004 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
The last is so named from the qualities of the soil, this being the 
only island in this group of Eakaofo upon which the much-valued 
edible pandanus will grow. 
The name “Eakaofo” is said by the people themselves to have 
been given by the original settlers to the small island afterwards 
known as Eale, upon which at the present time the whole of the 
population reside. The name is explained as meaning “high or 
raised platform,” and would exactly describe the appearance of the 
island, which is, in fact, a raised coral platform from 10 to 15 feet 
an. height, and some 500 yards in length. 
Blit, if this were the derivation of the word, it would appear 
not as “Eakaofo,” but “ Eataofo,” from Jata — a shelf or raised 
platform, and ofo — to bo surprised. As everything else points to 
the Samoan origin of the people, the name given to the first settle- 
ment would almost certainly not appear as “ Eakaofo,” with the Jc, at 
a time when there is no other evidence to show that k had begun to 
be substituted for t in the language. 
ir is not, however, allowed by the people that the alteration of 
Eaka-ofo = Ea’a-ofo — “to cause surprise,” has ever been suggested, 
but they will readily allow remote contact with Hawaii, of which, 
indeed, there is independent testimony. 
The people are prohibited by a stringent tabu from occupying 
any other of the numerous islets of the group. This tabu has in later 
times taken the form of a regulation, with penalties of fines or hard 
labour, strictly enforced by the rulers. 
The prohibition is a necessary safeguard for the protection of 
the little community— at present numbering 2(54 souls — from the 
avariciousness of the few. It provides against stealing and any 
uneven and unfair distribution of their very limited food supply. 
The time and place for obtaining cocoanuts and pandanus is deter- 
mined by the old men, who form the ruling body. The people then 
go forth in a body, and collect and bring home the needful supply 
from the family plot. Apparently the only people who feel the 
severity of the prohibition are those who have lived for lengthened 
neriods in places so differently circumstanced as to food, as Samoa or 
Fiji. 
Two traditions refer the original settlers to Samoa, In one the 
original settlers are said to have been a man and woman from Samoa 
named “ Kulu” and “Ona.” The other tradition mentions two brothers 
named “ Kava” and “Pi’o” as the original owners of the soil. 
The habits, customs, and language of the people confirm generally 
these traditions about their Samoan origin. Most of the variations 
from well-known Samoan customs are such as may be accounted for 
by the tradition itself, or by the fact of the early contact and inter- 
mixture of these people with other South Sea peoples. 
An interesting tradition gives undoubted proof that the Tokelau 
Wanders were great navigators. The old King of Atafu recited an old 
song to me, which related the exploits of his ancestors on the sea in 
what were described in parenthesis ( i.e ., as not embodied in the original 
legend) as vessels like the vessels built by “ foreigners” in modern 
times. In these native-built ships those old sea-kings sailed without 
