G. My Unscientific View

My humble unscientific view of how a group of people traveled from the Americas to the middle Pacific.

1. "The peopled waves; waves from east to west."

About 2000 years ago, a group of people traveled northward along the western coast of America by boat. Their language contained Egyptian words and they were keen sky observers. They encountered strong westerly currents that drove them far and away from their intended destination. They saw land and thought they had arrived at the great northern land. Sorrowfully, the land they saw was an island in the middle of nowhere. They have traveled into the great Pacific ocean. They referred to the island as "motu," which in the Polynesian language means both "island" and "severed." They were separated from their kins. Could the word "motu" also means "floating mountain" - derived from the Egyptian words "mu" (water), and "tu" (mountain)? The Samoan word "mutu" also means separated and severed part. They were literally cut-off from their countrymen, and are now on their own.

After several generations they ventured further westward to the central Pacific. Is the repetition of the following line in the "Solo ole Va" for emphasis or typographical error? Why didn't they reverse course and go back eastward? I do not know. Anyway, they made a home for themselves in the new land and their children became adjusted to the new environment.

"The peopled waves; waves from east to west." (Solo Ole Va)

2. Rapa Nui

They were inspired to name one of the islands they landed on "Rapa Nui" after their paddles. The paddles were vital for getting them there, and were useful as weapons when needed. The word "nui" in the Egyptian language means weapon or tool. The Polynesian word "rapa" ("lapa" in Samoan) also means paddle. The Samoan "foe" is another word for paddle, but from a later time when they interacted with people on the western Pacific. These travelers also used axes, the "toki" ("to'i" in Samoan). This name was probably derived from the Egyptian word "qeh" (axe).

"Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians". (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 1: 2)

"Easter Island was given the name "Rapa Nui" (Great Rapa) by Tahitian sailors, in the 1860's, as it reminded them of Rapa - a small island in French Polynesia (now commonly referred to as Rapa Iti). Before 1863, the name was unknown on the island." -S. Fischer, "The Naming of Rapanui", Easter Island Studies: Contributions to the History of Rapanui in Memory of William T. Mulloy (Oxbow Monograph 32, Oxford, 1993, pp. 63-66.)

April 12, 2004: Dear Pen, "Rapa Nui" means "big paddle", literally, although some say that it was named after the island of Rapa Iti because it remined people of that island. The Rapanui people call it "Te Pito o te Henua", "the navel of the earth", also translated as "the end of the earth". I don't speak any Tahitian, so I don't know what it translates to in Tahitian - sorry! Best regards, Antoinette, Easter Islad Foundation Books

The Samoan words for paddle are "lapa" (anything shaped like a paddle) and "foe" (specific word for rowing paddle). I do not know of any equivalent Samoan word to "nui", but that does not mean there is none. The word "nui" means big in east Polynesia, but could it also refers to the strength of something? It is possible that the word "nui" was at one time used by the Samoans and was later replaced by a word from the western Pacific. It is also possible that the Samoan words "tui" (king and spear) and "nuti" (to shatter) point to a meaning for "Rapanui" as I have described. The different interpretations of "Rapa Nui" tell me that, maybe, there is probably an alternative meaning to this word. The "kahuna nui" (guardian-priests) of Hawaii may also say something about this subject. If the Polynesians used their paddles as weapons, then it is possible that the Zapotec (Central America) word "rapa" (take care of, watches, and guards), has significance here too.

3. The Sun

The Samoan word "sa" is sacred or restricted, and as a prefix designates family associations. The "sa" is associated with the veneration of the sun. The word for sun in Samoan is "la". I believe that there is an association between the Samoan "la" and "sa". The sun to the Polynesians was a sacred object. Also, the Samoan "la" is synonymous with the word "ra" that is used in other parts of Polynesia. Across Polynesia, the letters "R" and "L" are used interchangeably, as in the name of the mythical Polynesian hero Rata (Lata in Samoa). Hence the Samoan word for sun,"la", is synonymous to "ra", also sun, in other Pacific islands.

