258 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



land form, has been described by Mr. John White. Here were 

 to be found the tohare-karioi, or houses of amusement, in which, 

 no doubt, originated the Arioi societies of Tahiti — societies of 

 strolhng players that passed from island to island and, acted 

 scenes from their history, accompanied by much debauchery 

 and many strange customs. These people were priests and 

 historians, and the most learned of the race. But these insti- 

 tutions were of far greater antiquity than the time that the 

 Maori ancestors sojourned in Eastern Polynesia ; they were 

 brought with them from distant India, where, according 

 to Rarotongan tradition, they were first initiated by the 

 great king or chief Tu-te-rangi-marama in the fifth century 

 B.C. This gathering-place in Eastern Polynesia was at Raia- 

 tea, of the Society Group. Here came lordly chiefs in their 

 gaily decked canoes, with flying streamers and drums beat- 

 ing, accompanied by large retinues of chiefs, warriors, priests, 

 and servitors. Tradition says that from far Uea, or Wallis 

 Island, in the western Pacific, to Rapa-nui, or Easter Island, 

 in the far East, the people gathered to these meetings. 

 They took place at Opoa, in Raiatea, the most sacred marae, 

 or temple, in all Polynesia, and from whence stones were 

 taken to other islands with which to found other maraes, to 

 serve as visible connecting-links with this most holy of places. 

 Opoa, in Raiatea, was the Polynesian Mecca. Tradition 

 seems to infer that these gatherings broke up after a time, 

 owing to the hostility of two factions, the Ao-tea, or eastern 

 people, and the Ao-uri, or western people, resulting in mur- 

 ders, wars, and all kinds of evils. The origin of these 

 troubles was due to the priests, and the inference is that 

 schism in the common doctrines of belief was the cause.* 



As yet we cannot fix with any certainty the date of this 

 disruption, because the Tahitian accounts are not yet given 

 to the world ; but from the indications in Maori history it 

 was probably about the end of the thirteenth century. From 

 this period downwards it may probably be predicted that con- 

 siderable differences in the rituals, beliefs, and histories of 

 the eastern and western branches of the Polynesians will be 

 found by any one who will pursue the subject. But that time 

 is not yet. The Maori branch of the race belongs to that 

 division referred to above as the Ao-tea, or eastern people. 

 The meaning of these two distinctive terms, " Ao-tea " and 

 " Ao-uri," is the light and dark world, derived from the sun- 

 rise and sunset. 



I have said that Maori priests were warriors. With a 

 warlike people like the Maori this was only natural. There 



* Much of this I learn from Miss Teuira Henry, one of the first 

 of Tahitian scholars. 



