The Atiroos were then all killed or in hiding, and their name was never afterwards heard of in the island: but the twins, collecting their war-canoes, crossed to Tahiti, landing at Faaa, and attacked the Atiroo headquarters in Punaauia, where they were again victorious and went on, across the isthmus of Taravao, to Taiarapu where they killed enough Atiroos to build a Marae with the skulls. And the district is called to this day Teahupoo; that is, Teahu -- a pile, -- and Upoo -- of heads.

This legend of Marama’s conquests is singular in being the story of a war which was not for the possession of a woman; but Samson among the Philistines must always have had his Dalilah, and the twin Samsons of Moorea lived among the Philistines of Taiarapu. Yet the variation on the stock legend is curious. The people of Taiarapu, unable to beat the twins in fight, sent a beautiful woman to live with them. They fell in love with her -- both with the same woman, and by her arts were gradually separated from each other, becoming so jealous that they lived apart. She gave them a feast, and got them to drink kava till they were stupified. Then, when she should have called in her people to kill them, she hesitated. As she looked at their magnificent figures at her feet, she found herself in love with them. She kept her oath; perhaps she could not help herself; but when the twins had been put to death, she killed herself with the same spear.

To establish himself in his new territory, Marama came over from Haapiti to Amehiti, and built a Marae there; and there the next Marama, who was a man, was living, when he got his next accession of power. This story is the most Polynesian of all, with no suggestion of myth. The object of the tradition was to explain how Marama, after acquiring nearly all the island except Nuurua and Afareaitu, succeeded in getting those two districts also; and did it in spite of himself.

Two under-chiefs of Afareaitu, called Tuhei and Matafaahira, built

Indigenous Histories