414 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
as the po. After describing the nine heavens^ or stratum 
of clouds or light, inhabited by the different orders of 
inferior deities, they describe the tenth, or most remote 
from the earth, and the abode of the principal gods, as 
te rai haamama no tane, &c. te opening or unfolding to 
thejoo, or perpetual darkness. From this mode of re- 
presentation, it appears that the islanders imagined the 
universe to, be chaotic, and that in its vast immensity 
their islands and ocean, with the sky arching over them, 
were enclosed, and that beloWf the foundation of the 
earth, on which they stood, and above the firmament over 
their heads, this po, or darkness, prevailed. 
With respect to the origin of the sun, which they 
formerly called m, and more recently mahana, some of 
their traditions state that it was the offspring of the gods, 
and was itself an animated being; others, that it was 
made by Taaroa. The latter supposed it to be a sub¬ 
stance resembling fire. The people imagined that it 
sank every evening into the sea, and passed during the 
night, by some submarine passage, from west to east, 
where it rose again from the sea. in the morning. In 
some of the islands, the expression for the setting of the 
sun, is, the falling of the sun into, the sea. On one 
occasion, when some of the natives w.ere asked where 
the sun went to, they said. Into the sea. On being asked, 
further, what prevented its extinction, they said they did 
not know. It was then inquired, ^^How do you know 
that it falls into the sea at all? Did you ever see it?” 
They said, No, but some people of Borabora, or Maupiti, 
the most western islands, had once heard the hissing 
occasioned by its plunging into the ocean. , ^ 
One of the most singular of their traditions, respecting 
the sun, deserves attention, from the slight analogy it 