The Samoan "la" also refers to the sail of a boat, which I believe had something to do with the nettle materials that they originally fashioned sails with. Nettle is "lah" in the Quechean language and "lalavao" in Samoan. The application of the rising and setting of the sun in the Samoan language may indicate some hidden fact to the direction of their migration.

Come now; go back by the road you came; take people to possess the Eastern groups; take Atu and "Sasa'e;" that is a pair; they were called conjointly "Atu-Sasae;" these two people came from the heavens from among the children of Tangaloa. (Fraser, Tala: Samoan Creation Story)

The conclusion I arrived at looking at these words is this - in the Samoan language, the word for sacredness, family, and sun are the same. This shows how important the sun is to Polynesians - it is the sacred sun.

The word "sa" survived the initial contact as a word for sun. It was used to derive new words as shown by the following examples. The words for east (sasae) and west (sisifo) are both derived from the word "sa".

The word "a'e" is the Samoan word for climb. The word "sasae" means, "sun climb" (sunrise). The phrase "o a'e" means "go from." Ole a matou o a'e mai le fale o Taga. (We will go from Taga's house.) The word "a'e" is also found in the word "fa'aa'ea'e" that means to continue. Fa'aa'ea'e le tou malaga. (Continue your trip.)

The word "sisifo" (west) probably started out as "sasifo", whereby making "sasifo" to mean "sun going down," or sunset. The word "ifo" is bow in Samoan. The phrase "o ifo" means "go to." Ole a matou o ifo i le fale o Taga. (We will go to Taga's house.)

These words are also found in the western Pacific languages: "sae" (to climb - East Timor) and "sifo" (to go down - Lau). The origin and the exchange of these words is a matter for discussion, but it is clear that the rising and setting of the sun played a part in it.

The following Mayan words could provide some insight into the relationship between the Polynesian views of the Sun and their directional references.

	Maya	Samoa
nettle	lah	lalavao
sail	-	la
sun	k'in	la
east	lak'in	sasa'e
west	chik'in, och k'in	sisifo, probably sasifo
mouth	chi	-
enter	och	oi
climb	-	a'e
lift	-	sa'e, si'i, ee
north	e	matu
bow down	-	ifo

In the Inca region of South America, as well as other parts of Meso-America, the sun god was paramount. The sun played an important role in the lives of those who left the Sun-worshiped pre-Columbus America. The "sa" might have derived from those old traditions.

"The traditional history of the Chibchas attributed their cultural attainments to the teaching of a foreign migrant, generally known to them as Bochica or Xue....Bochica was also known as Sua, the local word for sun, and when the Spinards arrived they were taken to be his envoys and were called Sua, or Gagua, which also meant sun. (Heyerdahl,p.109)

Could the Samoan "sa" originated from Egyptian myths, or Hebrew?

The Egyptians believed that Aker, an earth-god, guarded the gates of dawn (shahar) and sunset (shalim) through which the sun rose every morning and set every evening. The ancient Egyptians placed statues of Aker at the doors of palaces and tombs to ward off evil spirits (1) and malicious entities. Could it be that the sacred Samoan "sa" is related to the Jewish "sha?"

Sha	Be quiet!
Sha-buhs	rest
Sha-char	dawn
Sha-dai	Almighty God

According to Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, author of "Egyptian Language", "sa" is an Egyptian word for son, and also sacred. This could explain the dual use of "sa" in Samoan - sacred and lineage (belong to a certain family). For example, to refer to the Mita family - we would say the Samita family.

Someone questioned my attempt to connect the Polynesian sun ('ra', 'la') to the Native American names. If it is true that Polynesians migrated from pre-Columbian America - he asked why the peoples on the continent and the islands call the sun differently. The sun is also named differently amongst the Native Americans themselves. He made a good point, of which I am not smart enough to provide a definite answer to. I came across a Kaingang (Brazil, South America) word for sun that looks interestingly similar to the Polynesians "ra", but, regrettably, that is not enough. The priests and astronomers of ancient Americas had immense influence on their cultures. The leaders, just as in our time, were mindful of the power of information and took advantage of it for their own gain. The dry astronomical facts were woven into social icons that became part of their languages and myths. The sun became god himself personified in their ruler - the sun was the king, the king was the sun. In Polynesia, the sun was an important navigational tool and its name was kept while they traveled between islands in the vast Pacific Ocean.

