528 KEPOIIT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889 



and it was specified that be should walk continually without stopping 

 to eat, or to rest by day or night, until the tour of the island was 

 completed. Retainers were selected to carry food to be eaten on the 

 route, and Oroi started upon his journey, accompanied for the first few 

 miles by his affianced bride, who promised upon parting, to permit her 

 thoughts to dwell upon nothing but him until his return. The incon- 

 stant female eloped with her other lover, Machaa, on the same evening. 

 Oroi did not hear this news until he had arrived at the farther end of 

 the island; then he returned directly to his home, where he prepared a 

 great feast to which he summoned all the warriors of his clan. The 

 indignity that had been put upon him was related, and all present 

 registered a vow that they would never rest until Hotu-Matua and his 

 entire family had been put to death. 



It appears that Machaa was a man of prudence, and seeing that a 

 desperate conflict was imminent, he embarked with six chosen follow- 

 ers and his bride, in a large double canoe, and with plenty of provisions 

 sailed in the night for some more genial clime. The great spiiit 

 "Meke-Meke" is supposed to have appeared to him and made it known 

 that a large uninhabited island could be found by steering towards the 

 setting sun. The laud was sighted after they had been out two months, 

 and the canoe was beached on the south side of the island. On the 

 second day after their arrival they found a turtle on the beach near 

 Auekeua, and one of the men was killed by a blow of its flipper in try- 

 ing to turn it over. Two months after they had landed on the island, 

 the two canoes with Hotu-Matua and his followers, three hundred in 

 number, arrived. 



The desertion of Machaa did not appease the wrath of Oroi, aud war 

 to the death was carried on until Hotu-Matua, after being defeated in 

 three great battles, was driven to the last extremity. Discouraged by 

 his misfortune, and convinced that his ultimate capture and death were 

 certain, he determined to flee from the island of Marae-toe-hau, and 

 accordingly had two large canoes, 90 feet Jong and 6 feet deep, provis- 

 ioned and prepared for a long voyage. In the night, and on the eve of 

 another battle, they sailed away, with the understanding that the set- 

 ting sun was to be their compass. 



It appears that the intended flight of Hotu-Matua was discovered by 

 Oroi at the last moment, and that energetic individual smuggled him- 

 self on board of one of the canoes, disguised as a servant. After ar- 

 riving upon the island, he hid himself among the rocks at Orougo, aud 

 continued to seek his revenge by murdering every unprotected person 

 who came in his way. This interesting state of affairs continued for 

 several years, but Oroi was finally captured in a net thrown by Hotu- 

 Matua and was pounded to death. The tradition continues by a sudden 

 jump into the following extraordinary condition of affairs: Many years 

 after the death of Hotu-Matua, the island was about equally divided 

 between his descendants and the " long-eared race," and between them 



