390 
ORIGIN, AS TRACED BY LANGUAGE. 
the custom of widows committing suicide, and of burying in 
a sitting posture, is identical. The malai corresponds with the 
marae, being the principal court in a pa, or the open space 
before the priest's house, where strangers are received, and 
all their grand councils held ; the word for a king in Tonga is 
how , there is no similar dignity in New Zealand, therefore it 
is naturally not to be found, yet there are others derived 
from this root ; of such is the kai wakahowhow , written 
hauhau , the person who gives command in a war canoe to 
the paddlers, and regulates the time. Kauhau , to teach, to 
instruct, or direct ; in Tonga, an adept in anything has the 
prefix of kau : a kau tangata is a skilful man ; a kau moana , 
a skilful sailor ; in New Zealand he is called he au moana ; 
the word is found in kau matua } an elder. The description 
of the tapu } and of their feasts, will do for either race. The 
custom of cutting with shells or obsidian, and allowing the 
blood to dry on the person, is also the same, although in New 
Zealand it is chiefly practised by the women, and confined 
to the forehead or chest. Elegiac ballads were also written 
in honor of great chiefs, and most frequently by their widows. 
In all these particulars, and many others, the identity of 
the Tonga natives with those of New Zealand is evident; in 
fact, the language is so nearly alike, that the natives can 
make themselves understood to each other. Tonga is the 
name given by the Maori to the south wind, the highest 
mountain is also honored with the same, being called tonga 
riro .* 
The points of agreement between the Fiji and Maori are 
not so evident; there are, however, many particulars in 
which they likewise agree. The following were received 
from a Wesleyan Missionary stationed at Mere.f The spirit 
of a still-born child is very much feared. Makutu s or witch- 
craft, is practised in a similar way to that of the Maori, by 
procuring some of the parings of the food which the person 
to, be destroyed has eaten ; these are buried, and as they 
decay, the victim also pines away and dies. 
* Tonga riro simply means Tonga, which has left or departed from its old 
position in the Tonga Islands, and gone to the south. 
f Rev. Mr. Hazfewood. 
