that he governs the host of inferior gods and atuas who work and shape,
and help and hinder, the destinies of Tiki’s children. To these three
heavens of Tawhaki are directed most incantations and songs and Karakias
of the people; high up into these three heavens also reaches the power of
the Tohungas of great Mana, and their incantations often compel the gods
to work good or evil according to the will of the Tohunga.
Over the next heavens is Rehua the ariki.
Rehua is the god of food; therefore is he the ariki over the gods, and
many were his victories over Maru, the God of War, for many were the
spirits of the slain heroes who were wandering up to the heavens of Maru,
there to become stars, and who changed their mind and followed the call
of the god Rehua, for Rehua is the God of Food. Truly, he is a powerful
god!
It is in the seventh heaven that the spirits of men are created: here
they commence their lives, which they continue in the next heaven, their
wonderful dwelling-place, Aukumea, the paradise of the spirits before
they descend into the forms of men.
In the next heaven live the host of the atuas, the working-power of the
great gods who are living in Tuwarea, the tenth heaven, and the sacred
edifice of the highest gods.
Rehua is the commanding god in Tuwarea.
All the heavens together are Rangi, a son of Te-Po-nui, the Great Night.
Thus had spoken the old friend.
The endless beauty of the “shimmering vestment” is the birthplace of
the host of spirits, and the abode of the gods, and it is fearful for
man when their spirits follow their longing eyes toward the glittering
Grandness, trying to penetrate Hine-nui-te-po.
Maui once entered Hine-nui-te-po, trying to penetrate her, so that she
might be killed and man may live for ever; but that was the death of
Maui. With the gods and spirits communicates the Tohunga, and his wisdom
renders him Tapu. Far may his thoughts wander when his eyes are closed
and opened again toward the wisdom, which has been handed down from the
whare-kura since the time of Te Kore--the Nothing; and all-powerful,
defeating the gods themselves may his incantations and Karakias be when
he, squatting at the sacred place, before his carved god-stick, murmurs
the great incantation Waka-rawhiti, the Mouth of the East. Ha, the power
of it grows like the Sun out of the darkness, and conquers all but
Hine-nui-te-po, who cannot be conquered--but night and loneliness are
dangerous to all.
Golden dawns the east, and with the sacred red at Mahiku-rangi appears
Ngawai.
She comes toward the shores of the lake with laughing eyes, and speaks:
“Whereto wander the thoughts of my friend? His eyes are looking into the
distance, but they can see nothing, for the distance is hidden by the
morning-mist.”
The eyes, Ngawai, follow the thoughts into the past of your people, and
she also is hidden to me, and my mind is pondering over the little wisdom
I received, wisdom out of the whare-kura.
Ngawai smiles, for not always does the thought of the gods and
spirits inspire terror. Descent from the great ariki and from the
Rangatira-tohunga gives security to man; and out of Ngawai’s eyes it
flashes: man is powerful in spite of the gods. “Do not let your mind
dwell with the deeds of the gods and the heroes of my people, but open
your heart to the incantations which have soft power over the hearts of
men.”
Tell me, Ngawai, of Tane, who adorned his father Rangi so beautifully;
tell me, my friend, of his love to Papa.
“Come into the shadow of the trees, my friend, the shadow of
Tane-mahuta’s children, while I will tell you of his love to Papa.
Come into the shadow of Tane-mahuta.”
VI
TANE--THE CREATION OF NATURE
[Illustration]
“The godpower of Tane lifted his father Rangi high above the
mountains--oh, high above the mountains, clad in snow he lifted him with
the help of the gods who dwelled above the earth.
Ah, bare now was Rangi and naked--oh, he was beautiful and vast, but
lonely and bare, and Tane adorned him with the stars; oh, then was Rangi
very beautiful indeed!
From his great work Tane was resting upon earth while his eyes were
wandering over his mother, and his heart grew sad again, for he beheld
that she lay naked under the eyes of Rangi and the gods.
Ah, his love for his mother was great, and he pressed his head to her
bosom and spoke: “Oh, mother, I will not that you sorrow any more over
your nakedness for I will adorn you with great beauty; do not sorrow any
longer, oh mother, Papa.”
Thereupon he went into the Great Distance, and became the father of the
lakes, the Water of the Many Faces; and many of these glittering faces he
distributed over Papa. Faces, smiling at Rangi by day, and blushing up to
him at every new morning--look my good friend, how the Moana-Rarapa is
reflecting the beauty of Mahiku-rangi whilst Rangi is laughing down upon
Papa out of his Eye of Day: ah, are they not lovers?
