376 REPORT— 1891. 



Historical Traditions. 



The historical traditions of the Maoris date from a period 

 antecedent to their arrival in this country, and are full of very 

 interesting information. Many of them relate to voyages 

 undertaken by ancient navigators ; and the description given by 

 them of the seas through which they sailed points to tlae early 

 migrations of the race in tropical latitudes. 



It would occupy too much time to trace in detail the his- 

 tory as told in these traditions, but there are a few interesting 

 facts contained in them which may be mentioned because they 

 throw some light upon the origin of this remarkable people. 



When asked where they came from, the Maoris of New 

 Zealand always replied " Hawaiki." For a long time it was 

 thought that the Hawaiki to which they referred was one of 

 the Sandwich Islands ; but when the Pacific became better 

 known it was discovered that every group occupied by Poly- 

 nesians possessed an island of that name, and that Savaii, in 

 the Samoan group, Avaiki, in the Hervey group, Habai, of 

 Tonga, Hawaii, of the Sandwich Islands, all bore the same 

 name, which meant Little Hawa. Judge Fornander has taken 

 great pains to find out the reason for the constant recurrence 

 of this name, and I venture to think that his theory about it 

 is correct. Tracing the course by which the Maori race 

 reached its present home in the Pacific, he discovered that at 

 one time it occupied the large island we call Java, a name 

 which he thinks the Maoris brought with them from the cradle 

 of their race in the Cushite Empire of Saba or Zaba, and gave 

 to their island home, just as we have given Old- World names 

 to our new homes in these southern seas. On being driven 

 out of Java by a Malay invasion the Maoris migrated eastward 

 in search of new lands, and when settling in the islands they 

 found they invariably named one Hawa, after their last 

 home, but, to distinguish it from the original, added the 

 adjective "iti," and called it Hawa-iti or -iki, Little Saba or 

 Java. 



It adds to our interest in the Maori people to think that 

 they come of a race which had attained to a high state of 

 civilisation a thousand years before our era. Their long isola- 

 tion from other nations has helped them to preserve in their 

 myths and legends, and in their religious rites and social 

 customs, much that may assist ethnologists to solve the ques- 

 tions raised by the discovery of monuments and remains in the 

 countries once occupied by Cushite civilisation, but about 

 which the present inhabitants of those countries know nothing 

 at all. 



Emerging from the region of myths and legends, and 

 approaching actual history, the traditions contain narratives 



