Liv who changed Thor Heyerdahl's life.
Liv, she is the first girl that Saul dares to approach. They thought of "returning to nature" together. They got married on Christmas Eve Island in 1936, and the day after the wedding, they set off for the South Pacific together.
Living with Liv in Fantushiva for a year changed Thor's life. They had nothing to do there except being naked in the Garden of Eden like Adam and Eve. But gradually Thor's insatiable curiosity gained the upper hand, and there are still so many unsolved mysteries in the world.
Thor: "When I first arrived on the island, I just wanted to study how animals and plants appeared and changed with the changes of monsoon and ocean currents. But after staying there for a year, I learned that many cultivated plants that Europeans grew when they arrived there were those that had to be brought by people to settle down. They can't float from the sea like potatoes, papaya and pineapple. Based on this, I have come to the conclusion that early humans sailed out to sea much earlier than those who cultivated these plants and transported them from South America, because these plants originated in South America. " . Sometimes, we feel strange about our situation. In fact, we took our time and naturally came to this step, but once we got stuck, we made a fuss and asked ourselves, "How did this happen?"
For example, you take a parrot and five partners and sail on a raft at sea. Wake up in the morning and evening, open your eyes, and you will be at a loss. You can't help asking this question. ……
It all started in the office of a museum in new york last winter. Perhaps earlier, it began on a small island in the Marcosas Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. On this voyage, if the northeast wind doesn't blow us south to Tahiti and Tuamotu, maybe we will stop at that island. When I close my eyes, I can see 100 million acres of grass on that island. Dark red mountains are stacked, and the lush Lin Mang at the foot of the mountain extends to the sea. On the coast, slender palm trees are waving frequently. This is Fatushiva Island. From where we floated, we fell to the island, with no land in the middle, only thousands of nautical miles of ocean. I seem to see the narrow estuary of the Australian valley. I clearly remember the scene of that year. Every night, we sit there, sitting on the lonely beach. The sea we ignored is now this sea, this vast ocean. I was with my wife, not with a group of bearded pirates like this. At that time, we were collecting biological specimens, collecting idols and other remnants left by a disappearing civilization.
I especially can't forget that night. The civilized world seems so far away that it has become a mirage. We lived on the island for nearly a year and were the only white people there; We voluntarily give up the benefits of civilization while avoiding its disadvantages. We build our own houses, live in houses under palm trees and on stumps, and fish and hunt in tropical jungles of the Pacific Ocean.
That night, as usual, we sat on the beach covered with full moon flowers, facing the sea. We are completely intoxicated in the fairyland around us, enjoying everything around us without a trace of tiredness. The nose is full of salty sea water and the fragrance of coastal trees, and the ears are blowing the rustling of the wind between trees and the top of coconut trees. Every once in a while, the sound of huge waves will drown it all out. The waves will roll from the sea, rush to the shore for a while, and hit the rounded rocks on the shore for a while, stirring up waves. The huge waves roared among countless rocks shining with moonlight, making a flowing sound, and then everything was calm again. The sea receded and gathered strength to hit the unyielding coast again.
"That's strange," said the wife. "There has never been such a big wave on the other side of the island."
"Yes," I said, "this is the windward side, and the waves are always coming this way."
We sat and enjoyed the majesty of the sea, which seemed to tell people all the time that I had come from the far east. It is the never-ending east wind of trade that blows across the sea, causing huge waves, pushing the waves to roll forward, crossing the junction of Tianshui in the east and reaching the starry island behind. The rough waves finally hit the cliffs and rocks here and broke into beads, but the east wind jumped effortlessly, swept through the dense forests and mountains, and continued to the west without hindrance, crossing one island after another and heading straight for the sunset.
Since ancient times, the waves of the ocean, together with the clouds on the waves, have surged through here from the eastern horizon. The indigenous people who first came to these islands know this very well, and so do the islanders today. Birds sailing on the sea fly east every day when they go fishing, so that they can fly back in the wind when they are full and tired at night. Even trees, flowers, grains and crops depend entirely on the rain brought by the east wind. We sat on the beach, only then did we know that far and far behind the eastern horizon where clouds grow is the open coast of South America, with only 4000 miles of open sea in the middle.
We stared at the clouds in the sky and the sea floating in the moonlight, listening to the words of an old man, who crouched in front of us half naked and looked directly at the afterglow of a small bonfire.