But again Tane wandered into the Great Distance, till he found the
Gentle Noise of Air; and taking her to wife, he founded the family of
the Multitude of Trees. Their sons were the Totara-tree, the Manuka,
the Rimu, and the Kauri-tree: ah, look at the tree under which we are
resting; see the majestic beauty of the Kauri, the child of Tane! And
their daughters were the Kahiku, and the creeper and the vines.
[Illustration: TANE AND THE TREES]
Whilst the Multitude of Trees were growing up into maturity, Tane rested
not till he found the two sisters, the Wanderer in the Sky, and the
Wanderer in the Brook, and they gave him his children, the birds.
There, friend, do you hear the sweet sounds? There?--there now;
everywhere--ah, it is the black Tui; and there, do you hear the gentle
noise and soft clapping of wings over our heads? It is the folk of the
Kererus, the wild-doves; ha, listen to their happiness! Come farther into
the green shade, my good friend, that your heart may be filled with the
beauty of Tane.
Yes, my friend, when Tane had founded these families, then he took them
back to her who was still lying lonely and naked, and now he began his
great work. Ah, let us wander under the shade of Tane, that your eyes
may see how the Multitude of Trees are covering Papa like a beautiful
garment, spreading shades and giving happiness to the children of Tiki;
perceive in the wonderful garment the great god-power of Tane-mahuta.
Close your eyes, my good friend, that Ngawai may show to your mind the
path upon which it may perceive how Tane distributed the multitude of his
children over the earth. Ah,--ha,--can you perceive how he puts their
feet into the ground? Ha, ha! They will not stand! They lift their heads
up to Rangi and cry, and will go whither it pleases them; ha, ha, my
friend, they are rebellious, and fight with each other, and run away,
for they do not like to stand and grow, and give garment and coolness to
Papa, ha, ha!
Ah, can you perceive how Tane looks upon his work of the first day, and
sees the rebellion? Can you perceive his rage, the terrible rage of the
god?--ha, ha!
Ah, he is wending his way back, tearing his children out of the ground
and throwing them down, tearing and throwing, and then, when the sacred
colour appeared again at Mahiku-rangi, he began his great work over
again! Ha, ha, my friend, ha, ha, can you perceive how he began his work?
Listen: he took his children and put them into the ground again, but,
ha, ha, oh, he put their heads now into the ground, so that they must
stand upright and stretch their feet up to Rangi; ha, ha, could they move
now?--and fight?--and run away? Ah--their hair commenced to grow into
the earth and took root, and their mouth drank the dew--the tears of
Rangi for Papa--and sent it up into the limbs and feet as strength and
life, and the feet grew long and branched off and covered themselves with
leaves. Ha, my good friend!
Ah, my good friend, when Tane saw his children now, then came joy to his
heart, and all over Papa he planted his children, and they grew, and took
the earth to their mother.
Oh, beautifully now was Papa dressed in her vast garment, and greater
still grew the love of Rangi, and he sent the rays of his Eye of Day down
upon her, and created the flowers.
O, my friend, follow Ngawai into the darkness and the pleasures of
Tane-mahuta’s creation; look, all the life of the forests and all the
life in the air is his, ah, he is the great friend of man, he is the
god-power of Nature.
Tane, the great son of Rangi.
Tane, who loved Papa.
Tane, the friend of man.”
A soft murmuring was Ngawai’s voice, murmuring to the leaves of the
trees; murmuring of that what the birds had told her; murmuring to the
spirits of the forest, who all are children of Tane-mahuta.
VII
THE FIGHT OF NIGHT AND DAY.
[Illustration: TRADITION.]
Maui is the hero of the Maori people: he is the God of the Sun. He
is Maui-roto, the Night-sun, the hero of the Lower World; and he is
Maui-waho, the Day-sun, the hero of the light.
Maui-roto, living in the Lower World, created the Earth, which has,
like the Sun, a body of granite; and Maui-waho then nourishes her with
his blood, which he streams down upon her as the red Evening-glow. This
Evening-glow, covering the earth, does not die away with the Sun, but
it cools and forms a new layer upon Earth, and thus, with layer upon
layer of Evening-glows, he nourishes his child. It is upon the mountain
Tongariro that this radiance lives most brilliant and long, and that is
the reason why Tongariro became the possessor of the highest Tapu, the
sacred mountain of the Maori people.
