336 Foniandcr Collection of Hawaiian Folk-lore. 



conception or knowledoe of the contest l)ct\veen religious sects, the followers of Pele being- 

 worshipers and Kamapuaa, a believer in the efficacy of water. 



The people of Pulo-Nias, to the west of Sumatra, believe in a Supreme God called 

 Lora-Langi. He is not worshiped. Below him is a god called Batu Da Danaw who 

 has charge of the earth. The world contains several stages. The one immediately 

 below us is occupied by dwarfs. The heavens or sky above us (Iioli yawa) are peopled 

 by a su])erior order of men called banicki. who are gifted with wings and have the 

 power to become invisible at pleasure. They are governed by kings of their own. The 

 people of the earth continued in a savage state until the wife of one king (the present) 

 of the barucki (Leo Mepuhana) had pity on them and taught arts and civilization; 

 then also they were taught to speak. The language, habits and institutions of the Pulo- 

 Nias are strikingly different from the other Malay and Asiatic Islanders. Hindustan 

 and Islamism have left no trace here. (Memoir of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Vol. 



n, ch. 17.) 



Rangi and Papa originated all things, but "Po," of which there was a succession, 

 enveloped everything. 



There was no separation or interval between Rangi and Papa. The children of 

 Rangi and Papa were: Tumatauenga (father of man ); Tane-mahuta ( father of for- 

 ests, etc.) ; Tawhiri-ma-tea ( father of winds, etc.) ; Rongo-ma-tane (father of cultivated 

 food); Tangaroa (father of fish and reptiles); Haumia-tikitiki (father of wild grown 

 food). 



It was Tane-mahuta who rent Rangi and Papa asunder and let in light on the 

 earth. One of Papa's names after that was Papa-tu-a-nuku. Tawhiri-ma-tea did not 

 approve of the separation and followed his father Rangi to the skies and there begat 

 and named his offspring, the winds. 



Tangaroa begat Panga, and he begat Ika-tere (father of fish) and Tu-ti-wehi- 

 wehi or Tu-ti-wanawana (father of reptiles). 



Tu-matauenga subdued all his brothers except Tawhiri-ma-tea, and then assumed 

 the different names of Tu-kariri, Tu-ka-nguha, Tu-ka-taua, Tu-whaka-heke-tangata, 

 Tu-mata-wehe-iti. 



Among the children of Rangi and Papa, Tu-matauenga bore the likeness of man, 

 so did his brothers, so did Po, a Ao, a Kore, ti Kimihanga, and Runuku, and thus they 

 continued until the time of Ngainui and of Whirote-kujiua and of Tiki-tawhito-ariki 

 and their generations till the present time. 



Many generations after Tu-matauenga lived Taranga (w.) and Makeatu-kara 

 (k.), who were the ]jarents of Maui-taha, Maui-roto, Maui-pae, Maui-waho and of Maui- 

 tikitiki-a-Taranga. In their time Death first had power over earth because Maui-a- 

 Taranga tried to deceive the goddess and ancestress Hina-nui-ti-])o (goddess of death). 



Maui caught the sun in a noose, beat him and compelled him ever after to travel 

 slower and with a lesser heat. He fished up a great portion of the submerged land, and 

 his fish-hook, made from the jaw-bone of his ancestress Muri-ranga-whenua, is still 

 shown in the district of Heretaunga in New Zealand, transformed into the south end of 

 Hawke's Bay. He got fire from his ancestress Mahu-ika, who inilled out her nails and 



