introduction of the large double canoes united with a deck, and which of old were in use in Samoa. Seu-i-le-va'a-o-Lata (or 'steersman in the canoe of Lata') is a name not yet extinct in Samoa."[1]
The names of Wahie-roa and Rata are, however, known to the Rarotongans, as Queen Makea told me, although not given in the history, from which most of this is taken. Dr. Wyatt Gill also mentions them, in "Myth and Songs from the Pacific," where the scene of their adventures is laid in Kuporu (Upōlu), Iti-marama (Maori, Whiti-marama),[2] or Fiji and Avaiki (Savai'i).
In Maori story the tribes defeated by Tawhaki on his ascent of the mountain are called Te Tini-o-te-Makahua and Te Papaka-wheoro; with reference to the last name, Papaka means a crab, and in Rarotonga and Niuē, the words for crab (unga and tupa) are always applied to slaves, meaning Melanesian slaves.
According to Maori history, it was in the times of Tawhaki that cannibalism was first practised by their ancestors; and no doubt it was through their connection with the Melanesian people of Fiji, that they learnt the custom.
After Taaki's adventures above we hear no more of him in Rarotonga story, and then the genealogical table gives the name of Karii's son Karii-kaa, and his grandson Turi, who married Varavara-ura, the sister of Papa-neke, There is an inconsequential story about Turi, but not worthy of note, and then the history is silent as to the descendants
- ↑ "Samoa, a Hundred Years Ago," by Geo. Turner, ll.d. 1844.
- ↑ Whiti-marama is also mentioned in Maori traditions as an island visited by Turi—no doubt one of the Fiji group. Whiti-te-kawa, is another Maori name of some part of the Fiji group, from whence certain karakias were learnt.
