RELIGION. 
101 
blood there is no remission of sin ; here again is another 
connecting link with Scriptural truth to be discerned. 
In one part of New Zealand an expiation for sin was felt 
to be necessary ; a service was performed over an individual, 
by which all the sins of the tribe were supposed to be trans- 
ferred to him, a fern stalk was previously tied to his person, 
with which he jumped into the river and there unbinding, 
allowed it to float away to the sea, bearing their sins with 
it ; here again is another fragment of Scripture seen, an 
evident allusion to the scape goat. There is a reference to 
the flood in the legend of Tawaki another god, who in his 
anger stamped on the crystal firmament or icy pavement of 
heaven and cracked it, thus the waters above burst through 
and deluged the earth. 
In the Wharekura, their traditional temple in Hawaiki, 
where all their tribes used to assemble, and quarrelling, 
were dispersed never to unite again, may be traced a min- 
gled account of Babel and the temple, when the union of 
the tribes was destroyed in the time of Rehoboam. And 
even still later, in the myth of Tawaki, may be seen some 
of the leading features of the Saviours history, his healing 
the blindness of his grandmother by spitting on the ground, 
making clay, and anointing her eyes with it ; his appearing 
in vile raiment in the garb of a servant, ascending a moun- 
tain, then casting it aside and clothing himself with the 
lightning, thus manifesting himself to be a god, we see 
a clear reference to the Saviour’s transfiguration on the 
mount ; in Tawaki being killed by his own brethren, then 
restoring himself to life and ascending up to heaven, there 
is a close remembrance of the Saviour, and one which struck 
even the Maori themselves with astonishment when they 
first had the New Testament given them. 
Many other similar instances might be adduced to show 
that there are remnants of a knowledge of the Saviour per- 
vading the whole of Polynesia. Captain Cook was taken by 
the Sandwich Islanders for Orono, whose history closely 
resembles that of Tawaki ; when he left the earth it was 
with the promise of returning again ; his second advent 
