394 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
traditions made the sun, then resided. He 
obtained the sun, returned, and fixed it in the 
heavens, where it has remained ever since. Other 
adventures, equally surprising, are related. The 
numerous tales of fiction preserved by oral tradi¬ 
tion among the people, and from the recital of 
which they derive so much pleasure, prove that 
they are not deficient in imagination, and lead us 
to hope that their mental powers will be hereafter 
employed on subjects more consistent with truth, 
and productive of more pure and permanent gra¬ 
tification. 
In this part of the island there is another tradi¬ 
tion very generally received by the natives, of a 
somewhat more interesting character; and as it 
may tend to illustrate the history of the inhabit¬ 
ants, and the means by which the islands were 
peopled, I shall introduce it in this place. 
They have traditions respecting several visits, 
which in remote times some of the natives made to 
Nuuhiva and Tahuata , two islands in the Mar- 
quesian group, and to Tahiti, the principal of the 
Society Islands. One of these accounts the natives 
call, “ The Voyage of Kamapiikai/’ in which they 
state that Kamapiikai (child running, or climbing 
the sea,—from kama , a child, pii, to run or climb, 
and kai , the sea) was priest of a temple in Kohala, 
dedicated to Kanenuiakea. The exact period of 
their history when he lived, we have not been able 
to ascertain; but it is added, that the god 
appeared to him in a vision, and revealed to him 
the existence, situation, and distance of Tahiti , 
and directed him to make a voyage thither. In 
obedience to the communication, he immediately 
prepared for the voyage, and, with about forty of 
his companions, set sail from Hawaii in four 
