MAORI ORIGIN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 12 October 1927, Page 4

MAORI ORIGIN.

CENTRAL ASIAN FINDS. ROSSII3ILITIES DISCLOSED. There are enough points of similarity between ’an ancient race once inhabiting Central Asia and the Maori to justiry tne belief that, even though mere may he no direct relationship, at some time the two peoples were intimately connected. ’1 his is the view of Dr. 6. Olsen, a Norwegian scientist, who in 191-1 led a scientific expedition into Southern Siberia and the Uriankhai .oinitry, a borderland of Northeril Mongolia.

During the expedition, in which four Norwegian scientists and one young Russian arelmeologi.st took part, beside ot.tier works, special attention was paid to the tombs of the ancient “Tse nudes,” which two or three thousand years ago inhabited the Abakansteppe in Southern Siberia. Ike Tschudes (the name is Russian, and means ‘‘the foreigners”) are supposed to have been the ancestors oi the Finno-Ougriaii race of to-day. They disappeared suddenly, and in the tombs are found numbers of broken skulls. indicating that they were killed in battle. The marauders are supposed to have been Uigurians, invading tlie country from the Chinese province of Shansu. It is remarkable that these Tschudes are found buried in the old Maori fashion. The survivors of the old Jenisseian people are supposed to have been driven to the north, along the rivers of Jenissei and Oh. from where they slowly spread over the tundras. Most likely' the Samoveds, Ostiaks and Lap pons have originated from them. One bruimh probable sought refuge among the wild and thickiv-forested mountain ranges bordering Mongolia. In the vast and almost entirely unknown Uriankhai country, between the Sava n and Tannu Ola mountain ranges, we find scattered along the holy rivers of Bei-kem and TTlu-kem, head-waters of the enormous' Jenissei. some tribes of Soyots apparently closely related to tlie Northern FinnoOiigrian tribes.

Some of these tribes, especially the so-called “todshin-Soyots,” which are totally isolated from the outside world among enormous mountain-ranges, were until recently almost entirely' unknown to science. Mr. Carruthers, an English traveller, was the first man to drew the western world’s attention to the existence of these very interesting Mongolian reindeer-nomads, and shortly after they were studied and described by Dr. Olsen, who brought a good collection of their to the Ethnographical Museum of Norway.

the type of the Soyot is in many rospe ts very similar to that of the Maori, and there was much to show that many of their ideas were similar, g-o. for instance, the cuckoo has the same holiness’ among the Soyots as it had among the old Maoris. Their religious and moral ideas are very much related. The type would Have changed a little in the centuries with the progression southwards, but there was ouite a possibility that these ancient Central Asiatic people were the same as formed the foundation of the Malayan peonies and later of the Polynesians. Even if these neople were not vela tod to the Maoris, their founder®. judging by the similarity of ideas ind customs. 1 must have had a good deal to do with each other.