Blyth. — On ''The Whence of the Maori." 621 



connected with the word tabu (as Tonga-tabu = sacred Tonga), 

 and the expression means nothing more than sacred Euro." 



Now, I think the inference is plain, from the Hght that the 

 Maori version throws on the Samoan and Tougan tradition, that 

 Wairota or Piirutu refers to the original home of the race, that 

 is Barata ; while Wairoti, or Little Barata, refers to the Island 

 of Euro, the new home named after the old. The explanation 

 by the reviewer, of the terminal syllable tu, as a contraction or 

 detrital fragment of tajm, is ingenious, but hardly convincing ; 

 as it is neither backed by analogy, nor is any reason given why 

 Samoans or Tongans should make tapu into tu; nor is it shown 

 that they do so : the instance of Tougatabu is rather fatal 

 to the view. Moreover, the Maori tradition removes Purotu a 

 stage farther than the Island of Euro ; which, according to 

 Maori view, ought to be Puror/, and not Puro^^t ; so then the 

 tapu connection vanishes, for it can hardly be contended that 

 the terminal ti is a contraction of tapu, unless indeed it can be 

 shown that tapxi is sometimes tapi. 



We then see the evidence points to Havaiki or Savaiki, that 

 is Samoa ; Wairoti, the Island of Euro, that is Little Earata ; 

 and Wairota or Purotu, ihat is Earata, as the three former 

 homes of the Maori. 



All doubt that the view taken here is the correct one will be 

 set at rest by the following quotation from Mr. Taylor's 

 work* : — 



" At Parapara, a small village on the road from Kaitaia to 

 Doubtless Eay, there resided (1840) an intelligent old chief 

 named Hahakai, a tokumja deeply versed in the traditions of the 

 country. . . . He repeated a list of twenty- six generations 

 from their first coming to this island. The old priest in his 

 first half-dozen names," says Mr. Taylor, " seems to have gotten 

 among the gods." These first names are : Tiki, Maui, Po, 

 Maweti, Atua, Maea. The last is a Hindu goddess, Maya (or 

 illusion), the physical universe (a mother-goddess). " He stated 

 that their ancestors originally came from three islands, Hawaiki, 

 Matatera, and Wairota; all which lay to the East." 



I think Mr. Taylor has made some slips here. The old 

 priest must have said "all which lay to the West." This is to be 

 seen by taking them in order : Hawaiki is the land from which 

 they came more immediately to New Zealand. To the West of 

 Hawaiki must have lain their more ancient home, for it is called 

 Mata-tera. This is only an erroneous form of the words Mate- 

 te-ra, the dying (or dying place) of the Sun, that is the West; 

 and would answer to Wairoti, or Little Wairota, or the Island of 

 Biiro. Then Wairota would represent the land still farther 

 west from which they set out, that is Peninsular India, or 



Te Ika a Maui," p. 193. 



