Letters from Blackwell Island Pt. 03

Patrick, who was not yet used to wearing his Kani sighed as I took it out from its presentation box.

"Do I have to wear it?" he asked me.

"Trust me, you'll stand out more if you're not wearing one," Jackson said as Lisa knelt before him and tied the traditional cock ring around his genitals.

Marea was likewise busily engaged tying Aiden's best Kani on her son and looked up at Patrick.

"You'll definitely look smarter with it on than if you go without it," she said to him.

"Gah, whatever," Patrick huffed. "Sure get on with it, wo'an."

I knelt down in front of him before he had a chance to change his mind and wrapped the braided strap over the base of his penis and around the back of his testicles, and with the skill I'd learned from Marea, I tied it in place so that it would not slip off. Once I was done I took a step back and admired the way it "presented" his genitals, causing them to stand out more proudly than when he wasn't wearing it. If only I could convince him to wear it every day, I thought wistfully to myself.

"Right, if we're all set it's time to head into town to join the 'O ka ho'olaha'ana o ka hua ceremony," Marea announced.

"Mum, I don't wanna go," Aiden protested. "I mean, what if I get chosen to be the Kaua?"

"Then I'll be very proud of you," Marea responded. "Besides, your father was chosen - it'd be nice if you were to be chosen too."

"Well, I don't know about you, brother, but I'm quite relishing the idea of being chosen to be one of the Kahu's," Lisa said in a mildly taunting tone.

"One of the Kaua's attendants," Marea explained. "Don't worry, it'll all become apparent in due course."

"But, Mum, it's... it's embarrassing," Aiden protested anew.

"Look, son, you won't be any different from your father, or any of the other young men chosen to be the Kaua over the centuries," Marea spoke to her son in a matriarchal tone of voice. "Haumea will give you strength, just like she did for your father when he was chosen. Now come on, otherwise we'll all be late."

We left the Mahi'ai family's estate and headed on foot towards Malmesbury. We were joined along the way by other islanders, all of whom greeted Mahi'ai family with hugs and handshakes. It really was a community where everyone knew everyone else - they even greeted Patrick and I as though they'd known us for years, even though we'd only come amongst them seven months ago. Of course, several of them commented on our newly tattooed family marks, with one of them, a woman in her thirties whom I'd seen before in Malmesbury, remarking that it was about time there were "some new genes on the island" to add to the limited gene pool. Fortunately Patrick didn't seem to catch what she'd said. I still hadn't had the nerve to broach the subject of what would be expected of him should we decide to apply for permanent resident status.

By the time we reached the town's main square, where a low stage had been constructed and adorned with traditional decorations and garlands of flowers, it seemed as though almost the entire population of the island was in attendance. A large throng of naked men and women assembled around the stage and waited for the ceremony to begin.

As I expected, like most traditional occasions the ceremony was to be overseen by Mrs. Opuni, the island's Kahunapule and she stood upon the low stage flanked by Reverend McCabe on one side and by two representatives from the island's governing council on the other. Once the clock in the tower that overlooked the square chimed for eleven o'clock, Mrs. Opuni stepped forward and addressed the crowd. She began by chanting some kind of traditional incantation and tossing hibiscus flowers into the crowd from a basket for several minutes. I had no idea what she was saying, but fortunately for those of us who weren't fluent in the Pã'ele tongue, the rest of the ceremony was to be conducted in English.

"Friends, we are gathered here today for the sacred ritual of 'O ka ho'olaha'ana o ka hua - the Sowing of the Seed," she announced. "I hereby call, in the name of the benevolent Haumea for all those young men who have reached adulthood since the last Sowing of the Seed to come up onto the stage. It is time for the Kaua to be selected."

The assembled islanders clapped and cheered as seven young men, including Aiden, mounted the stage and stood nervously in line facing the crowd, each one of them looking resplendent with their best Kani's tied around the base of their penises.

"Please state your names for Haumea," Mrs. Opuni instructed them.

"I am Christopher James Hunter, son of Elizabeth Ellen Hunter," the first young man in the line responded.

"I am Kai Akamu," the second young man replied. "Son of Arina Akamu."

"I am Nathaniel Albert Goswell, son of Karen Mary Goswell."

And then came Aiden's turn.

"I am Aiden James Mahi'ai," he said, with evident nervousness in his voice. "Son of Marea Charlotte Mahi'ai."

