SAWAIORI MIGRATIONS. 19 



determination of forty-two of the bravest young men and seven 

 of the fairest maidens (the sacred seven squared by a race to whom 

 four was the perfect number) to offer themselves in sacrifice to the 

 plague demon that he might spare the people. They put to sea 

 in seven canoes, and the plague ceased. The tale now follows these 

 victims oversea, to an island in the Philippines, where seven were 

 claimed by the demon. The second seven was overwhelmed in a 

 gale upon the high sea. The third seven was drawn to abysms of 

 destruction by a fish monster. The fourth seven got drunk on 

 toddy at Nukuoro and blasphemed the god until he slew them. 

 The fifth seven was killed for food on the eastward voyage. The 

 survivors reached Hawaii and refreshed, then sailed seventy-seven 

 nights to the south and came to land on Manu'a. 



From what source this tale came to Lieutenant Deeken I can not 

 say. To me it smacks of the ability at fabrication of a half-caste 

 in Samoa whom I was never able to meet, but whose store of tradi- 

 tions was tantalizingly reported as truly remarkable. Their worth 

 may readily be judged from this synopsis of one of them that was 

 brought me at second hand, namely, that the Samoan ancestors set 

 sail from "Sumatala" under the leadership of their hero-chief 

 "Niu-sisila." If one is willing to believe in this preservation of a 

 recognizable name of Sumatra, what shall be said of the prophetic 

 instinct which gives to the voyagers a chief already named New 

 Zealand? Slightly pro leptic. Whatever source may be responsible 

 for the myth which Deeken records so positively, I should not rest 

 content without recording its total lack of credibility. 



We are now to take up the general migration theory, a division 

 of our subject which may be dismissed with more summary treat- 

 ment since it is commonly known. 



In the foregoing consideration of the sieve theory it will have 

 been observed that Thilenius explains the route of peopling between 

 termini, Malaysia as the point of departure, Samoa or Nuclear Poly- 

 nesia as the point of arrival. This traverse he covers by a northern 

 and generally equatorial route. Relative to the same termini the 

 general migration theory covers the traverse by a southeasterly 

 course, largely a coasting voyage through or on the fringes of Mela- 

 nesia. The final link, the distribution eastward from Nuclear Poly- 

 nesia, remains unaffected by the diverse views herein presented. 

 Similarly the Indonesian link is common to both theories. 



That Malayan or Indonesian link, regarded solely as filling geo- 

 graphical space, we may safely assume as an antecedent probability ; 

 yet when we reflect that it has been regarded as a linguistic link, 

 although this estimate of its value rests upon high authority and 

 we find the names of Wilhelm von Humboldt, Franz Bopp, and 

 Friedrich Miiller associated therewith, we must not be carried away 



