Evening star., 1947-10-01
By Thor HeyerdohI
North American Newspaper Alliones

BY Thor Heyerdohl
North American Newspaper Alliones
SAN FRANCISCO. Oct. I've
were particularly interested, on land
ing in Polynesia after a raft trip
duplicating the legendary migration
Of Kon-Tiki and his followers, to
know what the natives would think
Of US. We did not have long to
wait.
A few days after we crashed on an
uninhabited atoll In Raroia reef,
natives from an island across the
lagoon took us back by canoe to
their surprisingly clean little village.
The chief led us up to a newly COM
pleted community house which was
to be our dwelling.
There we found the entire village
population assembled, motionless
and serious, to receive us. They
started by singing the "Marseillaise
(the island is under French protec-
tion) although only two or three Of
them speak French. Then they sang
a fascinating native song, composed
In honor of our raft voyage. And
then I was asked by the chief to tell
the people why we came across the
sea, drifting on a raft.
Story Simplified.
I simplif1ed the story by telling
them that I had found reasons to
believe that their forefathers had
come from American shores, and
that their own god Of creation
named Tiki was no god at all but
an early priest-king who had led
their original ancestors to these
islands, bringing along the coconut,
the calabash and the sweet potato
besides many of the original utensils
and customs Of these islands.
This Tiki, I said, was in my opin-
ion the early sun god of Peru, also
being a priest-king known as Kon-
Tiki or Tiki the Sun, who was in
the end driven away from his home
land and fled with his men into the
ocean many, many generations ago
when RATS were the only ships In
use along his shores.
We had made the voyage, I ex-
planned, to prove to those who
doubted it that paepae Cor raft in
Raroian) was good enough to take
early Americans to Polynesia driven
only by wind and ocean current,
Chief Is Excited.
These words had no sooner been
translated by the chief before the
subchief, who was a husky old man,
jumped up as If in ecstasy in front
Of the crowd and, pointing at us,
shouted that we were the first white
men to admit that Tiki, their famous
progenitor, had really existed-al-
though he was no god, but an early
king and navigator.
This made a deep impression upon
all the older people, though the
younger generation evidently were
more interested in the raft voyage
and the fish we had caught at sea.
To them our harpooning of the
whale shark and the landfall through
the surf on their east coast reef
had to be described over and over
again. AS the whale shark was un-
known in these waters, we found
them often sitting In front Of their
houses drawing the spotted monster
in the sand, while repeating the
story to each other.
After much discussion, In which
the old men took part wholeheart-
edly, it was UNANIMOUSLY agreed
that they were apt to support our
belief, and that the same eternal
east wind and current that had
brought us to their island on board
the Kon- Tiki raft had also brought
their own forefathers to the same
shore.
Foreign Craft Rare.
Our, arrival was quite an event
to the lonely Raroia natives. We
were the third foreign craft to call
at their island in the last 10 years,
apart from the little Tahitian
schooner which comes regularly to
collect copra.
Chief Teka, who was about 50
and a representative Of the younger
islanders, let old, sturdy former
Chief Tupuhoe take over as cere-
monial master, and great celebra-
tions followed which lasted con-
tinuously the two weeks till we were
picked up by a French government
schooner sent to bring us over to
Tahiti.
The day we left Raroia was the
first depressing event of our jour-
pey. Every islander followed us
down to the lifeboat that took us
out to the waiting government
schooner. Tears ran down the chin
of old and young of both sexes, and
they all remained at the little stone
pier singing our favorite local mel
odies until long after all was lost In
the noise Of the sea.
without saying many words, the
six men Of the Kon-Tiki stood at
the railing until the little island