Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/410

102 is descended from the conquerors, who arrived (so definite is the genealogical evidence to be had up and down the Group) from twenty-seven to thirty generations ago. This traces the Gilbertese ancestors to their proximate land of origin. Incidentally also, their belief that they were autochthones of Samoa is excellent ground for the inference that they were there for a very long time; but where were they before that?

The very text which propounds the Samoan dogma helps us to begin an answer to the question. A reference to section 8 of the exhibit will show that after Na Arean had peopled the South, he went north to the Gilbert Islands and (on Beru) begot a race of men represented by the names of Tabu-rimai and Riiki—the breed of the men of the north. The Tabu-rimai folk then migrated southward to Samoa.

Now there is evidence from at least half a dozen islands of this migration of the Tabu-rimai folk from Micronesia to Nuclear Polynesia; and from nearly every island of the Group comes the tradition that Tabu-rimai was a "brother" of Au-ria-ria, the Banaba-Nui creator, and like him, a fair-skinned being of great stature. It may be taken absolutely for granted that the Tabu-rimai and the Au-ria-ria people were of the same race.

Turning then to the person of Au-ria-ria for further evidence, we find in a Banaban tale that when he had created the first land, which was Banaba, he went south-ward over the sea to search for a second land. Far to the south his foot struck a rock, which he raised above the water and called by the name of Samoa. Going then back to the north, he collected a number of his people and, leading them to Samoa, settled them there; and there they remained until the "day of voyaging" (te bongi-ni-borau) again dawned, and they returned to the Gilbert Islands.

It is hardly necessary to point out that this is an account of a migration of the Au-ria-ria folk from their original