TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION G. 371 



Europeans, possessing such elaborate theories about the origin 

 of all things — theories which contain traces of a philosophy 

 ■which evidently belonged to a period of higher mental culture. 

 They conceived of the lapse of countless ages before the dawn 

 of light upon the earth. Commencing with Te Kore, or Nothing- 

 ness, to which they assign an unlimited period, they approach 

 the dawn of Life and Consciousness on earth through eighteen 

 stages, each stage being a period of myriads of years. " Then 

 began the first Seeking and Searching." Hence the saying of 

 antiquity, — 



Darkness, Darkness ; 



Light, Light; 



The Seeking, the Searching, 



In Chaos, in Chaos. 



This was the seeking for a consciousness of existence and 

 freedom of action. 



In the order of existence, the Maoris believed that Thought 

 came first, then Spirit, and last of all Matter. 



Living beings existed from an inconceivably distant past, 

 when everything was wrapped in darkness. Heaven, or Sky, 

 was the father, and Earth the mother of all. In order to 

 deepen the impression in men's minds of the vast length of 

 the period preceding the dawn of creation, instead of stating 

 the fact in so many words, the traditions enumerate the several 

 periods, counting from the first to the tenth, and from the 

 tenth to the hundredth, and from the hundredth to the 

 thousandth, and from the thousandth to myriads. And this 

 was repeated eighteen times while describing the slow progress 

 from a past eternity to the dawn of light, and the ci'eation of 

 animal and vegetable life. 



How light reached the Earth is thus told : After countless 

 ages, during which Heaven and Earth adhered to one another, 

 their offspring, weary of the darkness in which they were 

 enveloped, conspired to rend them asunder. Five of the 

 boldest undertook, each in turn, the task ; Tane alone was suc- 

 cessful. Planting his head firmly on his mother's body, he 

 raised his feet upwards and pressed them against his father, 

 and by a mighty effort he rent his parents apart, in spite of 

 their shrieks and cries. The legend concludes with a very 

 beautiful conception of the origin of mists and dewdrops. 

 " The vast Heaven has still ever remained separated from his 

 spouse the Earth. Yet their mutual love still continues — the 

 soft warm sighs of her loving bosom still ever rise up to him, 

 ascending from the woody mountains and valleys, and men 

 call these mists ; and the vast Heaven, as he mourns through 

 the long nights his separation from his beloved, drops frequent 

 tears upon her bosom, and men, seeing these, term them dew- 

 drops." (Sir G. Grey, Poly. Myth., p. 15.) 



