tane, appearing thirty-one generations later, and in it Tane is the son of Te Hau and Pu-take, who, in Paea's manuscript version of the chant we are considering, are offspring of Atea. On the Fangatau genealogy, Te Hau is the son, not Atea (Space), but of Reva (The Space-just-above-the-earth) and Te Angi (The Gentle-motion). How can Tumu-ruia be the first man if he is the ancestor of Te Hau and Tane? The fact of the matter is, I believe, that this cosmogonic chant is based on a different cosmogonic genealogy from the Fangatau genealogy, and Tumu-ruia therefore does not properly belong to the end of it. At the end of the cosmogonic recitations in Fariu's manuscript, which I have just given, occurs a cosmogonic chant based in part on the cosmogony which the genealogy of Mahi-nui reflects. It is headed Parau no te uho fanaua (Chant of the offspring of the chiefly line). A version of this chant was copied by Percy Smith in 1897 from the book of Tapanga, an Anaa native, who was supposed to have written it down about the middle of last century. 22 Another shorter version entitled Nana hang a o te henua (Growth of the - 83 CHANT OF THE ANCESTRAL OFFSPRING
Parau no te uho fanaua
And so on for maranga (rising), tika (standing), 32 haere (walking), tipa (leaning), pare (putting on of eye-shade), hume maro (girding on of loin cloth), ranga (supporting).
In the above chant Rongo, Tu (as Tu-tavake), Tangaroa, and Tane appear after Atea and Fakahotua. At Hao Island, the genealogy of the chiefs as written in most books, begins - 86
Now Te Aku states at the beginning of the genealogy, “There exists the genealogy of Atea-nuku-mau-atua which we add to this genealogy from Atea-nuku-mau-tangata. The first person to establish himself on Hao was Atea-nuku-mautangata, so the majority claim now, in their speech and their books.” This genealogy of Atea-nuku-mau-atua, to which Te Aku refers, begins with him and his wife Hotu. They beget Tane, Tangaroa, Ru, Ruanuku, and the beings which helped set in order the world-of-light, namely, Pingao, Tope, Pepe, Titi, Tiki, Maui, Ngaohe, Vaerua. The manner in which this genealogy is connected to the other is by mating Tiki, the first man, to Hina-nui, for the parents of Atea “nuku-mau-tangata” who marries Fakahotu. I believe this an attempt to reconcile the Hao genealogy of king Muna-nui, with the songs about Atea and the host of gods (nuku mau atua) which they are very fond of singing. Te Uru-rehu a Popo, who in his youth travelled with the missionary Montiton as his assistant, 49 has written in a manuscript prepared for the missionary Hervé Audran, a Hao genealogy from Atea-“nuku-mau-tangata” and Fakahotu, parents of Rongo, Tu-nui, and so forth, which is carried back to god Tane on a fantastic genealogy. In the genealogy Tiki and Hina are the parents of Atea- “nuku-mau-tangata, ” Tumu-nui and Tumu-iti are the parents of Tiki and Aitu-matangata; and Te Pou-o-te-rangi and Rongo-mauri are the parents of Tumu-nui. The genealogy then goes back twelve - 87 Te Ururehu was a native of Napuka. My principal informant at Napuka, aged Te Mae, remembers Te Ururehu as one who travelled about “stealing and mixing genealogies.” His genealogy from Tane can be dismissed from serious consideration other than as an interesting example of what a native is capable of doing when writing for a European. Western Tuamotuans have not escaped a tampering with genealogies to bring them into some agreement with Biblical teaching. The main genealogy of our informant Paea, as he had written it in his book, has incorporated the genealogy contained in the well known Biblicized account of creation which Caillot has published. 51 In this account, “When the land was finished, he (Vatea) made the man called Tiki and his wife Hina. Hina came from the side of Tiki. They slept together and had children.” 52 Now follows a genealogy from Tiki and Hina extending eight or nine generations down to Rata, the Noa of the Flood, whose children are Ata-ruru, Ata-mea, Ata-ia. In this account which Caillot collected from Hao, Ata-ruru is made to be the father of Atea-nuku-mau-tangata, and thus the genealogy is connected onto the indigenous genealogy of the Hao chiefs. The genealogy of our informant Paea of Anaa opens also with this Biblicized genealogy from Tiki to Rata and his son Ata-ruru, and then continues with this orthodox Tuamotuan beginning for a genealogy:
And so this genealogy continues through what is indisputably a padded genealogy, to Te Piri-o-te-rangi (The Clinging-of-the-sky) and his wife Henua (Land), the parents of Atea-“tangata” who married Fakahotu and begot Vaitu-ma-tangata (Gods-and-men), Te Ariki-o-te-po and Tane-nui-atea. By western Tuamotuan genealogies Atea and Fakahotu are either the parents or grandparents of Tu-makinokino and Piki-maunga, the parents of: Rongo-nui, Toi-ane, Tangaroa, Puniava, Kainuku, Tohitika, Tu-nui. What is remarkable about these genealogies and accounts is that Tangaroa does not figure as the first god and creator but appears after Atea and Fakahotu along with the other active gods Tane, Tu, Rongo, and so forth. From Anaa we have these two chants for Tangaroa, given by our informant Paea:
The last chant explains the prominence of Tangaroa in marae prayers when the turtle is sacrificed, and brings out clearly that his abode was considered to be the nether world. In the Tahitian conception of creation, Tane was born of Atea and Papa-tu'oi. 53 He, with the other gods which came into being, lived in darkness under the confined sky of Rumia (te ra'i piri o Rumia). 54 These gods decided to raise the sky. Ru propped the sky a little, resting it on the flat leaves of the pia (arrowroot plant), the teve (a plant, Amorphophallus campanulatus, somewhat similar to the pia) - 89 In the Tuamotuan accounts of creation the separation of the sky from the earth is called the war of Tane against Atea. Tane is regarded as the son or grandson of Atea and Fakahotu. According to Paiore's account as recorded by Caillet and presented by Henry, Aito and Fenua (i.e., Tahito-fenua), parents of Tangaroa-i-te-po, were the only children of Atea who objected to the raising of the skies, for “they preferred the horizontal position.” 59 Montiton speaks of Tahito-fenua as one of the giants living between the Sky and the Earth in the period when they clung to each other. 60 Throughout the Tuamotus to this day songs are sung in praise of the raising and putting in order of the sky by Tane and his host of helpers, the principal one among them being Ru. At Fangatau and at Hao, Maui is included among those who assisted in putting the sky in order. Henry collected a Tuamotuan account of Tane's war against Atea from a Tuamotuan sage named Taroi-nui, who, I think, may have been Taroi-a-Nui, conseiller suppleant at Rangiroa Island from 1885 to 1891. 61 In this account, as in the Fangatau genealogy of Mahi-nui, Tane is the son of Te Hau, but the mother, instead of being Pu-take is simply called - 90 Taroi-nui recounts 63 that Tane while still a youth came down from a sky [i.e., region] named Vavau “to wage war with Atea.” He was defeated in this first attempt. When mature he went to his ancestor Fatu-tiri (Thunder) and obtained thunderbolts [fate kura a Tane] as weapons to throw upon Atea. He gathered a mighty host from Vavau, “headed by his ancestors” Ru-roa, Ru-poto, Ru-farara, Rutua-pu'u, Ru-honu. From Mata'i-i-te'ura-re'a he obtained seeds of the pia (arrowroot), which he planted. Upon the spreading top of one of the plants he sat, chanting:
Then the pia plant rose up higher and higher with Tane, who thus extended the skies and fixed them in their proper place. “The pia plant remained as a prop for the centre of the first sky; the foundation stone [i.e., Te Tumu] remained down on the lowest layer of earth to prop the world, and it [the prop?] was named Te-ara-nui-pi-manu-'ura.” 64 Te Ara-nui-pi ('i)-manu-'ura means, The Pathway-by-which-the-manu-kura ascends, and I believe it refers to the opening in the strata shown in figure 1. The manu kura (crimson bird), was a messenger of the gods. The Taroi account continues: “When Atea saw that Tane had come into his region and had raised the skies, he said: E noho anei au i te tuturi i te hoa o Havai'i nei, a pari i te toto o Atea? (Shall I remain and kneel in the presence - 91 In the Tahitian account of Tane's struggle with Atea “derisive flames appear in the sky of Atea” (tutu'i tahito ra i te ra'i o Atea). 68 It is not said by whom they were started, but in Mare's Tahitian account of creation Ta'aroa is addressed by his friend Pani, “O wonder-working spirit, what is the fire taking hold of the sky? Extinguish it.” 69 In the Tuamotuan chant from Hao enumerating those who took part with Tane in the ordering of the skies, Tangaroa is referred to as Tangaroa e tutu i te rangi kia vera (Tangaroa who set fire to the skies that they burn). 70 A Hikueru version attributes the act to Manu-kura (Crimson-bird), who is apparently the messenger of Tangaroa. Tane's challenge to Atea is celebrated throughout the Tuamotus by versions of this song from our informant Paea of Anaa:
Our informant Fariua wrote out for Stimson as an “esoteric” version of the above chant: 71
In commenting on this chant, Stimson remarks of the line e turuturu Tane i to Rangi, that “in all modern corrupt versions of the chant to na [his] has been substituted for to [your], thus altering the significance to accord with Tane's supremacy, for the translation would read: ‘Everywhere shall Tane support His Sky-world’ The authentic esoteric rendering is as given in the text.” 72 But we have no assurance whatever that Fariua, confronted with the task of writing esoteric chants for the esoteric account he furnished Stimson, did not interpolate the name Kiho in this chant and change to na, or ta na (his) to to (your). Paea's version which I have just given is corroborated by others collected at widely different points in the Tuamotus, and it is consistent with ancient Tuamotuan and Tahitian concepts of Tane and his activities. Written in Fariua's own manuscript book is the following chant commemorating the work of Tane: CHANT OF THE CREATION OF THE SKY BY TANE.
