190 Transactions. 



many rites, customs, beliefs, &c, conserved in Maori ritual, 

 myth, and folk-lore, tends to a belief that the remote ancestors 

 of the Maori must have for a long period dwelt in a forest 

 country. 



Possibly the Indian concept of the universe tree approaches 

 more closely the Maori myth than any other we wot of, wherein 

 Brahma himself is described as the vast overspreading tree of 

 the universe, of which the gods are the branches. In Eastern 

 legend the cosmic tree sometimes appears as the giver of im- 

 mortality, whereas in Maori legend Tane-te-wai-ora confers that 

 boon by means of the " waters of life." In Arabia the stars 

 were said to be the fruit of the zodiac tree, while the Maori has 

 it that the stars were the ornaments of the house of Tane-te- 

 wai-ora. 



The custom of planting a tree at the birth of a child, with the 

 belief in some mystical relationship between them, has obtained 

 in many lands, and has been noted by the late Mr. John White 

 as having been practised by the Maori in former times. The 

 " world pillar," allied to the cosmogonic tree, was also a Maori 

 concept. The " family tree " and " community tree " have 

 not, I believe, been noted in Maori myth, but there is some 

 evidence in favour of a belief in phallic trees. Such a tree is 

 Te Iho o Kataka, a hinau tree at O-Haua-te-rangi, Kua-tahuna, 

 a description of which, and the necessary rites in order to cause 

 a woman to conceive, we have already placed on record. 



We would hesitate to say that the Maori practised tree- 

 worship, although certain trees were, for various reasons, looked 

 upon as possessing certain supernatural powers, or as being 

 the material representation of wood spirits, or spirits of the 

 land, or as being tapu because a chief died near such tree, or it 

 was used as a burial-place, or because the severed umbilical 

 cord of a new-born infant was deposited on such tree. A tree 

 on or in which such umbilical cords were placed, or under 

 which a dying man had been laid, would often be adorned, in 

 modern times, by means of hanging thereon bright - coloured 

 handkerchiefs, strips of cloth. &c, from time to time ; but in 

 pre-European days some prized article, as a piece of greenstone, 

 would be placed on the tree, often thrust into a crevice or fissure 

 in the bark. 



Now, a traveller who might happen to see such trees so 

 adorned would very probably be of the opinion that the Natives 

 of the district were tree-worshippers — the trees so adorned, as 

 well as tipua trees and uruuru-whenua tiees, being looked upon 

 as gods. But it needs a long residence among a primitive people, 

 a deep interest in primitive cults and kindred studies, and a 

 tireless patience, before we can find out what any primitive 



