Long Bright Land (Hardcover)

1929. Fairy tales from southern seas. Long before Columbus braved the Atlantic Ocean and discovered America, those intrepid navigators, the Maoris, in their tree-hollowed canoes voyaged and revoyaged the Pacific, compared with the Atlantic is but a narrow sea. From their tropical shores, they migrated to tropic islands. In successive migrations, about the 14th century, several tribes sought the lovely islands of the New Zealand group and remained. They brought with them and established here their stone age culture, their priest, and their traditions from the older lands. The Maoris are not brought up in the civilization of the white; their legends are forgotten. But that these tales of a race's childhood, this store of romance and poetry and laughter should be lost to the childhood of today - would it not be a pity?