62 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
migrations and vicissitudes of the human family, from 
the remote antiquity of its occurrence to the present 
time, is a most decisive evidence of the authenticity of 
revelation. The brief yet satisfactory testimony to this 
event, preserved in the oral traditions of a people 
secluded for ages from intercourse vrith other parts of 
the world, is adapted to furnish strong additional 
evidence that the scripture record is irrefragable. In 
several respects, the Polynesian account resembles not 
only the Mosaic, but those preserved by the earliest 
families of the postdiluvian world, and supports the 
presumption that their religious system has descended 
from the Arkite idolatry, the basis of the mythology of 
the gentile nations. The mundane egg is conspicuous 
in the cosmogony of some of the most ancient nations. 
One of the traditions of the Hawaiians states, that a bird 
deposited an egg (containing the world in embryo) upon 
the surface of the primeval waters. If the symbol of the 
egg be supposed to refer to the creation, and the bird is 
considered a corrupted memorial of the event recorded 
in the sacred writings, in which it is said, The Spirit 
of God moved upon the face of the waters,’" the coinci¬ 
dence is striking. It is no less so, if it be referred to 
the ark, floating on the waters of the deluge. The sleep 
of Ruahatu accords with the slumber of Brama, 
which was the occasion of the crime that brought on 
the Hindoo deluge, Tlie warning to flee, and the 
means of safety, resemble a tradition recorded by 
Koempfer, as existing among th Chinese. The canoe 
of the Polynesian Noah has its countei^part in the tra¬ 
ditions of their antipodes, the Druids, whose memorial 
states the bursting of the waters of the lake Lleon, 
and the overwhelming of the face of all lands, and drown- 
