158 EASTER ISLAND. 



noted that such fleets as stood more to the northward would make the 

 Marquesas. We can see from the chart that Tahiti extends athwart 

 the course only about half, or less, the extent of the Paumotu, and that 

 Mangareva would be the refuge of the dull sailers who had sagged to 

 leeward and down into the westerly variables. This seems to me the 

 story which this record has to tell. 



The Proto-Samoan column, with figures of only half the magnitude, 

 shows the same ordering. Tahiti and the Marquesas stand in close 

 proximity at the middle level, the Paumotu as far above that level as 

 Mangareva below it. We may, accordingly, reason that the action of 

 the influence which has produced the general Polynesian and the Proto- 

 Samoan results was uniformly exerted upon the province; that is to 

 say, in terms applicable to conditions of folk movement as known to us, 

 one migration unit produced this effect. 



When we examine, last of all, the column in which we have evaluated 

 the Tongafiti component we find a marked difference to obtain. The 

 Paumotu not only stands at the head of this column as well as at the 

 head of the others, but its interval above its next successor, Tahiti, 

 amounts to more than the whole Tongafiti component of Mangareva. 

 Tahiti is parted from its next neighbor, the Marquesas, by a less, yet 

 considerable, interval; and Mangareva stands at the bottom by a yet 

 smaller interval. From this we determine that the Tongafiti migration 

 spent its first force upon the Paumotu and Tahiti, and that a far smaller 

 amount overran that landfall either north about in the Marquesas, or 

 southward in Mangareva, a relation to the central point of settlement 

 which the mind trained in navigation will find no difficulty in compre- 

 hending as the various result of sailing full and bye on starboard or port 

 tack when the trade holds steady southeast. 



We may read this record horizontally with interest and to illustrative 

 results. The results of the quantitative analysis of the Paumotu in 

 respect of the three components, Polynesian, Proto-Samoan, and Tonga- 

 fiti, is expressed by the percentages 5, 3, and 10; the diffusion figures 

 run higher, but inspection shows that the continuing ratio is effectively 

 the same. In Tahiti there is a difference; its quantitative continuing 

 ratio is 4-3-6 ; reduced to the same degree the qualitative record is, say, 

 5-3-6. The comparison of the Marquesas in the same way shows 

 quantitative 4-4-5 and qualitative 6-4-4. The Mangarevan 4-3-3 

 becomes qualitative 5-3-6. The interpretation of these changes lies 

 in the understanding of the effect of diffusion. In the Paumotu, where 

 the alteration is very slight, we find ourselves dealing with a community 

 in which diffusion, that is to say interchanges with neighbor commu- 

 nities in the province, has effected the minimum of change. In Tahiti 

 the alteration affects the Polynesian component, with Mangareva show- 

 ing exactly the same continuing ratio ; in the Marquesas the alteration 

 affects this component still more prominently. 



