Blyth.— Ow " The Whence of the Maori:' 539 



harvest festivals of Egypt. " lu its purely symbolical aspect," 

 says a writer in " Harper's Monthly Magazine," " the ship is very 

 conspicuous. It is the emblem of wealth, and the hieroglyph of 

 plenty. The earth itself is an ark, containing within itself every- 

 thing necessary for replenishing the world. And so, in the old 

 mysteries of dead religious, the ship always had an honoured 

 place, being carried in the processions of the priests, either in 

 its own form — an actual ship model — or in some occult symbol 

 of the symbol — a bowl or cup, or shell, or water-flower. So, in 

 the worship of Isis, a ship, sometimes of colossal size, freighted 

 with the first-fruits of the year, was carried by patient kine in 

 a triumphal progress — ' the voyage of Isis' — from shrine to 

 shrine, in the early days of March." The occult symbols — the 

 ship, bowl or cup, or shell, or water-flower (the lotus lily, that 

 is), all mean the yoni or womb of Nature. 



I may add, it attests the tenacity and value of tradition, 

 that it is for this reason rather than for any other that sailors 

 call a ship " she."* The kumara, then, or " canoe of Pani," 

 undoubtedly alludes to the ijoni of the Hindu Phallic cult. 

 The word yotii itself is retained in Maori in not exactly the same 

 sense, but in an allied one. The Tahitian for kumara is umara ; 

 and Mr. Colenso has shown that in South America the name is 

 umar ; perhaps this form, umara, was the original one, and con- 

 nected this fruit of the earth with Uma or Kali, who, we shall 

 presently see, represents Pani. 



The kumara, then, represented the female symbol of the 

 Phallic cult ; the aruhe, or fern-root, which was said to descend 

 from the back, as the kumara was said to descend from the 

 front, represents the phalhts, in the vegetable economy of nature, 

 just as Tane does in the animal. The Mahomedans of India 

 say they are descended from the backbone of their fathers. 



In the "Spell of Paikea " the " skid of Houtaiki" is men- 

 tioned. Mr. Colenso explains in his notes that this alludes to 

 the skids on which his canoe was drawn up on shore ; " it also 

 meant a barrier that might not be passed, known as ' te puru 

 Houtaiki: " " The name of Houtaiki often occurs in poetry in 

 connection with that of Houmea," says Mr. Colenso, and he 

 refers us to the story of Houmea, of which he gives a transla- 

 tion. There the name appears as Uta, and he is the husband 

 of Houmea ; that is, Ho-uta is the husband of Ho-umea, and 

 they are the parents of Tu-tawhake, or Tawhaki. I have shown 

 that Tawhake and his mother, Houmea or Hema, and his 

 father, Uta or Mahuta — or, as it would seem, Houta as well — 

 correspond . the first to Krishna, as represented by the name 

 Dewaki ; the second to Uma or Kali ; and the third to 

 Mahadeo or Siva — the Turanian Trinity — all members of the 



' See " Eosicrucians." 



