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two canoes met and, attracted by the smooth
sand-beach, Hotu-Matua landed and named the
island "Te-pito te-henua" or "the navel of
the deep." The queen landed, and immediately
afterwards, gave birth to a boy, who was named
Tuumae-Keke. The landing place was named Anekena
in honor of the month of August, in which the
island was discovered. All the plants landed from
the canoes were appropriated for seed, and the
people immediately began the cultivation of the
ground. For the first three months they subsisted
entirely upon fish, turtle, and the nuts of a
creeping-plant found growing along the ground,
which was named "moki-oo-ne." After the lapse
of a number of unrecorded years, during which the
island had been made to produce an abundance of
food, and the people had increased and multiplied
in numbers, Hotu-Matua at an advanced age was
stricken with a mortal illness. Before his end
drew near, the chief men were summoned to meet in
council. The king nominated his eldest son as his
successor (Tuumae-Heke), an it was ordained that
the descent of the kings
should always be through the eldest son.
This important matter having
been settled, the island was divided up
into districts and portioned out to
the children of the king as follows: To
Tuumae-Heke, the eldest, were given the royal
establishment and lands extending from Anekena to
the northwest as far as Mounga Tea-tea. To Meru, the
second son, were given the lands between Anekena
and Hanga-roa. To Marama, the third son, were
given the lands between Akahanga and Vinapu. The
land lying to the northward and westward of Mounga
Tea-tea was the portion of the fourth son, Raa,
and was called Hanga-Toe. To the fifth son,
Korona-ronga, were allotted the lands between
Anekena and the crater of Rana-Roraku. To the
sixth and the last son were given the lands on the
east side of the island. His name was Hotu-iti.
The tradition here goes back before the advent of
the people on the island, and states that
Hotu-Matua and his followers came from a group of
islands lying towards the rising sun, and the
name of the land was Marae-toe-hau, the literal
meaning of which is "the burial place." In this
land, the climate was so intensely hot that the
people sometimes died from the effects of the
heat, and at certain seasons plants and growing
things were scorched and shriveled up by the
burning sun.
The circumstances that led to the
migration are related as follows: Hotu-Matua
succeeded his father, who was a powerful chief,
but his reign in the land of his birth, owing
to a combination of circumstances over which he
had no control, was limited to a very few years.
His brother, Machaa, fell in love with a maiden
famed for her beauty and
grace, but a rival appeared upon the scene in
the person of Oroi, the powerful chief of a
neighboring clan. After the manner of the sex in
all ages and climes, this dusky beauty trifled
with the affections of her suitors and proved
fickle-minded. When pressed to make a choice
between the two, she announced that she would
marry Oroi, provided
he would prove his love by making a pilgrimage
around the island,
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