Hine-nui-te-po is the Goddess of Night, and the whole world is her
pataka (storehouse). She has commanded her slaves that, when a man came,
crawling with his head forward, they should let him go into her pataka
and not kill him, for he would be an atua and of great tapu; but should
they perceive a man standing upright in his canoe, they should take him
and put him to death.
Now a man came--it was Maui-potiki (Maui the infant), the Morning Sun;
and he came crawling into the world, the pataka of Hine-nui-te-po. Head
foremost he came, and, therefore, the slaves, seeing that he was an atua,
let him into the world unmolested. But Maui-potiki ascends and ascends
up to the very high, of the mid-day, and in his canoe he commences his
descent. Lower and lower he went, standing upright in his canoe, and was
at last seen by the slaves of Hine-nui-te-po. Out of Maui-potiki, the
Morning Sun, has grown Maui-mua, the Evening Sun, and he now is captured
by the slaves and pressed to death by Hine-nui-te-po.
The night swallows the evening.
But Maui-potiki, as Morning Sun takes revenge, for he steals off the
sacred fire of his ancestress Mahuika; he returns to the world and puts
fire to Hine-nui-te-po.
The night is burnt to death by the dawn of the morning.
[Illustration: MAUI ENTERS HINE-NUI-TE-PO’S PATAKA]
VIII
MAUI--THE CREATION OF NEW ZEALAND
[Illustration: MAUI]
Over the sky shoot the first golden rays of the Sun whilst our canoe is
gliding up-river and Honewaka is singing:
“Who is paddling my canoe along the river?
It is Hine, who takes my heart away from me!
O Rangi, send down thy dark clouds of rain,
That my dear love may not depart from me!--
O, I wish the water were heaped into waves
So my dear one will not go in haste from me.”
Honewaka is leader; standing in the middle of the canoe, in his hand the
greenstone-mere, he is chanting mighty songs of encouragement to the
oarsmen, and these are repeated by them whilst paddling to the music, and
the canoe glides joyfully under chanting and merrymaking, between the
cliffs with the overhanging tree-ferns and ratas.
Honewaka is a leader of great mana; he knows every ripple in the river,
and he knows men. He knows where the canoe glides onward whilst the
spirits of his men are not in the paddles, and he knows how to incite
their spirits by powerful songs so that, when the rapids are fighting
their strongest, the spirits of men uniting to their greatest strength in
the paddles will be victorious.
There rushes a rapid.
The eyes of the leader commence to roll; his weapon shakes; his breath is
short, as he sings:
“Who is paddling my canoe along the river?”--and the crew, putting force
into the paddles, answer: “It is Hine, who takes my heart away from me!”
The water rushes and foams around the canoe, and the singing, the chorus,
and the paddling, follow the quick time-beating mere: quicker and quicker.
Honewaka, with rolling eye, makes a sudden bound, shouting:
“O, she is beautiful--beautiful!”--and half the crew changes the paddle
with the strong and elastic tokos (punting-sticks)--one voice crying:
“O, Hone, tickle her!” The crew laughs, but with the jest seems to come
sudden life into the paddles, greatly assisted by the force of the
holding and bending tokos.
Hone, excited now and with furious gestures, shouts:
“O Rangi, send down thy dark clouds of rain,” Quicker and quicker,
excited by Hone’s singing, quicker and quicker pull the paddles, and
amidst the shouting chorus, under the force of the powerful shifting and
bending tokos, battles the canoe through the rapid.
Now the point is reached where the strength of the rushing waters is
greatest, and the canoe will not move. Honewaka with greatest excitement
cries:
“O, she is tall like the rata.”
The crew, answering wildly: “It is Hine, who paddles my heart away with
her.”
Hone: “O, she is lithe like the toe-toe.”
Crew: “O, Rangi, send down thy dark clouds of rain.”
The spirits of the men are roused, and the roaring rush of the rapid
becomes harmless under the steady living power of the paddles and the
mighty pulling of the bending and trembling tokos. Into the silent,
reflecting calmness of the higher water-reach the canoe suddenly shoots.
Ngawai, sitting in the prow, folds her arms over her paddle, and looks
listlessly in the trembling and rushing waters, and smiles. Now the
beautiful calm of the silent reach is gained; and the voice of Honewaka
is low, mingling with the distant rolling of the rapid, as he narrates
the story of the Taniwha, who lives in the caves of the rapid, and who
has swallowed many a brave, when his song was not powerful enough or was
displeasing to the Taniwha (water-monster). Then she broke the canoes on
the large stones and took the strong men and beautiful women into her
dark cave for food. Disdainfully looks Ngawai back, for now the battle is
won, and women despise the conquered foe, be it man or spirit.
