ORIGIN, AS TRACED BY THE LANGUAGE. 
193 
traditions state, they came from the East. Here, then, native 
memory has preserved the recollection of three several removes. 
How many more may have been forgotten ! 
At Parapara, a small native village on the road from 
Kaitaia to Doubtless Bay, there resided (1840) an intelligent 
old chief, named Hahakai , a tohunga deeply versed in the 
traditions of his country. Although unbaptized himself, yet 
most of the members of his family were, he therefore became 
attached to the Missionaries, and freely answered all their 
enquiries about his ancestors, a few years ago he said such 
a thing would not have been thought of; and hence we 
see how unlikely it is that mere strangers, passing through the 
country, can acquire a knowledge of traditions held to be 
sacred, and which even amongst themselves are only perfectly 
known to a small number. 
He repeated a list of twenty-six generations from their 
first coming to this island, namely:— 
1. Tiki. 
2. Maui. 
3. Po. 
4. Maweti. 
5. Atua. 
6. Maea. 
7. Waikapu. 
8. Tukuora. 
9. Tutenga nahau. 
10. Tau murnu hue. 
11. Taua na nga. 
12. Te niho o te rangi. 
13. Murnu te awa. 
14. Rapa rapa te uira. 
15. Nuku tawiti. 
16. Hae (a woman). 
17. Moerewa(livedtobeveryold). 
18. Papa waka miha miha. 
19. Te turu. 
20. Heke rangi. 
21. Patua. 
22. Awatai. 
23. Koto awio. 
24. Mapihi. 
25. Haruru. 
26. Moehau. 
The last, is an old woman, a great priestess, who was then 
living at Knuckle Point. The old priest in his first half-dozen 
names seems to have gotten amongst the gods. If we allow 
thirty years to a generation, and take away six of them, it 
will give a period of six hundred years; and even this I am 
inclined to think is too long by one hundred. 
He stated that their ancestors originally came from three 
islands, Hawaiki, Mata tera, and Wairota, all which lay to the 
o 
