Again, to sum up: How is it that such far-flung islands as New Zealand, Hawaii, and Easter Island seem to share a common language, culture: ancestor? They mark the corners of the triangle named "Polynesia". Thor Heyerdahl knew they all traced their ancestry back to a figure named Tiki- a man, a legend, a god- who came from somewhere far away. Carvings and a system of tying knots used as a memory aid resemble relics found in Incan Peru! Was it possible that this Tiki person, over 1000 years ago, rode a raft from Peru all the way to Polynesia? (4000 miles)
In 1947, Heyerdahl and 5 men believed in the theory strongly enough to try it.
p.108
"Kon-Tiki lay sideways on to the seas and took them like a cork. Everything on board was lashed fast, and all six of us crawled into the little bamboo cabin, huddled together, and slept like mummies in a sardine tin.
We little guessed that we had struggled through the hardest steering of the voyage. Not till we were far out on the ocean did we discover the Incas' simple and ingenious way of steering a raft.
We did not wake till well on in the day, when the parrot began to whistle and halloo and dance to and fro on its perch...What did it matter if the seas foamed and rose high so long as they only left us in peace on the raft? What did it matter if they rose straight up in front of our noses when we knew that in a second the raft would go over the top and flatten out the foaming ridge like a steam roller...The old masters from Peru knew what they were doing when they avoided a hollow hull which could fill with water, or a vessel so long that it would not take the waves one by one. A cork steam roller- that was what the balsa raft amounted to.
“Oh, polar bears don’t need Frigidaires / to keep their carcasses cold / Low temperatures keep leftovers / no flies, no maggots, no mold."
All three of us girls enjoyed this one, and discovered something on the second and third readings! First I want to recommend it for the drawings. They seem to glow! The story, although far-fetched, is delightful and sweet. One day, when Albert sticks his hand out the window to check the weather, a twig lands in his palm...then another, and another, until a couple of cardinals have built their nest in his outstreched hand! Soon Albert learns that many things going on outside are not just "for the birds"!
