OCEANIC MIGRATIONS. 125 



MR. M.'s ORTHOGRAPHY. NATIVE ORTHOGRAPHY. TRANSLATION. 



Taaroa te paari Taaroa tc paari Taaroa the wise 



fanau fenoua lioa'ti ; fanau fenua Hawaii ; produced the land Hawaii ; 



koa'ii noui raa, Hawaii nui raa, Hawaii great and sacred, 



ei paa no Taaroa, ei pan no Taaroa, as a shell (body) for Taaroa, 



te oriori ra fenoua. tei oriori ra fenua. who created (or vivified) the world. 



That, by hoa'ii, Mr. Moerenhout means to spell (in the French 

 orthography) Hawaii, is evident from the fact that on page 558, of 

 this volume, he requotes the passage which we have given above, 

 and spells this word ohaii, and on page 221, of the second volume, he 

 remarks that Ohaii is the name of the largest of the Sandwich 

 Islands (Hawaii}. Mr. Moerenhout renders ohaii by universe, and it 

 is likely enough that this may be the meaning now attached to it by 

 the Tahitian priests. The second part of the ode continues the work 

 of creation, and ends with the line "epau fenoua no hoati" (or, e pan 

 fenua no Hawaii), finished is the land of Hawaii. The third part 

 relates the origin of the gods who were born of Taaroa and his wives, 

 after the creation of ohaii, and ends with " tei moua iri te atoua Roo 

 aravi na e eroto epou fanau ouporou," which should, perhaps, be u tei 

 mua iri te atua Roo a rave na ei rotopu fanau Uporu" the god Roo 

 remained in front, and seeing that which was within, produced 

 Uporu. This version is obscure and may not be altogether correct; 

 but fanau ouporou, like fanau finoua hoa'ii, can hardly be mistaken. 

 Upolu is the second of the Samoan Islands, nearly equal in size and 

 importance to Savaii. There can be little doubt that this is an 

 ancient Polynesian rnythos, relating to the supposed origin of the 

 Navigator Islands, and that it was brought from thence by the first 

 emigrants to Tahiti, where it has probably undergone only such 

 alterations as the gradual change in the language rendered necessary. 



NUKUHIVA, OR THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 



That which first strikes us in this group, is the number of dia- 

 lectical differences in the language as spoken at the various islands, 

 and even between different districts of the same island. Mr. Alex- 

 ander says,* " On the island of Nukuhiva, the inhabitants of the Teii 

 and Taipi districts may be as readily distinguished as a Scotchman 

 and a Yankee, while a Tahuatan may be distinguished from them 



* Hawaiian Spectator, for January, 1838, p. 17. 

 32 



