Raiatea

“ The present king of Raiatea is equally tall.... Their limbs are generally well formed, and the whole figure is proportioned to their height, which renders the difference between the rulers and their subjects so striking that Bougainville and some others have supposed they were a distinct race, the descendants of a superior people, who at a remote period had conquered the aborigines and perpetuated their supremacy." There is a curious inconsistency in the matter of complexion, for in the old days a dark skin was considered the sign of a strong, warlike, and masterly man. ”

“ The deification of kings in their lifetime would seem not to have been confined to Tahiti, but to have prevailed in the other islands of the Society Archipelago. We hear particularly of the divinity of the kings of Raiatea. In that island a place called Opoa is said to have been the metropolis of idolatry for all the South Pacific Islands within a compass of five hundred miles. Hither, from every shore, human victims, already slain, were sent to be offered on the altar of the war-god Oro, whose principal image was there worshipped. ”

“ Raiatea, Eimeo, and others in the Society group, are composed of vast and abrupt mountain ranges, rising almost abruptly from the sea, and having very little habitable ground, but all covered with the densest vegetation. The most stupendous volcanoes in the world are those of the Sandwich Islands, compared with which Etna and Vesuvius are mere hillocks. ”

“ Oro, the great national god of Tahiti, Raiatea, and other islands, was believed to be a son of Taaroa. [26] To these three great gods, Oro, Tane, and Taaroa, the people sacrificed in great emergencies, when the deities were thought to be angry. At such times the wrath of the god was revealed to a priest, who, wrapt up like a ball in a bundle of cloth, spoke in a sharp, shrill, squeaky voice, saying, "I am angry; bring me hogs, kill a man, and my anger will be appeased." ”

“ Ariitaimai made her third trip to Raiatea and accompanied Pomare to Moorea, and sent word to the governor that he would find them there. Obedient to this gently expressed command of his ambassadress, the governor very courteously went to Moorea in person to receive the Queen and bring her back to her home and throne. In the same dispassionate style Ariitaimai tells of the homeward journey: "As we all went on board a salute was fired. We sailed around the island, flying the protectorate flag at the fore, to inform the people of these islands that their Queen had returned. ”

“ There are no good ones,” he replied. “In Raiatea, near Tahiti, they were fishing at night for the ava, the fish something like the salmon. They had a net five meters high, and, after the people of the village had drawn the net round so that no fish could escape, a number of men dived from their canoes. ”

“ The faint back-draught from the headsails fanned his cheek and chest with a wine of coolness, and he was in an ecstasy of appreciation of the schooner's qualities.
“Eh!—She's a beauty, Taute, a beauty,” he said to the Kanaka lookout, at the same time stroking the teak of the rail with an affectionate hand.
“Ay, skipper,” the Kanaka answered in the rich, big-chested tones of Polynesia. “Thirty years I know ships, but never like 'this. On Raiatea we call her Fanauao.” ”

“ They were always brought, for the terror he inspired was extreme. He was invoked all over the island, and offerings were sent to him from every side.​ [1349] Again, of the South Sea Islands in general we are told that each island had a man who represented or personified the divinity. Such men were called gods, and their substance was confounded with that of the deity. The man-god was sometimes the king himself; oftener he was a priest or subordinate chief.​ [1350] Tanatoa, king of Raiatea, was {p388} deified by a certain ceremony performed at the chief temple. ”

“ They missed Borabora, but reached Raiatea. Here they remained rather more than three months. When they were landed they were ignorant savages, wild in appearance and habits. Before they left Auura could read the Gospel of Matthew, had learned the greater part of the catechism drawn up for the natives, and could write correctly. Several others could do nearly as well, though previously ignorant that such an art as writing existed.
But these earnest men were not content to go back to their people alone; they entreated that some missionaries would accompany them. ”

“ Bear on! Bear on! And strike—where? Strike to the northeast! The vapor flies to the far rim of the Sea of Atolls. Strike there! Strike far north! The sea casts up distant Nuka-Hiva, Land of the War Fleet, where the waves are towering billows.”
This was the ancient chant of the Raiateans, sung in the old days before the whites came, when they thought of the deeds that were done by the more-than-human men who lived on these desolate islands.
Harbor of Tai-o-hae
Schooner Fetia Taiao in the Bay of Traitors. ”

