In search of Tiki

Francois Maziere

Published by Souvenir Press, hardcover with dustjacket, illustrated
name on endpaper


"We came by sea; others continued their journey across the sea in pursuit of the sun."
These words, uttered by a Tumuc-Humac Indian, never ceased to haunt Francis Mazière, the distinguished French archaeologist, from the time when he returned from Amazonia until the moment when, in September 1955, he was able to leave France for the Pacific, himself "in pursuit of the sun".

At that period he was practically alone in thinking that the Eastern Archipelagos of Eastern Polynesia had been peopled by preColumbians. The Kon-Tiki Expedition was the only one to precede him on this route. Now he had to confirm his theory.

With characteristic enthusiasm, Francis Mazière flung himself into the adventure, speaking out with passionate fervour against the spoliation of an almost idyllic way of Polynesian life which he found during his journey. At Fatu-Hiva, one of the Marquesas, he discovered the fabulous secrets of a world which two centuries of "white civilisation" have not managed to destroy entirely. These are the secrets presented in this fascinating book.
Francis Mazière has brought back from one of the most incredibly beautiful regions on earth an enthralling story of excavation and historical detective work, set in a present-day society which, for all its gradual corruption, must seem to many of us irresistibly tempting in its happy, simple and uninhibited freedom.