Best. — The Maori Genius for Personification. 11 



Having gained possession of the three baskets of divine or esoteric know- 

 ledge — that of good, that of evil, and that of ritual — Tane began his 

 descent to this world. He now assumed the name of Tane-i-te-wananga, 

 as representing all knowledge, as being the fountain and source of know- 

 ledge. During his descent he was again attacked by the army of Whiro, 

 and here he is alluded to as Tane-te-waiora, for it was Darkness attacking 

 Sunlight. His attendants called upon the personified forms of wind, snow, 

 hail, &c, who swiftly came and defeated the hordes of Whiro. Some 

 of the latter were captured and brought down to earth, among them 

 being Waeroa (mosquito) Namu-poto (sandfly), Naonao (midge), Ro (mantis), 

 Moko-kakariki (green lizard), Pekapeka, Ruru, and Kakapo (all night- 

 birds). Thus Tane returned safely to this world, bringing with him the 

 great boon of knowledge for the benefit of his descendants, the people of 

 the World of Light. 



A study of the mythopoetic tales so frecmently met with in Maori lore 

 tends to show that such mental" concepts are by no means 'to be classified 

 as ordinary folk-tales. They are not merely metaphorical discourses or 

 light allegorical fables, but often show that much thought has been 

 devoted to the subject of the myth, to endeavour to discover cause or 

 origin. The myth of Rona (the moon) and the tides illustrates this view, 

 and other instances might be mentioned in which the Maori mind has 

 approached near to scientific truth. 



At the same time, man in the culture-stage of the Maori would never 

 state baldly that the moon controls the tides. He must at least personify 

 ocean and moon, for this curious faculty is one of the most remarkable 

 and persistent features in the traditions and occult lore of uncultured 

 peoples. We can even see survivals of such conceptions among highly 

 civilized races, and we still cling to a few of the old-time personifications. 



Neolithic man adopted this mode of teaching what he held to be 

 primary truths. Having worked out his crude theories of the origin of the 

 earth, of the heavenly bodies, of natural phenomena, of man, and of many 

 other things, his mentality, strangely affected by long ages of contact with 

 nature and by ignorance of natural laws, proceeded to depict all activities 

 as anthropomorphic beings, and hence the Maori myths we have discussed 

 in this paper. Uncultured man handed down his conclusions as prized 

 knowledge to his descendants ; he taught his children these myths, as 

 we teach ours the moral lessons contained in Aesop's fables and in fairy- 

 tales. 



A. C. Parker struck at the root of personification when he wrote, 

 " The primitive mind, believing all things the result of some intelligence, 

 personifies and deifies the causes of effects, and thus has arisen the 

 multiplicity of gods and guardian spirits." Thus we have the many 

 manifestations of the activities of Tane, the sun god and fertilizer. Even 

 sunlight is personified in Tane-te-waiora, and in an old song we find the 

 following : — 



Ko te ata i marama, 

 Marama te ata i Hotunuku, 

 E, ko Tane-te-waiora . . . e. 



(Fair dawned the mom, 



Bright was the morn at Hotunuku, 



Behold ! it is Tane-te-waiora.) 



Explanatory myths teem in Maori lore, and are a characteristic feature 

 of the peculiar plane of culture to which he had attained. The Maori was 



