170 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
above the firmament over their heads, this po, or 
darkness, prevailed. 
With respect to the origin of the sun, which 
they formerly called ra, and more recently mahana, 
some of their traditions state that it was the off¬ 
spring of the gods, and was itself an animated 
being; others, that it was made by Taaroa. The 
latter supposed it to be a substance 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 were asked whither the sun went, 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 bears to a fact recorded in 
Jewish history. It is related that Maui, an 
ancient priest or chief, was building a marae, or 
temple, which it was necessary to finish before the 
close of the day; but, perceiving the sun was 
declining, and that it was likely to sink before the 
work was finished, he seized the sun by his rays, 
bound them with a cord to the marae, or an 
adjacent tree, and then prosecuted his work till 
the marae was completed, the sun remaining sta- 