Great is the power of the Spirits who live in the image of a beautiful
woman; greater is the power of the spirits awakened by incantations to
the gods; and the power of man lies in the incantations which capture the
gods into their weapon--but twice powerful is such a weapon when used in
the service of a beautiful woman.
The distant rolling of the rapid now sounds like happy laughter of
beautiful women far away over the water.
“Haere-mai, me o tatou mate” comes in the evening the wailing welcome
from the Maori pa on the cliffs.
“Long is it, friend, since a man of your colour came to me, a great
Tohunga-pakeha (white priest), and he took great pains to teach me the
words of his Truth.
The words of his god.
I was young then, and Takakopiri, who was then so old that he could
remember Te Repo-repo, the large war-canoe, growing still as a tree in
the forest, had given to me the wisdom of the ancient. It was given to
him by his grandfather, the Tohunga, Te-puha-o-te Rangi, whose mana
was so great that people, saluting him, rubbed noses only against his
knee--he was a great Rangatira.
Long and marked with many teeth was the waka-paparanga-rakau, the board,
recording the ancestors of Te-puha-o-te Rangi, leading back from ancestor
to ancestor to Maui, who came from Hawaiki and who is the father of this
land, which is called Te-ika-a-maui, or Maui’s fish; and leading still
further, up to the gods.
The wisdom, my listener, is born at Hawaiki.
Many a time died the moon, my friend, and was born again out of the
Living Fountain of Tane Mahuta, while I was asking the words of the book.
Yes, beautiful is the Truth!--
But endless to count since then are the Floods who came down the river
when his great Father, the mountain Ruapehu, shook off his white garment
of snow, and my flesh has dried to the bones. Yes, friend, I loved the
Truth of the white Tohunga; but she was not like a woman to me: she gave
me no offspring.
Ah, the multitude of voices of the past are in my heart, and my
hands can touch the spirits of my ancestors, as they can touch my
waka-paparanga-rakau; and they come and feed me with joy, like children
feed the aged, and my heart is glowing with the power of my ancestors--of
Maui the Strong.
Ah! his great power attempted his greatest deed: to take the heart of
Hine-nui-te-po, that man may live for ever; but his incantations were
overcome by the Mother of All, and she swallowed him, as she swallows
all--Maui-i-tiki-tiki-a-taranga.”
[Illustration: A TOHUNGA]
[Illustration]
TE IKA A MAUI
Listen:
Taranga was his mother, but--ah, for Tama-nui-ki-te Rangi! ah, for
Tama-nui-ki-te Rangi, what would have become of Maui? But a prey of the
birds of the sea, ah! Tama found a bundle of jellyfish and sea-kelps
on the shore, and the sea-birds were collecting around it fighting and
screaming; so he went, and, stripping the fish and sea-kelps, he saw that
they were covering and enclosing a child--Maui-potiki.
Ah, behold Maui-potiki, Maui, the infant, reared and fashioned by the
fish and the weeds and the waves, by storms and gales of the rolling
sea--ah, but for Tama-nui-ki-te Rangi, what would have become of Maui,
alone on the shore? What but a prey of the sea-birds?
Maui-potiki!
Ah, Listen:
Before his time Maui was born, and Taranga, his mother, who gave birth
to him on the border of the sea, knew that he could not live; therefore
she cut her hair, and, wrapping it around him, she threw him into the
surf of the sea--ah. She sang many incantations which have power over the
evil spirits; for know, my listener, they are watching for the children
who are born to life, before their life is ripe. They try to enter the
body and fill the departing spirit of the child with hatred for man--for
the departing spirit will never know and receive the joys of man; and
therefore, friend, the dead-born children form the multitude of evil
spirits.
Ah, great were Taranga’s incantations, but what would have become of
Maui but for the love of Tangaroa? Tangaroa, the god of the oceans! His
are the waves, and they rolled and rocked the child to sleep, and they
fashioned him and gave him strength; and they took possession of him
and gave him the power of the sea and the wisdom of the sea--their great
incantations which unite heaven and earth; and they gave him the terrible
witchcraft of the sea.
Then, rolling him gently on the sand of the beach, the jellyfish robed
him, and the seaweeds--ah, my listener!
Tama-nui-ki-te Rangi became his father, and he lived with him till he
grew into manhood. Many were his deeds, and great was his cunning: he
learned powerful incantations, and he learned how to take the shape of
the birds.
At last a great longing for his parents and his brothers grew in his
heart, and he set out to seek them, for his heart was longing for them.
