Best. — The Maori Genius for Personification. 3 



Because all things are influenced by good and evil, by anger, jealousy, 

 ambition, and because all follow some form of leadership, even so was it 

 that guardians were appointed to watch each realm and report their con- 

 dition to Io. And because of the differences that exist in all things, thus 

 it is that all possess strength and weakness, goodness and evil, justness 

 and lack of justice, each after the manner of its kind. Hence the guardians 

 appointed as lords of the eleven heavens, of the earth, and of the spirit world. 

 As these beings appointed as guardians are the salvation of all things by 

 promoting their welfare, and are the emissaries of Io, thus it is that all 

 eyes and all ears are directed to Io-matua, Io the Parent, for he is over 

 all. He is the very acme of all welfare, of life, the head and summit of 

 all things. 



Since Io is the head of all things, all things become tapu through him. 

 for without a lord nothing can become tapu, and so he is termed Io the 

 Parent. Since he is termed Io the Parent, and represents the physical 

 and spiritual welfare of all things, we see that the origin of such welfare is 

 with the parent — that the parent holds and controls the welfare of every- 

 thing. And since all things are centred in him, there is nothing left to be 

 controlled or directed by any other god or being. All things in the twelve 

 heavens, and in all realms, are thus gathered together before him. It is 

 now clear that there exists nothing that does not come under his sway ; 

 all comes under Io the Parent. 



All things possess a wairua (spirit, or soul), each after the manner of 

 its kind. There is but one parent of all things, one god of all things, one 

 master of all things, one soul of all things. Hence all things are one, and 

 all emanated from Io the Eternal. . . . 



It may be thought that the foregoing remarks, which are translated 

 passages from a speech made nearly sixty years ago by a teacher of the 

 tapu school of learning, do not embody mueh information as to personifica- 

 tions, but they do illustrate Maori mentality. They show clearly how 

 the superior minds of a comparatively uncultured folk broke free from 

 shamanism and a belief in malignant deities, and strove to conceive 

 a supreme being of nobler attributes ; how the ancestors of the Maori, 

 wrenching asunder the bonds of gross superstitions, and seeking light 

 from the darkness of ages, pressed forward on the difficult path toward 

 monothesim. 



Anthropomorphic Personifications. 



We have already seen that the heavens and the earth are personified 

 in Rangi and Papa, the Sky Parent and the Earth Mother, from whom 

 all things are descended. They were the primal parents, and appear fre- 

 quently in Maori myth. The Earth Mother is spoken of as the mother of 

 mankind, as the guardian and nurturer of her offspring. Not only did she 

 give birth to man, but she also produces food for him, and gives shelter 

 to his worn body when the soul leaves it at death. After the rebellion 

 of their offspring the Sky Parent wished to punish them, but the Earth 

 Mother said, " Not so ; though they have erred, yet they are still my 

 children. When death comes to them they shall return to me and I will 

 shelter them ; they shall re-enter me and find rest." Hence the burial 

 of the dead. 



It is probable that many of the offspring of the primal parents are 

 personifications — some certainly are, and these come under the title of 

 departmental gods. All these primary offspring were males, and all were 



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