"Tiki," the old man said quietly, "he is both a god and a leader. In the past, we lived on the vast land on the other side of the ocean. "
The old man made a fire with branches. He thought silently. He is attached to the past, and the heroic times of the past are deeply rooted in his thoughts. He worships his ancestors and everything they have done since he became a god. He is waiting to come back to them. The old man Tetuyate is the only relic of a tribe that has disappeared on the east coast of Fatushiwa Island. He can't remember his age, but judging from the wrinkles on his face and the dry skin color, it seems that he has been living on the street for nearly a hundred years. Few people on the island remember, and no one believes, the legend of ancestors about the great chief Phobos Apollo Tiki. Tetuyate is one of those people who still remember the history of their ancestors. That night, when we climbed into bed in the hut with wooden stakes below, the legend of Tiki and the islanders' original hometown on the other side of the sea, accompanied by the roar of the distant waves, haunted my mind. At this midnight, on the beach, the voice seems to come from the distant past and seems to have something to say. Tossing and turning can't sleep. The distance of time seems to have disappeared, and Tiki and the people who followed him across the ocean seem to have landed on the beach below from the swell. An idea flashed through my mind. I said to my wife, "Have you ever noticed? The huge pedestal statue in the forest is very similar to the big stone pillars left by the extinct civilization in South America. "
I'm sure the waves on the shore agree with his howl. Then the swell subsided and I fell asleep.
Maybe this is the beginning of the whole thing. Anyway, a series of things started here, and the result was that six of us and a macaw left the South American coast on a raft.
After returning to Norway, I gave a bottle of beetles and fish collected in Fatushiwa to the University Animal Museum. At that time, my father was very angry, and my mother and friends were shocked. Those scenes are still vivid in my mind. I am determined to give up zoology and study primitive people instead. I was deeply attracted by the mystery of the South China Sea. They must have a reasonable answer. I have set my research goal: to reveal the true face of the legendary hero Tiki.
In the next few years, I have been studying the national history of the Pacific Ocean. The waves and the ruins in the dense forest always appear in front of me like a distant dream. Sitting in a room to study the history of a nation, although it is impossible to make a correct judgment on the thoughts and tendencies of primitive people, it is also possible to roam among the old paper piles in the study without the restrictions of space and time, but modern explorers who conduct on-the-spot investigations cannot do this. I found a lot of information to solve this mystery from scientific works, diaries left by the earliest explorers and rich collections in European and American museums. Since whites first arrived in the Pacific islands after discovering South America, various scholars have collected a lot of information about the residents of the South China Sea and neighboring ethnic groups. However, there is no consensus on the origin of these isolated islanders and why there is only one nation on the islands in the East Pacific.
When the first Europeans finally ventured into the Pacific Ocean, the widest of the five oceans, they never imagined that there were many hilly islands and flat coral islands in the middle of the ocean. These islands are isolated from the world and separated from each other by the sea. Before Europeans arrived, these islands were inhabited. When they arrived, tall and handsome locals welcomed them on the shore with dogs, pigs and poultry. Where did they come from? They speak a language that other peoples can't understand. Those who dare to claim to have discovered these islands have seen farming, villages, temples and houses on every habitable island. Some islands actually have pyramids, pavements and stone statues nearly four stories high. But they did not give any explanation for this mysterious phenomenon. What ethnic groups are these? Where did they come from?
As for the answer, we can say that there are as many answers as there are books on this subject. Experts in various fields have put forward different answers, but what they affirm is always pushed down by reasonable arguments drawn by experts in other fields. Some people seriously put forward Malaysians, Indians, China, Japanese, Arabs, Egyptians, Caucasians, Atlantic islanders and even Germans and Norwegians. But there is something absolutely unreasonable in every idea, so the whole question has returned to the initial state of doubt.
When science is stagnant, imagination will give full play. The mysterious stone pillars on Easter Island and the remains of unknown origin on this island have caused various speculations. Easter Island is located halfway between the easternmost island of Polynesia and the coast of South America, and it is completely isolated from the world. Many people have noticed that the remains on Easter Island remind people of the prehistoric civilization in South America in many ways. Maybe there was an overland road between the two places in the past, and then it sank? Maybe Easter Island and other islands in the South China Sea with the same relics are the parts left on the water by a sunken continent?
