POLYNESIAN THOUGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20554, 3 May 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

POLYNESIAN THOUGHT.

BY r.W.Ci

BIRD-LIFE AND BIRD-NAMES.

111. Where stntcly palui3 ambrosial odours fling. In amber ilorets palo outblossoniing. From brimming elfin cups of honeydew And erythrina-bloonis o£ ricli red hue, Tho senga nips her til parrot-kind The tiniest, with her breast incarnadined. In tree-top high tho brown cicala sings And shrills and trills. With flash of purple

wings And bully collar the kingfisher darts Where splash of leaping fish tho water

parts. In woodland dells green doves and grey doves call, Twixt silver strand and sounding waterfall, Bird-echoes plaintive ringing Ah of little bells a-swinging,

Like fairy chimes in sweet carillon clear, Come softly stealing on the enraptured ear, —Vailima Echoes.

In tho woodland districts of Melanesia, west of tho Date-line, thero is a great abundance of bird-life of most varied and, frequently, of very peculiar type, which offers a wide fielt) of research to tho naturalist. In Polynesia eastward, on tho other liand, as one approaches tho great central Pacific basin, it naturally grows scantier and scantier. Hero and there some curious endemic forms survive, such as the kaka or largo blue lorikeet, a rare and beautiful bird peculiar to the rocky isle of Ewa, in tho Tonga group. There is also the large, rare, claret-coloured pigeon, the little dodo of Samoa (the rnanumea or " redbrown bird"), which has withdrawn itself far into the mountain fastnesses. On tho threo largest Samoan islands tho usual land-bird life of tho Pacific is fairly well represented.

All around the Villa Vailima, where Stevenson made his forest heme, the true bird-lover, like Yeats' dweller on the Lake Isle of Innisfree, will find much for puro delight and great peace of his soul. The five small branching uso or rill-heads that purl seaward around the homestead and give tho place its beautiful name make of this precinct a veritable Eden, an ideal bird sanctuary of hanging woods and singing waters. All day long adown tho hills sounds the fluting of doves innumerable, and at night the still hush of tho sleeping woods intermittently broken by the subdued hoot of the little bushowl, or lulu, as our morepork is called by the Samoans.

Imitative Names. Lulu is the old Persian and Indian word for a ghost or hobgoblin. Similarly, the Malays style the owl burong : hantu or " goblin "bird," from his gleaming eyes, his noiseless flight and his eerie nightserenading. A diminutive kingfisher, the tiotala (Todiramplms pealei), abounds in this labyrinth of littlo waterways. This beautiful bird has a wonderfully wide distribution in Oceania: from Japan in the north (where his name is ruru) and the Carolines in the north-west down to New Zealand in the far south; from Samoa to Tahiti (where he is known as ruri and otare); and across to tho wild Marquesas on Polynesia's furthest verge.

Many Oceanic names of birds are merely imitation of their characteristic note or cry, such at titi, the mutton-bird, kuku, tho dove, and kuaka, tho godwit. Some, again, receive their names from some peculiarity of habit or flight. Kotare, tho Maori word for kingfisher, is a remarkable case in point. The Tahitian form merely drops the initial K. On Atiu, in tho Cook group, a larger, purple, lizard-eating cousin of the dacelo of North Queensland, very close in type to a_ large kingfisher, is called ngotare. After a wido gap of over three thousand sea miles wo come to Ponape, in the Eastern Carolines, where the kingfisher is called kotar. Thence two thousand five hundred miles west to tho Isle of Flores, near Java and Bali, the name is kodjav. Finally wo track him down to Northern Java, where, in the Sunda dialect, we find the peculiar verb kotjar-kotjar, denoting " swift-darting flight." What a vivid word-picturo of its headlong plunge like a blue airow, and what a widelytravelled titlo-label for this pugnacious small fisher-bird of our own Maoriland! All over Malaysia and Oceania poultryraisers berate him for a mischievous little rascal, shooting in and scaring fowls from their feed, and actually picking out tho eyes of young chicks running at their mother's side. The Mutton Bird. Our quaint migratory visitor, tho mutton bird or titi, deserves an appreciatory word or two. Dr. Guthrio Smith has humorously described its habits as seen in its breeding season on Stewart Island in his recent work, " Mutton Birds and Other Birds." The Maori is very fond of its somewhat rank, oily ilesh, but, liko tho matuku, or blue heron, known as tho " Frenchman's turkey" by Eastern Pacific traders, it makes excellent " mock duck." It should be first parboiled, then stuffed with chopped onion, thyme, sago and breadcrumbs, grilled over a quick fire, and served with a dressing of lemon juice. This comical bird gives its name to the district of Titi-Kaveka, near Avarua, on Rarotonga. It was formerly plentiful in the Cook Islands. Thirty years ago it was abundant among the rocks at Ivirua, on tho north coast of Mangaia. The late Rev. W. W. Gill informs us: "In tho month of December it leaves its burrowings in tho red soil of tho hills, and comes to the rocks near the sea to fatten its young on small fish. The hunter has only to call out at the entrance of the dark cave in a plaintive tone ' Etiti, <>!' when the foolish bird, imagining it to be tho. voice of its mate, comes out of its hiding placo and allows itself to be caught by tho hand." Curiously enough, .in tho old language of India, tho partridge is called titti or tittri. Three Instructive Names. The three bird-names following, based, tho first on vivid colouring, tho second on esoteric attribute and ancient sacred legend, tho third on a peculiar bristliness around tho beak, gives us firmer ground to stand upon than that afforded by mere bird-note echoes in establishing Aryan affinities in Maori and Polynesian. (1) All over tho Pacific tho red-tailed tropic bird is called tavako or tavaki (Phaeton rubriauda). Our New Zealand Maori knew it as tho amo-kura, and the crested penguin as the tawaki. Note also tho Sanskrit stavak, , " a peacock's plume; any bright crest; tuft or feather."

(2) I'ho widespread Oceanic word for " the frigato bird," so called from its stately (light, liko tho gliding of a crreat ship under a cloud of canvas. In Polynesia it is called katafu: in Micronesia kataf and gatyava; and in Fiji kandavu (also a princely title). Jt is tho old Sanskrit grandhary, "an angel" or ' heavenly messenger," and is applied also to the cuckoo among birds. Jt is a mystic bird-name, borne into Oceania on what tide of old sacred tradition who can tell ?

(3) Our familiar Maori bird-name tho hu'i'a. In Samoa, a dark-coloured kind of starling is known as fti'i'a. The derivation from the Sanskrit phusika, a " whisker" or " bristle," seems very probable. Both of these arc whiskered birds.

Liko little pebbles thrown upon a cairn, wo may tentatively add these bird-names to tho huge and ever-growing heap of cumulative evidenco pointing insistently to Mother India, to Java, her ancient island colony, and to the neighbouring isles of Indonesia as the early nursery in part at least, of tho ancestors of the brown people of the wide Pacific.