MYTHOLOGY. 
13 
Zealand; whilst such as are totally dissimilar to any other, 
may be supposed to belong peculiarly to themselves, and thus 
mark the turn which the native mind has taken, after it has been 
cut off from every other portion of the world. This clearly 
shows how the human mind, when left to its own resources, 
without the means of being cultivated and enlarged, becomes 
deteriorated, loses its manly character, and falls into a childish 
frivolity and weakness; whilst in the same degree that the 
mental powers are impaired, the fierce passions of the savage, 
brute force and violence, increase. 
The knowledge which has even now been acquired, of the 
mythology of this singular people, is very imperfect; and as 
the old people, in whose breasts it is locked up, are rapidly 
passing away, much of it will perish with them. The rising- 
generation is indifferent to the traditions of the past; the mind 
being now occupied with so many fresh subjects of interest, 
which European intercourse is introducing, it cannot be won¬ 
dered, that it should be disinclined to burthen itself, with long- 
strings of names and rites, which, generally speaking, are 
preserved in language, as dissimilar to that now spoken, as 
Spencer or Chaucer is to ours ; and this also presents a great 
difficulty in the research, as it is only the old men who can 
explain words, which have long been obsolete. 
Properly speaking, the natives had no knowledge of a 
Supreme Being. They had a multitude of gods, and these 
were said to have been the fathers,* each one of some depart¬ 
ment in nature ; and these gods are so mixed up with the 
spirits of ancestors, whose worship entered largely into their 
religion, that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. 
In fact, their traditions of the creation, go back far beyond 
* Speaking to Te Heuheu, the powerful Chief of Taupo, of God, as being 
the creator of all things, he ridiculed the idea, and said, is there one maker of 
all things amongst you Europeans ? is not one a carpenter, another a black¬ 
smith, another a ship-builder, and another a house-builder ? And so was it in 
the beginning; one made this, another that: Tane made trees, Ru mountains, 
Tanga-roa fish, and so forth. Your religion is of to-day, ours from remote 
antiquity. Do not think then to destroy our ancient faith with your fresh- 
born religion. 
