Human Sacrifice
Yes, it did take place on the Marquesas and I think within the last 150 years. It seemed that every tribe was at war with every other one and it was quite accepted to nip into your neighbour's village and bring back a couple of 'long pig', sweet tasteing I'm told. Certainly there is still some eating of dog on some remoter islands or so our guide Jean-Pierre told us with a twinkle in his eye and a rub of his tummy. This charming man brought us on a three hour outing to his home village. There the main industry is not just copra but the picking, barelling and exporting of Noni fruit which grows abundantly. Behind the village, really just a strip of open sided corrugated iron huts with shiny 4X4s beside them, is the jungle of palm trees and bananas.
Jean-Pierre led us up a jungle path in intense humidity to a clearing where in ancient times unspeakable events occured on a sort of stone dais with strange carved figures inserted reminiscent of Sheila na Gigs but much more threatening . These are the Tikis that are abundant on the islands and are spirits or deities according to different versions. They all have big bug eyes like ET and wide threatening grins . Some sport vestiginal horns and all are meant to be aggressive and powerful. Personally, and Georgie concurs, I find them plain ugly but that is probably very un-PC .
In this jungle clearing the Gods got there on back on Georgie (see the mosquito article).
We drove to the house of a local sculptor and his family where we shown his wares laid out on a table. The room was very bare and sported a telly, the sacred heart and pictures of his children with crowns of flowers. A lovely dog and her tiny puppy lounged on the doorstep. The sculptor seemed indifferent to our prescence but the two beautiful little girls , maybe 4 and 5 year olds, where very inquisitive especially when Perks popped out of my pocket. They had their picture taken with him. Meanwhile we bought a necklace and a little wooden turtle from the enormous wife. There seem to be a prevalence of obesity on the islands. Longevity is not achieved. You are an old man at 50 and heading to the home of the goner in your sixties. It seems the climate is particularily hard on the lungs and also there are mozzie born diseases, our Jean-Pierre survived Dengue Fever in 1968. He also remembered a Tsunami in that year that took severeal cattle and horses but no people in his village.
We returned to Taiohae and he brought us to his house where we met his lovely wife, adopted baby from another island, and 24 year old daughter. The wife gave both of us a necklace made of local seeds and showed us how she fills 20 gallon drums with Noni fruit for export. The house consists of one large room, kitchen, bedroom, living room all contained within.
This was our only contact with islanders and even that had to be done through the medium of my embarassing school boy French . But what a wonderful day out. Little did we know what awaited us the next day on our trip to Hive Oa. That will be the subject of our next post.
Jean-Pierre led us up a jungle path in intense humidity to a clearing where in ancient times unspeakable events occured on a sort of stone dais with strange carved figures inserted reminiscent of Sheila na Gigs but much more threatening . These are the Tikis that are abundant on the islands and are spirits or deities according to different versions. They all have big bug eyes like ET and wide threatening grins . Some sport vestiginal horns and all are meant to be aggressive and powerful. Personally, and Georgie concurs, I find them plain ugly but that is probably very un-PC .
In this jungle clearing the Gods got there on back on Georgie (see the mosquito article).
We drove to the house of a local sculptor and his family where we shown his wares laid out on a table. The room was very bare and sported a telly, the sacred heart and pictures of his children with crowns of flowers. A lovely dog and her tiny puppy lounged on the doorstep. The sculptor seemed indifferent to our prescence but the two beautiful little girls , maybe 4 and 5 year olds, where very inquisitive especially when Perks popped out of my pocket. They had their picture taken with him. Meanwhile we bought a necklace and a little wooden turtle from the enormous wife. There seem to be a prevalence of obesity on the islands. Longevity is not achieved. You are an old man at 50 and heading to the home of the goner in your sixties. It seems the climate is particularily hard on the lungs and also there are mozzie born diseases, our Jean-Pierre survived Dengue Fever in 1968. He also remembered a Tsunami in that year that took severeal cattle and horses but no people in his village.
We returned to Taiohae and he brought us to his house where we met his lovely wife, adopted baby from another island, and 24 year old daughter. The wife gave both of us a necklace made of local seeds and showed us how she fills 20 gallon drums with Noni fruit for export. The house consists of one large room, kitchen, bedroom, living room all contained within.
This was our only contact with islanders and even that had to be done through the medium of my embarassing school boy French . But what a wonderful day out. Little did we know what awaited us the next day on our trip to Hive Oa. That will be the subject of our next post.
posted by Tim Goulding at Friday, March 04, 2005
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