The legend of Manini a Ohera and Hainga Te Raumiro
(A Legend from Rapa Nui)
There were two men who lived in the Ana o Ike meamea cave near Moai Tuu Paro. Their names were Manini a Ohera and Hanga Te Raumiro.
When people would go tuna fishing in the Hakanononga of Haunutu and a tuna bit the hook, the line would always cut loose. They believed that it was the tuna itself that did this, but it was really done by witchcraft. It was the two young men, Manini a Ohera and Hanga Te Raumiro.
One day, a witch greeted the people and said, “It is those young men. They are the ones that go underwater to do this. They go up to the hook as if they were tuna. Hide, and tomorrow you shall see.”
They hid, but first they told the people who were going out in the boat, “If that tuna bites again, lift an oar high up so that we know it has bitten. Then we will go down and hide on the shore.”
At dawn, that tuna bit. Those who had hidden saw the oar being lifted high up and that is how they knew. They saw that when the two young men were coming ashore, the boat from the Hakahononga was coming in, too. So they saw that those young men had been doing this every day.
The men captured them and hit them with paoa sledgehammers. That is how they died.
The corpse of one of them is in Anakena. The other corpse is on his side, in Vai Mata.
The end.
Source:
Legends of Easter Island
Father Sebastian Englert
2007
Page: 265
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