44 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
Meru^ or mount Meru^ the abode of the gods, the 
heaven of the Hindoos, is also the paradise of some 
classes of the South Sea Islanders, the dwelling-place 
of departed kings, and others who have been deified. 
The institutes of Menu* also forbade a Bramin to eat 
with his wife, or to be present when she ate; and in this 
injunction may have originated the former universal 
practice among these islands, of the man and his wife 
eating their meat separately. Varuna and Vahni are 
among the gods of the Hindoos 5 the latter, among the 
eight guardian deities of the world, appears to have 
been the Neptune of the Bramins, as we learn from the 
following lines in Sir W. Jones’s beautiful translation of 
the hymn to Indra: ^^Green Varuna, whom foaming waves 
obey:” and also, Vahni flaming like the lamp of day.” 
Both the terms in the South Sea language for spirit, or 
spiritual being, bear a strong resemblance to these 
names; the one being varua, in which the n only is 
omitted; and in many words, as they are used among 
the other islanders, some of their consonants are omitted 
by the Tahitians. Vaiti is also another apparently more 
ancient term for spirit used by them, which somewhat 
resembles the Vahni of the Hindoos. Bishop Heber, 
the most recent writer on the usages and appearance of 
the Hindoos, informs us, in his admirable journal, that 
many things which he saw among the inhabitants of 
India reminded him of the plates in Cook’s voyages. 
The points of resemblance between the Polynesians 
and the Malayan inhabitants of Java, Sumatra, and 
Borneo, and the Ladrone, Caroline, and Philippine Islands, 
are still greater. Among the Battas of Sumatra, men 
^ Menu was the Noah of the Hindoos; and Mini, pronounced Meru, 
was the first king of the Sandwich Islands. 
