Sister of the Sun (43 page)

maro kura
: sacred red cloth wound about the loins of a chief at investment, and worn on a few other special occasions.
 

maeva ariki
: salutation: "Exalted be the chief!"
 

Maui: one of several legendary heroes by that name.

mikimiki
: small tree of the loosestrife family, common to atoll shores.
 

Flowers are white. The hard wood was used for spears and fishhooks.

Pemphis acidula
.
 

motu
: a low island created by the exposed part of a coral reef.
 

Oro: Polynesian god, patron of the Arioi in his peacekeeping aspect known as Oro-of-the-laid-down-spear. One of the major gods of Tahiti at the time of European contact.
 

pahi
: a vessel built by connecting two canoe hulls side by side with poles, usually with a platform mounted above the hulls. This type of craft was used on long voyages or for carrying large numbers of people.
 

pahua
: large tridacna clam, a mainstay of the Tuamotu diet.

pukatea
: atoll tree that can reach heights of sixty feet. Considered sacred by some atoll dwellers.
Pisonia grandis
.
 

ringoringo
: a spirit that was thought to give a warning cry at the approach of trouble.
 

sennit: cord made from softened fibers of the coconut husk.
 

tahunga
: a healer, a specialist in some art or skill.
lamanu
: a large tree of the mangosteen family.
Calophyllum inophyllum
.
 

Tangaroa: generally viewed as the god who created all else. Considered too far removed from human affairs to be addressed directly in worship.
 

tapa
: bark cloth, made by pounding the softened inner bark of the paper mulberry, breadfruit, or hibiscus tree. (These are all high-island trees.) Cloth was often dyed or painted, the best colors being scarlet and yellow. Rolls of
tapa
were prized as gifts, not only for their utility and beauty but because of the amount of labor they represented. Tapahi-roro-ariki: legendary atoll woman chief, (lit. "Brains-cleaving-chief.")
 

tapu
: sacred, forbidden. Something that is restricted.
tiputa
: a garment of woven leaf or of bark-cloth. It is much like a hoodless poncho, a rectangle of cloth with a hole in the center for the head, taro: a cultivated plant of the atolls. The root, when baked, is somewhat like a potato. The cooked leaves resemble mild spinach. Tepua-mua: lit. "foremost flower."
umu
: shallow pit used for cooking. Stones within are first heated by fire. The food is then placed between the stones and covered to bake.
vahine
: woman, wife, lover.
 

vaka
: one-hulled canoe with an outrigger float mounted parallel to the hull
viavia
: a coconut in its prime for drinking. The outer husk is still partly green and the meat within is soft. (Not available in supermarkets!)
 

 

 

 

SELECTED READING

 

Brooks, Candace Carleton,
Manihi: Life on an Atoll
, Ph. D. thesis, Stanford University, 1968.

Buck, Sir Peter H.,
Vikings of the Pacific
, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1959.

Danielsson, Bengt,
Love in the South Seas
, Translated by F.H. Lyon, Reynal & Co., New York, N.Y., 1956.
 

Emory, Kenneth P.,
Material Culture of the Tuamotu Archipelago—Pacific
Anthropological Records No. 22
, Department of Anthropology, Bernice Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1975.
 

Emory, Kenneth P. and Honor Maude,
String Figures of the Tuamotus
, Homa Press, Canberra, 1979.
 

Henry, Teuira,
Ancient Tahiti
, Bishop Museum Bulletin No. 48, Honolulu, 1928.
 

Moorehead, Alan,
The Fatal Impact
, Harper and Row, New York, 1966.
 

Staffbrd-Deitsch, J.,
Shark: A Photographer's Story
, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1987.