MIGRATIONS OF THE OCEANIC TRIBES. 



POLYNESIA. 



As the examination of the customs and idioms of the Polynesian 

 tribes leaves no room to doubt that they form, in fact, but a single 

 nation, and as the similarity of their dialects warrants the supposition 

 that no great length of time has elapsed since their dispersion, we are 

 naturally led to inquire whether it may not be possible, bv the com- 

 parison of their idioms and traditions, and by other indications, to 

 determine, with at least some degree of probability, the original point 

 from which their separation took place, and the manner in which it 

 was effected. By this point is not meant the primitive seat of their 

 race in the Malaisian Archipelago, though we may hereafter venture 

 a conjecture with regard to this, but merely the island or group in the 

 Pacific which was the first inhabited, and which bore to the rest the 

 relation of the mother-country to its colonies. 



The first result of a careful investigation is to produce the convic- 

 tion that the progress of emigration was from west to east, and not 

 in the contrary direction. This conclusion may be deduced merely 

 from an examination of the comparative grammar and vocabulary of 

 the various dialects. We see in those of the western groups many 

 forms which are entirely wanting in the eastern tongues; others, 

 which are complete in the former, are found in the latter defective, 

 and perverted from what seems evidently their original meaning. The 

 reader is referred to H 40, 41, 54, 55, of the Gramm'ar, with respect 

 especially to the desiderative and reciprocal forms of the verb, the pas- 

 sive voice, and the plural of the possessive and demonstrative pronouns. 



Other comparisons serve to confirm this general deduction. We 

 find in the west a comparatively simple mythology and spiritual 

 worship, which, in the east, is perverted to a debasing and cruel 

 idolatry. The fashion of tattooing, which, in Samoa and Tonga, is 



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