Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/109

Rh and it was by a stratagem that one Kahu-kura secured one of the nets, since which time the Maoris have possessed them. They have much the same story in Niuē Island, but there it was the gods who came fishing at night, and the net was secured by a man who dived and fastened it to the coral; but it is a mere local variation of the other legend. So much for the Maori story.

But the Maori is not the only branch of the race that retains this tradition of contact with a white race, for the Hawaiian history relates that Hawaii-loa, one of their great navigators, on one of his voyages apparently in Indonesia, brought back to his home two white men, poe keokeo kane, who were married to his people. According to Fornander's genealogy this man appears to have flourished about A.D. 300, or whilst the Polynesians were probably on the move southwards towards Fiji.

The Mangaian people, according to Dr. Wyatt Gill, call the keu, or light-coloured people, Te anau keu a Tangaroa, the light-coloured offspring of Tangaroa, the latter being their principal god, whilst he is the Neptune of the Maoris.

We thus see that there is evidently a dim recollection of a white, or light-coloured, people retained in Polynesian traditions. When we come to enquire into the origin of this story, it is most natural to ascribe it to contact with a light-coloured race in very ancient times. It is difficult to conceive of a brown race inventing such a distinguishing racial characteristic had they not actually seen it. Prior to that time all experience would go to prove that mankind was of the same brown tint as themselves, or of the darker