tahitans

Updated: May 17, 2025

Finally, let me congratulate you heartily on having written so excellent a book, full of thought on all sorts of subjects. Once again, let me thank you for the very great honour which you have done me by your dedication. Believe me, my dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, Vol. Judging from descriptions the pure Tahitans must differ much from your Papuans.

Sir James Marchant - Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1

Thus: "'Twas the morning of time When yet naught was, Nor sand nor sea was there, Nor cooling streams. Earth was not formed Nor heaven above. A yawning gap was there And grass nowhere." Not unlike these conceptions of the "Beginning" is that which Morenhout found in a song of the Tahitans, and which ran thus: "He was; Toaroa was his name, He existed in space; no earth, no heaven, no men."

Frank F. (Frank Field) Ellinwood - Oriental Religions and Christianity: A Course of Lectures Delivered on the Ely Foundation Before the: Students of Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1891