Ch6-51

Othosmops on March 6, 2025

(russian):
Panel 1:
VILIS: And how did it collapse?
BRUNO: Well, there are very different hypotheses about that. I base my story on a few clues, e.g. that the first white people who landed on the island at Easter 1722 saw moai that had already been knocked over, but also some that were still intact, standing on their platforms and worshipped by the natives. 50 years later, when James Cook visited the island, almost all the moai had been knocked over. The ancestor cult was dead, but the birdman cult was still practiced until the end of the 19th century, when the whites and the Christian mission had already established a massive presence on the island and the number of indigenous people had dwindled to less than 1000 as a result of epidemics and deportations.
A second indication is that cannibalism plays a major role in the legends of the Rapa Nui inhabitants.

Panel 2:
GISELLE:    After eating all the birds, did the residents start eating each other?

Panel 3:
BRUNO:    Haha, you might think so if you believe a French newspaper article from the 1840s. It reported how some Easter Islanders abducted a French lieutenant and nibbled him alive before he managed to escape. But that is probably a sailor's yarn.