TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE. 387 
a few aurus , or projecting points, which remaining 
above its surface, constituted the present cluster of 
islands. The memorial preserved by the in¬ 
habitants of Eimeo, states, that after the inundation 
of the land, when the water subsided, a man 
landed from a canoe near Tiataepua, in their 
island, and erected an altar, or marae, in honour 
of his god. 
The most circumstantial tradition preserved 
among the Windward Islands, of this remarkable 
event, is one, for the original of which I am 
indebted to Mr. Orsmond : the following is a 
literal translation :— 
“ Destroyed was Tahiti by the sea; no man, 
nor hog, nor fowl, nor dog, remained. The groves 
of trees, and the stones, were carried away by the 
wind. They were destroyed, and the deep was 
over the land. But these two persons, the hus¬ 
band and the wife, (when it came in,) the wife 
took up her young chicken ; the husband took up 
his young pig; the wife took up her young dog 
and the kitten; the husband took up that. [These 
were all the animals formerly known to the 
people, and the term fanaua, young, is both 
singular and plural, so that it may apply to one, 
or to more than one chicken, &c.] They were 
going forth, and looking at Orofena :* the husband 
said, ‘ Up, both of us, to yonder mountain high.' 
The wife replied, £ No, let us not go thither/ 
The husband said, 4 It is a high or long rock, and 
will not be reached by the seabut the wife 
replied, ‘ Reached will be it by the sea yonder, 
we two on the mountain round as a breast, O Pito- 
hito ; it will not be reached by the sea/ They 
two arrived there. Orofena was overwhelmed by 
* The high mountain in Tahiti, 
c 2 
