Perhaps Sir Edward Blake's only contribution to the field of anthropology was his mis-naming of Renga "the land of a hundred suns." Because of his imperfect command of the dying indigenous language, Blake believed that the Renganese has as many as one hundred names for the sun, each describing a possible spiritual relationship with that body or god. Blake was certain that the Renganese were sun worshippers. This mistaken interpretation apparently stems from idiomatic uses of the word for sun to describe weather conditions. What Blake had concluded were descriptions of spiritual states, were actually weather reports. In spite of inaccuracy, Westerners continue to use this name and apparently to believe in Blake's interpretation. Two hundred years ago, before white men had plundered this society, the Renganese may have actually possessed the implied simplicity and innocence. Today the Renganese are a philosophically and politically sophisticated people. We should not underestimate them, lest we fail to learn the lessons they might teach.

H. Joseph Whistler
From the introduction to
A Century of Rengan Independence