"About the Mayan glyphs - The Maya had 'published a record of themselves', as he (John Lloyd Stephens) put it. It was simple as that. The characters depicted on the stelae and lintels were not gods or priest, but Maya rulers." (David Drew, The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings, p.161)

"Thus each individual Maya king - and there were dozens of them - regarded himself as divine." (p.170)

"At Copan the very first Lord of all was named in full K'inich Yax K'uk Mo. He was the 'Sun-faced Blue-Green Quetzal Macaw'." (Drew, p.209)

"In charge of each of them was a category of nobility known as sahal. So far we have only come upon the word ahaw or 'Lord' when referring to the powerful families that ran a Maya city-state. All kings were of this rank and defined themselves more precisely as k'ul ahaw or 'holy lord'. But ahaw on its own is also used to describe members of the immediate royal family and heads of other major lineages. The distinction between the two is often hard to make in practice, but along the Usumacinta, sahal appears to refer to a slightly lower level amongst the aristocracy, often translated as 'governor' when it describes an individual who ran a dependent settlement on behalf of the king." (p.258)

Drew included in his book a Mayan glyph showing a picture of a jaguar with two symbols on its cheek - "kin" (the sun that is portrayed by four petals) and yax (first). Drew explained this by saying, "The first sun on the horizon at dawn, the moment at which the sun is reborn." Is the word "kin" originally meant sun or did it became sun due to some later valuation?

4. Roots

"Those who engage in Polynesian genealogy and recordkeeping, discover that the only records which antedate the arrival of Europeans in the Pacific which are available to the Polynesians today are the stories, genealogies and traditions which are preserved in the memories of the people. With the introduction of European records, traditions stories and legends are generally not accepted as sufficient proof for the establishment of a true record. However, in Polynesia, since memory and traditions are all that is available, as far as they seem reasonable and true, they should be accepted. The stories hand down by Polynesians from generations to generations may be classified into several groups: history, traditions, legends, folklores, and mythology. It is hard to determine at times, where true history ends and legends begins." (Bruce Sutton, "Lehi - Father of Polynesia", p. 153)

"It has been the experience of many genealogists who search out European genealogies to discover that family traditions are, in most cases, unreliable. Therefore, family traditions are not acceptable as facts until research proves them to be otherwise. Family traditions often supply good clues for research, and often, they have some truth. A good genealogist examining European records authenticates every connection from reliable recorded source materials, and does not accept anything as true because it looks good or sounds possible. These standards cannot necessarily be applied to the Polynesian genealogies. There are no written records to search, except those in existence, which came about, only after literacy was introduced by the Christian missionaries. All knowledge was handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth." [This was done through very selected pupils.] (Sutton, p. 171)

Bruce Sutton claims that Polynesians are decedents of people who came from the Americas. In his book "Lehi, Father of Polynesia", Bruce made extensive and detailed pedigree charts of several people from various Polynesia islands. One may question the authenticity of these his charts, but the fact that they exist in someone's memory makes me think that maybe we shouldn't discard them entirely from the discussion. The interesting thing about the charts is the pattern where the locations of common names shift east as you read higher up (backward) in the genealogies. It's not until much later that names with connection to Fiji are seen in the charts Bruce provided. All his charts point to Polynesians having roots in the eastern islands.

5. Residuals

I do not profess great linguistic knowledge of Polynesian and Native American languages, but what I came across shows an interesting similarity of some words and grammatical rules between these languages. These like words and grammatical rules strongly suggest a connection between the Polynesians and Native Americans.

ma

The adverbial particles are very numerous in Maya. No attempt has been made to exhaust the list. The most important are as follows: NEGATION: This is shown by the particle ma which precedes the nominal pronoun and comes immediately before the verb when the verbal pronoun is used. (Alfred M. Tozzer, A Maya Grammar, p.104)

The Samoan language uses ma, the same way - to create opposite words. For example "malosi" - strong ("losi" is untidy, unorganized), "masina" - moon ("sina" is white, gray-hair, brightness of sun), "mafua - origin ("fua" is fruit), and "malala - charcoal ("lala" is tree branch).

la

"La" is the particle denoting totality. (Alfred M. Tozzer, A Maya Grammar, p.98)

This rule exists in the Samoan language. For example "laau" - tree ("au" is a tree branch), "lai'titi" - smallness ("i'titi" is little), and "lala'i" - come as a group ("la'i" - come).

