Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/210

198 slopes. This is Taha'a, a poetical name for which is Taha'a-nui-marae-atea, and one of whose ancient names was Uporu. The Rarotongan name for Ra'iatea is Rangiatea, and that of Taha'a is Taanga (in Maori, Tahanga). Some twenty miles to the north-west of Taha'a is Porapora, the ancient name of which was Vavau, probably the Wawau-atea of the Maoris. It has a very high and fantastic peak on it. To the east of Ra'iatea, twenty-two miles distant, is Huahine, a double island, an old name of which was Atiapi'i. Some eleven and a-half miles to the west of Porapora is Maiao-iti, the former name of which was Tapuae-manu. It is a high island, but of no great size.

This group of islands is separated from Tahiti by the Sea of Marama, named after one of the Tahitian ancestors, and which name 1 believe is referred to in the following lines from an ancient Maori lament which is full of old Hawaiki names, and was composed by one of Turi's descendants eleven generations ago:—

in which the Sea of Marama is mentioned.

Of the islands mentioned above, I think Ra'iatea is clearly the Rangiatea of the Maori traditions preserved by the Taranaki and West Coast people, which they say was the name of Turi's home, and where also tradition says was the great marae "at Hawaiki, belonging to the warrior chiefs—to the great chiefs of the sacred cult, used for their invocations in time of war. That marae was a temple, and the name included both temple and marae. It was where the deliberations of the people were held, and was a place of great mana. Hence is our saying—He kakano i ruiruia mai i Rangiatea—('We are) seed scattered hither from Rangiatea.' The Church at Otaki, West Coast,