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However , when , and in what direction those migrations took 
place, and which was the original starting point of the whole race, 
are problems for the solution of which we are wholly without even 
the slightest link of evidence. 
America or Asia have been thought of; the former existence 
of a continent in the South Sea has been also suggested , which 
may have served as the natural highway for the migrations of na- 
tions in olden times, but being vent to pieces by violent disturb- 
ances of the earth, has only left its highest points projecting from 
the water, forming the numerous islands of the South Sea. But 
in both directions, to the East and West, the connecting links 
are wanting. It is worthy of remark that neither in the social 
habits of the Polynesians, nor in the original mode of their govern- 
ment, is the slightest trace of influence from abroad, or of an inter- 
mixture with other nations to be observed. In vain we search 
for foreign elements in their language, for a connection of the 
Maori tongue with the Malay language; 1 nor are foreign ingredients 
recognizable in the Maui mytlios. Schirren, therefore, traces the 
whole cycle of traditions back to the worship of elementary spirits, 
such as must be common to all nations on their earliest concep- 
tions of the existence of God, an original suggestion arising inde- 
pendently in every nation, and indeed within the bosom of every 
individual man ; to a simple worship of the sun , dressed in the 
concrete garb of legends and fables created by the brilliant and 
vivid fancy of an original and childlike people. To the child of 
nature, the sun, the earth, the ocean, the air are not mere ele- 
ments; to him they are personifications, with whom he is in con- 
stant intercourse, whose favour he entreats, whose anger he is 
scrupulously anxious to avert. Thus the mythology of the Poly- 
1 Dr. Fr. Miiller (Reise der osterreichischen Fregatte Novara, linguistischer 
Theil 1867) remarks that in the Polynese languages the character of a primitive 
language is preserved, and that the southern part of the asiatic continent together 
with the circumjacent islands are to be looked upon as the home of a primitive 
population, which spread over the South Sea and out of which the different races de- 
veloped themselves, which we now distinguish as the Malay, Melanese, Micronese 
and Polynese race. 
Hochs tetter, New Zealand, 
H 
