of Peru? This they would easily reach .... from isle to isle of the Polynesian groups; in this way also they must have reached the Californian coast, where we find the language of the Pinas to contain 15 per cent, of Malay words." The same writer traces the emigration of Indian Malas to New Zealand, Australasia, and furthest Polynesia.
Much has been written upon the Manaia of New Zealand, described as a "mythical monster," and in identifying this with the frigate-bird Dr. Haddon kindly helps me with his great authority. "Assuming this identification to be correct, we have a further argument in favour of a Melanesian element in the population of New Zealand.[1]
But notwithstanding the bill of the frigate-bird, I hope to show yet another explanation of the Manaia. It is curious that in Brazil is a belief in "a bird of evil eye which kills with a look. The ground under its nest is white with human bones. There is a myth that a hunter once killed one of these (birds) and cut off its head without the eye being turned upon him. He killed his game thereafter by turning the evil eye upon it. His wife, not dreaming of its destructive power, however, once turned it toward her husband and killed him, and then accidentally turned it toward herself and died."[2]
In Patagonia, on the Rio Negro, are graves which can only be Polynesian. "Maori stone implements" have been discovered at Cuzco, in Peru, and even east of the Andes in Argentina.[3] Further, I have direct evidence from my relative the Bishop of Wellington as to the firm belief of the Maori people that their ancestors came from over the great sea, and of their having exterminated the people whom they found in the land. The mixture of conquering with the aboriginal race would account for all
- ↑ Man, 1901, p. 55.
- ↑ Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, p. 284. I am indebted to Mr. W. G. Black for this story. See Notes and Queries, August 24, 1895, p. 146.
- ↑ Barclay, op. cit.
