THE TWO RACES WHICH PEOPLED POLYNESIA. 
27 
observe their ingenious contrivances to render these plants, 
on which they so greatly depend for their support, pro- 
ductive. In early spring the seeds of the Calabash are 
wrapped up in wet rags and suspended near the fire, to 
make them shoot. The spots selected for cultivation are not 
only those which have the richest soil and the best aspect, 
but to compensate as much as possible for the difference of 
latitude, they choose the steep sides of hills, so as to render 
the sun’s rays almost vertical. 
The Battle Abbey roll does not preserve the names of the 
adventurers who accompanied William the Conqueror, more 
perfectly than the Maori traditions do those of the adventurous 
chiefs who first came in their canoes to Hew Zealand ; and it 
is not only up to them the head chiefs trace their pedigrees, 
but even to several generations before they left Hawaiki, 
which would be difficult for many of our Norman families to 
do in their native country before they landed in Britain ; and 
perhaps the period of the arrival of one closely corresponded 
with that of the other. 
There is therefore no difficulty in tracing the Maori as far 
as Hawaiki, but it may be possible to find some of the foot- 
marks of his earlier migrations. The prevalence of the 
easterly trade winds would greatly aid in peopling the isles 
from the East. Williams, in his missionary narrative, states 
that he drifted twelve hundred miles in his boat from Raro- 
tonga to Tongatapu through the influence of those trades, 
and on another occasion from Tahiti to Aitutaki. 
There are remains of his religion to be found in the wahi 
tapu, sacred grove, the marae , sacred enclosure, and the 
tuahu , or altar, which are in New Zealand ; and the more 
advanced marae of Polynesia, which assume pyramidical 
forms and dimensions, until in Mexico and Peru, and even 
as far as California and Columbia, the erections become so 
colossal as to bear a striking resemblance to those of Egypt, 
the elaborately-sculptured temples, pillars, figures, and 
altars of which, are little behind those of the old world. 
Still it is to be acknowledged that there are remains to be 
seen throughout Polynesia, which may belong to even an 
