THE TWO RACES WHICH PEOPLED POLYNESIA. 
57 
traced through Australia and New Zealand towards the south, 
and through India, with its islands, also China, Japan, the 
Philippines, and all those islands composing the Indian 
Archipelago, until by New Guinea and New Caledonia they 
entered the Pacific. 
There is much reason to suppose that the original start- 
ing point of this race was from Egypt. The Australian 
native thence drew his boomerang and derived his mystic 
rites. The other sections of this family long preserved 
connecting links with their ancient parent land, which 
were gradually lost as they receded from it, until they 
reached the shores of New Zealand in the rudely fire-hol- 
lowed log, similar to those their Australian congeners still 
use. They obtained a precarious subsistence from hunting, 
fishing, and the indigenous products of the soil, without 
having any idea of agriculture, building wretched huts for 
shelter, and scarcely having any garment to shield them 
from the winter’s cold. 
The Polynesian, on the other hand, appears to have en- 
tered the Pacific from the eastern shores of Asia ; he has 
left his footmarks along the entire length of the western 
coasts of North and South America, as far as the ocean 
currents allowed, but where they swept from the American 
shores to the west, there the traces of his abode are lost. 
The relics of his progress are to be discerned in language, 
religion, manners, and customs, but especially in the build- 
ings he erected, the ruins of cities, the sculptures, temples, 
pyramids, raised on the many isles he visited ; these not 
only mark his presence but likewise bear testimony to the 
civilization he once possessed. These traces gradually be- 
come less and less distinct, until in New Zealand the sacred 
grove became almost the sole landmark he has left, though 
he brought with him other remains of his former civilization. 
He came in his gaily-ornamented canoe, tastefully decorated 
with carving, paint and feathers ; he brought with him 
double canoes, decked over, with houses erected upon them. 
As an agriculturist, he brought with him the plants which 
he had previously cultivated ; the arum, the sweet potatoe. 