Parau no te hangahanga o Tane i te rangi.
Now follow twelve more Takurua each with a different epithet. The epithets are as follows: tipu-aro-rangi, i-te-ata-pongipongi (in-the-morning-cloud), i-te-ata-ahiahi (in-the-evening-cloud), i-te-kaveinga (in-the-guiding-star), horo-pukupuku, te-kapua, te-vaenga-nuku (the-separation-of-land), te vaenga rangi, te-uru-o-Atea (the-head-of-Atea), te-vae-o-Atea (the-foot-of-Atea), i-te-taha-maui-o-Atea (on-the-left-side-of-Atea), i-te-taha-katau-o-Atea (on-the-right-side-of-Atea).
Following the above chant, Fariua has in his book this chant for Tane: GREETING OF TANE
Manava o Tane
The same chant, with minor differences which I have indicated in the notes, appears also in the manuscript of Te Ururehu, copied by Stimson at Takapoto, thus proving that - 95
From Te Tua a Maopi of Kaukura Island we have another chant hailing Tane.
The war of Tane with Atea is commemorated by a well-known song. As written in a Hikueru manscript this is the song:
The following verses bring in one and then another of the warring gods, in this order:
Paea of Anaa recorded the same chant except that the names of the gods differ somewhat as well as their character:
This list is the same as a list of the gods which Paea had written in his own book before we knew him, except for the last three names which in his book are replaced by names of Tane. In putting korero (speech) after Tangaroa, Biblicized learning is reflected, for Paea's book opens:
Following the above recitation are the cosmogonic recitations or chants which I have already given and which are attributed to Tane or Atea. At the end Paea's book has a note saying of Tangaroa, “the third” of the gods, that his work was to speak or command (o te reko), and that it was said of him that he was a varua, (spirit, i.e., The Holy Ghost). Following this statement Paea gives four short chants addressed to a chief, and then has another note: “Atea, Tane, and Tangaroa just developed (e mea tupu noa), they were not created (hamani hia), as for Tiki and Hina, they are indeed our ancestors.” After this comes the story of the flood in which Rata plays the part of Noa and his ship Te Ao-pikopiko-hiti, takes the place of the ark. “In their time torrential rains fell from the heavens (paparangi), the earth below was covered by the flood because of the anger of Atea.” But, aside from what we have seen in Paea's genealogy, this is the extent of the Biblicized influence reflected in Paea's book, and does not affect the chants themselves. - 98 At Tatakoto island in the eastern Tuamotus, Tane raises the sky with the aid of Poe and Tongareva. Four chants commemorating this event were written in the book of Te Hiva, which was in the possession of Kaoko, his eldest child, and the same chants were also written in another book belonging to Ioane Tane-hoa-nuku, whose teacher was Te Hiva. Ioane says that when Tane approached Atea at the. time of the raising of the sky, Tane caused thunder to rumble (ngunguru atu m te fatitiri) and lightning to flash (korapa atu ra te uira). Tane wished to raise the sky because he was not able to walk upright, his legs were bent (kua hopikipiki hia ana vaevae). It was afterwards that Tane killed Atea by means of magic fire. These are the chants in Te Hiva's book: CHANT OF TANE-TE-VAI-ERE, WHO ESTABLISHED THE SKIES ABOVE
(Parau no Tane-te-vai-ere i hakamau i te rangi ki runga)
CHANT FOR THE FIXING OF THE PILLAR-OF-THE-SKY
(Parau no te hakamauhaga i te Pou-o-te-rangi)
THIRD CHANT CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SKIES ABOVE AND THE FINISHING OF THE MOULDING OF TIKI AND THE CREATION OF HINA
(Parau toru no te mau hanga o te rangi ki runga e te oti hanga no te ori hanga ia Tiki e te hakatu hanga ia Hina)
FOURTH CHANT
(Parau maha)
An introductory note to the above chants from Tatakoto reveals an attempt to classify Tane as the Tuamotuan equivalent of the god of the Bible; for it states that Tane had three names, Tane-te-vai-hau, Tane-te-vai-ere, and Tane-te-vai-ara, and specifies that these names applied to one person (hoe ra ta'ata teie) but reflect three natures (e torn hum i roto i tona i'oa). The Tuamotuan conception of Ru raising the heavens parallels that of the Manihikians, where Ru, prostrate on the ground, lifts the heavens a little by raising his back. 82 Then, pausing awhile on his knees, Ru gives a second push with his back. Now, standing upright, with his shoulders he raises the skies still higher; and finally, with the palms of his hands and then the tips of his fingers he raises the skies to the greatest height which he can. In the Tuamotuan account of the raising of the sky, Ru elevates the sky by rising from a prone to an upright position in a number of stages. At each stage he is given an epithet appropriate to that stage, hence the names given by Taroi-nui: 83 Ru-honu (Ru-the-turtle), Ru-farara (Ru-the-leaning), Ru-tua-pu(k)u (Ru-the-bent-back), Ru-poto (Ru-the-short), Ru-roa (Ru-the-long). Aged Kamake of Fangatau gave an interesting list of Rus, calling them the ngati Ru. He began with Ru-takoto (Ru-the-prone) whom he placed in Te-Rangi-piri (The-clinging-sky). Then he gave in succession, Ru-farara, Ru-te-nohunohu, Ru-tua-hanga, Ru-tua-puku, Ru-poto, Ru-roa, whom he placed in Te-Rangi-keta (The-attached-sky) and in the third and highest sky, Te Rangi-mau (The-established-sky), Ru-roa was at the tip. Ru-nui (great-Ru) and Ru-iti (small-Ru) he excluded from the list of supporting Rus, but he had them inhabiting Te-Rangi-mau, the highest heaven also called Atea-rangi. Kamake called Te-Rangi-keta also Papa-rangi, and said that this was where the stars were located. Te-Rangi-piri, the lowest region he called Papa-uira (Stratum-of-lightning). - 102 In the Tuamotus Ru is called the son of Atea. On genealogies from Hao, he is the son of Atea and Hotu. In a Tahitian account received by Orsmond in 1825, it is said of Ru: 84 “The eyes of Atea glanced down at those of his wife Hotu, and they begat Ru-te-to'o-ra'i [Ru-the-prop-of-the-sky], Ru-afa'i-ra'i [Ru-who-lifted-the-sky], Ru-i-toto'o-i-te-ra'i [Ru-who-propped-the-sky], and Ru-i-ta'ai-fenua [Ru-who-trampled-the-earth]; all these names are for one man …”
I have already pointed out that at Fangatau and at Hao island, chants include Maui among those who assisted in the work of putting the sky in its present order. At Hao, Maui receives the designation, “Maui who lashed the sky until it was maopo (Maui i rukutia te rangi kia maopo). At Fangatau Maui is called “Maui who bound-round the sky until it remained in place” (Ko Maui i fan hia te rangi kia mau). In the Fangatau chant of the voyage of Hiro, written in Fariua's book, Maui is referred to as Maui mavae, maturu-turu, matautea (Maui who cleaved-apart, propped, separated). In the chant there is reference to the octopus, Tumu-rangi, to Tahito who objected to the raising of the sky, and to the raising of the sky by the host from Vavau. Then the theme passes to the cherished bird of Tane, which, in spite of Hiro's warning, is killed by his elder brothers and laid on his ship's sacrificial altar, and the flesh of which Hiro, unwittingly eats. In consequence Tane sends a storm which capsizes the ship. 85 CHANT OF THE EXPLOITS OF HIRO
(Parau no te fakatere o Hiro)
The second, third, and fourth stanzas are like this first except that fatu kaki (bend of the neck), rima katau (right hand), and rima maui (left hand) respectively, appear in place of uru (head); and in place of the names Piki, Koka, Papa-kia-ura, Papa-kia-reu, there appears Rakei-nuku, - 105
If we pause now to compare the Tahitian accounts of creation with the Tuamotuan as revealed by the material I have just given, we will see that the fundamental difference is that Ta'aroa has taken upon himself the rôle of Te Tumu, Tumu-nui, or Tumu-po, of being the first, and that Te Tumu is created by Ta'aroa, invested with his spirit, and made to function as Ta'aroa's representative (see figure 4). The world does not begin its development of itself, but is created by Ta'aroa, and gods are conjured forth to take part in the development of the world from the very beginning. The Tuamotuan conception, from its wide distribution in Polynesia, is undoubtedly the older and furnished the frame for the Tahitian cosmogony in which Ta'aroa, originally the son of Atea, is elevated to a supreme position and made the creator of the earth, the gods, and man. PART 2.
