THE MAORI IN POLYNESIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 222, 12 September 1908, Page 3

THE MAORI IN POLYNESIA.

ftßy James Izett.—All Eights Reserved.) 11. The Rev, \V. Colenso—a gentleman who had some fifty years' experience of the Maori people, and who, moreover, bad devoted a very great deal of his thought to the question of the lost Hawaiki—said: "The writer was formerly of opinion (111 1835-0, which has subsequently been taken up as valid by several others) that this Hawaiki was identical with the Sandwich Islands, or Hawaii—the k being dropped according to the rules of the dialect; but he has long given that up as untenable," and lie goes on to give some thirteen reasons for hia abandonment of his former! v entertained opinion. One simple anil Sufficient reason should prove just as fatal as thirteen. No matter what number of wounds are found on the body, there was but one in all that killed. A man cannot be slain twice. However, according to the thirteen reasons all duly set forth by the Rev. W. Colenso, Savaii, Hawaii, and every other place that can now be named as existing in, Polynesia, are shut out from consideration in this connection owing to their distance from New Zealand. Having in hi* mind the obligations imposed by the traditions of the Maori which are known to us, the reverend gentleman practically declared that he knew of no land in Polynesia that is in accordance with the conditions; there is no land near enough to New Zealand to admit the possibility of canoes going to and fro in the manner described. This, evidently to the reverend gentleman, was the ' Wound that killed. Feeling constrained Ito abandon the task of finding an i

Hawaikf that could in any degree comply with the conditions imposed by the traditions, the reverend geutleman ended by abandoning the traditions as well. It >was enough for him that he could not find an Hawaiki; the difficulties that Were more than "sufficient for him must face every enquirer, and therefore the traditions must be altogether wrong. Be concluded that the whole story of the'emigration was an invention, a myth, the mere coinage of some too imaginative Maori brain. The confessed failure ol the conscientious Rev. W. Colenso, with all his deep, anxious, and careful study, to find a land that would meet the exigencies of Maori tradition lias not sufficed to deter other boldermore audacious—spirits from determining the island which was once Hawaiki. [The process adopted is very simple. If it is urged that this island—Rarotonga - is not a " large island," that it is situated too far away and in the wrong direction to answer the requirements of tradition, then tradition must be ignored. What tradition declares about tike lost land is apparently of not the slightest consequence; by them an Hawaiki has been found, and it is there

In the Cook Isles. That is to be accepted as an end of the matter. Another writer, apparently following a hint conveyed by preceding authorities, and in whose footsteps others have sought to follow, has endeavoured to trace the "Whence of the Maori"' by "philological considerations." In his introductory remarks this writer asserts that:—"The study of words in tribes or nations has the same position in relation to the above science as the tracing of fossils has towards geology. One baa its material as much imbedded in the people as the other has in the earth—where one class is as much preserved for ages as the other is for epochs—and both may be dug out of itneir encasement and displayed to tlir. present generation." This, in general, may be true, but; obviously, the analogy is not quite faithful, for much may be Strained in the matter of language in a way that could not be attempted in lie case of geology. For instance, let it be supposed that a people in one quarter of the globe enjoys a great deal ol commercial int?rcourse with a people In another quarter of the globe, tlie seamen and passengers on board of visiting ships would naturally pick up the knowledge of a very great number of the words belonging to the foreigner, and centuries later, these words being found incorporated into the language of the commercial nation, some more or, less ingenious philologist might consider himself in a position to demonstrate that one people was derived from the other. This adoption of foreign words has actually taken place, is even now taking place, and it may be subsequently found to be of some importance in ' its bearing upon the history of the islands of Polynesia. However this may be, the writer quoted immediately proceeds to furnish tobies attempting to prove that certain ■words in the Maori language have affinity with some similar words in Malay. It will be shown in these pages that when the Maori people came into possession of the islands of the Pacific the Malays as a race had no existence. The Malay people is derived from successive waves of Chinese, Burmese, Siamese, and Hindustanese invaders, who settled down and grafted themselves Upon the aboriginal Negrito occupying the Asiatic Archipelago. As a race tinMalay only began, to come into being about one.thousand years ago. 111 his preface to " Polynesian- Mythology " Sir George Grey affirms that the mythology of the Maori "prevailed, perhaps, considerably more than two thousand years throughout the great mass of the islands of tire Pacific Ocean, and, indeed, the religions system of ancient Mexico was, prtbahly, to some extent connected with Miem." The student is asked to remember these Words, because tbey aTe important. Upon what basis, upoji what calculations, by wliat process of reasoning, Sir George Grey ventured to put *" forward such an affirmation as to the length of time the Maori has been in occupation of the isles of the Pacific has Hot been revealed, -but in these pages evidence will be submitted which will show that people of the same race as that which founded an empire in Mexico at one period occupied all the islands of Polynesia, and at one time, therefore, 1 the closest affinity existed between the 'Arian colonisers in the Pacific and the empire-builders in Central America—they were, in fact, peoples of the same Tace. The Maori, according to Sir George Grey, having been in possession of the islands of the Pacific for some two thousand years, and the Malay race not having been in existence for more than about one thousand years, it is obviously impossible that the former could have been derived from the latter. Clearly, for any similarity of a few words that may exist in the. language of the Malay and that of the Maori gome other hypothesis than that of derivation must be found. One way of surmounting the difficulty —how far it is justified' will be afterwards shown—is to conclude that the Arian people found their way iuto the islands of Polynesia had previously established settlements along the shores of the islan Is

