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Updated: May 4, 2025
Here, then, they lived very comfortably; and from their having, immediately on their arrival, taken up their abode in the Marai, the people, who were all acquainted with the story of Opuna, concluded they were sent thither by Rono, to watch over the grave of his beloved consort. To this opinion they were indebted for a veneration greater than that entertained for the gods themselves.
The people, astonished at this frantic behaviour of the god, enquired the reason of it; on which, with the bitterest expression of grief, he exclaimed, "I have murdered her who was dearest to me!" He bore the remains of Opuna into the Marai on the Bay of Karekakua, and there remained a long time sunk in the deepest grief.
Mankind had enjoyed a long period of peace and content under the beneficent protection of Rono, when their happiness was suddenly disturbed by a distressing occurrence. The goddess Opuna, the beautiful consort of Rono, degraded herself by a clandestine connexion with a man of O Wahi.
Now also commenced many evil customs, such as human sacrifices, which had been unknown in the good old time: cannibalism, however, does not appear ever to have disgraced them. A long period elapsed, of which no record remains; and the story is resumed at the landing of five white men in Karekakua Bay, near to the Marai, where the body of the goddess Opuna reposed.
According to a belief not long ago universally prevalent, the mighty spirit Etua-Rono reigned over these islands before they were inhabited by men. Ardently desirous of seeing his country peopled, he was melancholy, and shed torrents of tears on the mountain Mou-na-roa, because he had no offspring; and his loving wife, the beautiful goddess Opuna, was not in a situation to console him.
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