rities suggest a commondesigner. The traditional names of the islands also serve asevidence towards a westwardmigration, as Heyerdahl points out. One of Easter Island's native names isRapa Nui,which means "Great Rapa." To the west is an island of the same size, withthe name RapaIti, which means "Little Rapa." As it is common tendency for a secondhome to bereferred to as Little__, or New__, this suggests that it is a satellite ofRapa Nui. Indeed,the natives contend they came from the East. The other aboriginal name forEaster Islandis Mata-Kite-Rani, which means "the eye that looks toward heaven." There are nosignificant mountains on Easter Island, compared to say, Tahiti or Hawaii(Kon-Tiki 141).Rani, which means Heaven, has two meanings: literal Heaven, and thehomeland of thePolynesians' ancestors. Finally, Mata-Rani means the eye of heaven,and is a traditionalname for "a spot on the Pacific coast of Peru [directly] opposite Easterisland and right atthe foot of Kon-Tiki's [the god/leader of the Peruvians cum Polynesians]old ruined city inthe Andes (Kon-Tiki 141). The third native name of Easter Island, Te-Pito-te-Henua,means "navel of theislands," which suggests it was an important part of the PolynesianIslands. On the island'seastern shore, near the supposed landing site of the original 'long-ears'is a spherical stone,known as the "golden navel," and considered the symbolic navel of theisland. This takeson greater significance because tradition refers to the discovery of theislands as the birthof the islands. As the navel is where the umbilical cord ties a fetus tothe mother, thisseems to suggest that Easter Island was the last link to themotherland-Peru ( Kon-Tiki 140). The final factor in considering the westward migrationtheory is the logistics ofsuch journeys. Once again, Thor Heyerdahl provided absolute evidence forthe feasibilityof this voyage with his Kon-Tiki expedition of 19...
