114 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
him a son, who was called Taata, the general name 
(with slight modification) for man throughout the 
Pacific. Hina, the daughter and wife of Taaroa, 
the grandmother of Taata, being transformed into 
a beautiful young woman, became the wife of 
Taata or Man, bore him a son and a daughter, 
called Ouru and Fana, who were the progenitors 
of the human race. 
One account states that the visible creation has 
two foundations or origins, that Taaroa made the 
earth, the sun, moon, and stars, heaven and hell : 
and that Tii made man of the earth. According 
to this tradition, they believed that of the earth at 
Ati-auru, a place in Opoa, Tii made a woman, 
dwelt with her in a house called Fare-pouri, in 
Opoa, that she bore him a daughter who was 
called Hina-tumararo; she became the wife of 
Tiimaaraatai, and from these the world was peo¬ 
pled : Tii and Taaroa, the people imagined to be 
one and the same being, but that Taaroa dwelt in 
the region of chaos , and Tii in the world of light . 
Another tradition stated, that the first inha¬ 
bitants of the South Sea Islands originally came 
from a country in the direction of the setting sun, 
to which they say several names were given, 
though none of them are remembered by the pre¬ 
sent inhabitants. 
Their traditions are numerous, often contra¬ 
dictory, and though it is difficult to obtain a correct 
recital of them from any of the present inhabit¬ 
ants ; yet more might have been inserted, but they 
can scarcely be said to impart any valuable infor¬ 
mation as to the country whence the inhabitants 
originally came. Some additional evidence, small 
indeed in quantity, but rather more conclusive, 
may be gathered from the traditions of the mytho- 
