Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/134

122 joint and singular expeditions of Fijians and Tongans frequently invaded New Caledonia and conquered tracts of land for themselves, and that the higher aristocracy and subordinate chiefs of to-day claim descent from the leaders of those predatory parties; that, owing to this influx, the language possesses a great variety of idioms; that the main stock, however, of the population is of the original Papuan (Melanesian). And, as circumcision is also practised amongst them, it may, for want of more precise knowledge of its origin and introduction there, with great probability be ascribed to that same Tonga-Vitian element." This element is, I think, no doubt the Maori-Rarotongan one, that then occupied Fiji.

It is due to this intercourse with New Caledonia no doubt, that the Polynesians became acquainted with the jade which is found there, and also in New Guinea, besides New Zealand. Several writers have referred to the fact of the jade having been found amongst the Polynesians, but my reading has failed to show any positive statement on the subject. At the same time the Rarotongans were acquainted with it, as we shall learn later on, but this came from New Zealand; and quite recently—in 1902—an old jade axe has been dug up on Niue Island. This shows the connection with New Caledonia, as probably does the statement in one of the Maori traditions, to the effect that on the migrations leaving Fiji for the east, some of the canoes "went to the west and they were lost" i.e., no further communication ever took place again with those who went to the east.

During this time of the occupation of the Fiji group, or on the way thither from Indonesia, it is probable that colonies were established in some of the New Hebrides islands, where their descendants, very much crossed with the Melanesian people, are still to be found. Again it is