Source and Migration of the Polynesian Race. 237 



and the mountain ridges of Hawaii rose up and extended far and near over the sea 



of Hawaii 



Una te tai o Hawaii. 



The question now arises where and what were this "Vevau" and "Hawaii," which con- 

 stituted the boundaries of the world when this chant was composed? 



I have already stated that the large bay of Coupang, on the Island of Timor, was 

 formerly called Babao. This bay and surrounding country was, at the time of the 

 European settlements there, an independent state and kingdom, and it is highly prob- 

 able that in ancient times, before the Malay element pre])onderated in the Indian Archi- 

 ])elago, it might have given its name to the whole island, inasmuch as that name is 

 found in the nomenclature of islands, districts and places which the Polynesians carried 

 with them into the Pacific and adapted to their new habitats. But Babao is and would 

 be Vavao or Vevao in any of the Polynesian dialects, for they have no letter h. If I am 

 right in this, it becomes intelligible why Vavao or Timor should have been quoted as the 

 one terminus of the known world to the people then occupying the archipelago from there 

 to Java or Sumatra. To those i^eople, at that time, it was the eastern-most land then 

 known, and, when the Malay element assumed the ])reponderance in the archipelago, it 

 was called "Timor" or "The East," plainly indicating that it was also by them at 

 that time considered as the extreme east. 



I have already stated that I consider the Polynesian word //rtTt'd';/ as correspond- 

 ing to, or representing the word Jaiva, as applied to the second island of the Sunda 

 group. From the pronunciation of the word in the different Polynesian dialects I was 

 led to believe that its original name in Polynesian mouths was "Hawa-iki" or Little 

 Jawa. It is possible, however, that it may also have been, as pronounced in some dia- 

 lects, Ha%va-ii or Sava-ii, — the raging furious (as applied to volcanic mountains) Hawa 

 or Sava or Saba. How far this name was applied to the western islands of the Sunda 

 group I am unable to say. We know that Ptolomy, the geographer, designated Su- 

 matra as "Jaba-din." It may therefore very probably in times anterior to him have 

 included a |)ortion or the whole of the latter island as well as the present Java. Be this 

 as it may, the frequent allusions made in the chant referred to, to the sea of Hawaii 

 {fc tai Hawaii) — the Jawa sea, points with sufficient accuracy to this island as the 

 western terminus of the world as known to those who composed that chant. 



In this way the expression used in the chant regarding the wind receives a force 

 and application, which under no other construction it could have received. It then ap- 

 plied to the regular monsoons which blow over that part of the world: "Blow wind from 

 Vevao (from the east) and cool the sea of Hawa: blow back wind from Hawa (from 

 the west) and cool the region or air of Vevao." 



The Hawaiian appellations for the same cardinal points, while they differ in 

 name, tend to the same result. In the Hawaiian group the North is called, among other 

 names, "Ulunui," "Uliuli," "Hakalauai," "Melemele," but these are known by tradition 

 to have been names of lands, situated to llie north of some former habitat of the people, 

 of which all knowledge and remembrance was lost save that that they were situated to 

 the north of them, and were visited at one time by that famous voyager, whose exploits 



