The canoe sailed on the
second day of Hora Nui (September) and arrived at the southwest corner of Te
Pito O Te Kainga on the fifteenth day of Tangaroa Uri (October)-a six-week
voyage.
In the morning, when the explorers awoke [earlier it was said the explorers
had returned to Hiva], two canoes were seen approaching the southwestern tip of
the island, off Motu Nui.
The canoes were bound together into a double canoe, but as they came near the
land the lashings which united them were cut. One boat named "Oteka" carried
Hotu Matua and his wife, Vakai-a-hiva; the other boat, named "Oua," carried
Hineriru and his wife, Ava Rei Pua.4
Raparenga signaled with leaves to the voyagers the following message: "The
land is bad; yams won't grow because of the weeds." Hotu Matua told Tuki to
signal back that Hiva was also a bad land, as the rising tide of the ocean was
ruining it. Raparenga then signaled to the voyagers that if they sailed to the
right (east), they should stay way out or they would be pushed into the
cliffs.
The two canoes traveled in different directions around the island. Hotu Matua
went around the southern and eastern coasts of the island.
Five fishing grounds were established through the mana of a man named Honga.
Hineriru went around the western and northern coasts of the island; nine
fishing grounds were established through the mana of Teke, who had been
transferred to that canoe. Hotu wanted to be the first to reach Anakena (an
anchorage on the north side of the island, where the royal residence would be
established).
When he saw the other vessel approaching, he ordered a spell chanted, which
made his own boat go fast and Hineriru's go slow. Two more fishing grounds were
established near Anakena.
The canoe of Hotu Matua landed first at the cove. A son named Tuu Maheke was
born there to Vakai and Hotu Matua. Hineriru was a man of intelligence, and
wrote rongo-rongo (native script) on paper he brought with him.
Among those who came in the canoes was the ariki (chief) Tuu Ko Ihu, the
maker of the wooden images; two of his sons and two grandsons have given their
names to four subdivisions of the Miru clan.
On the other canoe, a daughter named Ava Rei Pua Poki was born to Hineriru
and Ava Rei Pua (identified as a queen, perhaps the younger sister Hotu Matua).
Vaka, "the master in charge of tying the umbilical cord," performed the rite
for Tuu Maheke and then for Ava Rei Pua Poki. The canoes were then brought
ashore and taken apart so the wood could be used to make houses. After Nuku Keku
(the master canoe builder) finished the houses, seedlings were distributed to
the settlers.
Then Hotu Matua told Teke to take the Hanau Eepe and settle them in a
suitable place where they would farm the land. Teke took them to Poike, on the
southeastern end of the island, and told them "Settle here, work, and keep peace
among yourselves!" Iko ("Insect") was installed as the king of the Hanau Eepe.
Among Hotu Matua's company there was a concealed passenger whose name was
Oroi; he was an enemy of Hotu, who had killed some of Hotu's children in Hiva,
and had hidden himself on board the migration canoe.
He got on shore at Anakena without anyone having guessed at his presence.
One day the five children of a man named Roro went to bathe at Ovahe (a small
cove east of Anakena), and as they lay on a rock in the sea, Oroi came from
behind and killed them by thrusting a lobster spine up their anuses and pulling
out their intestines.5
When the children did not return, the father said to the mother, "Where are
the children?"
The mother said, "On the rock."
But when Roro went to look, the rock was covered with water, for it was high
tide; by and by when the water went down, he saw the five children were
dead.
Roro then told Hotu Matua: "Oroi, that bad man, is here, for he has killed my
children.
Now Hotu Matua went to see his adopted daughter Veri Hina, who was married
and who lived at Mahatua (past Ovahe on the north coast). Oroi put a noose in
his path and tried to catch his foot in it, but Hotu avoided it by stepping to
one side.
When he had finished his visit to his adopted daughter, he said to her and
her husband, "Follow me and watch above me.
If the sooty terns circle high above me, I will live; if the terns dive down
on me, I have been killed." As he returned, he saw that the noose was still on
the path, and he knew his enemy was hidden behind the rock.
Terns circled high above him. This time Hotu Matua intentionally stepped on
the noose and fell, and when Oroi came at him with a bone knife, he killed Oroi
with a spell-"Spin! Spin! Fall down! Fall down! Die!" Then he called to his
adopted daughter and son-in-law to see that Oroi was dead.
When, however, they put the corpse in the oven to cook it, it came to life
again, so they had to take it over to the other side of the island to an ahu
called Oroi, and there the corpse cooked quite satisfactorily, and they ate
it.
Hotu Matua lived in Oromanga, in a house called Hare Tupa Tuu. One day when
Hotu's first born son Tuu Maheke was fifteen, Rovi, his food preparer, went to
catch eel as a side dish (inaki) for sweet potatoes; he stayed away overnight.
Tuu Maheke's mother had gone to dig up and cook the sweet potatoes for him. Tuu
Maheke began to cry.
After a while Hotu Matua got a headache and shouted, "Be quiet, you bastard!
You crybaby!" Then he left. When Vakai came home, she noticed the swollen eyes
of her son and asked why he was crying. He told her what his father had shouted
at him.
After cooking the sweet potatoes for her son, Vakai went to the house of Hotu
Matu and told him "Tuu Maheke is not a bastard! You are a bastard! Your real
father was Tai A Mahia! Kokiri Tuu Hongohongo was your foster father." Hotu
Matua replied, "Why didn't you tell me this back in Hiva, our homeland?"
Hotu Matua moved a short distance away and built a house called Hare Pu
Rangi.