366 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



would explain many Maori compounds of kau, such as kaunoti, 

 kaurimarima, kauahi, etc., terms for sticks used in producing fire 

 by friction. The Egyptian for wood is khan. But if kau corre- 

 sponds to tau, then this cross set up, to which such sacredness 

 was ascribed, is the child of the old Tree-worship, wherein our 

 own Teutonic ancestors, as well as the men of eastern lands, 

 delighted. The Maori Tiki, the carved and sacred post, was 

 thus a deity of the Tree. A Mangaian myth concerning the 

 great Maui and his brothers relates : " At the earnest solicita- 

 tion of Maui they consented to follow him. Accordingly he 

 went to the old post of their dwelling, and said as before — 



" pillar ! open ! open up ! 

 That we may all enter and descend to the nether world." 



At these words the wonderful pillar at once opened, and all 

 four descended. Maui showed them all the wonders of the 

 spirit-world," etc." The spirit-world was Avaiki, the New Zea- 

 land Hawaiki. It was through the pillar, the sacred Tree, the 

 Kau or Tate, that entry to that wonderful unknown land of the 

 shadows could be made with safety. I do not know if there is 

 any connection between the Maori tahu, "to kindle" (passive 

 tahuna) and tau, but the sister word to tahuna (passive form of 

 tahu, "let it be kindled,") is the Hawaiian kahuna, "a priest 

 or person who offers sacrifices." t To whom were the sacrifices 

 offered? Probably in ancient times this "kindling" of the 

 sacred fire was in honour of th Sun, the Lord of Fire, the god 

 whose power was first recognised by men, and who has been 

 worshipped at some time in every place. 



Whatever kau may mean outside Polynesia proper, it is 

 certain that rakau is, with slight variations, the true Polynesian 

 word— Samoan la'au, Hawaiian laau, Tongan dkau, Tahitian 

 raau, etc. The compound there is kau and ra, and Ra is the 

 Polynesian word for the Sun, as it is the Egyptian, and the 

 ancient Celtic. La means " a clay" in Gaelic, Irish, Egyptian, 

 and Maori. "La, the Druidical name of God, obsolete in 

 Gaelic but retained in the best Gaelic dictionaries."]: In 

 Sanscrit, ra means "fire, heat, warmth" (Monier Williams). 

 When men — the dwellers in caves, the savage hunters of savage 

 leasts — had through the great discovery of fire-kindling made 

 their first step towards civilization, learnt to cook food, to clear 

 forests, to make canoes, surely their first dawn of worship would 

 be veneration for this spirit of the Sun-fire Ha dwelling in the 

 wood, whence it could be evoked by friction. Almost all the 

 great deities of the ancient world were but solar impersonations. 

 Osiris, Horus, Baal, Samas, Thammuz, Hercules, Phaethon, 



* " Myths and Songs of the South Pacific," Gill, p. 70. 



t Tahu, in Tahiti the name generally employed for "sorcery." 



J " Gaelic Etymology," Mackay. 





