HARIA...haria...!” The loud voice of Frans Taime, a Kakorotan villager, echoed. It was as if his shrill voice could be heard across the Pacific Ocean. Tens of male and female fellow villagers, also those of the neighboring island, Intata, followed him.

Before around 1,000 spectators, they thronged to the sea and pulled a rope called a sammi. The sun above the Pacific Ocean was high in the sky, but joy had turned the blazing hot day into a hig