A SHORT SKETCH OF 
Pee MAORT RACE a 
By EDWARD SHORTLAND. 
[Written for the New Zealand Exhibition, 1865. | 
Tue traditions of the New Zealanders date back to times long anterior to 
the first arrival of their ancestors in these islands. 
According to these traditions, Po, or Darkness, was the origin of all 
things ; and in the course of successive generations, through different orders 
of Po, Kore, or Nothingness, was arrived at. Then, through different orders 
of Kore, came at last Ao, or Light. After successive generations of Ao 
came Rangi, the Sky. From Rangi and his wife Papa, the Earth, are 
descended man, beasts, birds, trees, and all things here on earth. There isa 
very circumstantial tradition preserved by a few of the initiated of the 
Ngatiraukawa tribe, which relates how the first female of the human form 
was formed out of the earth at a place named Onekura (red earth). How 
the female so formed gave birth, first, to an egg from which came all sorts of 
birds ; how, secondly, a female was born from the same parents, from which 
female and her own father was produced a daughter, who became the mother 
of the human race, Tiki being the father, which gave rise to the proverb, 
“Aitanga-a-Tiki,” used to signify a person well born. Then we meet with 
a variety of traditions respecting certain heroes or demigods, who lived in 
very remote ages, long before the migration to New Zealand, which, however, 
give evidence that the people to whom they relate were then islanders, for 
whenever any expedition is about to set out, it is always related first how 
the canoes were repaired and equipped for sea. 
The great fact observable from a consideration of the traditions to which 
I am now referring is, that the people had no idea of a Supreme Being, the 
Creator of all things in heaven and in earth. The idea pervading all their 
narratives is, that all things have been produced by a process of generation, 
commencing with darkness and nothingness. They believed, however, that 
when the body dies, the spirit which animated,it still exists, but retires to 
another place, situated under the earth, from whence he can return, on fitting 
occasions, to visit his living descendants on earth; his business there being 
to advise or punish those who break the laws prescribed to regulate their 
42 