Of the Asiatic Archipelago, and the Chinese and other invaders who, subsequently, by mingling their Wood combined to constitute the Malay race. Adopted some of the words they found in use there. In view of this consideration the similarity of words is valuable, irat in this case the conception of the derivation of the Maori from the Malay must be abandoned for the simple rea son tliat the Maori was in possession of the islands of the Pacific long before a Malay was known to the world. On somewhat similar grounds to those giivn !>y the writer just quoted, supported by a few genealogical tables (the Rev. \\. Colenso emphatically pronounced the genealogical tables ot the Maori to be * entirely worthless), another authority has recently endeavoured to locate the Original home of the Maori somewhere near the foot of the Himalayas, in Central Asia. Affinities have been discovered between the Indian and Maori languages, and thereupon, entirely less of the insurmountable difficulties 111 the way, this authority and his sup■porters have carried the Maori right hack to the original home of the Arian race. Here it may be permitted to premise that colonial authorities have not taken a very comprehensive view of the facts which govern the question ot " The Whence of the Maori." They have been governed very largely by) considerations purely local to New Zealand. What are the alleged facts as asserted by tliem? A Maori people liav=foeeil in occupation of the islands New Zealand for some five bundle rears; this Maori people eanie from ai. Hawaiki, situated somewhere or another; thev occupied Unit. Hawaiki an 1 these islands of Xew Ze.nlatld without intrusion or interruption from any o. liei race or people-no ravaging invaders came down upon them to burn then homes, ehanire their customs, eorrunt their language, whilst this is adnu e. it has not occurred to those who sees *n trace "the whence of the Mnon. ' i>hilologieally, that the language -poken must lie that which they brought »'t" tlvern into the Pacific. A few words m affinity with words in the language ot some other people are perfectly usele--for the purpose of proving derivation The aOinitv of a. few words may be account ml for -will be accounted forwhat thev require to enable tlieni ; 1 prove their contention is a whole lan-

guage. If, over two thousand yi-ars ago, the Maori race had their original home in Central Asia; if, by some extraordinary combination of circumstances impossible for the ordinary mind to conceive, they succeeded in passing as a body through India, dropping some words of their own language or piekiii" up some few words of ilindustanee 011 the way, then, surely, the language they are found speaking in Polynesia, considering the circumstances of their complete isolation, and making allowance for the coinage of a few words to meet altered conditions, should be, taken as a whole, either the language of India or a language spoken in Central Asia. Is it possible to imagine a people—such a people as the Maoris—coining from another land—a land in India—and absolutely forgetting the whole of their mother-tongue with the exception of a few words 1 This is the position which the student is called upon to accept by these authorities. Remembering the words which have been quoted as to a supposed parallel between philology and geology how, it may be asked, does U apply to the Maoris of Polynesia? The .Maoris of Polynesia are an allegedly primitive people; they speak the language of their ancestors as it has been spoken for very many eenlturies; as it was spoken by their fathers' fathers before they emigrated from tire old land—wherever the old land was; until the Europeans came their language has never been tampered with by the advent of strangers to tlieir race; in order to prove, then., that the Maori emanated from India or from Central Asia a. people must be found in Asia speaking the language of the Maori. The only alternative available is to conclude that a tenaciously conservative people have forgotten all, except a very few words, of the language they brought with them from their original home*

