Stack. — On Cavieron's Theory respecting the Kahui Tipua. 159 



Art. XI. — Remarks on Mr. Mackenzie Cameron's Theory respecting the Kahui 

 Tipua. By James W. Stack. 

 [Read before the Philosophical histitute of Canterbury, Ath September, 1879.] 

 Mk. 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 m 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, 

 Haiimia, and Kopu-wai, will suffice for our purpose. Rongo-i-tua = Fame- 

 from-afar, said to be the first visitant from Haivaiki, 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 



familiar. The legend was either invented, or adapted from some more 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. XI., p. 154. 



