Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/114

102 Tura came across were probably orang-utans; it is a subsequent embellishment his marriage with one of them. Mr. White gives the translation of the name of this people as "offspring of the red eye"; but there is another meaning of the name which describes the lascivious actions of monkeys.

In one of the Nga-Puhi (Maori) traditions collected in 1839, we find this statement: "The island from which the ancestors of Hehi came, was rich in productions; the kumara grew wild in the open places of the island of Waerota and the people lived on the fat of the land. * * The ancestors said that the animals of some of the large islands near where they dwelt were very large, that is, the island of Waerota from which they migrated. * * The islands were exceedingly hot, so that men went naked all the year round, wearing nothing but the maro or waist cloth." * *

there ought to be traces of some recollection of the black or very dark brown Negritto races of Indonesia, called Papuans, which name is said to be derived from the Malay word Puapua, frizzled hair. Students of New Zealand history are aware that in the Maori traditions there are incidental notices of an ancient people called Manahune or Manahua, who are by some supposed to be a diminutive race, and somewhat like the elves of old-world stories. But they are not said to have lived in New Zealand. This people is also known in Hawaii under the same name, where they are described as somewhat like those of the Maori traditions. They appear to have been