Chapter IV
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terrace before the house. He calls his mistress Marae-ura in the song. Illegitimate connections were common enough in all societies, but in one way Europe was less rigid than Tahiti in its rules, not of morals, but of marriage. Unequal marriages were not merely unusual; they were impossible. The family would not permit them even in the case of the most powerful chief that ever lived. Illegitimacy was common, but if there was danger that a low-born child should ever take inheritance in the family, the child was put to death. Even if the connection threatened to be inconvenient, the family or the Hiva would interpose and insist on the chiefs return to his own place. This is the subject of Tauraatua’s song. The messenger, called the bird Uriri, had come to the Ruaroa, where Taura was living with his mistress, and brought the order for him to return to Papara. The song begins by repeating the message, and closes by a verse in which the lover, who is obliged to leave his mistress, pushes aside the leaves to catch sight of her bathing on the beach.
Taura atua te noho maira i tona ra paepae i te pacpaeroa
E uriri iti au e rere i te Ruaroa
E fenua Papara ite rai rumaruma
E haere a i Teva tena teaia tei Papara to fenua ura e
E Outu tei tai Outu manomano te faarii raa ia Teriirere i outu rau ma Tooarai
E tii na vau e turai e atu i teniau para o te Ruaroa e
Ia vai noa mai nau i puu rii o Maraeura tei tai e
"Taura atua lives at the paepae of the paepaeroa
The little Uriri flies to the Ruaroa, for him the loved:
’Come back to Papara, the heavy-leaved;
Come back to Teva, your home, your Papara, the golden land;
Your Moua, the Moua Tamaiti above;
Your Outu, the Outu Manomano on the shore,
The throne of Teriirere of Tooarai.’
Then let me go and bend aside the golden leaves of the Ruaroa
That I may see those two buds of Marae-ura on the shore."
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Indigenous Histories |  |
© Derived from the revised Paris edition of 1901 page 37, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-marua-037.html