Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/103

Rh all this great ocean." In Atia, also originated the great wars which caused the people to spread to all parts.

In this last statement, which refers to the great wars which caused the people to migrate from their Father-land, we may probably recognise the common origin of statements in most Maori traditions, that it was great wars that originated the migration, and it of course follows therefrom as a consequence that the Polynesian race were the defeated people, and had to depart. If we turn to General Forlong's tables given on page 75 hereof, we notice the statement, "Time of great disturbances in India, B.C. 500–400," and this date accords well with that of Tu-te-rangi-marama and his father. Whether this synchronism is purely accidental or not, I am not prepared to say, but so many reasons seem to prove the Polynesian race to have been in India long prior to this date, that we may at any rate take it as a probable confirmation of the traditions. Gautama, the originator of the Buddhist religion died in B.C. 477, just about this period. If the Polynesians had left at a later date and after the spread of Buddhism, there would be some traces of it in the traditions or in the worship of the people down to the times of early European intercourse with them. But there is no trace of Buddhist doctrines whatever.

What the great temple built by Tu-te-rangi-marama was, I am quite unable to indicate, but that it was something quite out of the common is obvious, for it is the only instance in Polynesian traditions that I am aware of, in which any such building is mentioned. That it was one of the celebrated temples of Java, is quite out of the question, for they were built by the Hindoo Buddhists somewhere about A.D. 600, and we cannot allow that the Polynesians as a body were in Indonesia so late as that, though doubtless some few branches remained