22 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



Islands on their way to Fiji, probably leaving a colony at Sikayana, or 

 Stewart's Island, off the coast of the Solomons, where the people speak a 

 dialect of Maori or Rarotongan and are Polynesians. Whether Lord 

 Howe's Island, or Liueniua, also called Ongtong Java, was peopled at the 

 same time is uncertain. It is inhabited by Polynesians, as Mr. Churchill 

 tells me. Possibly Nukuoro and Lukunor were also colonized at this time. 

 In more than one Rarotongan tradition an island or country is mentioned 

 named Enua-kura, or the "land of the red feathers," which is possibly New 

 Guinea, so called by the Rarotongans after the bird of paradise, the beau- 

 tiful feathers of which would be to them treasures of the highest value — 

 such treasures as Europeans who do not know the race can hardly believe 

 in; they were their jewels. (Page 113.) 



The same indefatigable research supplies us yet another argument, 

 a persisting memory of intercourse with an inferior and servile race. 

 Because of its length I am forced to omit a few details : 



Again, there ought to be traces of some recollection of the black or very 

 dark-brown negrito races of Indonesia. In the Maori traditions there are 

 incidental notices of an ancient people called Manahune or Manahua, who 

 are by some supposed to be a diminutive race and somewhat like the elves 

 of Old World stories. But they are not said to have lived in New Zealand. 

 This people is also known in Hawaii under the same name, where they are 

 described as somewhat like those of the Maori traditions. They appear at 

 one time to have been very numerous and lived in the mountains, but were 

 in a state of subjection to the Hawaiians. Again in Tahiti we find mention 

 of the same people, Manahune, who in Ellis's time formed the lower orders 

 of the people, but they were an ancient tribe or people. In a Paumotu 

 genealogy in my possession I find one of their chiefs named Tangaroa- 

 Manahune, who lived many generations ago ; and it is known that there was 

 a tribe in old times in Mangaia named Manaune. We shall find later on a 

 reference to them in Rarotonga history, where they are again referred to as 

 little people. The word manahune, both in Maori and Rarotonga, means 

 a scab or mark on the body. It may be that the origin of the name is due 

 to the people who bore it being marked with cicatrices. The vague notions 

 the Polynesians generally now have in regard to the Manahune — their 

 living in the mountains and forests, the wonderful powers of sorcery, etc., 

 accredited to them — seem to point to their having been a race living in the 

 remote past, conquered by the Polynesians, and probably often enslaved 

 by them. In fact the traditions no doubt point to the Papuan or Melane- 

 sian race, who, it is well known, mark their flesh in gashes as an ornament, 

 instead of tattoo as with the Polynesians. The same Nga-Puhi tradition 

 goes on to state: "Some of the people of those parts were very black, a 

 people who smelt very strong when near, their hair was bunched out to be 

 stiff and appeared in tufts, and their appearance was ill-favored." This 

 is in brief form a fair description of a Papuan or Melanesian. (Page 103.) 



I have preferred to use the words of these two great authorities 

 because they are authorities and because my own conclusions as 

 to the two theories will more properly be presented in the discussion 

 of the pertinent linguistic material. 



As between the two theories, we must recognize that each is an 

 attempt to close a gap, the gap between Indonesia and Polynesia 



