Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/216

204 think, known to the Maoris under its older name of A'ua'u, or Ahuahu, which seems probable from the incident in Maori story known as "Te huri pure i ata," when Uenuku's son Ruatapu drowned the younger chieftians [sic] of his father's clan on account of the insult offered to him. In this story Paikea is said to have been the only one who, by swimming, reached the shore, and he landed on Ahuahu Island, which, in process of time came to be identified with Ahuahu or Great Mercury Island in the Bay of Plenty. As will be shown later on, both Uenuku and Ruatapu lived, for part of their lives at any rate, in Rarotonga, and the descendants of the latter are there still. The above incident occurred, according to Maori History, either in the same generation as the migration to New Zealand, or in that preceding it. Another ancient name of Mangaia was Manitia; this has not been preserved by the Maoris, but it is known both to Tahitians and the Morioris of the Chatham Islands.

As there is no other island in the Pacific named Rarotonga, we must assume that this is the island known to Maori tradition. It is true there is a marae at Manu'a Island, Samoa, called Rarotonga, that formerly belonged to the Karika family of Rarotonga, but it certainly is not the one known to Maori History. The name Rarotonga is said to have been given to the island by Karika as he first sighted it on coming from the north-east, because it was to leeward (raro) and towards the south (tonga). The former names were Tumu-te-varovaro and Nuku-tere, the first of which has now become its poetical name.

any doubt as to whether this island is that known in Maori History will be set at rest by what follows. It is now several years ago since Mr. J. T. Large, who had been