ON THE LANGUAGES OF OCEANIA. 343 
Malay-Polynesians. Now, as some competent ethnologists main- 
tain that these last are in no sense Malays, and that to call them 
Malay-Polynesians is a mistake, it will be convenient to call them 
Polynesians only, and to restrict the name accordingly to the 
brown race inhabiting Tonga, Samoa, and those other groups. To 
me, therefore, there are just three distinct races in the Oceanic 
islands ; these I shall call the Malays, the Melanesians, and the 
Polynesians. Lying to the north of the Melanesians are many 
small islands; a suitable geographical name for them is Micronesia; 
the people there are allied to the brown Polynesians. Then again, 
to the south of Malaysia and New Guinea, is our own island-con- 
tinent Australia, the black natives of which deserve a separate 
place in my list, although their only kindred in Oceania are the 
blacks of Melanesia. 
Now, the question which I wish to touch upon here is this— 
What is the origin of the Polynesian race? are they Malay-Poly- 
nesians? Nearly all those who have considered this question agree 
in saying that the Polynesians, that is, the brown natives of the 
islands of Eastern Polynesia, must have come from Asia, although 
a few writers of less note have advanced the theory that they 
came from the west coast of America. The traditions of the 
Polynesians themselves all point to some region to the west and 
north-west of them as their ultimate home of orzgin,; and some 
legends even call this Atia, which may possibly mean Asia, while 
the tradition of the Marquesans is that their original ancestor 
came from a far off Take-he‘e-he‘e, which may mean merely the 
‘starting point.’ Nevertheless, all Polynesians are agreed that 
their first land of settlement, and consequently the land from 
which they have all radiated—in short, the cradle of their race— 
was an island called Havaiki. Here again, there is no certainty 
as to the location of Havaiki, although Savaiti and Manu‘a, islands 
of the Samoan group, seem to have the best claim to that honour. 
At all events, the bards of Manu‘a strenuously assert that their 
islands take precedence of all others, and are the favourite resting 
place of Tangaloa, the great god of the Polynesians. 
