THROUGH HAWAII. 
439 
When some of our party were at Towaihae, the 
subject was discussed. Mr. Young said, among the 
many traditionary accounts of the origin of the island 
and its inhabitants, one was, that in former times, 
when there was nothing but sea, an immense bird 
settled on the water, and laid an egg, which soon 
bursting produced the island of Hawaii. Shortly after 
this, a man and woman, with a hog, a dog, and a pair 
of fowls, arrived in a canoe from the Society Islands, 
took up their abode on the eastern shores, and were 
the progenitors of the present inhabitants. 
Another account prevalent among the natives of 
Oahu, states, that a number of persons arrived in a 
canoe from Tahiti, and perceiving the Sandwich Islands 
were fertile, and inhabited only by gods or spirits, took 
up their abode on one of them, having asked permission 
of the gods, and presented an offering, which rendered 
them propitious to their settlement. 
Though these accounts do not prove that the 
Sandwich Islanders came originally from the Georgian 
Islands, they afford a strong presumption in favour 
of such an opinion. 
Tahiti is the name of the principal island in the 
group, called by Captain Cook the Georgian Islands. 
It is the Otaheite of Cook ; the Taiti of Bougainville; 
and the Taheitee , or Tahitee, of Forster. In the lan¬ 
guage of the Georgian and Society Islands, the word 
tahiti also signifies to pull up or take out of the 
ground, as herbs or trees are taken up with a view to 
transplantation, and to select or extract passages from 
a book or language, to be translated into another. 
Hence a book of scripture extracts is called, words 
tahitihea. 
