Created specifically for entertainment, the karaki aika lango are generally the product of imagination. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for tellers to include actual incidents or personalities from the past to make their lango appear more realistic. Some will use the opportunity to explain aspects of customs or causes of certain phenomena.
Some lango are so woven around an historical event or personality that it is hard to say whether they are karaki aika Rongorongo or fiction. Like historical fiction in modem literature, the use of an historical milieu was simply a relish for enjoyment. With the taste of reality, the tale is all the more spellbinding. The fact that life is not so much lived as imagined makes the telling of the lango a favourite pastime. In the lango emotions are let loose
while at the same time controlled by the inclusion of historical elements in the background, specific locations, and landmarks.
Because Iango stories lack continuity, th a t is, their content begins and ends with no chronological specification and with no genealogical parallels as pointers, they were excluded from the text of sacred traditions, in particular those of the Rongorongo type. Where they permeated a sacred tradition, that tradition would no longer be considered unique and thus loses its value as a sacred property to be jealously guarded. Its authenticity is also lost, and it eventually becomes another Iango for entertainm ent. In many ways the perm eated sacred traditions became tests to the authenticity of the chronicler himself - for if those were the traditions he believed as part of the karaki aika Rongorongo, then naturally he himself is not a member of the chronicle college.
Karaki aika Iango, then, were the imaginative master-pieces of the chroniclers. Usually, they were reflections of chroniclers’ own community, of w hat they believed and hoped for. A number of these traditions were undoubtedly creations by the chroniclers of the ‘chronicle college’ to entertain, confuse or divert the curiosity of the people from the sacred texts. As a distinct group in the community, with privileges they did not wish to share with others, they kept their own stories from them: this was the only way to prevent the intrusion of others into their circle. The traditions which are Iango become useful as expendable stories to chroniclers of Rongorongo and guardians of a particular Rabakau when the telling of the Rongorongo and Rabakau cannot continue because of the presence of an uninvited listener. 1
But not all Iango were creations of the m aster chroniclers, for any
rAs custom requires, all who visit you under your roof, invited or not, are
iruwa (guests) and must be entertained; hence, they may join in the maroro (talk) and listen to the karaki. Karaki aika Iango then provided a common subject to pass the time until the uninvited iruwa decides to leave.
unimane or unaine could tell a story which was their own iango
(idea/imagination); hence, the emergence of a new karaki. Usually, several
unimane and unaine would be involved in the creation of a Iango, such as
‘Taekan Rokonnanti’ (the story of Rokonnanti), for example, from unimane of Nikunau.
A Iango, before it is told for the first time in the maneaba, is usually introduced as a iango - an imagination - and the unimane and unaine
responsible for the creation of th at Iango. Most occupy the period of anti, an era before the time of true hum ans.2 They are not confined strictly to th at era, but since their contents are mythical and legendary with superhuman characters, the chroniclers usually speak of them as being ‘kain te roro n anti’
(of the age of the spirits).
Because they were secular traditions, Iango were transm itted freely without ritual or ceremony. Anyone could hear a Iango, for where it was told was not a m atter of significance. Variations were rare, and where they happened the locality and the extent of the separation of groups from one another were partly responsible.
As entertainm ent, Iango were told at home by grandparents, at feasts, or at gatherings of the village or island. The chronicler would tell his karaki, not because he wanted to, nor because the people made bold requests to the chronicler, but because a stimulus was provided - jokes were the common stimuli to get the chronicler talking.
Dating the origin of the Iango solely from their content is not easy. Nevertheless, given the m anner in which they were used - as tales to pass the time, for the grandchildren to show th a t they were properly nurtured as
2See chapter 6 for the three periods or eras of Gilbertese history in oral tradition.
required by the katei (custom), as entertainm ent in the maneaba during inter district or inter-island gatherings, satires to convey a message, allegories with didactic purposes - they could be placed at a time when the people were flourishing with a distinctive way of life coming into being, a time, perhaps, when Gilbertese culture and society were becoming so complex th at a review of long held principles and ideas was necessary, a time when the techniques of the chroniclers (recording, selection and transmission) were fully developed. This time could conceivably have been in the Samoan Peace, when the influential clans from Samoa had settled and dominated the island scene both politically and culturally, establishing themselves and their karaki in the islands. This would be about the latter half of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth when Tanentoa n Nonouti was ruling most of the southern islands of the Gilberts and other members of Karongoa ruling the northern and central islands.3 As reflections of communities karaki aika Iango
are more im portant than simply controls and tales for entertainm ent: they provide avenues to key ideas and concepts of the people; the inner complexities of the period; and the culture peculiar to the generations after the coming of the people of Karongoa and their allies from Samoa which began from about
1260 and finished about 1360.4
3See the model chronology of Gilbertese history in chapter 14 and chapter 6 for the time of Tanentoa n Nonouti.
4See chapter 14 for the model chronology of Gilbertese history. The first of the ‘Samoans’ known in the traditions to return to the Gilberts is Baretoka when he left to look for a wife on Tarawa. He married Nei Batiauea ‘who held the
atinro (anchor) of Tarawa to keep Tarawa in its place’, meaning that she was an important woman on the island. Grimble Papers, Mfm. 133 ‘Gilbertese Myths, Legends and Oral Traditions. Collected by (Sir) Arthur Grimble Between ca. 1916 and 1930’, (Pacific and Asian History Division, ANU, Canberra:1964) C:5. The last group to return to the Gilberts from Samoa were in the time of Tanentoa n Nonouti, such as the descendants of Nei Temaiti who came via Arorae, Tarawa and Onotoa, and finally Beru. They were given KATANNAKI as their boti in the
maneaba by Tanentoa n Nonouti. There was also a certain Namai from Samoa who was given a boti by Tewaroi called TABUKAOKAO in the Taribo maneaba