300 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



simulacrum was the most widely-diffused religious emblem 

 in these islands, tiki being used as a common name for all 

 such carvings. To the farthest bounds of Eastern Polynesia 

 the same cult extended. Moerenhoiit, writing of Easter 

 Island, says that on visiting the little island of Eavaivai he 

 there found precisely similar statues to those of Easter Island, 

 and they were in the same neglected condition. The figures, 

 like those at Easter, Libuai, Pitcairn, Tubuai, etc., were raised 

 on platforms at extremities of the low lands. The natives called 

 them Tii-one aod Tii-papa, (Tiki-one and Tiki-papa,) "guardians 

 of earth and rock ;" in fact, the Latin Termini. They were, 

 apparently, not gods of the highest order, but Was, marking 

 boundaries, and keeping the limits of gods and men, dead and 

 living.* A Marquesan legend also states that Tiki was the 

 name of the lord or chief of the canoes when the migration from 

 the westward arrived at Nukuhiva : his name appears in the 

 genealogies of all Polynesian peoples.! 



Before quitting this part of the subject, it would be well not 

 to forget that Taranga's personal identity is somewhat shaken 

 by the Hawaiian tradition that the land whence the Poly- 

 nesians came was called Kahiki-ku (in Maori letters, TawhUi-tu), 

 or " the large continent to the east of Kalana-i-Hau-ola," or 

 "the place where the first members of mankind were created.": 

 This last-named place would read in Maori as Taranga-i-hau- 

 ora, or " Taranga with the life-breath ;" and would make 

 Maui's mother (or father) a mere locality-name, although of a 

 very sacred character. According to Mr. John White, the 

 Hau-ora (or Wai-ora) is the name of the third heaven, and is 



* See "Les Polynesiens," Lesson, p. 294. 



t It would also seem that, in comparison with the New Zealand words : 

 tiki, " a deity ;" tikitiki, "a top-knot," etc., we should consider as a variant 

 our tiketike, "high, lofty:" the Samoan ti'eti\>, "to be seated on high ;" 

 the Hawaiian kiekie, " high, lofty, exalted, holy;" the Tahitian faa-tietie, 

 " glory, honour, to boast," etc. ; this concurrence appearing to show a radical 

 (V TIK) implying a supreme chief and leader. As a possible explanation, I 

 therefore offer a suggestion (and a suggestion only) that Maui's title implies 

 that he was the leader of the Polynesian expedition into the Pacific. Ka is 

 Hawaiian for the definite article "the" (which in Maori letters would be ta, 

 perhaps an old form of te) ; thus, Maui-Tikitiki-a-ta-ranga would mean 

 " Maui, Chief of the Fleet." In Sanscrit, taranga means "a waving, a 

 motion to and fro ;" tarana, " a raft or boat"— both these evidently con- 

 nected with tarn, "who or what passes over or beyond; passing over ; a 

 crossing ; a passage " — thus giving an Asiatic value to this word as signifying 

 " migration." I offer this idea to those of the realistic school who abhor 

 the solar myth theory; the " Euhemerists." (See "Primitive Culture," 

 Tylor, vol. i., p. 252.) On the other hand, to their opponents, I offer a 

 possible explanation of Maui's name as perhaps meaning " Light-seeker," 

 Ma ui ; ma, or mah, being a very widely-spread name for "light" in the 

 ancient world, and ui meaning " to inquire." It would be a most appropriate 

 name for our fire- seeking hero. 



J Fornander, Joe. cit, |>. 23 



