Home > Library > Pacific Islander Religions > William Judah Thomson > Te Pito Te Henua, Or Easter Island > Untitled

Contents

*
Easter Island is a surreal landscape, with its giant stone heads and undeciphered rongo-rongo script--the only writing system invented in the Pacific islands.
This account of an expedition to Easter Island in the late nineteenth century will have modern social scientists (as well as indigenous rights activists)
gritting their teeth.
The adventurers engage in tomb-raiding from one end of Easter Island to the other, shredding priceless archeological contexts without remorse.
The text describes bones turning into dust on touch;
they loot gravesites, and tear up ruins of villages.
When one of the Easter Islanders complains that they are taking his ancestors' remains, they offer him two dollars for the bones.

The one redeeming feature of this expedition was the desperate attempt to prompt one of the last remaining indigenous bards to relate the rongo-rongo texts and other legends.
The circumstances of this recital are greatly suspect.
The informant had been indoctrinated by missionaries that reciting from the tablets was a mortal sin.
After the expedition attempted to bribe the informant, he fled into the hinterlands.
A rainstorm forced him to return to his house.
On the last evening before the expedition set sail, they cornered him in his hut and got him drunk, after convincing him that reciting from a photograph was not the same as reciting from the original tablet.
To further confuse matters, at one point they switched photographs on him mid-recital...

The monograph has slighly retouched photographs of several of the tablets, reproduced here, which will be very useful to anyone interested in attempting to decipher rongo-rongo.
The 'translations', such as they are, remain a key piece of data in any investigation of the script.
Also of interest is the version of the Easter Island migration legend quoted here, which claims that they came from the direction of the rising sun.
This has been used subsequently to justify a South American origin, most notably by Thor Heyerdal; however it has been contradicted by other accounts, so it should not be treated as absolutely authoritative.
This document also has a sketchy vocabulary of the language of Easter Island (Rapanui).

Title Page

The Discovery of Easter Island

Sailing Directions

Geological Features

Various Names of the Island

Climate

Villages and Habitations

Flora

Mammals

Birds

Fishes

Reptiles and Insects

Nets and Ropes

Natives

Personal Appearance of the Natives

Brutal Treatment of Natives by Early Voyagers

Thieving

Tattooing

Salutation

Dress

Mats

Amusements

The Native Dance

Religion

Superstitions

Sacrificial Stones

Diseases and Their Treatment.

Fire

Cannibalism

Government

Burial of the Dead

Boats

Weapons and War

Exploration of the Island

Reconnaisance to Rana Kao

The Ancient Stone House At Orongo

Sculptured Rocks

Ancient Customs in Relation to Gathering the Sea-Birds Eggs

Employment of Natives

Cave and Tomb Near Ahuakapu Point

Ruins of the Oldest Habitation on the Island

Natural Caves

Anakena Bay

The Poike Plains

Tongariki

Rana Roraka

Skulls Showing Peculiar Marks

Platforms and Images

Language

Translation of the Easter Island Tablet, Apai

Text of the Easter Island Tablet: Atua Matariri

Text of the Easter Island Tablet: Eaha To Ran Ariiki Kete

Text of the Easter Island Tablets: Father Mourning the Loss of His Child

Text of the Easter Island Tablet: Ate-a-renga-hokan iti Poheraa

More Rongo-rongo plates

Tradition in Regard to the Origin of The Islanders.

Tradition Regarding Obsidian Spear-points

Tradition Regarding Fish Hooks.

Genealogy of the Kings of Easter Island

List of Ethnographic Specimens Obtained at Easter Island

Polynesian Archaeology

Language--Vocabulary

Vocabulary

Numerals

chapter xvii| bottom dweller the final voyage
Home > Library > Pacific Islander Religions > William Judah Thomson > Te Pito Te Henua, Or Easter Island > Contents