Another Version of "The Making of the Stone Statues"
Father Sebastian Englert reports a slightly different version of the previous legend, "The Making of the Stone Statues", told by Luis Atan, who in turn heard it from Arturo Teao. The difference concerns the episode when one of the lads sent by Miru to learn how to carve the statues walks off the path to relieve himself (He-oho, he-hipa etahi kope, he-mimi...).
Here is the version told by Luis Atan.
| Ki tu'u ki Puku Ure Pu-rei, he-patu etahi kope i toona hami mo nene'i. | When they arrived at Puku Ure Pu-rei one lad took off his loincloth to defecate. | |
| E-nene'i-era he-û'i i toona kinoga, he-ragi ki te rua kope: "E ho'ou, he-agi te kî, iraro i a korua-ana te moai". | About to defecate he noticed his penis and exclaimed at the other lad: "Friend, what he told us is right, the statue is beneath you". | |
| He-kî te rua: "E-aha nei?". He-ragi: "E-hakatopa te hami, e-û'i te kinoga!". | The other said: "What?" He exclaimed: "If you drop your loincloth you'll see your penis!" | |
According to Arturo Teao's explanation, Kave Heve gave them to understand this: the statue Tai Ahare Atua was not properly made because the carvers did not represent the neck between the head and the trunk; and that henceforth they should take for model the penis (te kohio), with its "neck" (te gao o te kohio) at the basis of the glans. This is a strange, but psychologically interesting detail of the tradition. 107d