3Iaori traditions of First Settlement in Neiv Zealand. 107 



tii'e merry multitude assembled on the slope in front of the 

 tents, and to show, it may be supposed, that they were not 

 unacquainted with the usages of other countries, gave, with 

 genuine English good-will, three rousing hurrahs in honour 

 of the departing guests ! 



- The study of the language and history of the traditions, 

 habits, and morals of the aborigines of New Zealand, must 

 necessarily be of special interest on account of our presumed 

 acquaintance with the race they are descended from, and the 

 important conclusions thence deducible as to the settlement 

 of Polynesia at large. 



A Maori legend relates that their first progenitors came 

 in seven canoes from the island of Hawaiki (i. e. cradle of the 

 race), one of the Sandwich Islands, 4000 miles to the N.E. 

 of New Zealand.* These canoes had outriggers to prevent 

 foundering, and were called Amatiatia, whereas those they 

 now use, which are also of very simple construction, are 

 named Wakka, and have evidently borrowed their form from 

 the dried seed of the New Zealand honey-suckle [Rewaretva), 

 The first canoe that came from Hawaiki was named Arawa. 

 It brought over Honmaitawiti, Tamakekapua, Toi, Maka, 

 Hei, Jhenga, Tauninihi, Rongokako, and others, and these 

 were the first settlers from whom the New Zealanders are 

 descended. 



* According to the tradition handed down from the chief Te-heii-heu, their fore- 

 fathers emigrated first from Hawaiki-Tawiti-Nui, to Hawaiki-Patata, where they 

 sojourned some time, and thence went to Hawaiki-Ki-te-Maiteu, whence they came 

 to New Zealand, 



