Wohlers. — Mythology and Traditions of the Maori. 



9 



Heaven ; and then end : " Whatever be thy name, it was Tane who has set the 

 Heaven." Hereby Tane made himself known to Rehua. 



When Rehua had learnt, by the crying, that his visitor was the great Tane, 

 he had a fire made, and empty vessels brought. Tane wondered where the food 

 was to come from. Presently Rehua untied his head, and shook out of his hair 

 a lot of birds, tuts, into the empty vessels, and then had the birds killed and 

 cooked. But Tane did not eat of them, because it is against the tapu religion 

 for an inferior to eat anything that has been in contact with the body of a 

 superior, and Rehua is called Tane's tuakana, which means either an rider 

 brother, or a descendant from an elder branch of a house. Then Tane asked : 

 "Cannot I catch some birds?" " Yes," answered Rehua, "when the trees 

 bear fruit and the birds feed on it ; when the wind blows s 

 dry, and they fly to the water to drink, then snare them." 



There is more of the tale of this sort, as when Tane went to another place 

 in that region, where people lived on rats and were out rat-catching; but I can 

 see no meaning in it. In Sir George Grey's collection, this sort of tale is 

 attributed to a visit of Rupe to Rehua. Now Rupe is a different person from 

 Tane, and belongs to a later period. Also this catching and cooking of birds 

 and rats seems to indicate a later period than that of the gods. But the 

 following is more godlike again: 



While Tane was absent, Hineatauira asked her mother-in-law (the Earth) : 

 " Where is my husband?" " What !" replied Papatuanuku, "thy husband! 

 he is thy father." When she heard this she felt so much ashamed that she 

 took leave of her mother-in-law, and went away to the world of night below. 



When Tane came home again from his journey to the heavens, he asked 

 his mother : "Where is my wife?" "Thou hast no wife any more/' was the 



reply; "she is gone to the Po (world of night)." Then Tane also went down 

 to the nether world, to bring her up again, if possible. There he wandered 

 about for a long time in a lone, dim, shadowy night. At last he came to a 

 house, but saw no living being. All was still. He spoke toward the pillar 

 of the house, but received no answer ; he spoke toward the gable of the house, 

 but received no answer. Then, when he went confused and ashamed along the 

 wall of the house, he heard some one inside the house, calling out to him : 

 "Where, Tane, art thou going?" "lam following our sister," he replied. 

 Then that one inside said : 



"Go back, Tane, to the world of light, 

 To train up our children. 

 Leave me here, in the world of night, 

 To draw down our children." 



"E hoki, e Tane, ki te ao, 



Hei whakatupu i a taua hua. 

 Tukua au ki te Po, 



Hei kukume i a taua hua.*" 



Hua, literally, means fruit. 



B 



