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MYTHOLOGY. 
green stone, and worn round the neck as a Heitiki, image, 
or remembrance of Tiki.* The new-born infant is called 
he potiki, or a gift of Tiki from the Po or Hades. And 
the top-knot of a cbief’s head, the most sacred part of the 
person, is called He Pu Tiki. Some traditions say that 
Tiki is a woman, but the general idea is the contrary. 
Tawiri matea, the father of winds ; his children are storms, 
tempests, hurricanes, also frost, snow, hail, and sleet, like- 
wise dew, fogs, and mists. 
Tangaroa, the father of fish, and the great god of the 
ocean ; this god in Tonga, is regarded as the creator of all 
things ; he is there called Tangaloa ; and in Tahaiti, where 
he is known as Taaroa, he is viewed in the same light ; this 
is also the case in Hawaii, f or the Sandwich Isles. Orongo, 
another of the most ancient deities of Hawaii, was worshipped 
by the name of Orono ; Tane and Tiki were also known in 
Tahaiti, the latter by the name of Tii, so likewise was Pu, J 
and Hine nui te po. The same idea prevailed there of the 
malignant character of the Atua Potiki, or infant gods, who 
were called Hotua Pou and supposed to delight in mischief. 
The offspring of Papa and Pangi are next represented 
as holding a council, to decide what was to be done with 
their parents, that the earth might be rendered fruitful ; 
as the tradition states, for a long long period, “ from the 
first night to the tenth, to the hundreth, to the thou- 
sandth night/’ all was dark, the thick opaque ice-paved 
* The word Tiki in Nukuhiva, or Tii in Hawaiian, means an image. — See 
Buddie's Lectures. In some places it is also called DU. The Japanese spiritual 
sovereign is called Dairi. 
f At Hawaii he is called Kanaroa ; amongst the Maori he is the god who 
reveals secrets. Tangaroa piri whare, which implies that he is an eavesdropper, 
listening to what others are saying, and making mischief of it. It is not im- 
probable that he was the original god of the Polynesians ; see Buddie's Lectures. 
— The Hawaian gods were Kane, Kanaroa, Ru, Tu, Rono, and Ku. 
{ Ru is also a Tahaitian god. The same tradition of the heaven being 
joined to the earth is found there, and that they were only separated by the 
‘ Teva, an insignificant plant, Draconitum pollyphylum, till their god Ruu 
lifted it up.’ 
“ Na Ruu i to te rai,” Ru did elevate, or raise the heavens. 
See ‘ ‘ Ellis's Polynesian Researches' ' 