"I am Tua Kameãloho," the fifth young man in line responded. "Son of Kiana Kameãloho."

"I am Kavelo Mãhoe, son of Kerin Mãhoe."

"I am Matthew Peter Blackwell," the seventh and final young man in line responded. From his surname it was clear he was a direct descendant of the island's namesake. "Son of Grace Hermione Blackwell."

"Each of you shall now in turn step forward while I invoke Haumea to make her selection," Mrs. Opuni addressed the rank of totally naked males. "Master Christopher, you shall go first."

"Yes, Madame Kahunapule," the young man responded.

He took a few steps forward, whereupon Mrs. Opuni began chanting, summoning up divine guidance from the island's chief deity. She placed her hands upon his shoulders, down his arms towards his hands. She knelt before him and ran her hands up his legs and across his hips. She stood behind him, still chanting in the native tongue, and placed her hands upon his buttocks. Finally, she reached out with her right hand and cupped his penis and testicles.

Christopher, bless him, flushed bright red as the elderly priestess fondled him. Mrs. Opuni dismissed him to return to stand in line with the others and then beckoned Nathaniel to step forward. She repeated the process with each of the other young men. Poor Aiden looked as though he was about to faint from embarrassment once it was his turn to be ritually groped by Mrs. Opuni's aged hands. Once she had finished she sat down cross-legged on the floor of the stage and appeared to enter some kind of contemplative trance, all the while continuing to chant.

The assembled crowd fell into a respectful and anticipatory silence as they knew that the moment the Kaua would be selected would soon be at hand. After several minutes, Mrs. Opuni ceased her incantation and, with the help of one of the government representatives, returned to stand before the lineup of attractive naked young men. The moment of selection had arrived.

She stepped behind the line of young men, each of whom, especially young Aiden, looked increasingly nervous with every passing second. Finally, after much contemplation and communing with the goddess Haumea, Mrs. Opuni made her selection by placing her hand upon the chosen young man's shoulder.

Aiden's shoulder.

A cheer and applause erupted as Mrs. Opuni ushered him forward. I could see the look of dreaded embarrassment in his eyes as he was led forwards. I also noticed the look of relief in his fellow nominees. Just what exactly was going to happen to the poor lad? I wondered. I knew it wasn't anything dreadful, like some kind of sacrifice or anything, so why on earth would these young men be so apprehensive? If anything they ought to be relishing being made the focus of the day's thanksgiving commemorations.

"Oh, noble Haumea!" Marea exclaimed enthusiastically. "You have chosen my son! Thank you for honouring me so!"

Mrs. Opuni, followed by Reverend McCabe and the government officials, placed colourful garlands of hibiscus flowers around Aiden's neck as he stood there trembling.

"That's my boy," Jackson added with evident pride in his voice.

"What exactly is he so nervous about?" I asked Marea. "And why is this ceremony called the Sowing of the Seed?"

I guess I ought to have put two and two together by now.

"Oh, this part isn't the Sowing of the Seed," Marea responded. "This is just the selection of the Kaua, it is he who sows the seed."

"What seed?" I asked. "Like, corn or wheat or something?"

"No, dear," Marea chuckled. "The seed he is to sow is his own!"

"His own? What?" I gasped.

But before I could ask Marea to elaborate, the young men, minus Aiden who had been moved to sit on a wooden stool, had left the stage and were replaced by nine young women - one of whom was Lisa. These young women, like the young men before them, had all turned eighteen over the previous twelve months since the last ceremony, and were the nominees to be Aiden's attendants. Quite what their role in all of this was escaped me, but I guessed I would find out soon enough.

The selection process was much the same as when Mrs. Opuni channelled the goddess and guided her selection, minus the intimate genital groping. The two young women selected were a girl named Iolana and, much to Marea and Jackson's surprise, Lisa. I could clearly see Aiden groan as Mrs. Opuni placed her hand on his sister's shoulder.

"Friends, noble goddess Haumea has guided me into selecting Aiden as her Kaua, and to Iolana and Lisa to be his Kahu's," the priestess addressed the assembled islanders. "Follow us, dear friends, to the sacred mound where Aiden shall spread his seed and fertilise the earth."

It was then that the penny finally dropped. This whole ceremony was some kind of ancient masturbation ritual!