This theory has always been very popular, and it sounds clear to laymen, but geologists and other scientists disagree. In addition, zoologists have studied insects and snails in the South China Sea Islands, and they have easily proved that these islands have been different from each other since human beings, and they have also been isolated from the surrounding continents, just like today. Therefore, we can be sure that primitive Polynesians must have drifted or sailed to these remote islands voluntarily or unwillingly at some time. Close observation of these South China Sea residents shows that they will not live on the island for more than several centuries. Because, although Polynesians are scattered in a sea four times larger than Europe, these islands have not yet developed their own language. It is thousands of nautical miles away from Hawaii in the north, New Zealand in the south, Samoa in the west and Easter Island in the east. However, these unrelated tribes all speak what we call Polynesian dialect.
There are no people on all the islands. Only the aborigines of Easter Island keep a few wooden boards with hieroglyphs that people can't read, but even they can't recognize them. However, they have a school, and the most important role of the school is to impart history in the form of poetry. In Polynesia, history is equal to religion. They are all people who worship their ancestors. They worship all the chiefs who have died since the time of Tiki, who are said to be the sons of the sun.
Since there were people on the island, almost every knowledgeable person on the island can count all the chiefs' names. They often tie complicated knots on ropes to help them remember, just like the Inca Indians in Peru. Modern scientists have collected local genealogies on various islands and found that these genealogies are completely consistent with each other in details, which is really surprising; Not only in terms of names, but also in terms of generations. The average age of Polynesians is 25. Based on this calculation, we find that the South China Sea Islands were a desert island about 500 years ago. Later, in A.D. 1 100, another batch of new immigrants came to these islands with new cultures, which can be seen from the appearance of a series of new chiefs.
Where did the later immigrants come from? Most people engaged in this research seem to have neglected a decisive factor: the people who arrived on the island at such a late age were actually pure stone age people. These people from the sea, despite their intelligence and understanding, as well as in many other aspects, have a surprisingly high level of culture, but they brought stone axes and a large number of other typical Stone Age tools and spread them to all the islands they reached. Don't forget, in 500 AD or 1 100 AD, except for some isolated peoples living in virgin forests and some backward tribes, only the New World had a culture that was still in the Stone Age but had certain productivity. In the New World, even the most advanced Indian civilization has no idea about the use of iron. Before the discovery of America in the West, Indians only knew how to use stone tools and tools used in the South China Sea Islands.
Various Indian civilizations are Polynesians' nearest eastern neighbors. In the west of Polynesians, only the dark-skinned primitive people of Australia and Melanesia live, and they are distant relatives of blacks; Further west are Indonesia and the coast of Asia, which may be the earliest place in the world to end the Stone Age.
So, I gradually left my guess and concern in the old world, where many people tried to find the answer but found nothing. I began to pay attention to the known and unknown Indian culture in the United States, which has never been considered by everyone. As long as we have the heart to search, there is no shortage of clues on the coast closest to eastern Polynesia. This coast is today's Republic of Peru in South America. Peru has been rising from the Pacific coast to the mountains. There was once a people who didn't understand it. They created one of the greatest cultures in the world. A long time ago, this nation suddenly disappeared from the earth's surface like the fallen leaves in the autumn wind. They left behind huge human-shaped stone carvings, reminiscent of the stone statues on Peter Cohen Island, Marcosas Island and Easter Island. They also left a huge cascading pyramid, exactly like the pyramids in Tahiti and Samoa. These people we don't know hew out stones as big as railway wagons and heavier than elephants in the mountains, transport them to many miles around, and then erect them or build them into stone arches, big walls or altars, as we have seen on some islands in the Pacific Ocean.
When the Spanish first came to Peru, the Inca Indians had built a splendid empire here. They told the Spanish that the huge building standing on the Yuan Ye was built by a fair-skinned protoss. Before the Incas became rulers, they lived in this land. They described these vanished architects as outstanding and gentle teachers. They said that these people came from the north a long time ago, when there were only humans. They taught Indian ancestors to engage in construction and farming, and taught them customs and habits. They are different from Indians in that they have fair skin and long beards, and they are taller than Indians. Later, just like when they came, they suddenly left Peru. The Incas themselves took over the state power. Since then, there have been no white teachers on the coast of South America. They sailed westward in the Pacific Ocean.
