Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/115

Rh at one time very numerous, and lived in the mountains, but were in a state of subjection to the Hawaiians, performing for them many works that required great numbers, in order to complete the task at once. Like the Patu-pai-arehe of New Zealand story, these people are said not to like the daylight, but worked at night. Many of the heiaus and some of the loko-i'a, or fish-ponds, of Hawaii are said to have been built by the Manahune. Again, in Tahiti we find mention of the same people, Manahune, who in Ellis's time formed the lower orders of the people. But they were an ancient tribe, or people, for Miss Henry tells me that the Tahitian expression Ari'i o te tau Manahune refers to the time when kings were born to the plebeians of Tahiti, begotten of the gods, and not wearing the chiefly maro-ura, or scarlet girdle, the insignia of the ruling chiefs of Tahiti. In a Paumotu genealogy in my possession, I find one of their chiefs named Tangaroa-Manahune, who lived many generations ago; and it is known that there was a tribe in old times in Mangaia named Manaune. We shall find later on a reference to them in Rarotonga history, where they are again referred to as little people. The word manahune, both in Maori and Rarotonga, means a scab, or mark on the body. None of the accounts I have seen infer that these people ever differed in colour from the brown Polynesian. The Patu-pai-arehe or Turehu of the Maori, on the contrary, are distinctly stated to be white or light-coloured, and had the Manahune been of that colour, or black, the fact would probably have been mentioned. It may be that the origin of the name is due to the people who bore it being marked with cicatrices (manahune). Fornander seemed to be of the opinion that this was a racial name applied by the Polynesians to themselves in ancient times, and derived from one of their remote ancestors named Kalani-Menehune; but from