As a sex-obsessed teenager I had once stumbled across an article in one of my dad's history magazines about a ritual in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians believed that the Nile was the font of all humankind and was the result of the god Atum's ejaculation when he created the universe. Apparently, Atum literally masturbated the universe into existence. The flow of the Nile was also said to be connected to the number of times the god ejaculated. Every year, during the feast of Nim, the pharaoh was expected to recreate Atum's gift to the universe in order to nourish the Nile. To do this he would be rowed out into the river aboard his royal barge, whereupon his attendants would undress him. Naked, he would then stand upon the prow of the vessel and masturbate, allowing his ejaculation to fall into the Nile's waters, thus giving new life to the sacred river. The pharaoh's priests and the other men in attendance would then do the same.

I had also come across a video from an old 1970's documentary about anthropology that showed tribesmen in sub-Saharan Africa conducting another ancient masturbation ceremony. This time, instead of masturbating into a river, they dug small holes in the earth all the while chanting the name of the animal spirit he hoped to hunt in order to feed his family. The men would quite literally mate with the earth, thrusting their hips into the ground and ejaculating directly into the earth itself. I wondered if the masturbation ritual I was about to witness would be anything like those I had read about and seen on TV.

Mrs. Opuni led the resulting procession, with Aiden flanked by his sister and the other girl, out of the town square towards the outskirts of the settlement. As the Kaua's parents, Marea and Jackson followed closely behind, with Patrick and myself a short distance behind them at the head of the crowd. Aiden was being guided, rather nervously it must be said, by his sister and the other girl who held his hands. Well-wishers, those who presumably could not attend the ceremony in the town square, showered Aiden with hibiscus petals as he passed them by.

Slowly, the procession passed out of the town and into the island's leafy interior. After half an hour or so Mrs. Opuni led the procession into a large clearing in the trees, in the middle of which was a grass covered mound. It was what I would normally recognise as a tumulus (a common sight in my native southern England, where such mounds marked the burials of ancient Britons of noble standing) but the purpose of this mound was not for burying a person. Nevertheless, it appeared as though a small rectangular pit had been excavated into it for the occasion.

The pit wasn't very large - about a metre long and roughly half as wide, and was only around ten centimetres deep - and Aiden, with his two attendants by his sides, was guided to stand before it.

Mrs. Opuni came and stood before him, and spoke to him directly.

"Aiden, son of Marea, do you freely give your seed to fertilise the earth?" she asked him.

"I d-do, Madame Kahunapule," Aiden stuttered nervously in response.

"Kahu's, will you assist me in passing Aiden's seed into the earth?" she then asked the two girls.

"We will, Madame Kahunapule," they responded in unison.

The two girls guided Aiden forward so that he stood astride the pit, his legs kept apart in a manner reminiscent of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. They then repositioned themselves so that they held Aiden in place, using their arms so that he was held in a full-nelson hold, and their own legs to keep his held apart. They then placed their free hands upon Aiden's buttocks, forcing his hips forward.

Mrs. Opuni stood before Aiden and softly stroked his left cheek.

"Be brave, master Aiden, Madame Haumea will grant you many blessings for what I am about to take from you," she said, her voice only just above a whisper.

She then stepped behind him and then reached around and caressed his penis. Evidently, judging by her words, her touch, and by the way the two girls where holding him, Aiden wouldn't be giving his "seed" by masturbating himself, it would be taken from him, courtesy of the wizened old priestess's own hand. Aiden, most likely beside himself with embarrassment gasped as Mrs. Opuni coaxed his penis into life, and he screwed his eyes shut as she fondled him and caressed his youthful testes.

"Good boy, Aiden," I heard her whisper encouragingly. "You're doing well - just focus on the pleasure and force away your embarrassment."

She tickled his balls and he nodded his understanding. Gradually, his penis responded, and within a couple of minutes it stood to attention. Thus fully engorged, Mrs. Opuni began to masturbate him in earnest.

"Hmmff... hnnggh... hahhh..." Aiden huffed and moaned as Mrs. Opuni pumped her fist along his length.

"You are a strong young man, Aiden Mahi'ai," I heard Mrs. Opuni whisper to him as she continued to masturbate him. "Madame Haumea has chosen you to honour her with your seed because she believes your semen to be the most virile and potent of this year's crop of new men. And it will bring much fertility to the sacred soil of our island."

