Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/152

140 appear that it was not until towards the close of this period that the voyagers ceased to visit Fiji and the neighbouring groups, as well as Indonesia, and the cause for this is, I suggest, the growing importance of the Melanesian element in the Fijian group. But we are anticipating, and must now return to the period of Emā and his descendants (circa 700).

have now followed the Rarotongan histories down to a point when Maori and Moriori traditions begin to shed their light on the course of events, for the occupation of the Fiji and Samoan groups is their "Heroic Period," when flourished so many of their heroes whose deeds are embodied in tradition and song, and which form the classics of their branch of the race. Full as the accounts of this period are of the marvellous, the historical parts may easily be sifted out. Such as they are, they are probably not more full of the supernatural or wonderful than the old world classics of the Greeks and others. They carry us back to much the same culture-level depicted in the Iliad, and other works of that and succeeding ages, where the gods took part in the affairs of man.

By both Maori and Rarotonga histories Emā (Hema) was the father of the two brothers Karii (Karihi) and Taaki (Tawhaki). It will be seen by the general table at the end of this work that Rarotonga lines of ancestors come down through Karii, whilst the Maori lines as a rule descerjd from Tawhaki. In accordance with this, the Rarotonga traditions make Karii the eldest son, and most important ariki of the two; it is just the contrary with the