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15-454: The ritual of the "Bird Man" cult was a competition to collect the first egg of the manutara . This took place starting from Motu Nui where the Hopu (representatives from each clan) waited for the sooty terns to lay their first eggs of the season. The Hopu who seized the first egg raced to swim back to Easter Island, climbed the cliffs to Orongo and presented the egg to their sponsor in front of

30-438: A bundle of reeds called a pora under one arm. They would each await the arrival of the first sooty terns , hoping to return with the first egg, whilst their sponsors waited for their return at the stone village of Orongo on the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui. The race was very dangerous, and many hopu were killed by sharks, by drowning, or by falling from cliff faces, though replacements were apparently easily available. Once

45-473: A pan-tropical distribution; the bridled tern also breeds across the Tropical Atlantic and Indian Ocean but in the central Pacific it is replaced by the spectacled tern . The Aleutian tern breeds around Alaska and Siberia but winters in the tropics around South East Asia . [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Manutara

60-461: A servant god who was associated with them. The names of all eight would be chanted by contestants during the various rituals preceding the egg hunt. The identities of the contestants, all men of importance on the island, were revealed in prophecies by ivi-attua priests, who could be either men or women. Each contestant would then appoint one or sometimes two hopu , adult men of lesser status, who would actually swim to Motu Nui carrying provisions in

75-401: A year in a special ceremonial house; he would be considered tapu for the next five months, and in that time would allow his nails to grow long and wear a headdress made of human hair. He would be expected to engage in no activity other than eating and sleeping during this time. The bird-man cult was ended by Christian missionaries in the 1860s. The origins of the cult are uncertain, as it

90-443: Is a genus of seabirds in the family Laridae . The genus name is from Ancient Greek onux , "claw" or "nail", and prion , "saw". Although the genus was first described in 1832 by Johann Georg Wagler the four species in the genus were until 2005 retained in the larger genus Sterna , the genus that holds most terns. Three of the four species are tropical , and one has a sub-polar breeding range. The sooty tern has

105-473: Is the Rapa Nui language name for spectacled and sooty terns. Both arrive at Easter Island and hatch their eggs on the island called Motu Nui , an event that was used for an annual rite called Tangata manu . Tangata manu The Tangata manu ("bird-man," from tangata "human beings" + manu "bird") was the winner of a traditional ritual competition on Rapa Nui ( Easter Island ) to collect

120-488: The hopu , but his sponsor – would then be declared the new tangata-manu , and would take the egg in his hand and lead a procession down the slope of Rano Kau to Anakena (if he was from the western clans) or Rano Raraku (if he was from the eastern clans). The new tangata-manu was entitled to gifts of food and other tributes and his clan would have sole rights to collect that season's harvest of wild bird eggs and fledglings from Motu Nui. He then would go into seclusion for

135-523: The Tangata Manu cult's rituals have long since been discontinued (the last competition known to have taken place in 1888), current visitors to Rapa Nui often enjoy the beauty of the Motus via small boat excursions from Hanga Roa , the island's only town. The diving in the sea between Motu Nui and Kau Kau is exceptional, and it is a highly sought-after scuba diving location for dive enthusiasts from around

150-535: The first sooty tern ( manu tara ) egg of the season from the nearby islet of Motu Nui , swim back to Rapa Nui, and climb the sea cliffs of Rano Kau to the clifftop village of Orongo . In the Rapa Nui mythology , the deity Makemake was the chief god of the bird-man cult; the other three deities associated with it were Hawa-tuu-take-take (the Chief of the eggs, a male god), his wife Vie Hoa, and another female deity named Vie Kenatea. Each of these four also had

165-487: The first egg was collected, the finder would go to the highest point on Motu Nui and call out to the shore of the main island, announcing his benefactor by the benefactor's new name and telling him, "Go shave your head, you have got the egg!" The cry would be taken up by listeners at the shoreline, who would pass it up the cliffside to the contestants waiting in Orongo. The unsuccessful hopu would then collectively swim back to

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180-494: The judges at Orongo. This gave their sponsor the title of Tangata manu and great power on the island for a year. Many Hopu were killed by sharks or by falling. The winning clan gained certain rights, including the collecting of eggs and young birds from the islets. Motu means "island" in Rapa Nui language, and there are two smaller motus located nearby: Motu Kao Kao (a sea stack , rising around 20 meters (65 feet) above sea level) and Motu Iti (near Motu Nui). Motu Nui

195-404: The main island while the egg-finder remained alone on Motu Nui and fasted; he would then swim back with the egg secured inside a reed basket tied to his forehead. On his reaching land, he would then climb the steep, rocky cliff face and present the egg to his patron (if it were still intact), who would have already shaved his head and painted it either white or red. This successful contestant – not

210-418: The world. Once heavily populated with sharks, the coastal waters of Rapa Nui are now much safer, due in large part to overfishing. 27°12′05″S 109°27′10″W  /  27.20139°S 109.45278°W  / -27.20139; -109.45278 Manutara Onychoprion lunatus Onychoprion anaethetus Onychoprion fuscatus Onychoprion aleuticus Onychoprion , the "brown-backed terns",

225-739: Was scientifically surveyed by the Routledge expedition of 1914, which reported that six other varieties of seabirds nested there in addition to the sooty tern. They explored two caves on Motu Nui, in one of which the Hopu used to stay while waiting for the first egg of the season, and the other used to contain Moai Maea "The Boundary of the Land," a small moai that had already been taken to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England . Although

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