The assembled crowd meanwhile began to chant softly in the Pã'ele language, except for myself and Patrick of course, who just looked utterly dumbfounded by what he was witnessing, and the many tourists who were witnessing the ancient ritual.

"Jaysus, and I thought the whole "coming of age" thing was crazy!" he whispered in my ear.

"Shh!" I chided him.

"Hmmff... oh, shh... ahhnn... oh, ffuu..." Aiden gasped.

By now he was looking down at the old priestesses hand as she masturbated him - from the look upon his handsome face he was caught up in a maelstrom of emotion ranging from mortifying shame and embarrassment at being so intimately handled before so many people, and pleasure from the sensation of being brought towards orgasm.

"Good boy, Aiden," Mrs. Opuni said. "You're getting close now - release your seed whenever you're ready."

"Ahh-h-h-h! Oh-h-h-o-h-h-h!" Aiden wailed, and he squirmed, visibly trying to fight against the two girls who held him in place.

"Come on, Aiden, hold still - you're nearly there," Lisa whispered into her brother's ear. "The sooner you come, the sooner it'll be over."

"Hmmff-f-f! Hnggh-h-h!" Aiden grunted and huffed gutturally.

He visibly stiffened, and then with a climactic thrust of his hips he ejaculated. His semen spurted from his penis and into the shallow pit between his feet. The crowd cheered and applauded as Aiden's ejaculation dripped into the ground.

"Oh, I'm so proud of him," Marea said beside me, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Well done, my son," Jackson said proudly, who had been in the exact same position some years earlier.

As his orgasm subsided, Mrs. Opuni released Aiden's penis from her grasp and he was left standing before the shallow pit where his semen had been deposited, with his sister and the other girl holding him up as he fought to get his breath back. The last few drops of semen still oozed from the tip of his penis as the girls helped him back into a normal standing position.

"Well done, Aiden," Mrs. Opuni said as she placed her hand on his shoulder. "You were magnificent. Haumea shall be most satisfied with your gift to her."

"Th-thank you... Madame Kahunapule," Aiden panted breathlessly in reply.

Mrs. Opuni then turned to address the crowd.

"Friends, the Kaua has successfully deposited his seed into the sacred earth -- and in return for his offering, Madame Haumea will bless him with fecundity. And with his seed in the ground she will ensure our crops will flourish and provide us with a bountiful harvest."

Marea and Jackson came up to console their son following his rather humiliating experience. Far from teasing her brother, as one might normally expect from a sibling in such circumstances, Lisa hugged Aiden and whispered in his ear that she was proud of him.

After the ceremony, the islanders scattered and went their separate ways back to their homes for the remainder of the day's festivities. It was traditional, Marea had told me, for the women to prepare a rich feast for their menfolk. Nowadays that feast more or less took on the form of an informal family barbecue or a cook-out on the beach.

As we walked back to the Mahi'ai's home I caught up with Marea, who was clearly still beaming with pride after witnessing Aiden "sowing his seed".

"I'm so proud of him," she said as we walked along, a few paces behind Jackson, Aiden, Lisa and Patrick. "There's not many women who can boast having two Kaua's under her roof."

"So, Jackson was, er, made to do that too?" I asked. "Made to, y'know, come in front of everyone?"

"He was," she confirmed with a smile of fond recollection. "And I was selected as one of his Kahu's. That was the day I fell in love with him. The poor boy was absolutely mortally embarrassed by it all, but as I stood there holding him whilst Mrs. Opuni coaxed his seed from him, I was whispering in his ear and encouraging him, telling him to show the courage I knew he had in him. He turned his head and looked at me and smiled, and it was at that moment I knew I had to have him for my husband.

"That very evening I asked my mother to approach his mother and set us up with each other. That was twenty one years ago now, and we're as happy together today as we were the day I proposed to him."

"I don't get it, Marea - if people here think nothing of having sex in front of other people, and losing their virginity in the company of friends and family on the top of an extinct volcano, why on earth would Aiden, and Jackson before him, be embarrassed about... well, what Mrs. Opuni did to them?"

I don't know why, but I couldn't seem to make myself force out the words "being masturbated".

"Well, there is a rather simple explanation for that," Marea replied. "Jackson's never liked being the centre of attention, and as for Aiden, well, like father like son, I guess."