reason given for this war is, like so many Polynesian stories, rather childish. Tu taranoi owned two birds named Aroa-uta and Aroa-tai,[1] which he valued very much for the purpose of catching fish. They were borrowed by Tane-au-vaka, who killed them. Then comes an account of the making of some sacred spears, in which the gods take part, and with which Kuru, the famous warrior, kills Ti-tape-uta and Ti-tape-tai, the children of Tu-tavake, besides others, and finally slays Tane-au-vaka, the destroyer of the birds. Eventually Kuru goes to Amama, where he himself is killed by Maru-mamao.
From a study of the various traditions relating to this period, it would seem, that prior to, or about the time of Tu-tarangi[2] (A.D. 450), the people had already reached the Tonga Group, and communicated with Samoa, possibly establishing colonies there, but in no great numbers, and the people whom they came in contact with would be the original migration of Samoans—Polynesians like themselves. There is nothing but probability to indicate the presence of the true Fijians (or Melanesians) in Fiji at that time, and the wars referred to seem to have been with their own race—that is, with some of the other tribal organisations who probably arrived in the group from Indonesia at nearly the same period or may have been with the Melanesians. As yet, there had been no mention of any of the groups of Eastern Polynesia, in connection with their migrations—we only now meet with their names for the first time.
- ↑ It is singular that we have in New Zealand two mountain peaks standing close together named Aroha-uta and Aroha-tai, identical with the names of these birds.
- ↑ There is only one genealogy of the Maoris, that I know of, in which Tu-tarangi is shown, but he is there placed in much too modern times. That it is the same man is, I think, proved by the fact that Te Irapanga is shown to be his grandfather, whilst the Rarotonga lines make him to be Tu-tarangi's father.