He wandered and wandered toward the Edge of the Ascending Sun, and many
days more he wandered, till he came to the great whare-puni; and all the
people were there, and full of enjoyment and happiness.
He saw a woman who was counting her sons:
“Maui-i-mua--my eldest;
Maui-i-roto--my second-born;
Maui-i-taha--my third son; and
Maui-i-pai--my other son;”
and, perceiving Maui-potiki, she demanded: “Whom do I see among my
children?”
Maui, assuming before her eyes the form of a pigeon, flew upon the
forehead of Rangi, whose carved image supported the house, and, sitting
there, he spoke: “If you are Taranga, my mother, then know, that I am
Maui-potiki, your youngest son.”
Ha! great was the wisdom given him by Tangaroa, and great was his beauty
and strength, fashioned by the storms of the sea, so that, when he took
the form of man again, his mother saw his great beauty and she believed
in him, and knew that he was her son; and she spoke:
“Do you come from the North?”; and Maui answered: “No.”
And again she asked: “Do you come from the South?” Maui again answered:
“No.”
And she asked again: “Do you come from the West?” Maui again answered:
“No.”
And she spoke again: “Do you come from the East?”--and again Maui
answered: “No.”
She said: “Do you come on the waves of the sea?”--and Maui spoke: “The
waves of the sea rolled me.”
And she said: “Do you come on the waves of the wind?”--and Maui said
“Yes!”
Then Taranga cried: “It is true! He is the youngest son to whom I gave
birth, and cast his body into the sea because his life was not ripe. He
is here again; he is alive; it is true, it is true, it is true! He is my
son; he is Maui-i-tiki-tiki-a-taranga!”
Ah, listen, my friend to Maui; Maui, my ancestor!
Three times he slept in the house of his mother, but every morning when
he awoke he found his mother had disappeared before day-break.
The next night, when Taranga had come again to sleep with her sons, he
waited till all were asleep, and then he closed every hole and rent
through which light could come into the house, and put away Taranga’s
feather-garment and belt, that she might not be able to go away again. In
the darkness now Taranga slept till the Sun was standing high, and she
cried and searched for her garment and belt. Not finding them she covered
herself with an old mat, and ran to a tuft of reeds which grew near the
house, and disappeared beneath it.
Maui followed her, and, lifting the tuft, he found that it covered the
entrance to a cave.
[Illustration: MAUI CHANTING INCANTATIONS]
Quickly now he changed himself into a pigeon, and, binding the white belt
of his mother around his neck and her black feather-garment before his
breast, he flew to the entrance of the cave, and, entering it, he flew
and flew and flew through the long and dark cave till he saw at last
the people of another world. Thither he flew, and rested upon a large
tree. Sitting there, he perceived that his mother and father were among
the people, and he threw down two berries, hitting both, his mother and
Makea-tu-tara his father. They thought the berries had fallen from the
tree, and took no heed; but Maui threw and hit them again, and then
again. At last all saw the pigeon, and they began to throw stones, to
kill it; but they could not hit Maui until at length he wanted them to,
and then he fluttered down to the feet of his father. The people now
sprang forward to kill the pigeon, but Maui quickly changed into a man
again, so that they were struck with fear, and looked frightened into his
staring red eyes: they were as red as if they were painted with kokowai.
Ah, my listener, Taranga, seeing her son, chanted the great Song of
Welcome of the people of Hawaiki; and then, staring far into the
distance, she sang the incantations to the gods who record the past,
and with their help she narrated to the people all that had taken place
since Maui’s birth, and the people wondered, and believed that Maui was
Taranga’s son--Maui-i-tiki-tiki-a-taranga.
And from that time, Maui lived with his people for time, and time, and
time.
At last, Maui, full of knowledge and cunning, wished for a weapon, so
that he might perform great deeds that no other men could do. He wished
for a sacred weapon, and he held many Karakias to the gods whose abode is
the tools of the warrior.
One day he asked the people who brought food every day to
Muri-Rangi-whenua, his grandfather, and said: “Give me the food that
I may take it to Muri-Rangi-whenua, for is he not a sacred man?” And
they gave it to him, and he carried it away; but did not give it to his
ancestor. Many were the days that passed since he took the food away; but
he did not give it to the old man, whose cries became louder and louder,
for he was very old and hungry.
At last the spirit of his life took his abode in the jawbone, and,
departing from there to be swallowed by Hine-nui-te-po, he left the
jawbone--as his last resting-place, tapu (sacred)--behind him.