A SHORT SKETCH OP 



THE MAORI RACES, 



By EDWAED 8H0ETLAND. 



[JVritten for tlie Neio Zealand ExMhition, 1865.] 



The traditions of tlie New Zeaknders 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 Hangi, the Sky. Erom Eangi and his wife Papa, the Earth, are 

 descended man, beasts, birds, trees, and all things here on earth. There is a 

 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, Avhich gave rise to the proverb, 

 "Aitanga-a-Tiki," used to signify a person well born. Then Ave 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 isla.nders, 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 wKo break the laws prescribed to regulate their 

 ^2 



