Srack.—On Cameron’s Theory respecting the Kahui Tipua. 159 
Art. XI.—Remarks on Mr. Mackenzie Cameron’s Theory respecting the Kahui 
Tipua. By James W. Srack. 
(Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th September, 1879.] 
Mr. Mackenzie Cameron’s extremely interesting communication, addressed 
to Dr. Von Haast,* proves the importance of securing as large a collection 
as possible of the obsolete phrases and technical terms employed in the 
mystic rites of the’Maori race. For it is highly probable, as I have had 
occasion before to remark, that the secret of this people’s origin lies hidden 
in those now unintelligible terms, a secret to be hereafter revealed by the 
researches of the philologist. 
The ingenious theory founded upon the few names by which the earliest 
inhabitants of these islands are known, is unsupported, as far as I am in a 
position to judge, by existing traditions, but that is no reason for rejecting 
the theory altogether. The fact that the words have lost their original 
meaning, though it may lessen, does not destroy their value to the philologist, 
who, if in possession of the symbol, may recover the idea it was once 
formed to express. 
The resemblance between the traditions relating to the Kahui Tipua 
and some of the native myths of European and other nations, is so striking, 
that it seems necessary to place them under the same category. It would 
seem as if the sight of certain objects, or combinations of objects in nature, 
invariably suggested the same train of ideas to men who had only reached 
that stage of mental progress in which the imagination is stronger than the 
reason. These thoughts have found expression in wild and fantastic 
legends, in which whirlpools are transformed into voracious marine mon- 
sters, fountains into fair nymphs, mountains into enchanted giants. Such 
legends must, therefore, be very carefully handled by those who employ 
them to trace historical events. 
Before considering Mr. Cameron’s derivation of the name Kahui Tipua, 
it will be worth while to examine some of the principal legends extant 
relating to this mythical people. Those relating to Rongo-i-tua, Tamatea, 
Haumia, and Kopu-wai, will suffice for our purpose. Rongo-i-tua — Fame- 
from-afar, said to be the first visitant from Hawaiki, is evidently identical 
with the Rongo mentioned in Mr. Gill’s work, * Myths and Songs of the 
South Pacific,” as a hero common to Polynesian mythology. He was Fame 
personified. 
The Legend of Tamatea’s wives, who were transformed by enchantments 
into stone, and the story of the impious servant's punishment, embody 
ideas with which readers of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments are quite 
ili The legend was either invented, or adapted from some more 
* Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. XL, p. 154. 
