Best. — Maori Eschatology. 231 



was the origin or prototype of all other gods. Unless Io comes 

 under that heading, moral gods are lacking m the Maori pan- 

 theon. Rongo and others were gods of peace, but their code 

 of ethics was scarcely pure. 



An ancestral god would succour and protect his descendants, 

 unless they violated some law of tapu, when they punished the 

 erring one with severity. But they were powers for evil : they 

 impaited the power to the spells and rites of black magic prac- 

 tised by their descendants. They were also war-gods of great 

 ferocity and of a pitiless nature. 



Spirits of the dead were termed " kehua," or " whakahaehae " 

 (spirit-ghosts), or " kikokiko " (man - assailing evil spirit), or 

 " atua " (demon) ; sometimes merely " wairua," a term applied 

 to the spirit of man, whether its physical basis be living or dead. 

 The Maori has not the elaborate system of spirit nomenclature 

 possessed by the old-time Romans, with their " lar," " lemur," 

 " larva," " manes," and " yenates." 



It has been stated that the spirits or souls of the chiefs of the 

 Maori are believed to ascend to heaven at death. This is not 

 an old-time belief among any Maori people I wot of, but is doubt- 

 less a modern idea, the result of missionary teachings. In the 

 words of an old Native of Ngati-Awa : " Our ancestors never 

 said that the spirits of the dead ascended to the heavens. Our 

 parent Rangi [the Sky] never said ' Let my descendants ascend 

 to me.' But Rangi said unto Papa [the Earth Mother], ' Our 

 descendants — treat them kindly, conceal them in many places 

 — beyond, seaward, inland, in the realm of darkness.' Friend, 

 there were two men of my people, Ngati-Awa, who died. Their 

 spirits descended to the reinga (spirit - land). Their parents 

 sent them back to this world. They said that when they ar- 

 rived at the rerenga-wairua they stood on the beach by the 

 waterside until the waters receded and exposed a hole in the 

 rocks. By this way they descended to the underworld. They 

 came to a fence which was guarded by several persons, who told 

 them not to pass under the fence, but to clamber over it. They 

 did so, and went on. They saw great numbers of people, but 

 they were all spirits. They at last came to their relatives and 

 parents, and all wept together for some time, after which they 

 were returned to this world of life. I have told you this to show 

 you that spirits of the dead do not ascend to the heavens. The 

 names of those two persons were Kukia and Toihau. They said 

 that the spirit-world is a very good sort of place, and not shrouded 

 in darkness, but light like unto this world. The spirit-world 

 is divided into ten different divisions, according to the teachings 

 of our ancestors. The spirits of the dead abide in the tenth 

 division (Ko te ao tuangdhuru te no nohoanga o nga ivairua)." 



