Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/176

164 bow—only useful in fighting at a distance. It was against the custom of their ancestors of India and Indonesia, and hence improper in them. They did, however, use the sling stone of which mention is often made in the Rarotongan history, but it is probable that they did not learn this from the Melanesians—it was an old custom. The Rarotonga and Niuē name for a sling-stone, is maka, the Maori word

to sling or throw; it was cast by the hand without the use of the sling. In Niuē the stones are polished and shaped like eggs.

According to Mariner, the Tongans ate human flesh occasionally, but it was a custom apparently of recent introduction from Fiji as, no doubt, was that of their use of the bow and arrow. Besides the Rarotongan and Maori element in the Tongans, which may be inferred from what has preceded, there was a Samoan one also. The Rev. J. E. Moulton told me that in the time of Ahoeitu, or about