WoHLERS. — Mythology and Traditions 



of the Maori. 



Tangaroa the personification of the 



fishes 



Rongomatane ,, ,, ,, 



kumara 



Haumiatiketike ,, ,, ,, 



fernroot 



Tanemahuta ,, „ ,, 



trees and birds 



Tawhirimatea ,, ,, ,, 



wind 



Tumatauenga ,, ,, ,, 



mankind. 



The children felt very inconvenient in that close darkness, and the more 

 able ones among them held a consultation of what to do, in order to gain light 

 and liberty. Some were for killing their father ; others proposed to lift him np, 

 and there let him live as a stranger to them. The counsel of the latter 

 prevailed. After this they set to work. First Paiao (Cloud) tried, but could 

 not lift him. Then Tane tried, with no better result. Then they tried all 

 together; but Heaven was too heavy for them. At last Tane put his head 

 on the ground and stretched his legs upward. That succeeded. Rangi cried 

 and lamented that he was ill-treated by his children ; but they carried him up, 

 and then Tane fixed him. 



It seems that Tawhirimatea (the Wind) took no part in this movement, but 

 rather that he had opposed it from the beginning, counselling to let things 

 remain as they were. This seems rather strange of such a restless fellow as 

 the Wind ; but the northern natives, according to Sir George Grey's 

 collection, account for this by saying that Tawhirimatea was a quiet, loving 

 boy before, but that, when he was outvoted by his brothers, and Heaven 

 and Earth were separated against his will, he became dissatisfied and restless. 

 He followed his father heavenward, and talked to him about the injuries he 

 had received from his children^ and then came down again, fighting with his 

 brothers from all quarters of the heavens. 



When Heaven had been carried up, and Tane had fastened him, and then 

 come down again to the earth, he (Tane) looked up to his father; but the old 

 man looked dark and sad. Then he went to Okehu, to fetch ornaments for his 

 father. With this he put on him a bright polish. When he came down again 

 and looked up, he thought his father did not yet look so good as he ought to ; 

 so he fetched more ornaments, and with these he drew the Milky way, 

 painted the Magellan Clouds, and set the constellations. This done, he 

 came down again to see how that did suit his father. Now he looked handsome. 



Now Tane looked at his mother, who was still void of ornaments. So he 

 raised some of her crippled children, and put them upright, as trees. First he 

 put their legs downward and their heads upward, and then went aside to look 

 at them. But the trees did not look well in that position, standing on their 

 branches, with their stumps and roots as heads and hair, up. Then he took 

 them up again, and put their heads down and their legs, the branches, up; and 

 went again aside to look. Now they looked good ; now both parents were 

 adorned with beauty. 