“ Dear me! goddess Tarioa am gone now and kiss that Ora Tua, a dead chief who am not tapu, but am mortal who once live up in world by the sea.’
“It was then that big gods all rush out of caves and run after goddess Tarioa and Ora Tua, so that they may not kiss again. But so big were their shoulders, all moving alonger underneath ocean water, that it make big waves tumble about up on sea beneath the stars; and so ’nother canoe that was filled with nicer Tahitian maidens knock on reefs and go to bottom of sea too! ”

“ With the docility of the true Polynesian, he did his best to comply. It was not his fault—and not, one must fairly say, the fault of the missionary either, save in a minor degree—that the effort meant death to him.
There are not nineteen hundred Raratongans living now in the fertile little country that used to support six thousand of their ancestors. There are not enough babies in the island to carry on the population at half its present level, in the future. Not one of the “chief” families, of whom there are a dozen or so, has any living children at all. ”

“ LAODICEA, the name of at least eight cities, founded or renovated in the later Hellenic period. Most of them were founded by the Seleucid kings of Syria. Seleucus, founder of the dynasty, is said by Appian to have named five cities after his mother Laodice. Thus in the immense realm of the Seleucidae from the Aegean Sea to the borders of India we find cities called Laodicea, as also Seleucia (q.v.) . So long as Greek civilization held its ground, these were the commercial and social centres. The chief are Laodicea ad Lycum (see below) ; Combusta on the borders of Phrygia, Lycaonia and Pisidia ”

“ It so did happen that goddess Tarioa, who sat at her cave door weaving the sunsets, seaweed, and the hairs of dead women to make mats for gods’ feet, look suddenly round cave door’s corner and see great chief Ora Tua lying on floor of ocean. Her eyes did shine, for he, too, look ’andsome chief as he stood up all tangled in the sunset. For you must know that the 85sun was sinking just same time as canoe bottom was knock out on reefs. ”

“ Taraia, a chief of a tribe in the neighbourhood of the Thames river, having successfully assaulted the pa of a Tauranga tribe, cooked and ate the bodies of two of the slain chiefs, after the old manner of the Maori at the conclusion of a successful battle. ”

“ The Rayet, or Orang Laut, "subjects," or men of the sea, inhabit the coast and the small islets off the coast, erecting temporary sheds when they go ashore to build boats, mend nets, or collect gum dammar and wood oil, but usually living in their boats. They differ little from the Malays, who, however, they look down upon as an inferior race, except that they are darker and more uncouth looking. They have no religious (!) beliefs but in the influence of evil spirits, to whom at times they perform a few propitiatory rites. Many of them become Mohammedans. They live almost entirely upon fish. ”

“ When the riata is resurrected it should again be left for a time stretched over a block, with a weight to hold it taut. Then the hair should be sandpapered off the outside, and when the riata is greased with mutton tallow and properly noosed it is ready for use. Every vaquero that pretends to take care of his apparatus will bury his riata and stretch it every six or eight months.
"A hair rope does not make a good riata. It is useful to stretch around camp at night to keep snakes away. For some reason snakes will not cross a hair rope. ”

“ Rasselas, a quasi-novel written in 1759 by Johnson to pay the expenses of his mother's funeral, the subject of which is an imaginary prince of Abyssinia, and its aim a satire in sombre vein on human life.
Rastatt or Rastadt (12) , a town in Baden, on the Murg, 15 m. SW. of Carlsruhe; is fortified, and manufactures hardware, beer, and tobacco.
Rataña, a brandy flavoured with kernels of fruits.
Rathlin (1) , a picturesque, cliff-girt island (61⁄2 by 1-1/3 m.) off the N. coast of Antrim; fishing is the chief industry; has interesting historical associations. ”

