Section Cr. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



President of the Section : 

 REV. LORIMER FISON, M.A. 



1.— THE STORY OF TU AND REI ; A MANIHIKIAN 



MYTH. 



Bij THE REV. WILLIAM WYATT GILL, LL.D. 



Introduction. 



Almost in the centre of the Sonth Pacific, about 700 miles 

 N.N.W. of Rarotonga, lie the twin atolls of Manihiki and 

 Rakahanga. These islands, twenty-five miles apart, are 

 inhabited by one race descended from a single pair, Toa and 

 Tapairii, natives of Rarotonga. 



The following interesting myth was communicated to me 

 by loane, a native minister of Manihiki. loane derived it 

 from his aged father, one of the recognised repositories of 

 ancient wisdom, who was past middle age when Christianity 

 was introduced to those atolls in 1849. 



The original text of the native is subjoined — the only 

 specimen of the Manihikian dialect ever printed. A few 

 Rarotongan words have however crept in, owing doubtless 

 to loane's perfect acquaintance with the language of the 

 political capital of the Hervey Group. 



Two years and a half ago these atolls were, at the earnest 

 request of the natives, annexed to Great Britain. 



The food of these islanders consists merely of fish, coco- 

 nuts, and a coarse kind of Caladium (called by the natives 

 " puraka ") grown on Rakahanga. Annual voyages are made 

 by the natives of Manihiki to the sister island in canoes, for 

 the purpose of obtaining a supply of " puraka" ; in these 

 expeditions many lives are lost through sudden storms. The 

 voyage should be accomphshed between sunrise and sunset. 



Myth. 

 In spii-it-land, in the district^ of Kurakaa, lived Tu and his 



' In Polynesian mythology Spirit-world is mapped out into districts, under 

 the rule of chieffi, as the islands themselves are. 



