Abstract
THE VALUE OF TRADITION.—In the course of a discussion of the value of tradition in Polynesian research, which appears in the Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 35, No. 3, Dr. P. H. Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) gives some remarkable examples of the manner in which Maori traditions are corroborated from outside sources, legendary and other. The Maori tradition states that their ancestors made voyages between the Sandwich Islands and their own Hawaiki or Tahiti of the Society group. The traditional sailing directions from Ahuahu (Oahu, Sandwich Islands) to Aotearoa (North Island, N.Z.) .give a bearing south from Maui-tahu and Maui-pae to Hawaiki and from Hawaiki to New Zealand a little to the right of the setting sun. In Hawaiian tradition in the directions for the voyage to Tahiti, the North Star is left directly astern. Further, Maui-tahu and Maui-pae are probably the twin islands of Lanai and Kahoolawe; Hawaiian tradition makes Ko-ola-i Kahiki the point of departure for Hawaiian voyagers to Tahiti, and this has been identified as a point on Kahoolawe. Even more striking is the evidence of the magic calabash. Hawaiian voyagers to Tahiti on passing the equator lost the North Star and picked up the Southern Star. On their return they picked up the Northern Star and sailed in a north-easterly direction (owing to the prevailing wind) until they judged the star was the same height as in Hawaii. They then turned and sailed due west, checking the height of the star each night, in the early days no doubt by eye, but later by the magic calabash. This calabash was fashioned into a primitive form of sextant with which the star was sighted on an elevation determined in Hawaii. An examination of one of these calabashes has shown that it is mathematically accurate, the angle being 19°, and Hawaii being in lat. 19° N.
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Research Items. Nature 118, 892–893 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118892a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118892a0