8AM0AN TKADITION OF OUEATION AND THE UELUCiK. lol 



Ho then sent Tagaloa the Messenger to visit all the heavens, 

 beginning at the highest, and to call an assembly of all their 

 inhabitants in the ninth heaven, and announce that Tagaloa 

 the Unchangeable was now their king. In fulfilment of this 

 commission, calling at each heaven in succession, he descended 

 to the first heaven, the region of Day and Night. He asked 

 them whether they had fulfilled their appointment to people 

 the face of the heavens. '^Yes,^' was their reply; ^'behold 

 the black hemisphere of the heaven, and the bright hemi- 

 sphere of the heaven,* and all the stars. These are our 

 children, all in their places ; and we have four yet unappointed 



Tagaloa the Messenger assmued when he went on his visits to the earth, 

 and in which, especially, he flew backwards and forwards over the wide 

 waste of waters. See 1. 12 of the Solo. 



Philologists will at once perceive the identity of this name with that of 

 the dove sent forth by Noah from the ark, — "lin, tor. It is most remark- 

 able also that the Heb. verb, "11 D, toor, to travel, to exjjlore, &c., expresses 

 the very ideas attached to the offices of this god. This compares with 

 Gen. i. 2, "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." 



The bird to which the Samoans attach the name Tuli or Turi is the sea- 

 plover, Charadrius fulvus, Geml., and it is distinguished, at Manu'a, from 

 similar birds, as the turi of Tagaloa. 



This identity of the Samoan turi and the Hebrew tor being established, 

 we have the clue to the other name coupled with Tuli, viz. Longonoa.' 

 Noa, in which this name ends, simply means, in Samoan, unrestrained, set 

 at liberty. Here, then, we have the Unrestrained-Longo, or Eongo, as it is 

 given in the Eastern Polynesian and New Zealand dialects. 



We read in the Hebrew text of the Bible" that Noah sent forth from the 

 ark ^p.^ij^'n^?, the ngorev. Here, then, we have only to transpose the con- 

 sonants, and we have Eong-ev ; but Gesenius points out that 2 (v) is no 

 part of the root. Therefore we have an identity between the Samoan and 

 the Hebrew which philologists will at once recognise."* Hence, in these two 

 names, we have a reference to the birds which were sent forth by Noah 

 from the ark. 



This will explain the origin of the worship of 'Ore in Tahiti and of 

 Eongo, which was one of the principal gods of the Harvey Group. See 

 Williams's Missionary Enterimscs, ch. vii., where we read that Eongo was 

 called "i/ie man-eater J' In this name it is possible that we have a reference 

 to the sarcophagous propensities of the crow tribe. 



It may perhaps be only right to remark, that hitherto no writer seems to 

 have observed this origin of these names. 



* Eeferring probably to the different appearance of the heavens by night 

 and day. 



' See note, supra, on previous page. ' Gen. viii. 7. 

 ' Especially as in Tahiti the name is 'Oro="l"iy. 



