Polynesians

Origin Of The

Relationship Between India and Easter Island

From Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete, Apl. 24.

A QUESTION which is intriguing the minds of those engaged in research in Polynesian origins, is the possible relationship between the inscriptions found at Mohenjo-Daro (India) and those on the ancient tablets of Easter Island.

“Indus Civilisation”, by Ernest Mac kay, informs us;—“lt is a little more than a decade since the researches of the Archaeological Survey of India re vealed the existence of a great pre historic civilisation in the Indus Valley, dating back to the third and fourth mil lenium 8.C., and rivalling and, in some respects perhaps, excelling, those of ancient Egypt and Babylonia.

“At Mohenjo-Daro, the evidence points to a highly organised society of peaceful character widely engaged in trade; living in carefully-planned brick built cities, with elaborate systems of drainage and public and private baths; making a fine, wheel-turned pottery— often highly decorated; cultivating cotton, wheat, barley and the date palm; and employing wheeled carts for carriage”.

“Hundreds of seals delicately en graved with various figures and in scriptions in pictographic characters that have hitherto defied attempts to decipher them” ... have been un earthed.

The first resemblance between the Easter Island and Mohenjo-Daro in scriptions is the manner of their arrangement—from left to right and right to left alternately—which has been given a long and tongue-twisting name: Boustrophadon, culled from a Greek lexicon by some scientist delighted at his discovery, and signifying “turning like oxen in ploughing”.

Experts in ideographic symbols are fully persuaded of the resemblance of the characters themselves, save that those of Mohenjo-Daro have assumed conventional forms, whereas those of Easter Island are of the crude, primi tive fashion of an earlier age.

The whole matter, however, resides in the realm of theory and will remain there until the discovery of some Ros setta Stone shall disclose the key to unlock the mystery of the Indus Valley inscriptions.

The reason Polynesian scholars are deeply interested in the resemblances is that the establishment of kinship be tween these widely-separated inscrip tions would set a signpost on the road to that baffling, misty homeland of the Polynesian: the Havaiki of their remote ancestors.

That this natal land lies somewhere in Asia has been the opinion of many writers, from Fornander and De Bovis to those of the present day.

Miss Teuira Henry quotes from Mr.

S. Percy Smith:—“Mr. Smith states that a very learned chief of New Zea land, named Taare-Wetere-Te-Kahu, in describing the original Havaiki, of Maori tradition, pictured it as a Tua whenua’ (extensive land), in Atia (India), in which was to be found a very extensive area of level country, bounded inland by very high mountains, which were perpetually capped with snow. Through this expansive country flowed a great river called Tohinga (cleansing by immersion), a word that plays an important part in Maori tradi tion.

“This description of land points to India, the mountains perhaps to the Himalaya range, and the river to the Ganges, in which to this day the Hindus bathe to cleanse themselves of their sins.

“The Maoris have probably retained this old tradition pure from their most ancient tribes, owing to their isolation from more modern blendings, while it has become lost to the central Poly nesians”.

Mr. W. L. Holland, international re search secretary for the Institute of Pacific Relations, New York, is at present in Australia.

Mr. Pat Costello, well-known in con nection with the Fiji mining industry, arrived in Sydney by the April “Mari posa”.

Mr. Geoffrey Cook, of Wau, New Guinea, has announced his engagement to Miss Lorna Reynolds, daughter of Mrs. N. H. P. Neal, of Wau. The ten tative date of the wedding is November.

Mr. Mark Pitt, of the District Services Department, Talasea, New Britain, is at present on furlough. He is being relieved by Assistant District Officer McCarthy, formerly of Buka Passage.

Mr. R. C. Kerkham, auditor for Burns Philp (South Sea) Co., Ltd., at Suva, returned to Fiji by the “Monterey” in early May, after a business visit to Western Samoa. He was accompanied by Mrs. Kerkham.

Mr. R. F. Pickering, manager of the Bank of New South Wales, Suva, has been appointed a nominated member of the Fiji Legislative Council.