NOTES ON A VISIT TO EASTER ISLAND 



17 



191 7, but it miist be used with much criticism, as it contains many Tahitian 

 words and also corrupted EngHsh, French or Spanish; good examples are anio 

 (agneau) and rnutone = sheep, himene (hymn) = to sing,' teperanate = serpent, 

 tokini = stockings, tiaporo (diablo) = devil, viretute = virtue, given without 

 reservation. A closer look reveals that the material is not at all so rich as the 

 number of words would indicate, for the author has invented hundreds of ex- 

 pressions for ideas wholly unfamiliar to the aboriginal soul, by combining the 

 words and extending their meaning in a most improper manner, e. g. expres- 

 sions for cabin, desert, doctrine, palace, river, saint, W. C. etc. etc. to quote 

 a few obvious examples, of which scores could be given. This is, I believe, 

 a common missionary method to enrich the language with ideas and expressions 

 necessary for the translation of reHgious and other books, but otherwise never 

 used by the natives. 



Concerning the name of the sweet potato, see below. It has been ad- 

 vanced as indicating an American influence previous to the Columbian era. 

 Rutland (1. c.) thinks that the ancient monuments bear witness of a constant 

 communication between the island and Peru and Mexico: »from hence architects 

 of Easter Island may have been derived ». 



CULTIVATED PLANTS 



If we knew the history of the cultivated plants, many a mystery related 

 to the history of mankind would be solved. But, unfortunately, discussion 

 often begins with the original home of the wild parents of these plants, and 

 there it also ends. 



The first record of domesticated plants in Easter Island is that of RoG- 

 GEVEEN, the discoverer of the island or, at least, the first white man to set 

 his foot upon it. He makes the following statement on p. 120 (De Reis van 

 Jacob Roggeveen. Worken uitgeven door de Linschoten-Vereenigung 4. 

 191 1): »en toegebragt worden alles wat sy hadden, bestaende en boomvrugten, 

 aardgewasch en hoenderen», that is, tree-fruits, soil-fruits (rootcrops) and hens; 

 and, farther down: »want na verloop van een kleynen tijd bragten sy eene 

 menigte van suykerriet, hoenderen, ubaswortelen en bananas», that is sugar- 

 cane, bananas and ubas-roots. But what is ubas? Most likely the same word 

 as the Malesian ubi (uwi, huvvi), yams (Dioscorea alata), now called ufi in the 

 island. All these plants are of Old World origin and have spread from the 

 Indo-malayan region over the Pacific. According to Friderici, the same word, 

 in a corrupted form, is current in South America: »Dieses Wort schlagt eine 

 Briicke iiber den grossen Ozean: es gehort als op unter der Bezeichnung 'siisse 

 Kartoffel' zum Sprachschatz der Chimu, des kiistenbewohnenden Kulturvolkes 

 westlichen Siidamerikas* (Wiss. Ergebn. seiner amtl. Forschungsreise nach dem 

 Bismarck Archipel im Jahre 1908). But the bridge in question seems to be weak. 



The word cumara is used for sweet potato [Ipomaea batatas or Batatas 

 edulis) from New Zealand through Polynesia to Easter Island. According to 

 Cheeseman (Manual of the New Zealand Plora) the Maori introduced the plant 

 from Polynesia when they colonized the country (supposingly 1350 — 1400), and 

 it was described by SOLANDER as Convolvulus chrysorhizus, now reduced to 



2 — 20199. The Nat. Hist, of Juan Fernandez and Easter Isl. Vol. I. 



