Aitutaki. Cook Island. Polynesia. South Pacific Ocean. Portrait of one of its inhabitants. The discoverer of Aitutaki was Ru-enua. In Havaiki, he noted that the valleys were crowded and the hills were covered with people. With his four wives, four brothers,and twenty unmarried tapairu women of high rank, he set sail in the canoe, Ngapua-Ariki, to seek a new home. As various dangers were encountered, he allayed the fears of his crew by confidently stating, " We shall not die.. Am I not Ru, the man who was girdled with the red belt of chieftainship and who knows the things of the air and the things of the sea." During a storm, after the sky had been obscured for some time, he thus addressed the Sea-god Tangaroa--. " O Tangaroa, in the illimitable spaces of the unknown, Clear away the clouds by day, Clear away the clouds by night, That Ru may see the stars in the sky, To guide him to the land of his desire," On the sixth day of the voyage, and the ootu night of the moon, Ru sailed in through a passage in the reef on the North-East side of the island now known as Aitutaki. The passage was named Ootu, from the night of their landing, It could not have been an easy arrival. One of Ru’s brothers died – he was crushed underneath the canoe as it was being hauled across the coral A sacred place, or marae, was built and named , Te Hautapu-o-nga-Ariki. The island was named Utataki- enua-o-Ru-ki-te-moana. The name was derived from utauta, a cargo, and taki, to lead, It refers to Ru leading the valuable human cargo over the sea. Another name given to the island is Ararau-enua-o-Ru-ki-te-moana, Ararau is to search for land at sea with a canoe, and the name applied to the island refers to Ru's search on the ocean. The first name was shortened to Aitutaki, and the second to Araura. Araura should be spelt as Arahura, and it is difficult to see how it is connected with ararau. The meaning of ararau is significant of a period when many voyages of discovery were undertaken. All true Aitutakians trace their descent back to one or other of the twenty tapairu women of high rank who accompanied Ru, Our oral tradition in chants, legends and geneology traces Ru back to the island of Tubuai in the Australs.