Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/102

78 "Why is Tahiti sometimes called Otaheite, and why is Hawaii, in the Sandwich Islands, sometimes called Owyhee?" Fred inquired.

"Thereby hangs a tale," replied the Doctor, "or rather a great deal of conjecture. Some ethnographers think the islands of Polynesia were peopled from the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, while others think they were peopled from Japan. Advocates of either theory have a great number of arguments in its support. We haven't time to go over the list; and even if we did we should not be able to settle the question.The theory that the inhabitants of the Sandwich and Society islands came originally from Japan is supported by the use in their languages of the prefix O (signifying "honorable") exactly as it is used in Japan. As the Japanese say O-yama (honorable mountain), so the Hawaiians say O-wyhee, and the Tahitians O-taheite.

"Many Japanese sports, such as archery, wrestling, boxing, spear-throwing, and slinging stones, were in vogue in some of the islands at the time of their discovery; they are rapidly passing away as the people become civilized, and in another generation or two will hardly be