Best. — Maori and Maruiwi^ 447 



evolved here, together with decorative art-designs, weapons, forts, and other 

 things mentioned above ? 



This paper has now been carried far enough, intended as it was merely 

 to draw attention to some interesting subjects for inquiry and discussion, 

 most of which have received little attention, and present some curious dis- 

 crepancies. 



The field of inquiry is a wide one ; its exploration would call for many 

 correspondents. There are many subjects that might repay research, in 

 addition to those already given. For example : Did the excavated house- 

 site obtain in Polynesia, as it did in New Zealand, and as it does in the 

 Torres Group (where it could scarcely be made necessary by coldness of 

 climate) ? Why does the Maori carry burdens strapped on his back, and 

 why did he discard the balance-pole of his former home ? How comes it 

 that his system of numeration is apparently a compound of two forms, and 

 that he has several distinct series of month-names ? Why did the year 

 commence among some tribes with the heliacal rising of Matariki, the 

 Pleiades (as it also did in the Cook Group), and with that of Puanga, or 

 Rigel, among others ? Whence the confusion in the number of the heavens ? 

 And . . . But hati noa iho, lest weariness wait upon the answers. The 

 queries put have been numerous, and followed by no intelligent explanation ; 

 that portion of the task is calmly left for the consideration of others in the 

 days that lie before. 



" Mo a muri mo a nehe.'' 



Art. XL VII. — Maori Voyagers and their Vessels : Hoiv the Maori explored 

 the Pacific Ocean, and laid doivn the Sea Roads for all Time. 



By Elsdon Best, Hector Memorial Medallist. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 8th November, 1915.] 



Far away across the dark waters of the Great Southern Ocean, within two 

 thousand miles of the coast of South America, lies the lone Polynesian 

 outpost of Easter Island. Away to the north-west, beyond many a far 

 meridian, lies Nukuoro, south of the Carolines. A vast distance of some- 

 thing like seven thousand miles separates the two isles ; but the inhabitants 

 of both speak the Maori tongue. In the southern extremity of New Zea- 

 land, about 48° S. latitude, and at Kauai, in the Hawaiian Group, about 

 22° N. latitude, early voyagers found peoples speaking the Maori tongue. 

 Eastward to the Marquesas and westward to the EUice Group they found 

 the Maori in occupation. Over a great oceanic area of four thousand by 

 five thousand miles in extent, flecked with many isles, the Maori alone held 

 sway. Members of a common race, speaking dialects of a common tongue, 

 these units in far-sundered lands not only held undisputed possession of 

 the central and eastern Pacific, but also heard dim echoes of their racial 

 tongue from their outposts in Melanesia and Micronesia. The Islands of 

 Futuna (in the New Hebrides), Tikopia (north of that group), Nukuoro 

 (in the Carolines), and some others, are held by Maori-speaking Polynesians. 



How comes it that we find divisions of one uncultured race, ignorant 

 of the use of metals, occupying so vast an area of Oceania, dwelling in 

 archipelagoes and lones isles hundreds — even thousands — of miles apart ? 



