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abe, one of the Philippines, (called Ascension Island,) to the northwest. 
The island of Savaii is the largest in the Samoa group ; and this name 
is retained in the traditions of all the groups, and is even given to some 
of the islands of these groups, as Hawaii at the Sandwich Islands. 
The course of argument on this subject will be presented in the next 
number of this Journal. The Friendly Islanders appear to have reached 
their islands through the Feejees; the natives of this last mentioned 
group are apparently a mixture of the Papuan with the Polynesian. 
The Polynesians, as is well known, belong to the Malay race of the 
East Indies. Mr. Hale suggests some reason for inferring that they 
_ may be traced back to the island of Bouro, to the west of New Guinea. 
_- 3. Cosmogony of the Polynesians; (ibid. p. 24.)—Two stories are 
prevalent among the Samoans with regard to the creation of the world, 
or at least of their islands. Both attribute the work to their great god 
Tangaloa. According to one account, while the god was fishing, his 
hook caught in the rocks at the bottom of the sea, and in drawing it up 
he raised with it the whole group of Samoa. The other story repre- 
sents him as forming the land by throwing down large stones from the 
skies, from which his daughter, Tuli, (snipe,) made the different isl- 
ands. She afterward planted them with vegetables, one of which was 
a kind of vine, from whose stem a god named Ngai formed the first 
man, by marking out the body and members of a human being. 
In Tonga the first of these stories is generally received. They add 
to the Samoan account, that when the god Tangaloa had raised the isl- 
ands to their present altitude, his hook broke and left them in that situ- 
_ ation; otherwise they: would have continued to rise until they formed 
one great land. The New Zealanders and Tahitians have the same 
_ accounts of their islands having been drawn up by a god while fishing, 
and both give to this god the name of Maui, which, as we have before 
shown, is but another appellation for Tangaloa. The Tahitians have, 
besides, other stories, one of which,—to the effect, that the islands are 
fragments broken off from an immense rock,—has already been given. 
The word for rock is papa, which is also the name of the wife of Taa- 
ora, and from this source some confusion may have arisen, as some of 
the traditions relate that the islands were born of Taaora and Papa. 
he Hawaiians, according to Mo’o-olelo, before quoted, have the same 
story, that the islands were born of Papa, the wife of Atea, the progen- 
itor of the human race. 
The belief so generally prevalent, of the islands having been raised 
by a divinity, from the bottom of the sea, will appear natural enough 
if we consider the circumstances and character of the people. The 
Situation of their islands, mere specks of land, surrounded by what must 
have appeared to the inhabitants an interminable ocean, and the fact 
Srconp Series, Vol. I, No. 2.—March, 1846. 