Coincidentally, when Europeans arrived in the Pacific Islands, they saw many local people with fair skin and beards. On many islands, some families have white skin, slightly red hair color, and some are golden white, with blue-gray eyes and hooked noses, similar to Semites. Other families are completely different from them. Real Polynesians have brown skin, black hair and a thick flat nose. Red-haired people call themselves Lake Uluke, and say that they are immediate relatives of the earliest chiefs on the island. These chiefs, such as Tangaloa, Carney and Tiki, are still regarded as gods by white people. Legends about mysterious whites are circulating all over Polynesia, and islanders say they are descendants of these mysterious whites. When Luo Jiwen discovered Easter Island in 1722, he was surprised to see what he called "white people" in the crowd on the shore. People on Easter Island can clearly count Tiki and Hutu themselves. Since Matua, those ancestors were all white. Tiki and Hutu come up first. Matuya, they came across the sea from the "scorching mountain country of the East".
As my research deepened step by step, I saw the striking similarities in culture, mythology and language between the two places in Peru, so I further explored and devoted most of my energy to the research on the birthplace of Tiki, the Polynesian national god.
After many troubles, I finally found the material I was looking for. I am reading the Inca legend about the sun god Vera Cocha, a mysterious white leader in Peru. The legend goes like this:
Vera Cocha was called by the Incas in Cochu, so this is the later name. Veracocha, the sun god, was originally named Kantiki or Erati, which means Sun Tiki or Fire Tiki. It seems that ancient Peru called him that. Kantiki was the high priest and the "white" sun god, who made the Incas speak brilliantly. These white people left huge ruins on the banks of Lake Titicaca. According to legend, these mysterious white people with long beards were attacked by a chief named Cali from the Kokimbo Valley. The battle took place on an island in Lake Titicaca. The white man was killed, but Kandy and his secret friend escaped. Later, they fled to the Pacific coast and finally disappeared from the west sea. . . . . .
I have confirmed that Tiki, the South American sun god, is the son of the sun and the ancestor of Polynesians. He was driven out of Peru by Inca ancestors, crossed the Pacific Ocean and started a new career in Polynesia.
The details of the life of the sun god Tiki in Peru and the old names of some places along the coast of Lake Titicaca are also faintly discernible in the historical legends circulating in the Pacific islands.
But I have seen some signs all over Polynesia that the quiet tribes in Kantiki monopolized these islands in a short time. There are many signs that an ocean-going canoe once brought Indians from northwest America to Hawaii, and then went south from Hawaii to various islands. This kind of ship is about the size of a Viking, and the two ships are tied together to sail. They merged with the Kantiki people, and Victoria Island brought a new civilization. This is the second batch of Stone Age people who arrived in Polynesia in 1 100. They don't know metal, they don't know how to make pottery, they can't use wheels, looms and grow grain. To this end, I came to British Columbia (Washington and other places) among the Indians on the northwest coast to explore stone carvings with ancient Polynesian style. At that time, the Germans attacked Norway in 1940.
Turn left, turn right, turn around. Wash the barracks stairs, polish shoes, enter the broadcasting school and receive paratroopers' training. Finally, I came to Finnmark with Murmansk. There was no sun for a whole winter. God was not in office that day, and the god of war of modern technology ruled everything.
Peace has come, and I finally have a complete theory. I'm going to America to make it public. A reed swayed in the wind, broke its roots and floated on the water, enough to carry a frog.
200,000 reeds undulate with the wind, rolling on the shore like a wave of wheat. We cut them down and tied them into bundles. They are floating on the water, enough to carry seven people, starting from Africa and crossing the ocean to America.
Is this a fantasy? No, this is my decision after careful consideration. What is this for? Because I want to find out whether this ship made of papyrus reeds can resist the huge waves of the sea and sail from one continent to another. Is it meaningful to find out these things? Yes Because in the vast jungle of Central America and the mountains of Peru, there were splendid ancient civilizations, and where these civilizations came from is still a mystery. Reed boats can sail, and the Atlantic Ocean is a means of transportation from east to west. Except these two articles, we still don't know the rest, and there is still no theory at all. However, in the course of thousands of years, it would be strange if Mediterranean sailors never followed the path of the sun to the west, if no reed boat unfortunately broke its rudder outside Gibraltar since ancient times, and if no reed boat deviated from the channel while avoiding the dangerous Cape Juby. Our tuba has now crossed the ocean to America. Is this because of our unprecedented rudder-breaking award, or because we can only stay on the reed boat all the time?
At this point, I do have a theory that we can cross the Atlantic, perhaps because we are not sailing on a map, but on the ocean.