6. Tuamotu

On the extreme eastern part of Polynesia lies the islands of Tuamotu. Could the name "Tuamotu" derived from the Samoan words "tua" (back) and "motu" (severed and island)? The Polynesians could have referred to Tuamotu as back islands. The word "tua" also emphasize enormity; severely separated. On the other hand, the word "tua" might have derived from the word "tua'a", which means ancient and ancestor in Samoan. The Polynesian drive to colonize islands westward was probably born on Tuamotu. The Egyptian word "tua" means to pray, to praise, to adore, and to entreat.

Some of them longed for their previous homes and cried out au'e! - a common Polynesian word that is called out by people in great distress and sadness. Could these Egyptian words be the root of this outcry in Polynesia?

a	to cry out, to call, to invoke
au	to be long, extended
aa	great
kes	pay homage
re	opening, mouth, door

It is also possible that they were using something common with the Mayan word for listen! - u'ye?

Some may have attempted return trips home. Despite the longing for the homeland by some, many of them ventured further west. The west was in front of them; north ("akau" in Hawai'ian; "matu" in Samoan) was on the right. The word "akau" also means right side in Hawaiian. The Samoan "tau'matau" (right side) could have originated from "matu". On their left was south ("hema" in Hawaiian, which also means left). Another Egyptian word for south is "shema." Perhaps that might be a connection. In Samoa, the southerly direction is Toga - in the direction of Tonga. Left-side in Samoan is "tau'agavale," which could be translated as "the side that behaved foolishly." If the direction of the Polynesian migration was westward, then the meaning of "tau'agavale" (left-side) will become clearer later when I talk about the Samoan word "togafiti."

7. Tagata Uli (Hiti)

On their journey west, they encountered another group of people already there who were darker in appearance. They called them "tagata uli", dark ("uliuli") people, or "hiti". They were darker in complexion and fierce warriors. In time, they merged with their new neighbors and gradually lost more of their original knowledge. Little by little, generation after generation, the knowledge and the language spoken by their fathers who left the western coast of America was altered to what you hear today spoken by the Polynesians.

"In 1595 an inhabitant of Taumako in the eastern Solomons was able to describe to the first Spanish visitors a mental map of islands known to him, divided by the skin color of their inhabitants and associated propensities for cannibalism. The islands with lighter skinned people like himself, speaking related Polynesian languages, were described lovingly, those of darker skinned peoples as the haunts of cannibals." (Matthew Spriggs, The Island Melanesians, p.10)

"Egually dramatic are the stories from the Outliers of Rennell and Bellona further west in the Solomons concerning the fate of the indigenous inhabitants there, the hiti, described as black people. When the ancestors of the presents Polynesians speakers first arrived 23 generations ago they lived in harmony with the hiti for some generations, but then they turned on them and massacred the entire population. ... The oral traditions give a vivid and distressing picture of genocide which is chillingly reflected in modern Rennell and Bellona language where we find the word hiti with the meanings "original inhabitants...wretch, no-good (as in insults)..." (Spriggs, The Island Melanesians, p.206)

The word "hiti" might have been the origin of the name Fiti - Fiji. One can conclude from Spriggs' book that there was something akin to the arrival of the Europeans in western Oceania when the Polynesians arrived there previously. The new arrivals from the east probably named the natives as black people using a word originated from pre-Columbian America. The Mayan (3) word for black, "ek'," could have been the source for the word "hiti", pronounced as "e-k," or "hi-ti."

