Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/107

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the times of Tu-te-rangi-marama downwards for fifteen generations, or 375 years, the history of the people is a blank; but at the end of that time, or about the year B.C. 65, we come to the first traces of any migration. The history says of Te Kura-a-moo, "He went to the east, to the sun-rising, and remained there, in consequence of troubles that arose between him and his sisters through a basket of matau which one sister had trodden into the mud." This appears a slight cause to have given rise to what was evidently a separation off of one branch of the race. But it is a very trifling matter that will give rise to a great war with the Polynesians. The tradition goes on: "He remained there, and there was born to him," &c., &c., the genealogy following. From the next incident in the history, I come to the conclusion that the place Te Kura-a-moo migrated to was Avaiki-te-varinga, which I take to be Java.

If we take the above date of B.C. 65 as that of Kura-a-moo, it will allow of some 300 years probably during which the people had moved from India, passing along the coasts and down the Straits of Malacca, and becoming more and more a race of navigators as their excursions extended. No doubt many would be left behind along the coasts, and probably some traces of them are to be found there still notwithstanding the ethnic waves that have passed that way.—(See ante what Logan has said on this subject).

is a singular tradition existing amongst the Maoris to the effect that they learnt the art of making fishing nets