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The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume 2 (of 3)

Note 4 — Chapter IV

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F. H. H. Guillemard, Australasia, ii. 509. Compare A. Baessler, Neue Südsee-Bilder, pp. 257 sq., 269. The latter writer remarks on the great variety of types among the natives of these islands. In Mangaia he found the people darker than in Rarotonga, undersized, sturdy, with thick lips, noses broad and sunken at the bridge, which gave them a somewhat wild appearance. As to the tradition of an emigration of the Hervey Islanders from Samoa, see W. W. Gill, Life in the Southern Isles, pp. 23 sqq. "The Mangaians themselves trace their origin to Avaiki, or nether world; but Avaiki, Hawai'i, and Savai'i, are but slightly different forms of one word. The s of the Samoan dialect is invariably dropped in the Hervey Group dialects, whilst a k is substituted for the break at the end. No native of these days doubts that by Avaiki his ancestors really intended Savai'i, the largest island of the Samoan Group. In Polynesia, to sail west is to go down; to sail east is to go up. To sail from Samoa to Mangaia would be 'to come up,' or, to translate their vernacular closely, 'to climb up.' In their songs and myths are many references to 'the hosts of Ukupolu,' undoubtedly the Upolu of Samoa" (W. W. Gill, op. cit. p. 25). Compare id., Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London, 1876), pp. 166 sq.

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