Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/69

Rh Taranga:—From the fact of this name occurring in the Creation legends it is evidently very old, and is no doubt synonymous with the Hawaiian Kalana, or Kalana-i-hauola, one of the most ancient lands known to that people, wherein was the "Fountain of Youth"—the Maori "Waiora-a-Tane."

The above are the principal names to be found in Maori traditions which relate to places where the people dwelt in remote antiquity. There are many others which refer to their later homes in the Pacific, some of which will be noted as we follow the course of the migrations. Before doing so it is necessary to note a few geographical names retained in the traditions of Rarotonga. The Hawaiians have many ancient names for various dwelling places of their ancestors, besides those mentioned herein, but they are not recognisable in the histories of other branches.

above is the most ancient land known to the Rarotongans, and under the variation Atia, is the first name that is mentioned in their karakias—reciting the course of their migrations. It can be shown that one meaning of the word vari, which is the descriptive word in the above name, is mud, slime, earth, and the deduction might be drawn that it meant the origin of the race from the primitive earth. There is another and very interesting meaning of the word vari, which will be new to Polynesian scholars, and as it bears intimately on the origin of the people, it may be here stated. In one of the Rarotongan traditions it is stated that, when living in Atia, the common food of the people was vari, and this continued to be so until the discoverv of the bread-fruit and the