234 Transactions. 



have the old-time Maori conception of the reinga, or po, a gloomy 

 underworld. At the time spoken of in the above quotation 

 the Hebrews do not appear to have yet evolved, or borrowed, 

 the idea of resurrection of the dead. 



The Maori idea seems to have been that the dead met and 

 abode with their kindred in the underworld, where they lived on 

 sweet-potatoes, fish, &c, but that there was no fighting there. 

 It was probably the lack of any belief in the judgment of the 

 soul, resurrection, punishment, &c, that caused the Maori to 

 die without fear of the spirit-world, or the second life therein. 

 However, we have now provided him with a somewhat warmer 

 underworld. Let us hope that he will enjoy it. 



The Maori does not appear to have ever had much interest 

 in his spirit-world, hence the description of it, even though 

 given by old men, is vague and unsatisfactory to the ethnographer. 

 Some say that spirits pass a certain time in each of the ten 

 divisions of the underworld, until they reach the tenth. Some 

 spirits are said to return to this world, the upper world, in the 

 form of moths. 



The name " mori-a-nuku," or " moria-nuku" is sometimes 



applied to the reinga, or the entrance thereto : — 



Me ruku ware au te reinga tupapaku 

 Kei whakamau kau ki Morianuku. 



" The taumata i Haumu," says a Native friend, " is the ridge 

 where the spirit leaves its clothing, and so descends naked to the 

 reinga, jumps into the ocean, and henceforward lives as a spirit. 



Rukuhia, e tama ! Nga rimu e mawe 

 I raro o Haurnn. 



" Te rimu hi motau " signifies the seaweed through which the 



spirit passes in its descent. It often appears in Native songs : — 



Ka rere whakaaitu ki te reinga 

 Te rimu ki motau — e. 



There are two other expressions applied to the entrance to 

 the underworld, but which appear only in songs, I believe. These 

 are " pua reinga " and " tawa mutuP I have never obtained 

 any satisfactory explanation of these expressions from New 

 Zealand Natives, but Mr. Percy Smith has traced them both to 

 Rarotonga : "At the reinga ivairua at Rarotonga, near the west 

 end of the island, is the place where departed spirits go to join 

 the great majority. There grows a pna tree, a species of Gar- 

 denia, and into its branches the spirits on their way to Mini climb. 

 Those who climb on the rara mata, or live branches, return to 

 life — i.e., they were only in a swoon, not dead. Those who 

 climb on the rara mate, or dead branches, fall off into the clutches 

 of Mini (called there Muru), and die for ever in the clutches of 

 Muru and Akaanga." 



