Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/116

104 Maori and Rarotonga accounts, they appear rather to have been an alien race. The vague notions the Polynesians generally now have in regard to the Manahune—their living in the mountains and forests, the wonderful powers of sorcery, &c., accredited to them—seems to point to their having been a race living in the remote past conquered by the Polynesians, and probably often enslaved by them. In fact, the traditions no doubt point to the Papuan or Melanesian race, who, it is well known, mark their flesh in gashes as an ornament, instead of tattoo, as with the Polynesians.

There seems to be two possible or probable theories to account for the Manahune. Either they were the first migration into the Pacific, or they were one of the races the Polynesians came into contact with in Indonesia, or further to the west, and some of whom they brought with them in their migrations as slaves. In this latter case, the stories of their having inhabited Hawaii and Hawaiki are Indonesian events localised in process of time in the Pacific homes of the Polynesians. The latter theory is probably the more consonant with what is known of the Manahune. It would be quite in keeping with what we know of Polynesian customs, that on conquering the Papuans they came in contact with, they would enslave them, and carry them with them in their voyages to form part of their crews. Large numbers of the women would be enslaved and taken as wives, and hence the Papuan element in so many Polynesians of the present day. But this element was doubtless much increased during the lengthy sojourn of the Polynesians in the Fiji group. All history, tradition, and observation go to prove that Indonesia was occupied by this Negritto race from the very earliest times, and the Polynesians must have had