The cosmogonic recitations or chants in Paea's manuscript are followed by the great nunao ariki (probing of chiefly ancestry) chant, and in the Anaa manuscript Percy Smith copied, this is also the order. But in the manuscript of Fariua of Fangatau, this chant precedes the others. Versions of the nanao ariki chant are written in the manuscript books of the families of rank throughout the central and western Tuamotus. We collected them from Anaa, Takaroa, Manihi, Napuka, Hikueru, Hao, and Fangatau. It is one of the most important and longest Tuamotuan chants. The various versions are adapted to the islands from which they come. It is a chant which belongs to - 107
Now follow, set in the same phrasing as above, the names Te Fau-here (Raraka Island?) and Ngoio-kaoa (a marae at Raraka), Nganaia (Anaa Island) and Motutunga (an island), Takaroa and Takapoto (islands), Raroata (Raroia Island), and Puhingaru (marae at Raroia), Puka-maru (Takume Island), and Aturona (marae at Takume). 110
And so on for pipiri (clings), momoe (sleeps), tauhani (caresses), and forty-six other verbs denoting his various activities.
To turn for the last time to Paea's original manuscript, we find following the creation chants, four short chants having to do with the ceremonial of greeting a chief. The first is an abbreviated nanao ariki chant, - 114 A PROBING OF CHIEFLY LINEAGE
E nanao ariki
Following this chant comes the hoake (giving): THIS IS THE HOAKE
Teie te hoake
Following the hoake comes the manava (welcoming): THIS IS THE MANAVA
Teie te manava
Following the manava comes the ui (questioning):
I wish to call attention to the inclusion of the name Tangaroa in the nanao ariki chant along with the names Tumu-nui, Tumu-iti, etc. Tahitian chiefs have sought refuge in the Tuamotus from time immemorial. They have intermarried with the local chiefs, as the genealogies abundantly testify. To recognize their blood it is only natural that Tangaroa should be included among the Tumu names in the principal Tuamotuan chant glorifying chiefly blood, for the Tahitian chiefs would claim descent from their first god and creator, Tangaroa, who was also called Te Tumu and Tumu-nui. In the Anaa version of the chant, Tangaroa is called Tangaroa-tavahi-tumu, which would seem to be an adaption of the Tahitian name Ta'aroa-ta'ahi-tumu. 148 Nevertheless, it is remarkable that apart from this gesture honouring the blood of Tahitian chiefs, the character of Tangaroa as a descendant of Atea and Fakahotu, and not as the creator, remains deeply imbedded in Tuamotuan teachings. Buck has shown that the position of Tangaroa as a supreme god and creator in the Society group was an elevation of Tangaroa to that position which took place after the Maoris and Hawaiians had lost contact with central Polynesia. 149 Tuamotuan lore indicates that the rise of Tangaroa in the Society Islands was too recent to greatly affect their own teachings, as in the course of time it surely would have done considering the close contact between the two areas. The conception of Tangaroa as a supreme god - 116 Thus we see that in pre-European times the Tuamotuans were more or less exposed to the Tahitian teaching that one of the gods, hitherto regarded as an offspring of Heaven and Earth, was the creator of them. In post-European times Biblical teaching has thoroughly accustomed the Tuamotuans to the idea of a supreme god and creator of Heaven and Earth. This has led to the identification of Atea or Tane as a supreme god and creator, or of Atea, Tane, and Tangaroa as a Trinity. In a previous article, “The Tuamotuan Creation Charts by Paiore,” 150 I expressed fear that our scepticism towards these identifications of Tane or Atea as supreme god led Paea of Anaa to invent Kiho as the supreme god and creator of the Tuamotuans, after hearing of the Maori esoteric cult of Io. Paea first gave the name of the supreme god and creator as Kuhi. It was some days later that he “remembered” that the name was not Kuhi but Kiho. The name, or term, Kuhi, appears in the well known creation chant known at Fangatau as Fanaua i raro Tu-henua, and which I have presented in this paper. In a chant for Atea, given by Te Iho-te-pongi of Raroia, kuhi seems to be a term for Atea: e kuhi anau hia ki raro i te papa o te henua, ko Atea (a kuhi, lamented for below at the foundation of the land, was Atea). In the creation chant, kuhi seems to apply to Atea and Faka-hotu. However that may be, it is significant that in Paea's first two attempts to give a chant for Kiho, he used a fragment of the creation-chant in question, containing the term kuhi. In each attempt he introduces Kiho in a different manner, and that in itself indicates he was experimenting with the chant. These are the opening lines of the attempts:
The opening of the chant in a full “exoteric” version collected by Paea from another Tuamotuan, is as follows: Hanau ki raro ia Tumu-te-varovaro, kia (ko?) Tumu-pere-henua-mea, koia te vahine … The opening of the chant in Fariua's Fangatau manuscript is this: Fanaua i raro Tu-henua, Pere-henua-mea te vahine … In the old Tuamotuan manuscript copied by Percy Smith (see footnote 23), the chant opens: Fanaua i raro nei, ko Tumu-henua i Henua-mea te vahine… The name Kiho does not occur anywhere in Paea's own manuscript of genealogies and chants, nor did we come across it in any of the numerous Tuamotuan manuscripts we examined. 152 Corroboration for the name from other sources is also lacking. 153 The “chart of the universe” which Stimson drew in 1929 under Paea's direction, 154 was taken with us during our first cruise through the western and central Tuamotu islands and displayed to the most learned of the natives we met. It was shown to Te Iho-te-pongi, a celebrated sage of Raroia, and to aged Kamake a Iturangi, of Fangatau, whom I regard as the greatest Tuamotuan sage we were privileged to meet. From none came a suggestion that they had heard of the existence of a god named Kiho. It was our belief at the time, due to the fact that the Tuamotuan dialects are closer to the Maori than the Tahitian, and to the fact that we were not finding Tangaroa the supreme god in the Tuamotus as he was in Tahiti, that the Tuamotuans might have had Io in common with the Maoris, and we believed, from what Tregear 155 had written, that Iho was an alternative name of Io. Now, to Paea, accustomed as he was to writing for us Tuamotuan equivalents of Tahitian words, such as kau for au (to swim), koutou for outou (all of you), Kiho might seem the equivalent of Iho. - 118 At Vahitahi in the eastern Tuamotus, during the following year (1930), it occurred to Stimson that tokio, the ending of a prayer he had recorded, might be to Kio, “all is Kio's,” 156 and if so, here was a prayer addressed to Kio, a name which seemed closer to Io of the Maori than Paea's Kiho. At first no informant could be found who had the remotest idea of a god of that name who would be addressed in this prayer. The only Kio of whom they had heard was Kio the demon (tuputupua, or tupapaku), a woman who assumed the exact form of another and stole her husband. Later, at Takakoto Island to the north, we heard again the tale of this Kio. Bishop Paul Mazé had recorded a version from Reao Island, to the east, several years previously, and has since published a Vahitahi version. 157 However, it was not long before one of our Vahitahi informants, Ruea, “confessed” to Stimson “that as a first-born child (matahiapo) she had been taught the lore of a primal and supreme god called Kio, but that for fifty years or more she had banished him utterly from her thoughts.” 158 Stimson further says, “Ruea finally consented to disclose to me all she could remember of the cult, imposing a condition of strict secrecy, for she was fearful of public resentment and criticism … Ruea had been taught principally by her maternal grandmother, Mahanga-a-Tetau and by her great-grandmother, Tokerau, mother of Mahanga. The chart given by Ruea of the Universe as understood by the ancient priesthood had been explained to her, when a young girl, by Tokerau, who drew it for her in the sand.” A little later Tuhirangi also claimed he had been taught the cult and also because he was a first-born. But we discovered in 1934, from the early mission records and from their own genealogies, that neither Tuhirangi nor Ruea were first-born. Ruea had an older brother Tuata, and Tuhirangi an older sister, Tukua, both of whom lived to have offspring. The mission records show that Ruea was baptized in August, 1876, at the age of eight months. To have been able to banish the lore of Kio for “fifty years or more” she must - 119 Tuhirangi died not long after giving his account of Kio. Ruea, shortly before her death in 1938, voluntarily admitted to Mazé, then resident missionary in charge of the eastern Tuamotus, that she had falsified her account of creation. On September 20th, 1935, Mazé wrote me: “Up until May last and since the appearance of the work of Stimson [Tuamotuan Religion], I did not have an opportunity of meeting Ruea—and upon my arrival she was seriously sick, nearly dying. Upon my first visits, from herself, spontaneously, in spite of her feebleness, she touched upon the subject of her accounts to Mr. Stimson … Then the hazards of my wanderings led me back to Vahitahi in July and August. Ruea, happily, was restored to health, but her sister Huarei was sick this time, and Ruea was always there. We spoke at length. She admitted having lied to Stimson … she contradicts herself continually. Her Kio is indeed the Kio, the evil female spirit, then he is a god just the same and has multiple names. In short, she is much embarrassed.”