“ These are folks who are mortally afraid of the storm, and who hate lightning and tempest; they speak all the evil they can of Rai-den and of Rai-Taro, his son. But they are wrong.
Rai-den Sama lived in a Castle of Cloud set high in the blue heaven. He was a great and mighty god, a Lord of the Elements. Rai-Taro was his one and only son, a brave boy, and his father loved him.
In the cool of the evening Rai-den and Rai-Taro walked upon the ramparts of the Castle of Cloud, and from the ramparts they viewed the doings of men upon the Land of Reed Plains. ”

“ But still they cry and cry. Fireflies no good! Then Tarioa very sad, so she call out. ‘O god of Rain, Ora, Tane, Maker-of-flowers and birds and nicer things, I have sin in thy sight, but now I do offer prayer. I will, O gods, be as sacrifice to thy altars, and my children shall worship thee if they do live.’
“The great god Tane, hearing her prayer, did walk out of forest. Seeing so beautiful a goddess before his eyes, he say: ‘You wanter food, milk for babies?’ Then he put forth his big hand and held babies up on tip of one finger—and looker much pleased! ”

“ So they no kill Tarioa, but they run after her and drive her to the far north-west of big ocean floor till she come to the shores! And then she did run up into the world of sunlight, and standing on the shore did say: ‘Oh, how nicer a world!’
“As she look up at nice trees all blowing and singing in win’ and saw above the trees the kind blue sky, she look so beautiful that kamoka-bird (evening-nightingale) 87fly out of big forest by the sea and sit on her head. It sang and flutter its wings as its feet get much entangle in goddess’s hair. ”

“ In more than one Rarotongan tradition an island or country is mentioned, named Enua-kura, or the "land of red feathers," which is possibly New Guinea, so called by the Rarotongans after the Bird of Paradise, the beautiful feathers of which would be to them treasures of the highest value—such treasures as Europeans who do not know the race can hardly believe in; they were their jewels. Again, in one of their traditions is mentioned Papua, a name that is also to be found on Rarotonga itself. ”

“ None of the people of this tribe—or “nation”—seem to hold a belief in creators of the universe, such as is held by the Ami. The only deity—other than deified ancestors—whom the Taiyal apparently take into account is the rain-god, or rather, rain-devil. He, however, is a being very much to be taken into account [144] in a country like that in which the Taiyal live—the mountainous part of the island—where torrential downpours of such violence sometimes occur during the rainy season that the bamboo and grass huts of the people are washed away. ”

“ It ought to be added that the ancient name of Apamea, when the capital of Phrygia, was Celænæ, and that, in Roman times, though Laodicea Combusta was the residence of the proconsul, it was considered, commercially, inferior only to Ephesus. Laodicea was one of the towns privileged to strike those curious silver coins known by the name of Cistophori. Though we do not accept the Ark story as the origin of this name “Kibotus,” we cannot say that we attach much, if any, weight to many other derivations that have been proposed. ”

“ When the moon is dark a spirit dances there, the spirit of Mauraii. 279He was my cousin, and the Taote hired him to help the other man. One day the Taote began to buy provisions, a great quantity which were stored in the cutter with other big boxes, as if for a long voyage. They sailed away, Terii and Mauraii, too. ‘Nuku-Hiva will see me next,’ said the Taote to us all. That was a lie, but I did not know it then. They went to Pukapuka. It is a little atoll, toward the Marquesas, and far from any other island. Mauraii had dived there, and the Taote knew that. ”

“ So did goddess Tarioa become mortal. Her children grew up and did have more children who do ever have a far-away look in their eyes when they stare towards the setting sun. For you must know that they are tapu children, and live on the Isles that are far to the north-west. 88And long, long ago, goddess Tarioa did go ’way to shadowland that is far up in the sky. ”

“ It was famed in the annals of the Arioi, the ancient minstrels of Tahiti, as a scene of orgiastic dances.
“The atoll of Tetiaroa,” said Nohea, “had always many cocoanut-trees. The lagoon is as rich in fish as is Takaroa. Never had many people lived there, for it was tabu, and only for the Arii, the nobles, and the Arioi. But now it belongs to the man who takes away teeth from the head, and who hammers gold upon those that remain.” ”