OCEANIC MIGRATIONS. 



1. Original form, Savaiki. 



2. Snmoan dialect, Savafi. 



3. Tahitian, Havai'i. 



4. Sandwich Island, Hawafi. 



5. Rarotongan and Mangarevan, Avaiki. 



6. Nukuhivan, Havaiki. 



7. New Zealand Hawaiki. 



It will be found that this is, so to speak, the key-word, which 

 unlocks the mystery of the Polynesian migrations. 



TAHITI, OR THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 



As our attention was not drawn to this subject of investigation 

 (that which connects the Polynesians with Savaii) until after we left 

 this group, we are unable here to add any thing to what has been 

 given by others. Fortunately, this is amply sufficient for our pur- 

 pose, and, as already remarked, has the great advantage of having 

 been obtained and published without the possibility of a reference to 

 any hypothesis like that now advanced. 



Mr. Ellis, in his Polynesian Researches (vol. ii. p. 234, American 

 edition) says: " Opoa is the most remarkable place in Raiatea; of 

 its earth, according to some of their traditions, the first pair were 

 made by Tii or Taaroa, and on its soil they fixed their abode. Here 

 Oro held his court. It was called Hawaii; and as distant colonies 

 are said to have proceeded from it, it was probably the place at which 

 some of the first inhabitants of the South Sea Islands arrived." As 

 there is no w in the Tahitian language (at least in the usual orthogra- 

 phy), it is here evidently written instead of a v. In another part of the 

 same work, (vol. i., p. 105,) the author, in treating of the origin of the 

 Society islanders, inclines to refer them to the Sandwich Islands, his 

 principal reason being that " in some of their [the Tahitian] tradi- 

 tions Hawaii is mentioned as the ancient name of Opoa and Oro, who 

 is by some described as both god and man, as having two bodies or 

 forms, or being a kind of connecting link between gods and men, is 

 described as the first king of Hawaii or Opoa in Raiatea." The 

 Tahitian v is frequently sounded like w, and Mr. Ellis here evidently 

 chooses the latter element in order to show more clearly the resem- 

 blance or rather identity of the name with the Hawaii of the Sand- 

 wich Islands. He was not, at that time, aware of the existence of a 

 Savaii in the west ; had he been so, we may conclude that the reason 



31 



