68 REV. M. EELLS^ ON THE WOESHIl' AND TRADITIONS OF 



Others say that just as all the people were bein^ drowned 

 two large double canoes appeared, in one of Avhich was the 

 god of carpenters, and in the other his head workman, who 

 picked up eight persons, who Avere landed at the island 

 Mbengga, and in consequence of this, the chiefs of this island 

 always take the precedence among all the other chiefs of the 

 Fiji Islands.* 



The Rev. T. Powell writes at some length of this event 

 among the Samoans.f 



One tradition among the Tahitians says that a long time 

 ago, God being angry, dragged the earth through the water, 

 and their island was " broken oflf."t 



Mr, Elhs adds that traditions of the Deluge have been 

 found to exist among the natives of the South Sea Islands 

 from the earliest periods of their history. The principal 

 facts are the same among the inhabitants of the different 

 groups, although they differ in several minor particulars. 

 These state that in ancient times Taaroa, the principal god, 

 and creator of the world, being angry with men on account 

 of disobedience to his will, overturned the world into the sea, 

 when the earth sank into the Avaters, excepting a few 

 proiecting points, which remained above the surface, and now 

 constitute the present cluster of islands. 



The memorial preserved by the inhabitants of Eimeo, 

 states that after the inundation of the land, v/hen the water 

 had subsided, a man landed from a canoe near Tiataepua in 

 their island and erected an altar in honour of his god. 



Another tradition says that Tahiti was destroyed by the 

 sea, no man, nor hog, nor fowl, nor dog remaining except two 

 persons, the husband and wife. The wife took up her young- 

 chicken and dog, and the husband his young pig and kitten, 

 all the animals formerly known to the people, and went to 

 the highest mountain, where they stayed ten nights, Avhen 

 the sea subsided, after which the stones and trees began to 

 fall fi-om the heavens, whereupon they dug a hole in the 

 ground or a kind of cave whicli protected them. 



At Kaiatea the people say a fisherman went to a fishing 

 place which was sacred. He lowered his hooks whicli 

 became entangled in the hair of the god of the waters, who 

 became angry, and threatened a flood. At this the man 



* Smith's Bible Dictionar;/, art., " Deluge." 

 t Trans. Vict. Inst., vol. xx, ]>. 153. 

 I Edinhurgh Review, art., " Deluge." 



