Blyth.—Uh ''The Whence of the Mauri." 526 



went Rangi ; down entirely went Papa, . . . Taue Mahuta 

 is represented as a tree with its head downward and roots 

 upward, and thus trees were supposed formerly to grow. 

 . . . Tane had six names, each being emblematical of his 

 power : — 



" Tane Tuturi=Taue the bending. [If my theory is 

 correct, it would mean recumbent or bent.] 



Tane Pepeke=Tane the boAving, 



Tane Uetika=Tane straight as a tree. 



Tane Ueka=Tane strong as a tree. 



Tane-te-Waiora=Tane the person who opened the foun- 

 tain of living water. 



Tane-nui-a-Eangi = The great Tane of heaven." 



In addition to these he is called Tane Mahuta. The last 

 great work which is attributed to him is the opening of the 

 fountain of living water to perpetuate the existence of the sun 

 and moon. The latter, when it wanes, is thought to go to it, 

 and bathing therein to receive a renewed existence. Hence the 

 saying : " Man dies and is no more seen ; but the moon dies, 

 and plunging into the living water, springs forth again into 

 life." Mr. Taylor adds in a note : " The same tradition of 

 the heaven being joined to the earth is found in Tahiti, and that 

 they were only separated by the teva {Draconittim polyphi/llum, 

 an insignificant plant,) till their god Run (the Maori Pm) 

 lifted it up — Na Ruu-i-to-te-rai = Eu did elevate (or raise) the 

 heavens." 



Now, we must put aside the exoteric features ; they are mere 

 adjuncts to disguise the true significance : such as the Maori 

 belief that Tane realli/ lifted the heavens from off the earth, or 

 that he was the father of trees and birds ; these are mere 

 exoteric features that make the legend. The esoteric features 

 disclosed by a comparative study of the fossil names embedded 

 with Lidian mythology, point to an elaborate philosophy as 

 underlying the story. Tane means the male, in Maori, and here 

 stands for the distinguishing organ of the sex, or the phallos, 

 (and thus the truncated tree, ashera, or monolith, as expressed 

 in symbol,) that makes generation and regeneration possible, by its 

 fecundation of the fountams of being or life. The attributive 

 terms, tiitiiri, pepeke, etc., applied to Tane, form, really, an ex- 

 tremely sensuous but realistic picture of the different functional 

 states of the phallos. 



I need hardly urge that this naked exposition of a cer- 

 tain phase in the anatomy of the human mind is not 

 advanced in any spirit of irreverence or wantonness. But, 

 in order to arrive at truth, and to form a correct estimate of 

 the different progressive stages in the physiology of belief, 

 philosophy cannot afford to hesitate, or look coy, in its examina- 



