One night the Taku warriors journeyed to Taravai and they kidnapped a princess. She was secretly married to Apeiti, the chief of Rikitea, and she was also pregnant with his child.
After she was kidnapped she was carried to Taku on a canoe. The warriors of Taku pierced her throat with a spear. They stopped at an island and she asked for water because she was thirsty. They gave her some, but it ran out of the hole in her throat.
When she was brought to Taku, the people gathered on the shore. In that group was Apeiti, the secret husband of this princess. When he saw who it was he went to his Taku relatives and asked them to save the princess. His answer was that they would not because they had agreed to her being killed.
After she was killed Apeiti went to his cousin, Tupou-Eriki, the chief of Taku and said, “My cousin, this thing has made an eternal separation between us two. Either, you will be overcome or I will be overcome!”
Reference:
from Ethnology of Mangareva by Te Rangi Hiroa [Peter H. Buck].
Revised: March 26, 1997
Copyright © 1996 Daniel (Taniera) Longstaff