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the same time the first man, lord of water, air and sky, raised 
the earth out of Hawaiki, so also all the first immigrants hailed 
from Hawaiki. Maui, the god, is the prototype of the migrating 
heroes, whom we may regard as humanized gods or deified men. 
Notwithstanding the change of scenes and names, there is a certain 
uniformity, a repetition of stereotype personal transactions, such as 
abductions, persecutions, open feuds and treacherous stratagems in 
all the stories of migration. The adventures and incidents of the 
heroes are traceable to natural phenomena , and their great number 
to the number of the different New Zealand tribes. Each tribe 
endeavours to trace his descent to one of those mythical heroes, 
and thereby to establish their special claim to this or that country. 
The traditions of the migration of the New Zealanders are nothing 
but versions of the Maui mythos. Thus every single link is re- 
moved that might aid in tracing the descent of the New Zealanders 
to the immigration from this or that South Sea Island, and the 
only question is whether traces may not be found in the Maui 
myths , from which conclusions may be drawn as to the origin of 
the Maoris. 
Schirren proves that the Maui myths, varying in individual 
features , but identical in the main , exist throughout Polynesia. 
Maui, as god of the atmosphere and lord of the deep, as god of 
the creation in heaven and on earth, is identical with the cosmo- 
gonic supreme deities of other Polynesian Islands ; 1 Maui represents 
the national deity of all the Polynesian tribes. Plence the Maui 
mythos proves , as irrefutably as the conformity of the language, 
the original unity of the Polynesian race. As this race is now 
dispersed over islands far remote from each other, migrations must 
have of course taken place. Concerning this there can be no 
doubt, and indeed to this very day the Polynesians — true gipsies 
of the sea — are distinguished by an innate love of wandering. 2 
1 For example with Tangaroa (Tangaloa in Tonga, Taaroa in Tahiti), Tiki 
and A tea. 
1 It is a wellknown fact, how willing the inhabitants of Tahiti and New Zea- 
land have been, ever since Cook's times, to accompany sea-farers on their voyages. 