Crawford affirms that in a dictionary of five thousand words of .Maori he discovered one hundred and seven that ■were of Malay origin. To put the case in another way, in every thousand words of Maori there are about twentv asserted to be of Malay origin. This infinitesimal proportion is certainly insufficient to establish any theory of derivation. Thomson declares that in a Maori dictionary of six thousand words he "detected" two hundred and thirtyfive words that were Malay; that is about thirty-nine words of Malay origin in ever)- thousand words jn use by the Maori. What is required to prove anything philologieally as to the derivation of the Maori is the finding of a language in which the'position of the figures is reversed; that is to say, a dictionary of the language of some people will have to be discovered in winch to every thousand words of Maori some forty new words have been added, Such a dictionary would be evidence indeed. The affinity of a few words may be I valuable in proving the association of peoples in the past, but it is worthless I so far as derivation is concerned.

It is true that language is " imbedded in the people," that "hills and valleys vibrate with the voice of a nation for centuries after that nation is alleged to be dead"; that, as the Rev. W. C'olenso poetically reminds, " mountains repeat, and rivers murmur, this voices of nations denationalised or extirpated"; but, it may be asked, is there nothing else known to man of which much the ■same thing may not be said? Ask of the mountains and glens of Scotland if they have no voice with which to tell of the religion of a nation, and they will give reply. By tracing the progress of religious beliefs, the mental development or the bondage of mind, the very remotest history of man may be found. If peoples when they wandered into strange new lands took with them their language, so also they took with them their religious beliefs, and by their beliefs quite as much as by their language their footsteps may be followed. In conjunction with other trails it is designed to pursue this trail particularly in this place. Sir George Grey has pronounced that the religion of ancient Mexico and the religious beliefs of the Maoris of Polynesia were assimilated, and it is here asked that the fact be re-

meinbered. It is proposed to prove association. The student has now a right to demand: What do the Maoris know of the religion of the Hindus? Are their religions assimilated? The answer is, yes, they are, for the fathers of the Arian people that ultimately found their way across the islands of the Pacific to the far continent of America, voyaged to India, where they picked up the few words of Hindustanee that have led to the 'building up of a perfectly wonderful hypothesis and led to much confusion of thought. Tliev brought these few words with them into the Pacific. In exchange, 110 doubt, for much practical consideration shown to them, the colonising fathers bestowed a knowledge. of their gods. Very many centuries have rolled their course since those early colonising days. In India new prophets and teachers have arisen to promulgate new doctrines, but the gods—(he numerous gods—the gift >f the early voyagers to India, still remain, and they constitute to this day the foundation of religious belief. Hut '<> far as India, is concerned there arc other things besides the religion of the people to be considered. India boasts the possession of the very earliest literature known to the world. The " Rig-Veda " a collection of one thousand and seventeen lyrical poems, numbering ten thousand 'five hundred and eighty-seven verses—forms the great literary memorial of the eariv settlement of the Punjab. The Hindus believe that the " I!igVeda" wtis of divine origin; that it existed "before all time"; that at least it came into the possession of their people three thousand one hundred years B.C.—that is to say five thousand years ago. It is a sacred book—their Bible! There is satisfactory evidence that the influence 'of a lieiief in the divine authenticity of the "Rig-Veda" had spread over all India, ages before the rise of the Buddhist religion in the sixth century B.C. How comes kto pass that the Maori people, located at the foot of the Himalayas in Central Asia, inspired by some sudden impulse, travelled—through or near the Punjab—on to the Indian coast, where they must have tarried some considerable time to learn to build and navigate ships, never knew anything of the " liig-Veda ' nor anything of literature in any form? At Easter and other Islands of the. Pacific there are to be found hieroglyphics carved on stone, but the Maoris cannot read tliem—they know nothing of them.

