Under Hawaiian skies, a narrative of the romance, adventure and history of the Hawaiian Islands, a complete historical account, by Albert Pierce Taylor.

WHENCE CAME THE HAWAIIANS?

37

The beginning of the deep shadows that caused Darkness,
The cause of Night that became the deeper Night,
Of the great depth of the greater depth,
Of the depth of the DayOf the depth of the NightSo Night became,
And Night was born.
For many years historians have assumed the theory that the
Hawaiians came from Tahiti, because of the frequent recurrence
of the word "Kahiki" in chants. The early missionaries and interpreters of the Hawaiian language immediately translated this
word as "Tahiti." This led to the assertion that the Hawaiians
had migrated from the Tahitian group, basing the theory tupon
the supposed fact that the Hawaiians were very similar to the
Tahitians in buill, living habits, dress and feudal relations within
their clans.
"Kahiki," however, freely translated, means the east, the east
of the place "where the sun rises." This is in accordance with
translations made by Hawaiian scholars. The Hawaiian name
for Tahiti is Polapola.
Possibly the original name of the continent was "Kahiki," or
"Kahikina," the "coming of the sun."
In the early (ays of contact of the white race with the Hawaiians, there was evident difficulty in the foreigners learning the
native tongue, and the meaning of Hawaiian words was often
misjudged, particularly the figurative language in which the
HawTaiians indulged so freely. Thus, "Ka-hiki" becomes "Ta-hiti"
to these early visitors, and the mistakes, according to Hawaiian
authorities, became accepted and each later historian used this
versioll.
In poetic language "Ka-hiki," "Ka-hikina," "Hiki-mai" and
"Kahiki-ku" mean "the coming," which, again, naturally interprets the coming of the (lawn. So again, the theory of creation
among the HTawaiians and the story of the later generations fall
back upon the submerged continent, or the Hawaiian Deluge,
called the "Sea of Hinalii," the latter being a chief of that period.
The submergence left several groups of islands, and( thus there