POLYNESIA. 25 



They add to the Samoan account that when the god Tangaloa had 

 raised the islands to their present altitude, his hook broke and left 

 them in that situation ; otherwise, they would have continued to rise 

 until they formed one great land. The New Zealanders and Tahi- 

 tians have the same account 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 Tan- 

 galoa. The Tahitians have, besides, other stories, one of which, to 

 the effect, that the islands are fragments broken off from an immense 

 rock, has been already given. The word for rock is papa, which is 

 also the name of the wife of Taaroa, and from this source some con- 

 fusion may have arisen, as some of the traditions relate that the 

 islands were born of Taaroa and Papa.* The Hawaiians, according 

 to the Mo'o-olelo, before quoted, have the same story, that the islands 

 were born of Papa, the wife of Atea, the progenitor 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 that the Polynesians are emphatically a nation of fishermen, 

 would be sufficient to suggest the idea. When the priests, to whom 

 the religion and mythology of the race were especially committed, 

 were called upon to account for the formation of the land which they 

 inhabited, they would, of course, refer it to their great god Tangaloa, 

 or Maui, and no other mode would be so likely to occur to them as 

 that by which they themselves had frequently drawn up fragments of 

 coral rock from the bottom of the sea. 



The fact that two or more stories are sometimes current on the 

 same group, shows in what light they are regarded by the natives, 

 not as articles of their religious creed, which they are bound to be- 

 lieve, but merely as traditions handed down from their fathers, which, 

 though respectable for their antiquity, may, after all, not be true. 

 Their opinions on this subject, therefore, differ widely from those 

 which they hold with regard to the existence and power of their gods, 

 of which none of them entertain a doubt. 



* Polynesian Researches, vol. i. p. 250, Am. edit. 



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