Certainly the hieroglyphics art- not, In- ( dian. But why trouble about the " ttig- . Veda "or literature when there are him- ( dreds of other things of which the Maoris, if they e:\me from 1 luliii, ought ( to ljii well informed, but of which liie\ are entirely ignorant; It is to be mi|iposed, perhaps, that when the Maori people from the interior of Asia came down to the Indian coast they contracted such a sudden passion lor tne sea and the exploration of new anil unknown lands that they hastily took to their ships and forgot -all that had. previously been familiar to them. TSy glancing at the Maori of Polynesia as lie was at the time of Captain Cook and much later, a conception of the Maori of llawaiki can be perfectly gathered—that is to say he was an ignorant, barbarous, cannibalistic wivage. The traditions of the Maori of llawaiki tell 'i litlle children being rutlib-a-.lv slain and eaten. Is it possible thai, within the -limit staled, such a creature could enia■nate from such a land as India? <ln the question of the possibility of the Maori having emanated from some one of the lands now occupied by the Malays, the liev. W. Coleinot puts for-

ward the following objections:— "IV, —That while some have supposed > the race to have sprung the Ma- ■ lavs, from a very slight physical resemblance, and from the likeness of a few words of their language; there, is quite as much, if not a greater, physical resemblance between the race and Unpeople of Madagascar (on the opposite side of the globe), whose language a!s:i contains a few words and senlenees which are identical. '•V— I That, with the exception of tinIslands of New Zealand, which are the farthest south, the race is almost exclusively found in the eastennost i*|.-s and -minis of the. fticilic: and not in I the numerous isles nearest to the l-'riiat it would have been impoiW.. f.ir any regular interatom ;> jv-i ve ever taken place from the Malay l>„lv„e-iaii Wands, own,- to he ( if their shipping, and to the pn./ailinir wind- and equatorial enrreiits 1 W JT-,&7a, MW.y< -ve foma ■ in* ('»ok. ami the earliest « ig.i <•'' ■ - know tin- ii>c of iron and ntner metaK . , Kpte! • drink anil mv-:innl»i> l«> f ' u , ■ , ~,1,,, win- (toddy). wnoUi-. rook n , !,, rl |,on pots, live in a „a t „ lie Mr«-t monogamists: noni o ■,» ( io„ai i.ai.i«« ,1 knowledge ot any metal. has ■ detect*-'! niiioilif 11"' ,! " VTff. —Tliat llio near r-mbance. i or even identity, ot a f.-A ||i" • s lavan wolds prove renllv ■ , 1 it i- considered (1) that those . I)n lv obtain anioiiu' the sea coast h.i.iu s : "fMalnva: and fi) that the same woid- , are found more or less m use . ~„?sts of Java. Sumbawa. and the 1 hilippine ' and other isles, including even

Madagascar. May it not, therefore, be reasonably enquired, wlietlit-r those few words might not rather have reached those several Northern Asiatic isk's from Polynesia, than vice versa'; " IX—That the language spoken by the Polynesian race has 110 affinity tvitii the -Malayan; being in its whole formation ami construction of a far more primitive, and ancient cast. The structure of the -Malayan language is tvholiy diU'erent.

" X.—That if the origin of the people on sow few of the islands (in the lapse of ages) might have arisen from a drift on line (nvhich seems next to impossible) exotic edible roots were not at all likely to have been by such means imported; nor the peculiar and ancient Asiaiic drink of palm wine (toddy) to be 1.0 them—where the cocoa-nut is everywhere indigenous—wholly unknown." These quotations are given here for another and a more important, purpose than the mere assisting to disprove the theory that the original home of the Maori was in some laud occupied by a Malayan people. The student is asked to remember that it is affirmed by all I the authorities that there are words in the Maori language somewhat similar to words found in use by people inhabiting certain islands now peopled by Malays. That the l{ev. W. Colenso, particularly, refers to the Philippines, Sumbawa, Java, and " other isles," even to -Madagascar—"along the sea coasts"— as lauds where words similar to those in use by the Maori are found empluyed. The student may have a consideiable distance to travel before this branch of the subject conies up again, but let not this cardinal fact be forgotten. ""The Whence of the Haori," by .J. T. Thomson, F.RXI.S. Trans. X.Z. Institute, Vol. VI., p. xxv. The Asiatic origin of the Polynesians has been considered probable by .Messrs De (juigues, De Bougainville, Count de Ccbelin, Cook, La Perouse, Marsden, Melius, Do Flcunen, Chamisse, Raffles, Crawfurd, Bory St. Vincent, Caussin, De Boris, Fornander, De .Quatrefageg, and other eminent antropologists. tTrans. N.Z. Institute, Vol. 1., p. 00.