224 Foruaudcr Collection of Hazvaiian Folk-lore. 



the Pol^-ncsians for the Pacific. The word iiusa as an a]^pellative of an island occurs 

 in several instances among; the Pacific-Polynesian groups: among the Paumotus, Mar- 

 quesas, Tokolau or Union and de Peyster's groups, and also in the Viti Archipelago, 

 which has received the nomenclature of a g-reat number of its islands from Polynesian 

 sources. It always occurs in compound words as names of islands; e. g., Nuku-hiw.a 

 (Marcju.); Nuku-Nono (Union Gr.) ; Nuku-fetau (de Peyster's); Nuku-tawake and 

 Nuku-ti-pipi (Paumotu). In the Hawaiian group no island or islet, that I am aware 

 of, bears that appellation, but in the Hawaiian leg-ends the land from which their 

 ancestors came, and which they are frequently said to have visited, is called Nu'u- 

 mehelani — the Nu"u being- a contraction of the Nuku of the South Pacific dialects. 



When I said above that the Polynesian family were probably driven out of 

 Hindostan by the Tamul family, and found a refuge in the Asiatic Archipelago, some 

 remnants of the family undoubtedly remained on the mainland; for we find in the 

 traditionary annals" of Sumatra, that the Malays proper derive themselves from Hindo- 

 stan, whence they arrived at Palembang- under the leadershi]) of a son of the Rajah 

 of Bisnag-our. Such an emigration, and others like it, doubtless started the older Poly- 

 nesians further eastward. And as they went, they gave their names to places, bays, 

 headlands, and islands, many of which names have remained to this day and mark the 

 resting places where they stopped, the route by which they traveled. One of the 

 ^Moluccas is called "Morotai." Now this is a purely Polynesian name, by which one of 

 the Hawaiian Islands is called ( Molokai-a-Hina), recalling; thus not only the name of 

 a former habitat, but also the birth-place of their ancestors. In the Histoire de la 

 Conquctc dcs Isles Mohiques, by d'Argensola, vol. Ill (Amsterdam, 1706), we are told 

 that the Moluccas were formerly called "Sindas" by Ptolomy. especially Amboyna, Cele- 

 bes and Gilolo,— Molokai-a-Hina refers itself then at once to Morotoy de los Sindas 

 according to the early Spanish navigators. 



In the island of Timor there is a place and bay called Babao. The name occurs 

 again in Vavao, one of the Tonga or Friendly Islands, and in Mature-wawao 01-1 the 

 Acteon Islands of the Paumotu group. One of the Loyalty Islands is called Lifn. 

 That name occurs again in "Fefuka," one of the Ilapai group in the Kriendlv Islands. 

 It occurs also in "Lehua," one of the Hawaiian Islands. On the Island of Uea, another 

 of the Loyalty group, is a headland called to this day by the Papuan or Melanesian 

 inhabitants the "Fa'i-a-Ue," but this is a purelv Polynesian word which rendered in the 

 Hawaiian dialed would be "Pali-a-L'a," or, as there may be a doubt as to the pro])er 

 orthograi)hy, "Tai-a-Ue" (house or dwelling of Ua), a word readily intelligible to a 

 Polynesian, but without sense or meaning to a Papuan. In Celebes and in Borneo are 

 two independent states, inhabited by Buguis and Dyaks, called "Ouadjou" or "Ouahou" 

 ( according to iM'ench and English orthogra])}iv ) , jjroto-names of the Hawaiian island 

 "Oahu." The traditions of the Tonga Islands ]joint to a land in the northwest called 

 ■■Pulatu," as their fatherland, and whither their si)irits returned after death, the residence 

 of their gods. 



The absence, lin\\e\-cr, in the I'ohncsian language ol any name lnr, cir of .-my 

 image or menior\- of, the ox, the horse, the shee]), would seem indirectly to indicate thai 

 ihat separation took place before these animals were domesticated by the mother-stock 



