18 Transactioyis. — Miscellaneous. 



Tane sought long for woman ere he found her. He 

 married many singular bemgs and produced offspring of pass- 

 ing strangeness ere he came to Kurawaka. For instance, he 

 married Hine-tu-maunga, and produced Para-whenua-mea 

 (personification of flood- waters). He married Hine-wao-riki, 

 and had the kahika (a forest tree). He married Muuiuhanga, 

 and produced the totara (a forest tree). He married Tu- 

 kapua, and had the taivai (a tree which grows on high ranges). 

 He married Mango-nui, and had the taiva and hinau (both 

 trees). He married Te Pu-whakahara (a star name), and had 

 the maire (a tree). And so on, a long list of such unions, 

 until he went to Eangi and asked, " Where is the uJia (female, 

 or female nature) ?" And Eangi said, " The ivhare o aiUta is 

 below." Then Tane came and found woman of this world. 

 The expression 2vhare o aitua appears to mean " the origin of 

 misfortune and death," and to be applied to the female sex or 

 nature. Even so, Tane came to earth and found woman. 

 And the Maori people trace their descent from Tane, as they 

 do from Tiki. Thus, also, the trees of the forest are their 

 distant relatives, fellow-descendants of Tane. And this is one 

 reason why the Maori is so close in touch with nature. He 

 speaks of the forest trees as if they were sentient beings ; he 

 fells a tree and says, " Tane has fallen "; he performs strange 

 rites in order to placate the gods of the forest ; he peoples the 

 forest depths with singular beings. 



In Maori myth the heavenly bodies are credited with the 

 possession of sex and of human attributes. The sun has 

 two wives, Hine-raumati and Hine-takurua, the Summer 

 Maiden and the Winter Maiden. The star Eehua (Antares) 

 has also two wives, Whakaonge-kai and Euuhi, the latter 

 being also known as Peke-hawani. The moon, which is 

 deemed a male, has two wives (perhaps I should say two legal 

 wives, inasmuch as the moon is said to be the husband of all 

 women, and is the cause of inenstruation). 



Such animistic illustrations might be given ad nauseam, 

 but we will now give a few items from the Tuhoean folklore 

 tales. The Tuhoe Tribe were originally known as Nga-Potiki, 

 the Children, or the Descendants of Potiki. These aborigines 

 are descended from one Potiki, a remote ancestor, whose origin 

 was a most singular one, as follows : One Hine-pukohu-rangi 

 is the personification of mist in Tuhoean myth. It was this 

 Maid of the Heavenly Mist who lured to earth Te Maunga, 

 the Mountain, and from the union of these two sprang Potiki 

 fthe Child), from whom sprang Nga Potiki (the Children, or 

 Descendants of Potikij, who are now known as Te Ure-wera 

 and Tuhoe. They are the Children of the Mist. 



A similar being seems to have been one Tairi-a-kohu, who 

 descended to this world in order that she might bathe in the 