On March 1st, 1938, Mazé wrote: “You will be a bit surprised to learn that Ruea has confessed to having falsified throughout to Stimson … She avows very simply having invented all … She knows of no other Kio than the Kio described by her sister Huarei [Kio the demon woman] … I read to her last November the second half of that which Stimson attributed to her in Tuamotuan Religion. I had already read her the first half during the sickness of Huarei, her sister. I noted her replies of three years ago and those of last November on the margin of Tuamotuan Religion. While the first time she had the tendency of accusing Stimson of embroidering, and saying, ‘it is from him not from me,’ this time, she avows simply having invented.”
Tangi, one of the leading sages of Vahitahi, is introduced by Stimson as one who had been taught the cult of Kio, although Stimson acknowledges 159 that Tangi would not say “that he had been taught anything whatever about the god.” - 120 Stimson states that Tangi “unwittingly revealed” his knowledge by his admission that the chant-ending tokio [as divided by Stimson into to Kio] could not mean anything else than “all is Kio's.” 160 But Tangi did not “reveal” anything further. To be sure, Tangi gave the prayer which ended tokio, but many others knew the prayer. However, none had heard the ending explained as Stimson explained it. 161 Stimson says that Tangi told him “he had heard it was Apereto (Montiton, the first Catholic missionary to the eastern Tuamotus) who had declared that since Kio was the Ariki-nui-o-te-Po (Mighty-lord-of-the-Nether-world) he surely was none other that Satan himself.” 162 When Tangi was questioned in 1936 as to when he heard this story, he simply replied that until we came he had not heard of any Kio, except the demon woman. 163 Montiton, in his account of Tuamotuan religion, 164 does not mention Kio, which he surely would have done if he had heard of such a god. From Vahitahi, in 1930, we passed on to Reao, the eastern extremity of the Tuamotus. Interested to learn if the cult of Kio existed here, Stimson began inquiries soon after our arrival. As at Vahitahi, no one seemed to know of a supreme god named Kio, until Stimson had defined him. Then two of the men said, quite glibly, they had been taught concerning him. When, however, they were questioned (in my presence), they talked most vaguely and, it seemed to me, leaned on what Stimson had told them. Asked to give chants belonging to the Kio teaching, they gave some typical cosmogonic fragments, but could recall none mentioning the name of Kio. 165 When, in 1930, Stimson and I returned to Papeete, from the island of Vahitahi, Fariua came from his island of Fangatau to assist us. Believing from a remark of Ruea of Vahitahi that Kino was a disguise for Kio, 166 Stimson was positive that the po kino ending some of Fariua's chants in the legend of Tahaki should be rendered po o Kio (nether world of Kio) and that this phrase revealed the existence of the cult at Fangatau. But Fariua maintained that he never heard this interpretation, or the ending rendered any differently than as he had given it. The only Kio of whom he - 121 Fariua not only denied having heard anything of an esoteric cult of a supreme god named Kio, but declared that he believed Paea had invented Kiho. I asked Fariua what he himself had been taught concerning creation, aside from the cosmogonic chants and genealogies contained in his book which he had permitted us to copy. He then wrote and presented an account in which Tumu-po plays the role of creator. Comparing this with what he later wrote for Stimson, I feel certain he selected Tumu-po as the nearest Fangatau equivalent of Ta'aroa, set forth in Henry's “Ancient Tahiti,” which he had read in my room, and of Io of the Maoris of whom he had heard through us. Then having singled out Tumu-po as the creator, it was an easy step, in the face of Stimson's belief that the esoteric cult must have existed at Fangatau, to say that Tumu-po was an esoteric name for Kiho. The substitution by Fariua of po o Kiho, for po kino, in imitation of Stimson's interpretation of po o Kio for po kino, in all the chants in the Tahaki legend 168 as Fariua first wrote it out for us, and the appearance of po o Kiho in so many of the “esoteric” chants which Fariua wrote out for Stimson, 169 is what first caused me serious misgivings as to the genuineness of his account of Kiho. A comparison of the cosmogonic genealogies and chants presented in this paper from Paea's and Fariua's own manuscripts written before we met them, with the esoteric accounts they wrote out in Papeete for Stimson and which he has presented in Tuamotuan Religion and in The Cult of Kiho, has convinced me that they adapted what they had originally been taught to the idea of an esoteric god named Kiho. After our return to the Tuamotus in 1934, while at the island of Tatakoto, Te Uira, a nephew of Tangi, the Vahitahi sage, said he had been taught the cult of Kio. In a short time he furnished Stimson with 54 Kio chants, many of them chants from the island of Hao. - 122 Upon my return to Honolulu, I had the opportunity of comparing the chants of Te Uira with our Hao and Vahitahi chants and discovered we had previously recorded versions of 34 of the 54 Kio chants. I found that the differences between Te Uira's chants and the older recordings were these: (1) the name Kio appeared in place of the names of other gods or of chiefs; (2) the name Kio was inserted at an appropriate place in the chant; or (3) the chant was attributed to Kio by Te Uira and not by the others. Te Uira, at one time or another, had supplanted with the name Kio the following names: Tangaroa, Tane, Ru, Tu-metua, Rongo, Te Vaenga, Erua-i-te-arai, Tiki, Maui, Munanui (chief of Hao), and Moeava (warrior). And Te Uira's Kio versions did not agree with the versions given by the two Vahitahi Kio informants, Ruea and Tuhirangi. Subsequent to our departure Te Uira told Bishop Mazé that he had never heard of a supreme god named Kio before our arrival in the Tuamotus. 170 Towards the latter part of our stay at Tatakoto in 1934, two natives, Ioane Tane-hoa-nuku and his cousin Kaoko, gave us versions of Tatakoto chants with the name Kio or Kiho appearing in them. This was, however, after they had become acquainted with Stimson's search for chants of this kind. When they were asked to produce books in which their versions of the chants had been written before they heard us speak of Kio or Kiho, they finally did so. But Ioane's book had previously been in our hands and at that time had not contained the material we wished corroborated. Kaoko's copy bore the date 15 February, 1906. When I asked Bishop Mazé to examine it and to see if the handwriting was that of Kaoko in 1934, Kaoko explained the fact that it was his handwriting of the present time by saying that Stimson had taken the original and he, Kaoko, had simply made this copy of it. When he learned Bishop Mazé knew Stimson had not taken the original but simply made a copy of it, Kaoko admitted frankly that he had altered the genuine chant, and put down the date 1906, to deceive Stimson. I have a letter from Ioane, dated 7 January, 1935, in which he says that he altered the chants “just for a joke” (e parau kanga ia naku). - 123 In 1935, an attempt on the part of Fariua to deceive me in regards to Kiho, completely undermined my confidence in what he has to give in support of the cult. I had written Fariua, asking him to question aged Te Miro as to why the number of upright slabs on an ahu, or marae platform, of a Fangatau marae, should always be three. In reply (letter dated Fangatau, 1 April, 1935), Fariua said Te Miro's mind was too far gone for questioning, but that Kamake had told him that the names of the two sets of three slabs on the double marae of Ramapohia were Kainuku, Tohutika, Puniava, and Atea, Kiho-tumu, Tane, with the isolated