An Old Cook Islands
p. 20 · Read in the full issue
Custom
Prom Our Own Correspondent
Rarotonga, March 25.
MANY years BH (Before Hitler!) we lived in a golden age. We had money to jingle, and there were monthly steamers running through the islands between Auckland and San Fran cisco, while the * fruit steamers worked through the Cook and Society Islands, gathering a scented harvest for the NZ market.
So we Polynesians could do the thing we most love to do: wandering the ocean to visit the lands of our forefathers —or just to see new places; visiting old friends and making new ones; forming little transient group communities here and there through the islands.
They were happy, exciting days and we talk of them yet, and dream that some day they will come again.
MY friend Teariki is a good-natured fellow with an ever-ready smile — but a smile that is marred by the blank absence of many front teeth. Won dering why so many teeth were missing while the remainder are so white and strong, I was one day prompted to inquire.
Teariki’s smilb broadened as he replied: ‘T left those teeth on the waterfront in one of the great battles of Papeete. They were wonderful battles, just like in the olden days. We would pick our best fight ing men and sail for Tahiti, where the toughest Tahitian warriors would be ready for us.
“But some of those Tahitians were dirty fighters—they had learned the French men’s trick of fighting with the feet, as well as the hands. We Britishers had been taught to fight only with the fists.
When we got back to Rarotonga with our teeth missing our English friends said. ‘We will show you how to deal with those high-kickers.’
“So they taught us how to watch for our opponents’ feet and to step quickly backwards and catch the foot with our hands and heave it upwards with all our strength so that the owner must descend upon the back of his neck. It was a beautiful trick!”
The smile momentarily faded and a faraway look came into his eyes as he repeated softly, “But they were wonder ful battles—just like in the olden days.” rE ease and cheapness of travel in those davs enabled Cook Islanders to embark on a strange pilgrimage.
The “pito,” or umbilical cords of new born infants, were carried by the fathers to be dropped into the sacred waters of the entrance to Raiatea harbour. This, it was believed, would ensure long life for the child: in the case of a son, he would become a strong diver and be pro tected from the perils of the sea.
Many Cook Islanders preserve the “pito” of their children in the hope that some day an opportunity will arise to visit Raiatea.
Apart from the pilgrimage to the hal lowed waters of Raiatea passage, whence sailed the gods of legend and the great navigators of history, it is a common Cook Islands practice to carry the “pito” by canoe far from land and sink it into the sea for “good luck.” The great depth of the ocean symbolises longevity.
Major D. G. Kennedy, DSO, who was a District Officer in the Solomons, was sent to Suva in January, to act as First Assistant Secretary of the Western Paci fic High Commission.