Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/223

Rh was before the Gospel was introduced I learnt this. At that time (1823) I had attended ten takuruas (annual feasts at the presenting of the first fruits to the ariki) when Viliamu (Williams) sent the teachers here (Pepehia of Tahiti); the feasts were held at Arai-te-tonga. I was about this high (showing the height of a boy of 12 or 14) when I first went to the tukuruas. (In this Pa-ariki agreed; no boy younger than 12 to 15 would be allowed to attend.)"

Such is the substance of what I learned from old Tamarua Orometua. It was pleasant to see the bright intelligent look that came over his face when he heard the questions asked—they seemed to awake old memories of things long forgotten, and he would then give without hesitation a lot of detail which I could not take down. Every now and then he was at a loss for a name, but, after looking down with serious furrowed brow for a time, he would glance quickly up, with a bright look of triumph on his face, as if pleased at his success in recalling the name. Had he not been so very deaf, much more information could doubtless have been got from him. I was most particular in getting his age; and it will be seen that, if he was twelve years old when he attended the first takurua, and that he was at ten of them before 1823, he would be about ninety-six when we visited him, and therefore a full-grown man, hearing and learning the ancient lore of his ancestors, before the disturbing influences of the Gospel obliterated them. He is a scion of one of the most ancient families of Polynesia, as may be seen in the history of the Tamarua family, a name they have borne continuously for some thirty generations—one of his ancestors was captain of the Tumu-enua canoe, referred to in Mr. Large's account a few pages back.

With reference to the island called Tuanaki, I learnt that this was supposed to be due south of Rarotonga, and in