Note 2 — Traditional Hawaiian History.
Reading edition
The name for north and northeast wind is tokalau. In Hawaiian, koolau is the north and northeast side of an island. In Tahiti, toerau is the west and southwest.
Rev. Thos. Williams considers the Fiji group as the place of contact between the two races which occupy east and west Polynesia, or, “The Asiatic and African, but not Negro,” as he designated them. “The light Mulatto skin and well-developed muscles seen to windward are chiefly the result of long intercourse with the Tongan race.” “The Fijians have never acknowledged any power (foreign), but such as exists among themselves.”
“Rank is hereditary, descending through the female.”
“As in the Malayan, so in the Fijian, there exists an aristocratic dialect, which is particularly observable in the windward districts.”
“Standing in the presence of a chief is not allowed. All who move about the house in which he is, creep, or, if on their feet, advance bent as in an act of obeisance.”
In drinking toasts and wishing, the expression often is for a “puaka loloa,”—a long pig,—meaning a human body, to be eaten.
The Fijians reverence certain stones as shrines of the gods. Offerings of food are sometimes made at these. (They resemble the pohaku a Kane in Hawaii).
In Fiji, “sika” means “to appear” and is used chiefly of supernatural beings. (Does the Hawaiian hika in the name of Kane, “Hika-poloa,” connect or find its explanation in the former?)
Fijian traditions mention mankind springing from two eggs laid by a small hawk and hatched by Ndengei, their principal god. They refer to a flood from which eight people were saved in a canoe. They also mention a big tower built for the purpose of ascertaining if the moon was inhabited, but the foundations gave way and the workmen were scattered all over Fiji. They refer to a woman of Yaro, named Kerukeru, who was very good and whom the gods removed from this world alive on consideration of her high character.