232 
RITES AND CUSTOMS RELATING TO THE DEAD. 
Whilst the heavens increase in beauty and excellence as 
they ascend^ it is the contrary with the regions of Hades, 
each one in descent becomes worse than the preceding, 
the lowest is worst of all, there it is po rawa, pitchy dark- 
ness ; when the spirits descended to that dismal region, 
where there was neither light nor food, they wasted away 
and ceased to exist; this lowest pit was the zero of the 
spiritual thermometer, it gradually ascended to the earth 
and thence rose to the heavens. 
Te Rua is another name for the Reinga, hua hoki mai te 
ra hi te Rua , the sun has returned to the pit, or set ; both it 
and the moon were supposed to give light there, but it was 
only in the first region that they shone clearly, in the next 
compartment they had only reflected light, and below that 
the same again once removed, thus in the lowest the last 
glimmering of light was lost. 
One of the most recent discoveries of the day is what has 
been termed heterogeny, or life, under one form or another, 
evolved from decomposed organic matter ; it is said to 
be nothing new ; Plutarch stated rats were thus derived 
from the soil of Egypt, and Virgil that bees were bred by 
putrified meat (blue bottles would have been nearer the 
truth) ; in corroboration of this idea, boys believe that eels 
may be formed by tying a knot at the end of a horse hair 
and throwing it into the water. 
On one point the advocates of heterogeny seem to be 
fully agreed, that is, whatever may be the living creatures 
thus produced they are very inferior in size and organiza- 
tion to those whose putrified remains gave them existence, 
being in fact mere microscopical animalcules ; whether this 
be true or not, the Maori have carried their researches 
further, for none of our philosophers have attempted to 
go beyond organic remains, unless the gases evolved from 
them, or electric currents may be so considered, they have 
seemingly devoted much thought to the changes which 
spirits undergo ; in one respect, however, they bear a 
striking resemblance to heterogeny, in the belief that such 
change is of a retrograde nature. 