slab standing between named Rua. In 1929, I had gone onto marae Ramapohia with Te Miro, then 88 years of age, and Fariua, then 44 years of age, accompanied us as interpreter, and Kamake, then about 74 years of age, stayed behind because, according to his own words, he had been born too late to learn as much as Te Miro about the marae. Te Miro gave as names of uprights standing along the ahu end of the marae: Tauruhua, Kainuku, Puniava, Tu, Pehau-nganga, and Orua. Kainuku and Puniava appear on Fariua's list, but applied to different slabs. The trinity Atea, Kiho-tumu, and Tane, are new names. Shortly after Fariua wrote me, he went to Papeete where he met our Tatakoto informant, Ioane Tanehoanuku, who had come down on a visit, and who had heard of Fariua's account of Kiho through us. After their meeting, Ioane turned up at Stimson's study in Papeete, and gave as names of the ahu uprights of marae Apataki at Tatakoto, the following nine names: Puniava, Kainuku, Tohiana, Tohutika, Kiho, Tane, Atea, Tangaroa, and Poe. Fariua's two sets of names, including his trinity Atea, Kiho, and Tane, appear on Ioane's list. Now, my notes taken down at Tatakoto in 1934 show that in an interview with Ioane, his uncle Te Mahu, and others, I was told that this marae had eight uprights and that their names had not been preserved. I can only interpret Ioane's voluntary information as a scheme on the part of Fariua and himself to contribute to the esoteric cult of Kiho “confirmation” which they thought would be welcome. - 124 In a letter written in 1931, Fariua assured me that if I were to come to Fangatau, he would be able to prove to me the truth of his account of Kiho. I had an opportunity to drop in upon him unexpectedly in 1934, but he made no move to produce proof. In 1934, Bishop Mazé, ashore at Fangatau for a few hours while the schooner on which he was travelling loaded copra, met Fariua. Fariua expressed regret that time did not permit showing a manuscript of Kamake in which the lore of Kiho was written. In October, 1938, so Mazé writes me in a letter dated Papeete, 13 December, 1939, he met Fariua again at Fangatau. He said to Fariua, “Now we will have time to see the book written in the hand of Kamake, which you promised to show me.” After a while, Fariua came to Mazé carrying an impressive number of books under his arm. “It is here,” Fariua said. For a full hour he searched through the books without finding anything of Kiho written in the hand of Kamake. Fariua had several lines on the theme of Kiho which he admitted were in his own handwriting. He finally arose, saying that what he was looking for must be in another book. “I have so many at home, I am going to look, and if I find it, I will return.” He never returned. Late in the day Mazé, on his way to the shore, met Reva, the wife of Fariua. He asked her, “Where is the book written by Kamake?” She replied, “He wrote nothing, he taught us orally.” If indeed such a book existed why did not Fariua speak of it to me, or, in his frequent pilgrimages to Papeete, take it to Stimson? These details concerning the principal informants for the esoteric cult of Kio or Kiho, coming to my attention, have made it more and more difficult for me to accept their accounts and esoteric versions of chants, unsupported by trustworthy confirmation. Both Bishop Paul Mazé and I have earnestly searched for corroboration and have not only - 125 The Tuamotuans were organized into small, independent tribes, often including not more than thirty or forty adults of each sex, bound together by the closest ties. All the men of the tribe participated in the marae ceremonies. This situation was entirely unfavourable to the creation or maintenance of an esoteric cult. I found the old men of Napuka, and one of the women, had learned the principal marae chants and prayers, and those whose memories were good could still recite them. In the Vahitahi area of the eastern Tuamotus, the older people knew more or less thoroughly a great many of their tribal chants. Members of the families of Ruea and Tuhirangi, the two leading informants for the esoteric cult in their area, have been the most outspoken in accusing these two of altering the family lore to allow their chants and prayers to be interpreted as if they referred to a supreme god and creator named Kio, maintaining, with the rest of the inhabitants of the area, that they had never heard their parents or grandparents speak of such a god. 172 In searching through the early literature, and the early published letters of the missionaries, I find not a single reference to Kio or Kiho, or to a supreme god and creator. Paiore, in his account given prior to 1870, has the world develop of itself. Montiton starts creation with Heaven and Earth stretched out together. Father Fierens, who accompanied Montiton on his first trip into the eastern Tuamotus, and who was the first European to stay at Napuka, wrote from Napuka, 28 August, 1878 (Annales des Sacres-Coeurs, Paris, 1879, pp. 343-440), at the end of his first six months, of his difficulties in proselytizing, saying: “They do not even dream of attributing creation to the Creator: to their eyes what exists came about by itself (mea tupu now).” A study of the chants and genealogies which we know definitely were handed on to the present older generation by their parents and grandparents reveals a fundamental belief among the ancient Tuamotuans that their active gods sprang from Atea and Fakahotu, personifying Heaven and Earth. - 126 LITERATURE CITED.
- 127 - 128 - 129 - 130 - 131 - 132 - 133 - 134 - 135 - 136 1 I have arranged the genealogy so that the names on the left represent offspring of the preceding couple.
2 Te Tahihi heads another genealogy beginning at 34 generations from 1900 and undoubtedly is an interpolation here, to link him with Tumu-ruia.
3 In the section of genealogy given, I have put all the females on the right side to bring out the parallel between this genealogy and the names on the Paiore chart, fig. 1. In the manuscript Tapa-tapaia(ha), f. and Rangi-take-ariki, f., are on the left side and their male mates on the right.
4 Kororupo and Te Tumu-Kuporu, omitted in this recitation, are included in a preceding recitation of these same names, in the same manuscript.
5 In the manuscript of Paea of Anaa, Fakahotu is called Faka-hotu-henua in his recitation of these same names.
6 Henry, p. 337.
7 Ibid., p. 337.
8 Ibid., p. 347.
9 Ibid., p. 347, and chart in Emory (2), p. 3.
10 Emory (1), p. 56.
11 Henry, pp. 337-338; Emory (1), p. 56.
12 Henry, p. 347.
13 Since I published the Caillet chart of creation (Emory (2), fig. 1), Monsieur E. Ahnne, who inherited many of Caillet's papers, including the chart, has discovered and sent to the Bishop Museum, the preliminary chart drawn by Caillet, showing that he himself composed the chart to illustrate Paiore's account. Monsieur Ahnne has learned from his very rare copy of the Annuaire des Etablissements Francaise de l'Oceanie, for 1859, on page 16, that Caillet was in that year Enseigne de Vaisseau, special commandant of the Tuamotus, in residence at Anaa, and on page 40, that Paiore was regent of the Tuamotus, and stationed at Anaa in the same year. I have already presented strong evidence that the Caillet chart was earlier than the Paiore chart of 1869 and earlier than 1863 (Emory (2), p. 2-6). The new evidence indicates 1859 as the probable year in which Caillet received his account from Paiore.
14 Ibid., p. 12.
15 Goupil, p. 9.
16 Henry, p. 405.
17 Ibid., p. 342.
18 Emory (1), p. 58, Henry, pp. 342-343.
19 Emory (2), p. 17.
20 Stimson (2), p. 14, gives the full list of qualities.
21 Emory, p. 50.
22 Smith, pp. 227-228.
23 Stimson (2), pp. 20-23.
24 This line is Fanaua i raro nei, ko Tumu-henua in Smith's version (Smith, p. 227), and in the version collected by Paea, it is Hanau ki raro ia Tumu-te-varovaro, kia [ko?] Tumu-pere-henua-mea, koia te vahine.
