Up until the late 19th century, the Rapanui (Easter Island natives) held an annual Bird Man competition. Each tribe chose a contestant with the objective to bring back a sooty tern egg from Moto Nui, an island just off shore. The contestants would wait on the island to be the first to snatch an egg from a nest of the returning sooty terns. Then the guy would swim back to shore and scale the rocky cliff to be the first to complete the task. The chief of his tribe would be Tangata Manu, the birdman for a year. This was a very big deal at the time. THe Catholic missionaries put the kabosh on it because it was considered (by them) to be idol worship.