THE BOAST OF NIUFI

E fatu rau i tau hau o Taveroiterai

I te talua o Manavataia. te tootoo o Ninihotetoa.

Te taamu o Tiaperetii. te tahiri o Nunaaehau.

E too rau i tau nuu Pare Arue Mahine

Teharuru Eue Temehiti Ahuare Tetaero.

To ina te horo i paepae iriiri e maau rau nei na Teva.

“I am lord of my chiefdom of Taveroiterai

Of the girdle of Manavataia, the staff of Niniho-te-toa,

The union of Tiaperetii, the fan of Nunaaehau.

I am leader of my armies: Pare, Arue, Mahine,

Te Haururu, Eue, Temehiti, Ahuare, Tetaero.

Ask the fall of Paepae-iriiri if I am the idiot of Teva!”

Although the idiot of Teva again appears here, Niufi and his boast now concern our side of the island very little and the Pomares not at all, for in Niufi’s time the ancestors of the Pomares were still probably chiefs of Fakarava or Faarava, one of the low coral islands of the Pau-motu archipelago, some two hundred and fifty miles northeast of Tahiti. The exact date of the first Tu’s arrival in Tahiti is unknown. Even the generation cannot be fixed. I can say with certainty only that the Pomares were always ashamed of their Paumotu descent, which they considered a flaw in their heraldry and which was a reproach to them in the eyes of Tahitians, for all Tahitians regarded the Paumotus as savage and socially inferior. The Pomares religiously tried to hide the connection in every possible way, and very few Tahitians would have dared to make even an allusion to the subject in their presence, for it might have been taken as an insult and perhaps cost the jester his life. Once such an allusion was tried and was ignored. Moe, the wife of Tama-toa, son of Pomare IV, and herself Queen of Raiatea, was talking with her mother-in-law, Queen Pomare IV -- Aimata, of whom I shall have

Indigenous Histories