25 The order of this and the following lines is not the same in all versions. Paea has Toro-nuku, Toro-rangi, koia te vahine; Tumu-runga, Tumu-raro, koia te vahine; Tumu-tangata, koia te vahine; Piri-runga, Piri-raro te vahine i roaka i Piri-take-i-te-rangi.
26 This line is followed by Tapa-uta, Tapa-tai in Smith's version (idem), and these two lines immediately precede: Ko Vivi ko Vava te vahine, Matau-e-tui, Matau-e-rangi te vahine, Toro-nuku, Toro-rangi te vahine, Kai-kai (Haihai)-rangi, ko (=ka) roaka te vahine ko Turukia, te vahine Mokouri, te vahine Moko-tea, te vahine Te Ua-mata-iti, te vahine Ruarangi. Piritake te vahine, ko te mau, ko te piri, te vahine fanau ai marumaru-atua. In place of the line Tumu-nui, and so forth, Paea's version has Tumu-runga, Tumu-raro, Tumu-tangata, koia te vahine.
27 Paea's version has i roaka i Piritake.
28 Paea's version has Maru-maru-atu-o-Atea.
29 Paea's version has Fakahotu-henua. Logically, one would expect mahora nuku and mahora rangi to be in reverse order—but neither in Fariua's manuscript nor in Paea's version, nor Smith's version is this so.
30 Paea's version ends here with Piri ki te aroaro te ragi, ka pu he ariki, ko Tane-hoa-rangi.
31 Smith's version (idem.) has simply Moe ki Te-papa-nui-ia-raharaha. In a Fagatau genealogy, Tahito-henua is given as the husband, Papa-nui-raharaha, the wife, and Atea-tagata the child.
32 Instead of tika and the verbs which follow, Smith's version (p. 227) has noho, hume, maro, taka, fakapapa, and turi.
33 In Smith's version (p. 227) this line is tohi tu Rongo ma tuta-vake, in another Fangatau chant it is also Rongo-ma-tutavake, but in a version from Raroia it is ranga ma tutavake.
34 From the Raroia version only, except that Smith's has e moe. From here on a large block is missing from Smith's chant.
35 In the Raroia version ko appears in place of no.
36 In place of this and the following line, the Raroia version has Tere atu ki te tai Tua-tapu, no tua nei.
37 This and the next six lines occur only in the Fangatau version.
38 The Raroia version has o pu fakaara in place of a pu fakariki.
39 Tara-ariki, son of Tu-te-rangi-aitu, appears on Fangatau genealogies at eighteen generations before 1900.
40 In the Raroia version fatu is nuku. Fatu-riki-riki is a mythical land, in a Fangatau chant.
41 In the Raroia version the line is Te uho te vahine.
42 In place of uturika the Raroia version has na nuku i reira.
43 Only in the Fangatau version.
44 In Smith's version (p. 227) the line is na kuhi e tere ki vao o te rangi. A Raroia chant concerning Atea begins with E kuhi, anau hia ki raro i te papa o te henua, ko Atea (An aged one, lamented for below at the foundation of the land was Atea.) Keva is a term applied to the female sexual organs.
45 From the Raroia version only.
46 In place of monotaki here and in the next line, the Raroia version has mohotangi.
47 The Raroia version has ta ua tohi. The Takaroa version, which just covers this last part of the chant from E na tangata, on, has in place of this line ka noho ana i ruga i rangi haka puia.
48 Smith's version adds ko Rongo (he is Rongo).
49 Audran, p. 47.
50 Emory (2), p. 20.
51 Caillet, p. 8.
52 Ibid.
53 Henry, p. 364.
54 Ibid., p. 405.
55 Ibid., p. 410.
56 Ibid., p. 410.
57 Ibid., p. 411.
58 Ibid., p. 412.
59 Ibid., p. 347.
60 Montiton, p. 342.
61 Annuaire, 1885-1891, (1891, p. 122).
62 Henry, p. 349.
63 Ibid., p. 349.
64 Ibid., p. 351.
65 Ibid., p. 351.
66 Ibid., p. 348.
67 Ibid., p. 349.
68 Ibid., p. 455.
69 Emory (1), p. 57.
70 Seurat, p. 486.
71 Stimson (2), p. 30.
72 Ibid., p. 60.
73 Montiton (p. 343) says, “Pingau tilled” the sky, and this may be a more correct interpretation of the phrase.
74 Montiton (ibid.) says, “the Pako inspected” the skies while running through them in all directions.
75 I am at a loss as to how to translate varo and varovaro, for I am sure that the word is used here in the same sense as in the Takaroa chant of Tane which we shall meet further on, in which occurs e turu ana i te varovaro o te rangi, and in this varovaro seems to refer to the vault of the sky. Montiton (p. 343) says that Moho “swept the skies.” Fariua, our Fangatau informant maintains that varovaro means vigorous growth.
76 In the version of Te Ururehu, tokorari is replaced by kaore ko vau.
77 In the version of Te Uru, this sentence is, Ko Tane toto fakaroha tia mai e Rongo-ma-Tu-tavake.
78 This and the following line omitted in Te Uru's version.
79 This and the following lines replaced in Te Uru's version by ka pu he ariki, ko Tane.
80 Stimson (2), p. 35.
81 In the book of Ioane a Tane-hoanuku, this word is heuea.
82 Gill, p. 71.
83 Henry, p. 350.
84 Ibid., p. 407.
85 Henry, p. 540.
86 In Tahiti, Tumu-ra'i-fenua is the mythical octopus who held down the sky of Rumia over Atea in the period of darkness.
87 Ngana-ututu, Ngana-heuheu, Ngana-arorangi are star names at Fangatau.
88 Rangi-take is one of the primal skies of the developing world, and Pere-henua-mea on the Fangatau genealogy of their high chief Mahi-nui is a descendant of Tupua-rangi-take.
89 In the chant from Raiatea, written down in 1818, and covering the incident of Hiro's encounter with Tane's bird, this line is practically duplicated. The Tahitian text is, ta'ata'ahi tapa tai a'e na ho'i ‘oe i reira (Henry, p. 541).
90 Further in this chant the bird is called a toroa, and the toroa in Rarotonga and at Reao in the Tuamotus is a gannet, and I have heard a sailor from Anaa call a gannet by this name. In Tahiti the common gannet is called an u-a-o, evidently in imitation of its cry. This line reappears in the Tahitian chant mentioned in the note above. (In Maori toroa is the albatross; the gannet is takupu.—Ed.)
91 This line also occurs in the Tahitian chant mentioned above.
92 Pinago as well as Tama-rua are beings under Atea who helped in setting the sky in order. These and the other names do not appear on the Fangatau genealogies.
93 I have not come across the name Io-ma-kaunati elsewhere; this may not be a name but a verb. Kaunati refers to black magic.
94 This line occurs in the song, “Road of the Winds” which is essentially a song of the voyage of Hiro (Stimson, Journ. Polynesian Soc., vol. 41, 1932, pp. 181-189).
95 One Takaroa manuscript has ki aku vanaga, ki aku korero, ki taku kopu nei, kia Tumu-nui, etc. The Hao chant has i aku kopu, i aku vanaga i aku korere, ia Tumu-nui, etc.
96 This phrase, ia Te Tumu, in this Fangatau version only. Tumu-kerekere in Smith's Anaa version (p. 228); Tumu-kekere in Hao version; Tumu-kekete in Anaa version, Tumu-ketekete at Reao.
97 Tagaroa-tavahi (Tagaroa-the-cleaver) in Smith's version, Tagaroa-tavahi-tumu in Anaa and Takaroa versions; Tagaroa-tavahi-kura in Hao version. Compare with Tahitian: Ta'aroa-ta-'ahi-tumu (Henry, p. 336).
98 Kohai is often written kofai. One version only, recorded by Paea from someone in Papeete, has Tumutumu-ma-te-henua, and Tumutumu repeated with the following suffixes: kofai, vananga, korero, papa, in place of henua.
99 This line is preceeded by e tumu taku in one Hikerau version.
100 This and the following two lines appear again in a Takaroa version; and appear in an Anaa version with taua in place of tana.
