84 [PART i. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Origin of the New Zealanders, as shown by their Traditions 

 Their religious Observances The "Tapu." 



IN discussing the deeply interesting question, what 

 was the reason of a nation of common origin being 

 divided into such numerous clans, opposing each 

 other with so much hatred and envy, we might, 

 perhaps, find the clue in events long passed by, and 

 connected with the history of the earliest immi- 

 gration of this race into the country. The little 

 which can be gathered from their traditions, where 

 the dim historical truth is almost hidden by the 

 clouds of fable, and where human beings appear as 

 demigods in the obscurity of the past, excites only 

 regret that those Europeans who have lived so long 

 in the country, and ought to be thoroughly versed 

 in the language, have not taken more interest in the 

 subject, and collected long ago materials for a his- 

 tory of this race, which in a very short period must 

 be buried in oblivion. What the fossils are to the 

 naturalist, in regard to the changes which have 

 continually been going on in the animal and vege- 

 table productions of these islands of the Pacific, 



