110 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
interesting; and the origin of the islanders has 
often engaged our attention, and formed the 
subject of our inquiries. The early history of a 
people destitute of all records, and remote from 
nations in whose annals contemporaneous events 
would be preserved, is necessarily involved in 
obscurity. The greater part of the traditions of this 
people are adapted to perplex rather than facilitate 
the investigation. 
A very generally received Tahitian tradition is, 
that the first human pair were made by Taaroa, 
the principal deity formerly acknowledged by the 
nation. On more than one occasion, I have lis¬ 
tened to the details of the people respecting his 
work of creation. They say, that after Taaroa 
had formed the world, he created man out of 
araea , red earth, which was also the food of man 
until bread-fruit was produced. In connexion 
with this, some relate that Taaroa one day called 
for the man by name. When he came, he caused 
him to fall asleep, and that, while he slept, he 
took out one of his ivi, or bones, and with it made 
a woman, whom he gave to the man as his wife, 
and that they became the progenitors of mankind. 
This always appeared to me a mere recital of the 
Mosaic account of creation, which they had heard 
from some European, and I never placed any 
reliance on it, although they have repeatedly told 
me it was a tradition among them before any 
foreigner arrived. Some have also stated that 
the woman’s name was Ivi, which would be by 
them pronounced as if written Eve . Ivi is an 
aboriginal word, and not only signifies a bone, but 
also a widow, and a victim slain in war. Not¬ 
withstanding the assertion of the natives, I am 
disposed to think that Ivi, or Eve, is the only 