101 In a Fakarava version this is, pani uru karamea, in a Manihi version, papani tu ma te karamea au henua.
102 Some versions have iri in place of tukia.
103 This is followed by ko Havaiki in one version from Anaa.
104 In one Anaa version, haka-tupu hanga rakau.
105 Ko Kongo is in this Fangatau and one Takaroa version only.
106 Some versions have iho and one has oti in place of ihu.
107 Smith's version from Anaa has ka raka ra in place of ka rere.
108 A Takaroa chant has “Toga-hake” in place of “Vavau-nui.”
109 Other versions have in place of this and the following lines, Ko te one pata (or, magu, or varo), te i Orohena.
110 Other versions have the names of most of the central and western Tuamotus, together with Meketia of the Society Group, each with one of its most important maraes.
111 Some versions have this, others have kena-io.
112 This list is extended in a Takaroa version to ruperupe te tangi o te torea; teretere te tangi o te kuriri, haohao te tangi te tavake. (Torea is the oyster-catcher in Maori; tawaki a penguin.—Ed.)
113 The tia and kuru in this list are left out of the other versions. Dr. Buck informe me that the teva and pia are both names of the arrowroot in the Cook Islands.
114 A Hikueru chant has instead of this line: Ei turuturu no te rangi, ei hanai no te rangi, ei totoko no te rangi. A Takaroa chant has the same as the Hikueru, but tiapare in place of totoko. From here to the end of this section, only one line appears in other versions, the line beginning rau kuru.
115 In place of tara, other versions have taro, take, or taki.
116 Tu-kavekave-ma in Napuka version. I have not come across this name on the Fangatau genealogies, and of the other names only Tiki and Ngangana occur.
117 Te Rotu-ma-tane in Napuka version.
118 In Napuka version, ma te ahu ruma te takere te opua.
119 Some versions have ka others ko in place of a in the Fangatau version.
120 The Napuka and Hikueru versions have Hiro-tupu-manga-te-rangi-tupu. Hiro-te-tupua-i-Hiti is the name on Fangatau genealogies the mother of Tanga-roa-Manahune. In Tahiti there is one Hiro, Hiro-no-te-ra-mai, who is the father of Ta'aroa-Mana-hune, at 42 generations on the Punaauia genealogy (Emory, Trad. Hist. of Maraes, ms., p. 178). At Ra'iatea, Moe-iti-iti, Moe-te-re'a-re'a, and Moe-te-ra-uri are the immediate ancestors of their great Hiro, who stands at 28 generations from 1900. At Rurutu, Hiro is known as ‘Iro-i-te-pu-manatu.
121 I am not sure if these are names—they are not on our Fangatau genealogies.
122 This plural article is supplied from other versions.
123 This line in a Takaroa chant is Ko Ngigiti, ko Rarama, taku tiki maofa. An Anaa chant from Paea has: Kotia te pito o Rongo ki te po.
124 O te fatu nui ia Tane occurs in versions from Hikueru only.
125 In the versions from Hikueru, and in the one from Napuka this is Marae-makemake.
126 In the versions from Hikueru this line is Tapua-(a)-Tane te fare i ato hia (Tapua-of-Tane was the house that was thatched). In the version from Napuka the line is Tapua-ia-Tane te fare i ato hia.
127 This line in this Fangatau version only. The Hikueru versions have instead of this and the lines which follow to the end of section 5, nga Tapue, nga Roro-nuku, nga Roro, and the version from Napuka has na Roro-nuku, na Roro. We see them replaced by nga Tupua, nga Raronuku, and nga Raro, in this Fangatau version.
128 The names in this and the following lines appear on the mythical part of Fangatau genealogies. Tupua as the wife, Tahito as the husband are the parents of Raro-nuku who marries Raro-vaio.
129 In Takaroa and Anaa versions a to tupuna is replaced by te i te fakariki.
130 Tu-'oro-pa'a is the founder of the powerful ‘Oro-pa'a clan of Tahiti, which had its seat at Puna'au-ia.
131 In some Takaroa and Anaa versions, this name is Hau-te-kapakapa.
132 In a Takaroa version, te pu fakararo appears in place of e pu ka rava hia.
133 In a marae prayer in the Tahitian Pomare manuscript in the Bishop Museum (p. 17), occurs te ‘a'eho e ha'amau ai Tu e Rogo. In the Anaa chant Tu ake au nei, occurs ko hamau Tu, ko hamau Rogo. Rogo was resorted to for protection against evil spirits.
134 In place of vaho rangi, an Anaa version has ki taua rangi nei.
135 In one Anaa version, oreore appears in place of oirei.
136 Ro'o-metua is an immediate descendant of Hiro, on Raiatea genealogies (Emory, Trad. Hist., Maraes, ms., p. 133).
137 This name occurs in this Fangatau version only.
138 Te-Nuku-tae-roto is the name of the greenish reflection of the Anaa lagoon seen in clouds passing over it.
139 In an Anaa version only.
140 In Smith's Anaa version, this line is E tu fakamau kura.
141 I cannot find these names on the Marokau genealogies we have. Tahuka-tuata is the name of an important early chief of Fangatau who may have established a branch of his family at Marokau.
142 This line is only in the Fangatau chant. Puhingaru is given in the list of islands and maraes at the first part of this chant from Fangatau as the marae of Raroia.
143 This line is followed in Smith's Anaa version by punua, ko i Kakukura-roa, ko i Fare-kura, ko ia Maro-turia, Te Fare-mahi-roa, Te Puna-kai-ariki, Tahuka-tuarau, Te Pehu-ariki. The last two names appear on Fangatau genealogies, and Te Puna-kai-ariki is a name which has been applied to a current in a pass at Fakarava.
144 In Smith's Anaa version this line is, ka pu koe ki te heiao.
145 In Smith's version, Vananga-i-moana appears in place of Te Pehu-mauna.
146 Section 13 appears in this Fangatau version only.
147 In place of this line, Smith's version has, ka pu koe ki te heiao. (p. 230).
148 Henry, p. 336.
149 Buck (2), pp. 83-85.
150 Emory (2).
151 The chant continues:
152 At Vahitahi in 1934, in two books of Hita-a-Raka, who died a number of years previously, Stimson came across three copies of one chant containing in one of the lines what seemed at first glance to be the sole occurrence of the name Kiho in Tuamotuan manuscripts written before we appeared in the islands. However, the chant in which it occurs, (a well known chant from the island of Hao, for the chiefess Te Kopu-hei-ariki), as already recorded from five different sources by us, from manuscripts or orally, has “ka tiki (or, ti), ka nanao mata (or, ma te) rua ki Havaiki, ” in place of “ka tika ka nanao mata (or, ma te) rua kiho Vaiki.” The chants in Hiti's books are written without regard to our rules of capitalization, spacing, and punctuation, and contain many clear examples of careless copying, “a” being written for “o, ” and vice versa. Therefore this kiho can certainly be regarded as simply a mistake for kiha. Hiti's version of the line, except for o being written for a is no different from the others. The three copies of the chant in Hiti's books are copies one of the other, for errors appearing in one appear in the other two. In what is apparently the first writing of the chant, “kiho” or “kiha, ”—it is impossible to say which—ends the line at the right edge of the page (“Vaiki” beginning the next line). This in itself would explain “kiho” being written in the other two copies instead of “kiha” as in all other versions. There is nothing in the rest of Hiti's books to indicate he was recording “esoteric” versions.
153 Stimson makes much of what seemed a possible corroboration which we came across at the island of Tatakoto in 1934, stating that (Gregory, p. 66): “Te Pongi—a leading woman sage and singer [at Tatakoto]—sang to Emory and me jointly, a chant concluding with the name of Kiho, in full: Kiho-mai-a, ‘Kiho-en-during-forever.'” As a matter of fact what we heard was “e ko tu e te ipo oki ho mai a.” Te Pongi, the only one I was to hear give this version of the ending of the chant, had never heard of a god named Kiho. The distinct pause between ipo and oki indicates a dropped “h, ” a common occurrence in the speech of Tatakoto, and the ho mai a following it, is to me obviously a rendering of the common Tatakoto chant ending ko mai a, for at Napuka I wrote from dictation an ending ko mai a but when it was sung this changed to ho mai a. Therefore Te Pongi's line can be written, “e ko Tu e te ipo (h) oki, ho mai a” and can be translated “and Tu is indeed the beloved one, ho mai a.” With this rendering Kiho dissolves. The letters can be reassembled to give Kiho again. If a god named Kiho were actually known to the Tatakoto natives, then Stimson's rendering might be correct. But to draw together two syllables to produce Kiho and then use this Kiho to prove that the rendering is correct, in reality adds little to the support of the name Kiho supplied by Paea of Anaa.
