Blyth.— On " The Whence of the Maori." 543 



a substance which over and above its chemical and material 

 constituents, contains what physiologists term spermatozoa, 

 that represents a Uviutj and fecundating principle. 



Another point of importance is the nature of fossil names 

 and words. Native etymology is helpful, just so far as the 

 words are not fossil ; but in the case of fossil words the original 

 form of the word has been mimicked in sound, as nearly as 

 possible, by similarly sounding Maori words ; the etymology of 

 which native words may, or may not, express the significance of 

 the original. For instance, Mahuta, a name of Tane, is such a 

 fossil name ; its Maori etymology may, or may not, express the 

 meaning of its original, Maha-deo, the great god; but its associa- 

 tion with the other names, Karihi or Krishna, Tawhaki or 

 Dewaki, Hem a or Uma, betrays its origin. The native ety- 

 mology cannot upset the inference that is to be drawn from this 

 coincidence. In the case of Karihi, which means a kernel, or a 

 sinker of a net, or eel-pot, we find the etymology has only a 

 lateral reference to the original subject, having a phallic signi- 

 ficance ; but it is not the equivalent of the Hindu name Krishna, 

 which means " the black god." This idea of blackness, however, 

 may have been originally expressed in the Maori tradition by the 

 introduction of the name of a brother, or counterpart, of Karihi, 

 that is Puncja, that being the form of name in the tale as it now 

 stands, (but which may have been originally Pango, or Mangu, 

 which both mean " black" in Maori ; Pango may have been a trans- 

 lation into Maori of the Hindu name Krishna, on the framing of 

 the present tale). However, by the slight alteration of the name 

 Pango :='b].a.ck, into Pmuja=.^YL eel-pot, and the retention of 

 Krishna in the Maori form, Karihi, " the smker of the eel-pot," 

 the phallic idea was capable of being in an occult way expressed : 

 and as it was no part of the Aryo- Maori priests' interest to 

 emphasize an an-aryan feature, as blackness of colour, the change 

 was the more easily eifected; and the original P«h^o =black of 

 the Maori, and the signification of the Krishna of the Hindu, 

 which answered to it, was effectually veiled, only to be under- 

 stood by the initiate ; until the meaning itself became lost, only 

 to be recovered on a comparative study. Similarly, Mangu = 

 the black man, another form of Pango, may have suggested the 

 shark idea ; for by a very slight alteration Mangu becomes Mango, 

 " the shark." A second purpose would be served by the change : 

 the original reptilian, or rather, reptile- worshipping, nature of 

 the cult could, in an occult way, be hinted at : and the efl'ace- 

 ment of Punga and Karihi, the Turanian brothers, as rivals of 

 the more Aryan Tawhaki, be the more effectually compassed. 



The deduction is plain, unless indeed the arguments, analo- 

 gies, and coincidences brought forward prove altogether erro- 

 neous, that in the elucidation of the problem as to the "Whence 

 of the Maori," the comparative method is the only adequate 