"Relations between the Solomon Islanders and the Spaniards were generally hostile... Coming out to Mendana's ship, they called for the tauriqui (spelt tabriqui in some accounts) of the Spaniards to appear, meaning chief or leader. From the general Polynesian term for chief, te ariki, this is not a local word and is one apparently unknown on Isabel today. (Spriggs, p.227)

"As can be seen from oral traditions in the region, the establishment of Polynesia populations on the Outliers was more often than not accompanied by the massacre or enslavement of the previous inhabitants. Perhaps this explains why these new foreigners, light-skinned like the Polynesians, were greeted everywhere they went with such vigorous response except on the two Outliers with which they had contact, Taumako and Tikopia. ... In Santa Cruz too the term Te Ariki was known for the leader of a foreign ship, as it was on Polynesian-speaking Taumako was the word for chief." (Spriggs, p.228)

Generation after generation, through wars, inter-marriage and commerce, that which we consider characteristically Polynesian today was gradually formed: different language, different custom, and different culture. However, there were legends and stories that were passed down through the generations by a degenerate form of priest-line. It was under those conditions that the "Solo ole Va" was authored and maintained through vocal traditions up to the time when Europeans appeared on the scene.

8. The Ripples At The Watershed

• Pigs, Chickens, etc.

  "[H. Wallin] ...made an important discovery that chicken bones were present only in the uppermost layers of refuse. The expedition's stratigraphic excavations revealed quite clearly that poultry, a Melanesian-Polynesian type of livestock, was unknown to the original inhabitants of EI and was introduced very late, presumably at the end of the Middle Period. This discovery confirmed the Easter Islanders' own account that seabird's eggs had been an important part of their forefathers' diet until they acquired poultry." (Heyerdahl, 1989, p. 228) (4)

  The contact with Melanesians provided new experiences: food, dance, and language. These new knowledge and things propagated backward (eastward) to other Polynesian islands. Researchers have found artifacts in the Society islands in eastern Polynesia that were made of materials found only in Southeast Asia. Commerce was widespread and the exchange of goods brought even more interactions with people of different cultures.

• Tattoo, Pe'a, Tatau

  Kirch observed: "Furthermore, the dominant or central motif throughout the corpus of early Far Western ceramics is the human face, originally in a highly recognizable synthetic figurative style, and later transformed to a more conventionalized, geometric figurative style. We are compelled to ask: were these cylinder stands and pedestalled-bowls more than mere utilitarian objects? Were they in fact representations of human being, living or dead, real or mythical?" (Kirch, p.143)

  "Tatau" is tattoo in Samoan, and it's probably the source of the English word. A Samoan legend says that some Fijian women taught the Samoans the art of tattooing. Not only were the new arrivals taught the art, but the mysteries surrounding it. Does the body art have a mythical parallel to the decorative pottery art? Were they vessels of spirits? Do tattoos protect warriors from evil spirits? Do tattoos provide connections to the spirit world? This was something that was readily adopted by the Polynesians. Interesting to know is the fact that the tatau for women is called the "malu" - to cover or to protect. The tattoos would have provided warriors with added confidence and they became an initiation for them into the warrior-world. A Samoan song explains that a man's whole body should be tattooed. We can find many similar elements in various myths of eastern Melanesia and western Polynesia. This merge gave birth to a new and unique culture in the central Pacific, which at a later time spread outward and reinvented Polynesia.

• Hindu Influence?

  As early as 100 BC, establishment of Indian settlements were made in Southeast Asia. According to the same source, contact between India and Southeast Asia went further back 2000 years. The Indian influence in that part of the world is very obvious by the languages and religion of Southeast Asia. The Hindu religion became a very powerful force in that region - influencing most of Southeast Asia and spilling over to lands further east. Chinese contacts were also made, with establishment of Chinese outposts around the 9th century. Islamic influence occurred around the 14th century.

  Including with these arrivals were sun-worshipers from the east. They said that they came from the "malae" - the celestial place. The original inhabitants referred to the new arrivals as malae (foreigners) - using their own word. The new arrivals were shunned, and their sun ideas were prohibited (sala). The word "la" is "not" in many Southeast Asia languages. The word "sala" is still the Samoan word for guilty or punishment. As the old "sa" (sun) traditions became corrupted, they adopted new words to their language and ideas to their tradition that remain to this day. The following Samoan words may have roots in Hindu traditions.

