372 KEPOKT— 1891. 



It is a noticeable fact that, with the exception of Mother 

 Earth, no female deities are spoken of amongst the chief gods 

 in connection with the beginning of things, though they appear 

 later on in the history of the world. Durnig the period between 

 the separation of earth and sky and the appearance of man, 

 this world was occupied by the race of demi-gods, whose exist- 

 ence was discovered at the time of the separation. It is to this 

 period that the exploits of such heroes as Maui and Tawhaki 

 relate. It is from what is told about them we learn that the 

 Maoris conceived of an under and upper world, earth lying 

 between them. When Maui sought to discover who his father 

 was he resolved to follow his mother Taranga, who nightly 

 visited her children on earth, but vanished again before dawn. 

 To discover the path by which she went, Maui determined to 

 detain her till it was light enough to watch her movements ; so 

 he carefully closed every crevice through which light could enter 

 the building where his mother slept, and, on her waking and 

 wondering at the prolonged darkness, he quieted her by the 

 assurance that it was still night. But when the sun rose high 

 ill the heavens a sunbeam shot in through a chink, and Taranga 

 with a shriek sprang out of the house. Maui watched her seize 

 a tuft of grass, and descend an opening beneath it. By magic 

 he changed himself into a pigeon, and followed his mother. 

 After a long flight down a narrow cavern he emerged into o]pen 

 space, and saw before him a party of people seated under a 

 grove of trees, and amongst them his mother, and beside her 

 a man who he at once surmised was his father. Eventually 

 he was recognised, and the mother told how she had prema- 

 turely given birth to him by the sea-shore, when she cut off her 

 long tresses, and, having bound him in them, cast him into the 

 foam of the sea, where he was found by a sea-god, and reared 

 up by him. The father thereupon acknowledged him, and pro- 

 ceeded to baptize him ; but, owing to the omission of some part 

 of the rite, Maui became subject to death, the Great Lady of 

 Night. 



Besides believing in an inhabited under world the Maoris 

 believed in an inhabited upper w^orld, consisting of ten planes, 

 one above the other. In the highest resided Kehua, the Aged 

 One, with flowing locks, and lightning flashing from his arm- 

 pits. He was the eldest son of Eangi, and supreme lord of 

 the gods who ruled the world. He was the Lord of Kindness, 

 and dispersed gloom and sadness. He was opposed to war and 

 bloodshed. "The darting lightning," says an ancient poem, 

 " gleams above, and Eehua commands where all that sacred is." 

 (White, vol. i., p. 37.) The descriptions of Eehua continually 

 recall to mind the Olympian Jove, " Father of gods and men." 



That the Maoris conceived of the gods as something more 

 than embodiments of power — as beings taking an interest in 



