Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Maori and Polynesian: their origin, history and culture

Paradises

Paradises

(1) Homesickness is a feature even of modern emigrants, especially if the home has been left too far off for frequent returns. Though it becomes fainter with years and new development, the actual migrants never lose it. And amongst the posterity legend and story keep the new country linked with the old sentiment.

(2) The more primitive the people the less is the emotion blanched by Other phases of life, and in earlier ages of mankind it must have prevented any but slow and gradual migration, long distances from the starting-point being achieved only in centuries. And when distance intervened and return became impossible, imagination gradually omitted all the offensive features of the homeland and enhaloed it. Religion took it up thus idealised, and made it the paradise of the race, whither all its finer spirits were permitted to return at death.