344 MYSTIC ISLES 



Hawaii, Samoa, the Marquesas, Tonga, the Paumotus, 

 and the Society archipelago, and Xew Zealand — by 

 beauty of form, tint and uniformity of color, height, and 

 soft expression — an expression they vainly sought to 

 make terrible by tattooing? 



The legends and chants of the race unfolded much of 

 the mystery ; its language's relation to others, more. 

 These Tahitians and all their kind were ancient Aryans 

 who in the dim past were in India, and afterward in the 

 Indian archipelago. They were in Sumatra, in Java, 

 in the Philippines long before the Malays. Certainly 

 their blood brothers, changed by millenniums of a dif- 

 ferent environment, remain in Malaysia, known there as 

 the aborigines (Orang-Benoa), by the majority races. 

 D'Urville said the Harfouras of Celebes were identical 

 physically with the Polynesians. At some unfixed date 

 tjie first of the Polynesians pushed out in their insecure 

 craft for this sea, driven away by the Malay-Hindu in- 

 vasion or by interracial feuds. 



The pioneer, according to the legend, was Hawaii- 

 uli-kai-oo, Hawaii and the Dotted Sea, a great fisher- 

 man and navigator. He sailed toward the Pleiades 

 from his unknown home in the far West, and arrived at 

 eastern islands. So pleased was he with them, that he 

 returned to his western birthplace for his family, and 

 brought them to Polynesia. 



Other Polynesians left the Asiatic archipelago about 

 the end of the first century, and went to many islands. 

 Finally they reached the Samoan, Tongan, Marquesan, 

 Paumotuan, and Society groups, and Easter Island and 

 New Zealand. In pushing eastward they skirted 

 Papua, but were unable to stay, because the Papuans, 



