Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/45

Rh There is one argument against the Marquesan Atea being the same individual as the Rarotongan Atea, which has some weight attached to it. It is said, as we shall see later on, when we come to consider the "logs" of the migrations, that the Marquesan Atea did not live in the ancestral fatherland, but at Papa-nui, which was the fourth stage in their travels; and as his place on the Marquesan genealogies is 74 generations back from the present day, this would bring us to the year A.D. 50, or about 100 years after the period which is deduced from the Rarotonga tables as that at which the migrations arrived at Hawaiki, or Java. Papa-nui, according to the Marquesan "log," is certainly in Indonesia, and the period of Atea, i.e. A.D. 50, is that in which all evidence agrees in showing the Polynesians to have been living in those parts. Atea, is not nearly the first name shown on the Marquesan tables. So the balance of evidence is that he is not identical with Rarotongan Atea, nor with Hawaiian Wakea.

The Moriori genealogies go back further apparently than any others. We find on them the name of Tu-te-rangi-marama, the great Rarotongan ancestor, and he lived, according to the Morioris, 103 generations ago, as against Rarotongan 91. Again, it is not certain if this is the same man, but he is one of the few of whom anything is said in Moriori genealogy; he is accredited with inventing a new kind of mat or garment, which is remarkable, when nothing is noted of many born before and after him. We shall see later on that the Rarotongan ancestor of the same name introduced many innovations.

The Maori tables are not reliable beyond say 40 or 50 generations, and therefore admit of only partial comparison with the old Rarotongan ones.