J 50 , UEV. T. POWELL ON THE 



6. Then said Tagaloa to the heaven-rai sing-king* [Tui-te'e- 

 lagi], " Come, and raise the heaven/' He raised it up, but 

 down again it fell. Tui-te'e-lagi then went and brought the . 

 Masoa [the Polynesian arrow-root plant, Tacca pennatifida], 

 and the Teve [an aroid plant, Amorphophalus campanulatus, 

 Se&mami], for these were the first of all vegetable growths. 

 With these he succeeded in raising the heaven,-]- and there it is 

 a resting-place for the vision ; but previously there was none, 

 but only the void of immensity and space. 



Immensity and space gave birth to day and night, J and 

 Tagaloa appointed that this pair should people the face of the 

 heaven, and that Immensity and Space should people the 

 boundless void. They gave birth to another heaven, which 

 Tui-te^e-lagi elevated, and this became the second heaven. 

 This second heaven was peopled also by Immensity and 

 Space. In like manner they gave birth to and peopled 

 seven other heavens, which were elevated by Tui-te^e-lagi, 

 and were named respectively the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, 

 seventh, eighth, and ninth heaven. 



This completes the list of the progeny of Immensity and 

 Space. 



Tagaloa the Creator then sat down, and produced Tagaloa 

 the Unchangeable, and Tagaloa the Visitor of the Peoples, 

 and Tagaloa the Prohibitor of the Peoples, and Tagaloa the 

 Messenger, § and Tuli and Logonoa.|| 



Then Tagaloa the Creator said to Tagaloa the Unchangeable, 

 " Be thou king of heaven ! " 



* Throughout Polynesian mythology there is a reference to the close 

 approximation of the heavens and the earth, and I would suggest whether 

 we have not herein a reference to the chaotic state described in Gen. i., and 

 to the comparative renewal of that state at the deluge. Gen. vii. Tuite'e- 

 lagi may be a personification of God's energy, by which the second day was 

 characterised. Gen. i. 6-8. 



t Lagi = Eangiz=y''p"l, with Koph and Ayin coalesced. 



t Ao=:liXj day; Po, night — from Hebrew |-1D, to set (as the sun), to 

 be darkened : in pouliuli, dark, we have the union of ]-1S and \y and 

 D-"in black. 



§ These three names, Tagaloa the Visitor, Tagaloa the Eeprover, and 

 Tagaloa the Messenger, appear all to belong to one and the same deity, since 

 all that is included in them is exercised by the messenger alone ; and the 

 history nowhere else makes any reference to any other deities as distinct 

 from Tagaloa the Creator, Tagaloa the Unchangeable, and Tagaloa the 

 Messenger. 



II Tuli, pronounced Turi, i.e. tooree,^ is the name of the bird whose form 



' Pease represents these as oo in too, and re in regent. 



