House of Taga

Tinian has the largest standing latte stones in the world, I believe. Latte stones are unique to the Marianas (again, I think this is true) and are thought to be the foundations for houses. A thatched hut would be built on top of several of these stones. How they quarried these stones and got the top part on top of the bottom remains a mystery. This stone belonged to Taga, a powerful chief (or so the story goes). This chief killed his own son because his son was playing with his pet crab and when the pet crab escaped underneath a coconut tree the son just uplifted the coconut tree and retrieved the crab. Taga was then concerned that his son would be stronger than him, so he killed the son. I'm not really sure what the moral for that story is, but it's a well-known legend on Tinian.

I'm on Saipan now, and headed to Rota tomorrow. I took a ferry over to Tinian yesterday and flew back on a little 6-seater plane. I'm tired and headed to bed...