eyes and swallowed them"; hence the saying, "Opukia io te puku-o-mata, apaina na Tangaroa hi te rangi, na Rongo ma Tane, e eiva kino te tamaki e." "Catch the eye-balls, offer them to Tangaroa in the skies, to Rongo and Tane; an evil pastime is war." After staying some time, the Iva people returned to their own country.
After them came Te Ika-tau-rangi[1] (how long after, or where he came from is not stated), who settled down at One-marua. In his time drums and dances were introduced. Again after this came three canoes, which were cruising about the ocean. When the crews saw smoke and the people ashore, they landed, but were set upon by the natives and driven off.
Here ends the brief history of Rarotonga down to the times of Tangiia-nui. If my readers remember that the two men named Apopo were Apakura's brothers, they will see that these early settlers were of the same branch of the Polynesians as many a Maori now living in New Zealand. When Tangiia-nui arrived in Rarotonga in 1250 he found Tane-kovea and others, descendants of Apopo, then living there. Dr. Wyatt Gill says the men were all killed and the women saved, but our Native History relates nothing of this.
The immediate ancestors of Tangiia-nui seemed all to have lived in Tahiti. It can be shown, I think, how Tangiia is connected with the Maori lines of ancestors. One of his names was Uenga, afterwards changed to Rangi
- ↑ This name is shown on Maori genealogies as a son of Kupe, the navigator who visited New Zealand some time before the fleet, but it is impossible to say if the names refer to the same person. By another line he is shown to be a great grandson of Moe-tara-uri, Whiro's father.