154 Stimson (1), p. 62, gives the final draft of the chart.
155 Emory (1), p. 52 and (2), note 54.
156 Stimson (1), p. 60.
157 Mazé, pp. 674-680.
158 Stimson (1), p. 5.
159 Ibid., p. 58.
160 Ibid., p. 60.
161 Tokio, as a word occurs in the Mangarevan dialect, where it means “to speak at length and without interruption” and is applied to “an offensive conversation, ” according to the Grammaire et Dictionnaire Mangareviens, p. 109, second part. As a name, it occurs at Mangareva, in Apeiti a Tokio (Apeiti son of Tokio), (Buck (1), p. 49). The general interpretation at Vaitahi of tokio is that it is simply an ending, and it may be an ending in line with these endings which we have recorded: hikio, hokio, hoio, oio, io, o, ho, and hio. Ruea told Mazé that it was an abbreviation for tokioro, to drag, and referred to the dragging of the sacrificial victim to the oven, and there is Montiton (p. 355), mentions Tu-ki-Hiti as inhabiting the lowest good evidence in support of this interpretation.
162 Ibid., p. 60.
163 Letter from Bishop Mazé dated Vahitahi, April 23rd, 1936, containing questions and answers made before the French administrator and judge, Marcel Senac, whose signature appears as witness.
164 Montiton, pp. 339, 342-44, 354-56, 366-367, 378-379.
165 The fragment of cosmogonic chant which Stimson presents (1), p. 61, as “undoubted evidence” of Kio is one of three in a series. The chant following it in this series has: ka toia i nuku … turuturu i Havaiki, ko te fare i ahu Tangaroa (let there be hauling along on the land … erecting of pillars at Havaiki, it is the house of Tangaroa). To my mind, this makes it possible that the unmentioned god in the preceeding chant is Tangaroa, for in the Tahitian cosmogony it is Tangaroa who orders the first propping of the sky in Havaiki (Henry, p. 342, and Emory (1), p. 59), the bringing of posts to prop the sky, and the extending of Atea (space). But the fragment Stimson gives might equally apply to Tane.
166 In the “Chant of the birth of Kio-mua” given by Ruea and presented in Tuamotuan Religion (Stimson (1), p. 39), Ruea, in altering the chart to furnish an “esoteric” version for Stimson, changed kino mua to Kio-mua, as we learned when we collected independent versions of this chant from other sages, and as Ruea herself said had been done, when Bishop Mazé read to her, on August 16th, 1935, the chant as presented by Stimson. The other versions, which include the pepenu, or introduction to the chant, reveal that the chant, like very similar ones we have collected from other Tuamotuan islands, simply celebrates the birth of night, day, the moon, the sun, the clouds, etc., from “those two” (raua), i.e., Atea and Fakahotu.
What seemed in 1930 a check on Ruea's change of kino to Kio was the fact that at the island of Pinaki in the Vahitahi area I had recorded a place name as “Pofatu-tomo-kio” from one informant and “Pofatu-tomo-kino” from another. When I had an opportunity, however, to check these names hurriedly scribbled on my first trip to Pinaki, I found that the name of the place was actually Pofatu-tomo-kia or Pofatu-tama-kia, both pronunciations being in vogue. The name of the channel between Pinaki and Nukutavake is Tama-kino and undoubtedly it is confusion with this name which caused one of my informants to give the name Pohatu-tomo-kino. Mazé wrote from Nukutavake, June, 9th, 1936, that not a single one among the people who visit Pinaki could be found who had heard the name Pohatu-tomo-kino. 167 Fariua said that Kio-taetae-aho and Tama-tu-hau were the two guardians of the nether world, Orovaru. Tu-ki-Hiti was the guardian of the region Po Mari-koriko, located below Orovaru. Paea procured from someone the following list of denizens of the po, or nether world: Tu-ki-Hiti, Kaki-kore, Ture-hoe, Tama-tu-hau, Faka-oa, Kio-taetae-vao. region in the po, and Tama as guardian of the entrance to the nether world.
168 Stimson (3), pp. 52, 60, 62, 66, 70, 75. Later, in 1934, I heard the oldest inhabitant of Fangatau sing the Tahaki chants, and they sang them with po kino given exactly as Fariua had first given this phrase. We have come across manuscript and oral versions from other islands proving that kino anciently belonged in these songs, and the expression po kino, which Stimson claimed was a Christian concept interpolated in these otherwise ancient songs, turns up in the Hawaiian language in the form po'ino, and with the meaning “suffering, affliction” (Andrews, p. 556). When Fariua was first asked what po kino meant, he replied, “it just means po kino (po kino ihoa).”
169 Stimson (2), pp. 24, 34, 35, 37, 42.
170 Mazé related to me in a letter written from Tatakoto in September, 1935, that when he went ashore there with Tahuka, the old chief of Vahitahi, Tahuka “could not restrain himself from manifesting his surprise at Te Uira, on the subject of his account to Stimson. Tahuka knew of them at the island of Pinaki from Stimson himself. Te Uira answered, “eiaha e peapea, te vai nei te parau mau, te reira no te moni ia” (do not be disturbed for the truth remains, that which I gave was for money).” Te Uira was not to my knowledge, paid for his services in money, as were Paea and Fariua, but was rewarded, like our other informants, with gifts of food, tobacco, and the like.
171 Stimson (2), p. 5 and 45, quotes a letter under date of July 30th, 1931, from Monsieur Francois Hervé, at that time administrator of the Tuamotu Mahanga, grandmother of Ruea, was the man Tuata [died in 1918], whose children and grandchildren knew Mahanga … The first born of Tuata was Temomi, but the marked preference of Mahanga Archipelago, to the effect that he had been told in 1915, by two natives of the islands Nuku-tavake and Vahitahi that Kiho-tumu-po and Kiho-tumu-ao was the supreme god of the Tuamo-tuans. But this was after meeting Stimson in Papeete in 1931, shortly after Fariua had finished his account to Stimson. In his previous conversations with us Hervé had said nothing about a supreme god named Kiho, and in his notes and copies of manuscripts generously turned over to us, there is no mention of Kiho. At Nukutavake, in 1934, inquiries failed to bring forth confirmation of this information attributed to the two natives from that area. Herve's letter is such a repetition of ideas which Stimson was expressing at the time concerning the cult, that it carried little weight with me. Hervé says in one line that the name Kiho had never been revealed to the missionaries, and in the next line that the missionaries, “realizing the importance of Kiho, ” had confounded him with Satan, perhaps on account of his attribute” Source of the Night.” We have seen how missionary teaching has not resulted in “Source of the Night” (Tumu-po) being dropped from genealogies or chants.
172 In detailing the true facts concerning the birth and family relationships of the two Vahitahi informants Ruea and Tuhirangi, Mazé wrote the Bishop Museum in 1935, ” In reality, the first-born of was always for the cadet, Teva-varo. For about fifteen years she was the inseparable grandchild of her grandmother, on the small, solitary isle of Akiaki. What a superb occasion for the grandmother to initiate her into the sacrosanct mysteries of Kio. But never did she make allusion of it. Tevavaro from the first rose vigorously against the accounts of Ruea, her aunt. The translation of tokio [as “all is Kio's”] by Mr. Stimson, provoked with her at the first reading an energetic denunciation.”
At Vahitahi the name Kio stands solely for the ogress in an ancient myth known throughout the eastern Tuamotus. At Manga-reva the word kio signifies a servant or slave, and at Easter Island, a captive, and at Raeo and Pukarua the next Tuamotuan islands east of Vahitahi, kio, in their legend of Rata, is applied to the rat, crab, and lizard swarm of helpers of Rata (te kio o te pahi teie ia: te kiore, te tupa, te faka, te unga, te moko). And in a legend we collected (see also Caillet's version, p. 34), of Muna-nui, an early chief of Hao island, just west of Vahitahi, “kio” appears as an insult to a rival chief, who is addressed as “a kio, a rotten stump, may your buttocks swarm with flies (e kio, e poko, kua houa to toho e te rango papa). How reconcile a name of such connotations with that of a supreme and glorified god? |
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