238 Transactions. 



Hina, the Moon Goddess ; in others Hina was his sister. Maui's 

 full name was Mauitikitiki. In Tahitian folk-lore Hina marries 

 Ti'i (Maori "Tiki") the first man, who ruthlessly slew people, 

 while Hina resuscitated them.* 



It appears highly probable that the story of Maui is a very 

 ancient myth of a contest between Life and Death, evolved by a 

 primitive people in times long past away ; that it has been moved 

 down the changing centuries by oral tradition, and the hero 

 thereof localised in many lands. 



We have seen that the world of death is termed the po. This 

 expression is also applied to the period when the universe was 

 in a state of chaos and darkness, before the appearance of man. 

 In lengthy genealogies of an anthropogenic nature we observe 

 more or less names which are said by the Natives to belong to the 

 po, or period before man appeared, after which came the names 

 of human beings. For instance, Tiki was of the po, not a person 

 of this world. He married Ea, who was the first woman of the 

 ao marama, or world of light — i.e., of this world. They had 

 Kurawaka, who married Tane and so produced the genus homo. 



It is said that residents of the northern extremity of New 

 Zealand often see the spirits of the dead passing northwards 

 on their way to the rerenga wairua, or departing-place of spirits. 

 They recognise the spirits of persons who were slain in battle 

 by their being covered with bloodstains. Also that houses in 

 those parts are built facing east or west, so that spirits wending 

 their way northwards will not enter by the door. 



In regard to the name of Ea : This is the name of the king 

 of the underworld in Babylonian mythology. His son was 

 Merodach, who, with the goddess Aruru, was the creator of all 

 existing things. Ea was also god of reproduction and of canals, 

 but appeared under different names in his various functions, 

 like unto Tane of the Maori. f 



When wending my way homewards one day last week I met 

 an old Native woman, who saluted me with " Tena hoe! Te 

 mata o Te TJnupoP By which she probably meant that the sight 

 of me recalled to her the memory of her friend Te Unupo, who 

 died some months ago, and who was a frequent visitor at my 

 camp. ''''Mala'''' means "the face" and also "eye." 



In Humboldt's account of his travels on the Orinoco he 

 mentions a burial-cave of the Natives which he visited, and in 

 which the exhumed bones of the tribe were deposited. " The 

 Indians related to us that the corpse is first placed in the humid 

 earth, that the flesh may be consumed by degrees. Some months 



* " .Journal of the Polynesian Society," vol. x, p. 52. 



| " The Religions Ideas of the Babylonians," by T. G. Pinches. 



