Blyth.— Ow «' The Whence of the Maon." 541 



the Hindus, the drift of the practice of the Maori women 

 becomes iutelHgible. Putatieke means the hole of the Tieke; 

 and ticke, besides its signification as the name of a bird, is also 

 apphed by the Ngapuhi Maoris to the fruit of the kiekie : it is 

 called tieke ; as also, from its resemblance, by a more suggestive 

 name, ure, which means the phallos. Patatieke may then, in 

 an occult sense, refer to the phalhc images, the lingham and 

 yoni, of Hindu Turanian Phallo-pantheism. The " mythical 

 bird'" signification of the Tieke is equally Hindu ; it is the 

 "winged Garutmat" of the Veda and the winged disk of the 

 Egyptians ; the mystic bird that librates o'er the mundane egg, 

 and fructifies it ; the bird symbol of the union of spirit and 

 matter, which therefore answers to the male and female serpent 

 of Phallism. 



Now, it appears to me that evidence could hardly be more 

 significant and cumulative for the establishing of the truth of any 

 proposition, than we have here in Maori tradition for the solution 

 of the problem as to the " Whence of the Maori." The lords 

 many and gods many of Turanian type, of both the Maori and 

 Hindu Pantheon, resolve themselves into a triad, consisting of 

 father, mother, and germ ; they are found with similar names — 

 names scarcely altered or disguised in the Maori from their 

 originals in the Hindu. These gods and goddesses, or heroes 

 and heroines, have similar functions, and have similar stories 

 told of them. Then, again, seeing that Maori tradition carries 

 the Maori race back to Wairota, which has been shown to be 

 one with Bharata ; seeing that philology confirms this tradition, 

 it is hard to resist the conclusion of the identity of the races, or 

 that their deities occupy identical niches in the one Pantheon. 



The Maori features of this study carry some instructive 

 lessons, which it were well for the student of Eastern thought 

 not to overlook. One is, the esoteric and symbolic nature of 

 Eastern legends. It is mere waste of time to credit a philo- 

 sophical people like the Hindus, (and unsafe even of those with 

 whom they have had at any time contact,) with notions that are 

 popularly, though rather unwarrantably, ascribed to children — 

 that inanimate things have, for them, a life similar to their own. 

 Even children do not really believe anything of the kind ; they 

 simply amuse themselves with such a view for the time being, 

 just as poets indulge themselves in imagery. This matter, with 

 regard to children, can be tested by at any time taking up the 

 role of the little poets. Do so, and they will very soon open 

 their eyes in astonishment, and laugh at you for your credulity. 

 A case in point, from several that I am personally cognisant 

 of, will make this clear. A little fellow at Eussell, about (or 

 little more than) two years old, frightened by the noise of the 

 steamer's fog-horn, clung to his mother. She, to reassure him, 

 said, " Oh, it is only the steamer telling the people to come on 



