Hi, there. I’m a lurker, or used to be anyway. But a few days ago, I had this idea for a Polynesian TL where Polynesians introduce farm animals to the Americas. This TL presupposes the fact that Polynesians had the requisite technology to both transport the animals they ate from Hawai’i to Rapa Nui (and subsequently to the Americas) and to reach the Americas in the first place. This fact is disputed by some, but I agree with Thor Heyerdahl. Anyway. Enjoy, subscribe, comment (nicelyJ)! Oh, and note: this installment is several hundred years after the initial POD (that POD being the Rapanui transporting feed animals with them to Rapa Nui itself).
Chapter 1: A New Home
Nua’e Rapanui, The Great Island(1) August 3, 1033 CE
The sun hung low over the calm sea as Toi-kai-rakau(2) and his men pulled their balsa log rafts onto the shore. The chief let go of the great raft and wiped his hands, noting with apathy the pain of a splinter in his left. To the east, the distant mountains of this land sloped high and sinister over the group of huddled Rapanui on the shore. Toi felt very small in the presence of these mountains.
At the foot of the great mountains, there was a great bloom of many-colored forest spreading down to the beach where the Rapanui were setting up camp. A small stream ran out of the edge of the forest, pouring over the beach and into the river. But more ominously, on the very base of the distant mountains could be seen small huts, and the drifting smoke of a fire.
***
Setting up camp had been an easy task. The trees around the beach were old and easy to cut with stone hatchets, and besides, the only wood needed was that used to light the fire and erect a moa and pua’a(3) pen. By the time the sun set below the horizon, the woodfire was burning smokily and merrily, and the smell of roasting pua’a hung around the camp enticingly.
Kupe, the group’s ivi-attua(4),sat away from the group, staring off into the dark forest. Toi, watching his back, shivered a little as he thought of the things the soothsayer must see out there. What darkness. What evil. Still, this beach seemed innocent enough—the perfect place for a settlement. Tomorrow, the chief would send gifts to the people (or something intelligent) at the base of the mountains as a gesture of peace, while the rest of the settlers would get to work building new houses.
It was something the Rapanui and their cousins had been doing for thousands of years, Toi reflected as he took the pua’a off the fire. Yet another step in the endless process of exploration, expansion, colonization, survival. But though Toi and his people did not know it, this new step was something much greater than any of them—something that would eventually change history…
Twenty Miles East of Nua’e Rapanui, the Great Island August 4, 1033
Toi looked around uncomfortably at the rude village. You could hardly call the buildings huts—piles of old, rotted wood, unlikely to survive even the smallest storm. Certainly not waterproof. Similarly, the fire at the center of the, ahem, “village” was nothing compared to the healthy wood fire that still burned back at the Rapanui camp.
Across the small fire, a grinning, dirty creature watched Toi. This, apparently, was the chief of this tribe—at least, that’s what Toi thought. Their language was consonant-full and difficult to understand, but he had somehow conveyed that the Rapanui were friends and merely wished to live here, not to hurt these Mapuche, as they called themselves.
No, never hurt them. But perhaps one day the Rapanui could teach them and turn them into creatures worthy of civilization.
Nua’e Rapanui, the Great Island August 22, 1033
“Land ho!” Aata-a-ia-i grinned excitedly as he saw his father wave from the beach. Leaping out of the raft (one of about 20 that were approaching Nua’e Rapanui), Aata sloshed his way through the water and up to his father, seizing him in a strong bear hug. Toi-kai-rakau blinked away tears as he gripped his estranged son—they had not spoken for many months after Aata had left the cult of Tangata Manu(5) and turned to the moai(6) for spiritual fulfillment. But with the chaos caused by the Great Plague(7), it was no time for families to break apart.
“Father, I have missed you.” Toi smiled at his son. “I have missed you too, child. Where is mother?” Aata’s face turned grim at the mention of his mother. “She is resting with the ancestors now.” At these words, Toi felt something break deep inside him, and something else well up inside, but managed to push it down. “May she rest well. Come, Aata, and let us begin building houses for you and your people.”
A new day was dawning for the Rapanui, here on this foreign shore.
Notes
(1) Roughly the area of Valparaiso, Chile.
(2) Toi is a remarkably common name among Polynesians—kai-rakau means something similar to “great chief”.
(3) Moa=a chickenlike bird, similar to the great moa of New Zealand, though about ¼ as large. Pua’a=literally, hog. A large-bellied Asian hog, originally from Taiwan, which the Polynesians took with them to Hawai’i and, ITTL, Rapa Nui.
(4) Literally, “future-seer”. Basically a prophet.
(5) “Bird Man”. The Birdman cult was based around a competition held every year, where contestants selected by the prophets’ dreams would further select a hopu to swim from Rapa Nui to the island of Moto Nui and get a Sooty Tern egg, which they would then have to bring back unbroken. The hopu that won would become tabu (what do you think it means?) for a year, and be forced to go live in a cave in the center of Rapanui, from whence he would rule the entire island. As well, his tribe would be given first pick of Sooty Terns and eggs.
(6) Those giant stone heads. The religion that rivaled the Birdman cult until all the trees on Rapa Nui were cut down. The moai represented the ancestors, the gods, and Rapa Nui’s multiple culture heroes. Rituals were held each year at each moai to ensure another year of good fortune. Also, if a Rapanui had any troubles, he/she would go to the moai and sleep in front of them overnight—the moai would give him/her the answer to his/her problems in his/her dream(s).
