498 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Karilii, saying : ' Oh, brother, shall we go ancl search for my 

 little gu'l ?' And Karihi consented, saying, ' Yes, let us go.' 

 Tawhaki and Karihi then went upon the road, 

 accompanied by only one slave. They at last reached the spot 

 where the ends of the tendrils which hung down from heaven 

 reached the earth, and they there found an old ancestress of 

 theirs, who was quite blind, and whose name was Mata-kerepo 

 (blind-eyes). She was appointed to take care of the tendrils, 

 and she sat at the place where they touched the earth and held 

 the end of one of them in her hands, . . . Tawhaki 

 then touched both her eyes ; and, lo ! she was at once restored 

 to sight, and saw quite plainly, and she knew her grandchildren 

 and wept over them.""- Keeping in mind this singular Maori 

 story of the heavenly maiden, let us read a brief legend from 

 Atiu : " It is said that Ina took to her celestial abode a mortal 

 husband. After living happily together for many years she said 

 to him, ' You are growing old and infirm. Death will soon 

 claim you, for you are a native of earth. This fair home of 

 mine must not be defiled with a corpse. We will therefore 

 embrace and part. Return to earth, and there end your days.' 

 At this moment Ina caused a beautiful rainbow to span the 

 heavens, by which the disconsolate aged husband descended to 

 earth to die." The mention of this rainbow connects itself 

 with another myth which relates that the god Tangaloa (Tanga- 

 roa) fell in love with Ina, when she was bathing in a stream 

 called Kapu-ue-rangi ; hence one name of Ina is " Ina-ani-vai" 

 (lua-solicited-at-the-fountain). He unfastened his girdle, which 

 mortals call the rainbow, and descended by this dazzling path 

 to earth. Ina gave way to him, and had two children, Tarauri 

 and Turi ; both were fair like their parents (Tangaloa has golden 

 hair). In Tahiti, Hina was supposed to have been the first 

 creatio)! of the great Taaroa (Tangaroa), and it was with her 

 help that he made the heavens, earth, and sea. His two sons 

 by her are called Oro-tctefa and Uru-tetcfa. From the wife of 

 the eldest of these sons arose the famous Areoi Society, the 

 priest-freemasons of the Eastern Pacific. This Oro, afterwards 

 a great god, was probably the Koro mentioned in Mongaian 

 legend as Hina's son ; the Tahitians regularly losing the /.• in 

 their dialect. The islanders of Nine have an " underworld," to 

 which the spirits of the dead depart ; it is called jMaui : but 

 their heaven is the bright " land oi Siua," in the skies, whore 

 night comes not, but day is everlasting. The Manahikians, in 

 telling the story of " fishing up the laud," say that Sina, who 

 was the sister of Maui Mua, Maui Loto, and Maui Muli (Maui, 

 first, middle, and last), helped to fasten the great fish-hook : a 

 tradition also believed in Hawaii (Sandwich Islands), where it 



«' Polynesian Mythology," Grey. 



