Hawaii - James Michener [40]
It was such an obvious explanation that Teroro laughed. "I've seen canoes like that. One came to Nuku Hiva from the south."
"It's natural," Tupuna explained. "When Tane, who rules the land, and Ta'aroa, who rules the sea, speak to a navigator in unison, they must be referring to the element that they rule together, the wind. They want you to erect two sails so that you can catch the wind better."
"I will do so," Teroro said, and forthwith he called his men together, and even though departure could not be far off, he ripped down the mast, found a matching tree, and erected one in the right hull, which he named Tane, and the other in the left, which he called Ta'aroa. Then he lashed each with sennit shrouds, so that by nightfall a man could climb to the top of either and not tear it loose. It would have been unthinkable for a navigator not to obey the gods.
On the third night of the storm it was the king's turn to dream, and he witnessed a fearful sight: two planets in the western sky at sunset, fighting with the sun and pushing it from the sky, whereupon one moved anxiously east and west, while the other roamed north and south. This dream was so ominous that the king summoned his uncle immediately and lay facing him in dead of night, imploring counsel.
"Does it mean that we are doomed?" Tamatoa asked in distress.
"Which of the wandering stars went searching east and west?" Tupuna inquired.
"The great star of evening."
"And they were both searching?"
"Like a dog combing the beach or a woman seeking a lost tapa."
"This is not a good omen," Tupuna said gravely.
"Could it mean . . ." the king began, but the concept was too foreboding to be put into words.
"Failure?" Tupuna asked bluntly. "You think it means that our canoe will wander north and south, east and west, until we perish?"
"Yes," Tamatoa answered weakly.
"It cannot mean that," Tupuna said consolingly, "for Tane and Ta'aroa themselves spoke to Teroro last night, and he governs the canoe."
The king was not relieved, for he confided: "My other thought is just as bad."
"What is it?" the old man asked.
"I wonder if the two stars do not represent Tane and Ta'aroa, and the thing they are looking for is Oro. I wonder if they acknowledge Oro as supreme and do not want to go in our canoe unless he goes along?" He dropped his head and muttered, "Uncle, I am sick with fear that we are doing something wrong."
"No," Tupuna assured him, "I've studied every omen. There is no indication of failure. Remember that Tane and Ta'aroa brought us significant advice, the need for two masts. Would they trifle with us?"
"But these searching stars?"
"I'll confess, not a good omen. But I am sure that all it means is that in some manner your preparation for the voyage is incomplete. You have forgotten some vital thing."
"What shall I do?"
"You must unpack everything and then repack it, and when you have accomplished this, you will know what oversight has displeased the gods."
And so, on the third day of the storm, King Tamatoa did an un-precedented thing: he threw open his tabu palace to the boat's crew, and they assembled, on mats which the day before it would have been death to touch, each item that was to go north, and before the king's careful eye they unwrapped and repacked their treasures.
"Have we our tools?" Tamatoa inquired, and his men brought forth the basalt stones used for cooking, and the sand. They produced bundles of sticks, some hard, some pithy, for making fire. Fishlines of sennit, fishhooks of pearl, nets and spears for sharks, all were in order. There were bluish-green adzes, stone chisels, pounders for crushing taro and others for making cloth. Some chiefs produced digging sticks, harder than many stones and covered with mana from long use in planting taro. There were gourds and calabashes and cups for cooking. Men hauled in bows and arrows, and slingshots with pouches or special stones. There was a long pole with sticky gum for catching birds, a conch shell for calling to prayer, and four