(7) Our secondary POD—because of the fact that feed animals were transported and kept on Rapa Nui, pig-related diseases have developed and swept through the population, killing many thousands. Because of this, Toi-kai-rakau and Aata-a-ia-i have fled the island, guiding their respective religion members to a new dawn in Chile.
Chapter 1: A New Home
Nua’e Rapanui, The Great Island(1) August 3, 1033 CE
The sun hung low over the calm sea as Toi-kai-rakau(2) and his men pulled their balsa log rafts onto the shore. The chief let go of the great raft and wiped his hands, noting with apathy the pain of a splinter in his left. To the east, the distant mountains of this land sloped high and sinister over the group of huddled Rapanui on the shore. Toi felt very small in the presence of these mountains.
At the foot of the great mountains, there was a great bloom of many-colored forest spreading down to the beach where the Rapanui were setting up camp. A small stream ran out of the edge of the forest, pouring over the beach and into the river. But more ominously, on the very base of the distant mountains could be seen small huts, and the drifting smoke of a fire.
***
Setting up camp had been an easy task. The trees around the beach were old and easy to cut with stone hatchets, and besides, the only wood needed was that used to light the fire and erect a moa and pua’a(3) pen. By the time the sun set below the horizon, the woodfire was burning smokily and merrily, and the smell of roasting pua’a hung around the camp enticingly.
Kupe, the group’s ivi-attua(4),sat away from the group, staring off into the dark forest. Toi, watching his back, shivered a little as he thought of the things the soothsayer must see out there. What darkness. What evil. Still, this beach seemed innocent enough—the perfect place for a settlement. Tomorrow, the chief would send gifts to the people (or something intelligent) at the base of the mountains as a gesture of peace, while the rest of the settlers would get to work building new houses.
It was something the Rapanui and their cousins had been doing for thousands of years, Toi reflected as he took the pua’a off the fire. Yet another step in the endless process of exploration, expansion, colonization, survival. But though Toi and his people did not know it, this new step was something much greater than any of them—something that would eventually change history…
Twenty Miles East of Nua’e Rapanui, the Great Island August 4, 1033
Toi looked around uncomfortably at the rude village. You could hardly call the buildings huts—piles of old, rotted wood, unlikely to survive even the smallest storm. Certainly not waterproof. Similarly, the fire at the center of the, ahem, “village” was nothing compared to the healthy wood fire that still burned back at the Rapanui camp.
Across the small fire, a grinning, dirty creature watched Toi. This, apparently, was the chief of this tribe—at least, that’s what Toi thought. Their language was consonant-full and difficult to understand, but he had somehow conveyed that the Rapanui were friends and merely wished to live here, not to hurt these Mapuche, as they called themselves.
No, never hurt them. But perhaps one day the Rapanui could teach them and turn them into creatures worthy of civilization.
Nua’e Rapanui, the Great Island August 22, 1033
“Land ho!” Aata-a-ia-i grinned excitedly as he saw his father wave from the beach. Leaping out of the raft (one of about 20 that were approaching Nua’e Rapanui), Aata sloshed his way through the water and up to his father, seizing him in a strong bear hug. Toi-kai-rakau blinked away tears as he gripped his estranged son—they had not spoken for many months after Aata had left the cult of Tangata Manu(5) and turned to the moai(6) for spiritual fulfillment. But with the chaos caused by the Great Plague(7), it was no time for families to break apart.
“Father, I have missed you.” Toi smiled at his son. “I have missed you too, child. Where is mother?” Aata’s face turned grim at the mention of his mother. “She is resting with the ancestors now.” At these words, Toi felt something break deep inside him, and something else well up inside, but managed to push it down. “May she rest well. Come, Aata, and let us begin building houses for you and your people.”
A new day was dawning for the Rapanui, here on this foreign shore.
Notes
(1) Roughly the area of Valparaiso, Chile.
(2) Toi is a remarkably common name among Polynesians—kai-rakau means something similar to “great chief”.
(3) Moa=a chickenlike bird, similar to the great moa of New Zealand, though about ¼ as large. Pua’a=literally, hog. A large-bellied Asian hog, originally from Taiwan, which the Polynesians took with them to Hawai’i and, ITTL, Rapa Nui.
(4) Literally, “future-seer”. Basically a prophet.
(5) “Bird Man”. The Birdman cult was based around a competition held every year, where contestants selected by the prophets’ dreams would further select a hopu to swim from Rapa Nui to the island of Moto Nui and get a Sooty Tern egg, which they would then have to bring back unbroken. The hopu that won would become tabu (what do you think it means?) for a year, and be forced to go live in a cave in the center of Rapanui, from whence he would rule the entire island. As well, his tribe would be given first pick of Sooty Terns and eggs.
(6) Those giant stone heads. The religion that rivaled the Birdman cult until all the trees on Rapa Nui were cut down. The moai represented the ancestors, the gods, and Rapa Nui’s multiple culture heroes. Rituals were held each year at each moai to ensure another year of good fortune. Also, if a Rapanui had any troubles, he/she would go to the moai and sleep in front of them overnight—the moai would give him/her the answer to his/her problems in his/her dream(s).
(7) Our secondary POD—because of the fact that feed animals were transported and kept on Rapa Nui, pig-related diseases have developed and swept through the population, killing many thousands. Because of this, Toi-kai-rakau and Aata-a-ia-i have fled the island, guiding their respective religion members to a new dawn in Chile.