  Afi (fire)

  The Samoan "afi" (fire) could have originated from Agni, the Hindu god of fire, by way of Southeast Asia - "api" (Malay), "ahi" (East Timore).

  Agaga (spirit)

  Ananga is 'bodiless' in Hindu myth.

  Fetu (star)

  The Hindu word 'ketu' (brightness) could be the inspiration for the Samoan word for star (fetu). However, the Egyptian word for sanctuaries (hetu) may also be consider as the root of 'fetu' amongst the Samoan, who looked to the stars as their celestial origin.

  Mala (bad omen, transsexual)

  'Mara' in Hindu is the tempter, the destroyer of life, and a word for killing and death. The origin of the Samoan word 'mala' could be trace either to this Hindu word, or to a Native American myth. William Sullivan explains that the Inca astronomy divides the visible sky into upper (tuna) and lower (maras) planes.

  Nata (snake)

  The Hindu word for snake or serpent (naga) could be the origin of the Samoan word 'nata' (snake), but the root of this word may ultimately go back further to Egypt.

  Siva (dance)

  The Samoan word "siva" (dance) could have originated from the Hindu god Shiva. Another word for dance in Samoan is similar to the Zapotec (Central America) word - "saa."

  Tamaloa (man), Muli (butt)

  The "Seven Chakras" appears to provide some hints of Hindu influence in a couple of Samoan words - "muli" (butt), "mulimuli" (last), and "tamaloa" (man). The first chakra, Muladhara Chakra, is the basic support chakra (tail chakra). This sensual plane (Kama Loka) could be the source for the Samoan word "tamaloa" (man). The word "muli" would be a reference to the "muladhara chakra."

  An obvious question would be why the pervasive Hindu and Buddha cultures failed to move further east. Polynesia is basically a Sun-worship area.

9. Further Interaction Created A New People.

For hundreds of years, the descendants of those who migrated out of the Americas intermingled with the people they encountered, and they became a different people. The result was unique both physically and culturally. When the Europeans arrived in the Pacific, the people they met were products of that interaction. Even though they are now a completely different people, there are certain things that tend to refocus my attention to the Americas as an origin of the Polynesians.

23. Geography

Samoans once shared a culture with those on the neighboring islands. In fact, we know that Samoans interacted with places hundred of miles away - Tonga, Fiji, Cook Islands (Rarotonga), Fotuna, and Giribati - a mean distance of 700 miles. That represents roughly an area of 1.5 million square nautical miles - a little less than about half the size of the United States. Power by the wind, a boat with sail was an effective way for traveling long distances in ancient times. The distances between those islands are well within the navigational abilities of the Polynesians.

24. Various names for boat in Samoa

The basic Samoan word for boat is va'a. The Samoans also have other words to discribe different types of boats. A paopao is a small canoe. The tulula is a kind of row boat. Alia and folau are boats with sails, and the taulua is a large cannoe.

The contact with Melanesians added new words to the Polynesian language. In addition to va'a for boat, for example, the Samoans also have other words for boat. These other names for boat might have come from their contacts with other people.

"Another unusual feature of the Kimberleys is the boab tree. The boab is also known as the bottle-tree, or by its African name, the baobab. These trees, with their distinctive thick trunks, are also found in Africa, including Madagascar. There are eight species: six in Madagascar, and one each in Australia (adansonia gibbosa or gregorii) and Africa (adansonia digitati). It is said that there is evidence of them in some parts of Indonesia. They can live for up to 800 years." (Keith Del La Rue, http://delarue.net/bradshaw.htm)

The "alia" and "folau" are large canoes with sails. The "tulula" is a long boat rowed by a crew. The "paopao" is a small canoe that's most likely acquired from the Melanesians. Is it possible that the word "paopao" originated from the "baobab" tree that Del La Rue mentioned above? In Samoa, the fishing pole and the bamboo plant are both called "ofe." The fishing pole was most likely named from the bamboo plant that it's made from.

