At the Hawaiian Group the spirits passed to the N.N. West, finally "jumping off" at the Leina-Kauhane at the west end of Oahu Island near the point called Ka Lae-o-Kaena.[1]
The Morioris of the Chatham Islands held a similar belief. In their case, the spirits left the N.W. point of the island at Te Raki Point on their way to the general gathering place with their ancestors at Hawaiki.
At the west end of Vanua-lava, the largest of the Fiji Islands, is a balawa tree (Pandanus) where the spirits depart for the ancestral home by passing into the sea. It will be shown later, how much the Fiji group has been connected with the Polynesian race, though the present inhabitants are a cross between that race and the Melanesian.
The natives of Mangareva Island, situated near the extreme S.E. end of the extensive Pau-motu group, and who are pure Polynesians, call the place of departed spirits Avaiki, and Tregear's dictionary of that dialect also states:—"Name of a place often mentioned in the ancient songs of the natives." But I cannot ascertain if the spirits were supposed to go to the west.
Although the present inhabitants of South East New Guinea are not pure Polynesians, there has no doubt in ancient times been an infusion of that blood into the people, together with some of their beliefs. Hence we find that the spirits after death went to the west, to Lavau, a name which I hope to show is as ancient as Hawaiki.
The above examples are taken from the principal homes of the race, and they all illustrate the one common idea
- ↑ Journal Polynesian Society, Vol. xi., p. 192:—Leina-Kauhane is identical in meaning with the Maori Reinga-Wairua, and both mean the "Jumping off place of the Spirits "—Kauhane being equivalent to Wairua, or spirit.
