However, not all languages have proverbs. Proverbs are (nearly) universal across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Some languages in the Pacific have them, such as Maori. Other Pacific languages do not, e.g. "there are no proverbs in Kilivila" of the Trobriand Islands. However, in the New World, there are almost no proverbs: "While proverbs abound in the thousands in most cultures of the world, it remains a riddle why the Native Americans have hardly any proverb tradition at all." Hakamies has examined the matter of whether proverbs are found universally, a universal genre, concluding that they are not.