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The Origins of Rapa Nui*
In the time before man the earth was covered by water.
Roaming these waters were three gods, two sisters and
one male. The sisters, Poike and Rano Kau were dear
friends and spent their days enjoying the sun and sea,
totally unaware of Terevaka’s (the male god) existence
on the other side of the planet. These were happy days
on the earth when the sun was always shining.
Poike and
Rano Kau were always in pursuit of new games to play.
Their favorite activity was for one of them to hide and
for the other one to seek her sister out. While playing
this game one day Rano Kau went out to hide and happened
to cross paths with the mighty Terevaka. Terevaka,
startled by the sudden appearance of another deity on
the earth he previously believed to be uninhabited, ran
away. Rano Kau had immediately fallen in love, however,
and forgetting her game took off in pursuit.
Terevaka wanted some
time to mull over the day’s big surprise, but with Rano
Kau in pursuit he could not find a place to stop and
think. When Rano Kau was finally dropping out of sight
Terevaka thought he was in the clear and slowed his
pace. All of a sudden, however, he ran into Poike who
was still trying to find her sister. Like Rano Kau,
Poike forgot her task and immediately fell in love with
the handsome stranger. There was something about Poike
that drew Terevaka in. Rather than fearing the stranger
and her unexpected appearance, he was overcome with
lust. The two fell into a loving embrace, and from
their passion spawned their human children, the Rapanui.
Suddenly
Rano Kau, still searching for her escaped love, appeared
on the horizon. Seeing her sister embracing Terevaka
she grew furious and ran up to grab Poike off of him,
accusing her sister of stealing her lover. Fierce anger
burned in the faces of both Rano Kau and Poike. They
fell to screaming and crying at one another. Fiery
tears streamed down their faces, hissing and bubbling
upon contact with the sea. The steam made from their
fiery tears in the sea mixed with the smoke pouring from
their noses to form clouds in the sky, which to this day
often block out the sun. The Rapanui children scattered
about on the bodies of the three deities, trying to find
refuge from the scalding tears and angry blows.
Terevaka,
in a desperate attempt to save his Rapanui children from
the violence of the two sisters, stepped between them
and using all of his strength held them apart. Hot
tears he cried for his children mixed in the sea
solidifying. So long he held his ground, and so many
tears he cried, that soon each of the three deities was
encased in a hard rock shell, immobilized for all time.
The Rapanui children looked about when all was said and
done, lamenting the loss of their divine parents.
They
gathered together as a group to discuss the tragedy.
Many called for action to prevent such tragedy from
striking again. Some of the wiser Rapanui set their
minds to work to design a way of protecting themselves.
They came to the conclusion that under their feet lay
immobilized all three gods of the world, but they may
not remain motionless forever. Clearly the Rapanui
themselves would be powerless should the gods awake and
renew their struggle, but they figured they stood a
chance of survival if they could be warned of their
awakening soon enough. It was decided that the best strategy would be to set lookouts to
watch for signs of the gods awakening.
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The islanders set to work excavating large pieces of the
solidified tears and fashioning guards out of them.
Efforts were made to make them as large as possible, the
thought being that larger eyes would see greater details, larger noses would smell changes on the
wind sooner, and larger ears would hear more minute
rumblings. All across the island these guards were
placed, looking inwards towards the island, guarding against the
revival of the threat to peaceful Rapanui existence.
*This legend is a work of creative writing for a class
assignment. This is not a real Rapanui legend.
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