the fact that they so concur may be taken as giving a strong colour of truth to the foundation of the story—one which is well known to all students of the Polynesian race and their migrations.[1] One of these Maori traditions relates that there was a migration of peoples "who landed at Te Waka Tuwhenua (Cape Rodney), a little to the south of Whangarei, and took possession of this land between Whangaparoa and the Bay of Islands. The canoe contained a person who had leprosy, from whom the major part of the migrators caught the disease. Leprosy is called by the Maoris tuwhenua, and hence the name of the canoe Waka Tuwhenua and also the point at which the party landed. Being thus afflicted, they fell into disorganisation, and those who were not cut off by the leprosy became amalgamated with the adjoining tribes or migrations, and part of their island was taken by the Tainui people as far as Whangarei. The Namari (Ngapuhi people) took the residue from the Bay of Islands to Whangerei."[2]
Tuwhenua, it may be remarked, is not the only Maori name for leprosy now. Dr. Grinders[3] states that it is still known so among the Whangarei and western tribes; but that the Ngapuhi and northern people call it "puhipuhi," and the Taupo and east coast tribes "ngerengere." There is no etymological clue as to why "tuwhenua" should have meant leprosy. Probably it was only applied to it after the episode related by Mr. White, and as a result of it.
Besides Maori tradition, Fijian mythology is associated in some of its ramifications with leprosy. There were in
- ↑ See Fornander, De Quatrefages, Ellis, Wliite, Hale, Turner, Gill, Williams, Moerenhout, Sir George Grey, Mariner, and others.
- ↑ Two Lectures on Maori Superstitions and Customs, and Land Tenure respectively, by John White, Esq., author of the Maori History, compiled by the direction of the New Zealand Government. Auckland, 1861.
- ↑ Report on Leprosy among the Maoris at Taupo and Rotorua, New Zealand, 1890, G. 5, by Dr. Grinders.
