Blyth.— 0« ''The Whence of the Maori:' 523 



exotic representations ; and perhaps, after all, Mr. McKenzie 

 Cameron's conjecture, that the Nga Puhi tribes of New Zealand 

 represent the Kaga Fiihi, or Snake Tribe (or, I should suggest, 

 the snake-worshipping tribes,) of India, may be true. The 

 objection raised by Mr. Stack, (and probably Maori scholars will 

 all think with him,) that the Maori etymology, and, moreover, 

 the fact that in Maori the adjective or qualifying term never 

 precedes the substantive, both forbid the possibility of such a 

 construction ; yet it may be possible that the AV/rt, or Ngati, 

 which enters into combination with almost every tribal name in 

 New Zealand, represents a titular particle of unknown etymology 

 — a patronymic, perhaps, rather than the plural definite article, 

 in such cases; but, of course, this is a point for linguists to 

 settle. I simply hazard the suggestion, without any knowledge 

 on this head, and I cannot pretend to anything of the kind. I 

 will add, however, that in Mr. Taylor's book (chapter v.) a num- 

 ber of " 'reptile gods' are mentioned as ranged under Maru." 

 From their names, I should judge them to be Turanian deities 

 connected with snake-worship ; but of this, more anon. There 

 is just one other passage which seems to bear on the snake con- 

 nection : it is in the cosmogonic hymn already quoted. Mr. 

 Taylor says " in the sixth period, after the creation of the gods 

 in the previous period, the earliest men were formed. That 

 these were of reptilian character seems to be implied in the fol- 

 lowing descriptive names : — Ngae, Ngaenui, Ngaeroa, Ngaepea, 

 Ngaetuturi, Ngaepepeke. 



Supposing Ngae to represent the Hindu Naga, "the snake," 

 these names become : Snake, Big Snake, Long Snake, Snake- 

 like, the Couching (recumbent, or bent) Snake, the Leaping (or 

 erect) Snake. Ngae is one of the names of Kae, in the legend 

 of Tinirau and his whale; and I am satisfied that in his case the 

 significance of the name connects him with the Turanian Snake 

 Tribe, or snake-worshippers. I think on the whole, the evidence, 

 from other legends as well, strengthens the inference that the 

 Naga worship was not unknown to the ancient New Zealanders. 

 The Ngaenui, etc., etc., either describe the phallic-snake, or, 

 if descriptive of a tribe of men, its worshippers. It will be 

 seen later on that the same adjectives, tuturi, pepeke, are applied 

 to another form of the phallic symbol. 



The Naga, or phallic- snake, worshipped by the early Tura- 

 nians in India as a symbol of the Deity, must not be confounded 

 with the cloud-serpent of the Aryan solar mythology, the emblem 

 of darkness — and so evil, and death. The phallic-snake repre- 

 sented the good principle of light, and life, and healing : it was 

 the brazen serpent of Moses ; the " agatho daimon " (Aya^o- 

 caijdwv) of the Greeks ; the Kneph, or Knuphis, of the Egyp- 

 tians ; and, as I have shown elsewhere, the object of the adora- 

 tion of the Nephelim of Genesis, a word translated " giants" in 



