the same common structure, with but such differences as may be resolved into dialects, the result of long non-intercourse; while other peculiarities are to be attributed to difference of soils, climates, governments, and other local causes.' And he urges that when affinities of language, physiological resemblances, corresponding manners, and religious belief, and, more particularly, well-established traditions, pointing to a common origin, appear among tribes which, in modern times, have lost all means of communication, the enquirer finds tenable grounds for believing in a general relationship. This appears to be the case throughout Polynesia.'

I must resist being drawn in further by the fascinating subject of language, necessarily embracing ethnology; and gladly refer my readers to Dr. Lang's view of the Origin and Migrations of the Polynesian Nation' (London, 1834); and to the Second Series of Professor Max Müller's Lectures on Language.'

The habitat will account for special differences in the physique of nations belonging to one family. The hair of the Hawaiians,' says Mr. Ellis, is black or brown, strong, and frequently curly; their complexion is neither yellow, like the Malays, nor red, like the American Indians, but a kind of olive, and sometimes reddish brown.'

Thirdly, as to the possibility of long voyages from the Asiatic shores, they have been demonstrated to be practicable by actual instances. Japanese junks, which have been blown out to sea, have been finally stranded with

frequently inserted in Maori ; as, for instance, it is a Maori tradition that their ancestors came from 'Hawaiki,' which is clearly Hawaii.' The causative prefix hoo becomes in Maori whaka; as hoomaikai, to praise (literally, to make good); whakapai, to praise; hoonui, whakanui, to magnify, to make great. Many other interesting particulars might be discovered by a person acquainted with both languages.

their occupants on distant islands, and have even reached the continent of America in the 46th degree of north latitude. And an example still more in point is, that in the year 1832 one of these junks was wrecked on Oahu, Sandwich Islands, after having been tossed about at sea for eleven months; four persons out of her original crew of nine surviving. It is certain that every year many canoes, crowded with people of both sexes, are picked up at sea, after having drifted at the mercy of the elements to great distances from their places of departure. The great number of islands, which may almost be said to continue the continent of Asia far into the ocean, form, comparatively, easy stepping-stones for a population projecting itself towards the Pacific Polynesia, and thence by a last flight to the finality of the American mainland. Ellis's assertion has been already quoted, that of many stray canoes reaching Tahiti from eastern, unknown islands, the voyages have always been in a westerly direction; the missionaries never heard of one towards the sunrise. Beechey says: All have agreed as to the manner in which these migrations between the islands have been effected, and some few instances have actually been met with; but they have been in one direction only, and have rather favoured the opinion of migration from the eastward. The accident which threw in our way Tuwarri and his companions, who were driven 600 miles in a direction contrary to the trade wind, in spite of their utmost exertions, has fortunately enabled us to remove the objections which have been urged against the general opinion. The fact being so well attested, and the only one of the kind upon record, is, consequently, of the highest interest, both as regards its singularity, and as it establishes the possibility of the case. Though this is the only instance that has come to

our knowledge, there is no reason why many other canoes may not have shared a similar fate; and some few of many thousands, perhaps, may have drifted to the remotest islands of the Archipelago, and thus peopled them.'*

Fourthly, the native traditions. These are scanty; but one of them relates to a man and woman arriving at Hawaii in a canoe bringing with them a hog, a dog, and a pair of fowls. These persons became the progenitors of the Hawaiian people. By another story prevalent among the inhabitants of Oahu, a number of persons arrived in a canoe from Tahiti, and perceiving that the Sandwich Islands were fertile, and were dwelt in only by gods and spirits, they asked and obtained permission to settle there. The early missionaries found the general opinion as to the origin of the Hawaiian race, to be either that their first parents had been created on the islands, or that the chiefs were descended from Akea the first king, who appears to have been a demigod; or the more popular view, that their ancestors had arrived in a canoe from Tahiti. Now the island of Tahiti, the principal of the Society group, lies on the ecliptic, in about lat. 18° S., and long. 150° W. It is consequently nearly forty degrees south of Hawaii, and rather to the westward of the latter group. There is nothing against the probability of an emigration from Tahiti; but the name tahiti itself is in the Georgian and Society Islands a verb; and it has also a signification in the language of the Sandwich Islands, being equivalent to the word abroad, and is frequently employed to denote any foreign country. But, as in this country, some centuries ago, the word Spanish, though necessarily derived from the country Spain, was used with the meaning of outlandish

* Narrative of a Voyage,' &c., vol. i. 252.

TRADITIONS OF ORIGIN.

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or foreign; so Ellis thinks that the name Tahiti was primarily employed to denote the whole of the southern group or its principal island; but it did not include the more contiguous group of the Marquesas.

According to native tradition frequent intercourse existed between the various groups of islands, and the canoes then used were larger and of a better construction. In the Hawaiian Melés, or songs, the names of Nuuhiva and Tahuata, two of the Marquesan islands,Upolu and Savaii, belonging to the Samoan group,—and Tahiti, with others in that neighbourhood, frequently occur; besides the names of headlands and towns in those islands. These songs also make allusions to voyages from Oahu and Kauai to islands far west.

As the traditionary lore of the Hawaiians is rapidly dying out, and printing is taking the place of memory, it is probable that little more of such transmitted information will be procured from native bard or eld. Mr. Ellis mentioned to me his conviction that if he returned to the Sandwich Islands he should not now obtain one-tenth of the myths or histories which he gathered there five-and-thirty years ago. The chapter, therefore, of popular palæontology must be a short one; and it may be closed with a question that arises in the mind when we consider the present state of this or any particular society of mankind, viz.: How has this people arrived at its present status? Has it been by progression or retrogression? Have they advanced from a somewhat Gorilla condition, such as still holds the Earthmen of Africa; or have degrading influences been at work and marred gradually the goodly image which the Creator formed? Are we to hold with Monboddo, the Vestiges,' and Darwin; or, with the more glowing and regretful belief of South, that 'Aristotle was but the ruin of an

G

Adam, and Athens only the rudiments of Eden?' In this world of flux and change it is probable that the light shines on and is withdrawn from different nations in turns. Those who love light and use it well may be privileged to keep their faces turned towards it, and follow it wheresoever it goes. It does not appear,' says Humboldt, to belong to the destinies of the human race that all portions of it should suffer eclipse or obscuration at the same time. A preserving principle maintains the ever-living process of the progress of reason.* And the Christian philosopher has something to add to this, which seems a somewhat cold estimate of the human destiny. We may believe that the lamp of religious truth emits rays of warmth as well as of light; and that a nation will receive a blessing from on high and that a shield will be extended over her head whilst she diligently trims that lamp and carries it forth in zeal and love to enlighten other nations and the isles that sit in darkness.