CHAPTER III. 

 SAWAIORI MIGRATIONS. 



Paucity of our knowledge of the Melanesian origins — They may be 

 autochthons — There are two principal theories of Polynesian migra- 

 tions — The sieve theory and the argument of Thilenius in its 

 behalf — A spurious tale of seven times seven retailed by Deeken — 

 The general migration theory — Tregear's statement that this is the 

 commonly accepted hypothesis — Percy Smith in its support — A 

 fallacy into which Thilenius has been led — Persisting memories of an 

 inferior race once encountered — The log of one of the great voyages. 



Thus far we have considered the work in respect of its status as 

 an Efate dictionary, a status which it has comported with Dr. 

 Macdonald's lucubrations in the realm of theory to adumbrate in 

 the text even as he has buried it as an afterthought in the title. 



Before advancing upon his main theme, the theory and effort at 

 substantiation of a Semitic origin for the languages of the Pacific, 

 we shall find it well to devote some consideration to the present 

 state of our opinion as to the movement in migration which has 

 brought to the Pacific area the peoples now spread to its remotest 

 isles. 



So far as relates to migrations of the Melanesian peoples, we are 

 wholly without information. This work of Dr. Macdonald is practi- 

 cally the first essay toward giving any of the Melanesians a race 

 history anterior to their residence upon the islands which they now 

 inhabit. Until this or some other theory is properly established, 

 we can do no more than to regard them as ex hypothesi autochthons. 

 If future students of their life and thought succeed in bringing to 

 light traditions which may point to a movement over seas from an 

 older to their present homes, then we shall have a basis on which 

 to found new speculations. Until such a time arrive we shall find 

 it better to stand on the commonly accepted hypothesis. 



But in the case of the brown Polynesian race the circumstances 

 are far other. We have ample traditions of migration, we have 

 the names of the halting-places; we find a whole race, widely sun- 

 dered upon the sea, looking back to the west with a single gaze to an 

 ancestral home. We have here and there the belief in westward 

 Pulotu as the abode of the dead; no mean proof, since the dead go 

 home. Above all we have the primordial Hawaiki across the great 

 sea of Kiwa, the illuminating Saba myth, than which no tradition 

 of men has ever had a wider extent. 



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