EAST OF THE NAVEL AND AFTERBIRTH

the long version

Reflections of the author while engaged in a study for the World Health Organisation - Pan American Health Organisation (WHO/PAHO) - of Leprosy among Easter Islanders, in 1975. At that time the island was virtually isolated. One plane a month, en route to Australia, stopped at the island. In interim periods between time spent on his medical work, the author, with the Island's Chilean doctor, (Ramon Campbell M.D.), transliterated 42 SONG POEMS into English. These are presented in this text. The text is also illustrated with petroglyph tracings carved on volcanic rocks of the Volcano Rano Kau. SONG POEM Number 34 is presented here: Ka - hao, ka hao, rainbow/ o'er the golden water Ure will jump/ Oho - vei towards the beyond, Oho-vei/ great may be my father,/ with big bald head, who eats men/ in order that I, Ure the young, be saved.