25. Returning To Familiar Places

"Come now; go back by the road you came; take people to possess the Eastern groups" (Fraser, Tala: Samoan Creation Story; Appendix D)

I believe that a catastrophic event occurred in the middle Pacific caused many Polynesians to ventured eastward to islands they were familiar with. I'll characterize this event as the Toga-Fiti, a major war that involved all major islands in the central Pacific including Samoa. Some may even go as far as the American continent itself. The Hawaiian story of Wakea shows somewhat of this.

"Wakea, expelled from Moluccan home, went south and settled in Fiji, where his people remained for about thirteen generations; and when expulsion from those islands took place is due course, several streams of migration issued simultaneously, or nearly so, to the Samoan, Tongan, Tahitian, and other eastward and northward groups. When these wandering migrants eventually reached Hawaii, from the south, they found the group already occupied by Polynesians of their own race - a people who had probably reached it directly from the west some hundreds of years earlier, and who had lived there quite isolated from the rest of the world. The lack of any history regarding them seems to indicate that they had lived in peace, and during their time of isolation they had undertaken works of considerable magnitude, the relics of which long survived." (Andersen, Myths of the Polynesians, p.363)

26. Rats

The articles written about the Pacific rat (Rattus exulan) indicate a pattern of successive migration into the Pacific, instead of one. The research findings about the Pacific rat may refute the express-train theory that some think as the way people were introduced in the middle Pacific. And when this rat was first introduced to other remote islands, such as Hawaii, it was already widely present in the central Pacific from Samoa to the Cook Islands. Research done in New Zealand showed that the Pacific rat was introduced there between 800 and 1000 years ago. Therefore, its arrival could coincide with the arrival of the first New Zealanders, the Maoris. This rat later traveled eastward towards Hawaii from the center Pacific. Doesn't that conflict with Maori traditions, which say that they came from the eastern islands? A backward movement of Polynesians would reconcile those two facts.

Samoan fables depict the rat (isumu/iole) as a cunning creature that is always driven to mischief; much like the fox in American cultures. Is it possible that the "isumu," which looks very much like a tiny version of the fox, inherited that trait from the eastern visitors? Southeast Asian traditions seem to view the rat as a benign animal that contributes to their welfare.

28. Society of warriors and a new beginning

The descendants of the those who left the Americas became warriors and were obsessed with making war. They had no interest in art or astronomy, and were less interested in the Melanesians pottery, which they imported and used for a while. Those activities taxed too much of their time to prepare and execute wars. The "umu" was much easier to prepare anywhere with few articles to carry. As a result of the Togafiti, some warriors retreated back to the eastern islands of Polynesia. They were warriors, and all they knew and preferred to do was making wars. Those who made delicate pottery and masterful structures gradually died out with the specialized knowledge. Just like the Andean priest-astronomers, who gained and maintained power by asserting divine rights, the Polynesian warriors asserted their divine rights by pilfering religion. They now claim their authorities as god given, and some even goes so far as claiming to be gods.

Reseachers have identified chicken remains in South America (Chile) that are genetically identical to the chickens in Polynesia. The scientists are now asserting that those bones are the remains of chickens brought to America by early Polynesians long before the Europeans arrived. Before this finding, the common notion was that the chicken was brought to the new world by Europeans. This discovery is credited to University of Auckland anthropologies Alice Stoery and Lisa Matisoo-Smith, and collaborators Jose Miguel Ramirez and Daniel Quiroz from Valparaiso and Santiago, Chile.

Gods or not, their days were numbered. Similar to what happened in the Americas, their society came to a crossroad - their fortunes ran out, and they were forced to change. How did it all end? It is possible that the outset of the Toga-Fiti caused remnants of those warriors dispersed to various locations in the Pacific (13) including far out places as Southeast Asia and South America. It is possible that this dispersal could be the way the DNA haplotype B (14) was transmitted across the expense of the Pacific and surrounding areas. There are stories that are told in some parts of Southeast Asia of strangers attacking coastal communities and chasing them inland. These strangers lived mainly in the coastal areas and were expert navigators. It's conceivable that some of them may have traveled further west - beyond what is now Indonesia. I also believe that this period in the history of the middle Pacific coincided with the destruction of the Nephite nation mentioned in the Book of Mormon - about 500 A.D.

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