POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
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legends were originally funeral or elegiac songs, in 
honour of departed kings or heroes. I have heard them 
recited, and have often been struck with their pathos 
and beauty; two lines of one, which Mr. Nott heard 
recited for the consolation of a mother and family, on the 
death of an only son, have always appeared exceedingly 
beautiful. The grief generally felt was described in 
affecting strains, and then, in reference to sympathy of a 
higher order, it was added— 
To rii rii te m ite iriatae: 
Eere ra te ua, e roimata ia no Oro. 
The literal rendering of which would be— 
“ Thickly falls the small rain on the face of the sea, 
They are not drops of rain, but they are tears of Oro.” 
The sentiment of the second line is weakened by the 
introduction of the plural pronoun and the conjunction; 
but, preserving the idiom, as well as the sense, the line 
would be— 
Not rain, but the weeping it is of Oro. 
In the Tahitian, the word for tears, roimata, is the 
same in the singular and plural, and accords with the 
singular pronoun. 
Scarcely had Taaroarii, the young chieftain of Huahine, 
been consigned to the tomb, when a ballad was prepared, 
after the ancient usage of his country. I heard it once 
or twice, and intended to have committed it to paper, 
but my voyage to the Sandwich Islands, shortly after¬ 
wards, prevented. It commenced in a truly pathetic 
manner; the first lines were— 
Ua moe te teoteo o Atiapii i roto te ana 
Ua ram e adu tona mama. 
The pride of Atiapii* sleeps in the cavern ; 
Departed has its glorj'^, or its brightness,” &c. 
* One of the names of the island of Huahine. 
