194 
ORIGIN, AS TRACED BY THE LANGUAGE. 
East. That the hills of these islands were covered with kumara, 
which there grew spontaneously. That a quarrel caused them 
to leave, but there was no fighting, having no weapons, and 
not being then a warlike race. That they came in a fleet 
of canoes, and first landed at Waiapu, near the East Cape. 
That in the third generation Po came to this part, to Taimaro. 
That in a neighbouring island to theirs, there were beasts 
which carried men on their backs, and that in some of those 
islands, there were axes having holes in them, through which 
the handles were thrust, and so did not require tying on, 
as their native stone hatchets did. That in one island in their 
vicinity, there were men whose skins were perfectly black, who 
went without clothing, and did not so much as wear an apron 
before them. And also in another isle, there were men who 
had sandy hair; that they had nuts, with oil in them (cocoa), 
that they had cloth made of the bark of trees. That they 
brought the tapu with them (i.e. their religion), and it grew 
with them. That originally they were not cannibals. That 
this horrid custom was of recent origin, having only commenced 
when he was a little boy; that it arose from anger, and not 
from extreme hunger ; that it began with his tribe, which was 
thence called patu. That they did not tattoo their faces when 
they first came, but used to mark them with charcoal,* and 
this was done several generations after their arrival; that tat¬ 
tooing was a late invention. This was the substance of the 
informationf we received from the old chief relative to his 
forefathers. He likewise said that he remembered the coming of 
Captain Cook, who stood off Doubtless Bay, and sent a boat on 
shore for fire-wood; they landed and planted potatoes and sowed 
cabbage and turnip seed. One of the natives went on board ; 
they were much alarmed lest he should be eaten. They 
received presents of red cloth. He said he was then old 
enough “ to catch a fish and cook it.” 
Before iron axes were brought into the country, all used to 
laugh at him about the tradition of there being axes which 
* Even now, when they go to war, the young men thus disfigure their faces 
with charcoal. 
f Rev. Joseph Matthews. 
