It dwelt with the feeble glimmering,
It brought forth Night.
·······
It produced the atmosphere which is above us.
·······
The atmosphere above dwelt with the glowing sky,
Forthwith was produced the sun.
Then the moon sprang forth.
They were thrown up above as the chief eyes of heaven,
Then the heavens became light.
·······
The sky which floats above dwelt with Hawaiki,[1]
And produced" certain islands.
Then follow genealogies of gods, down to the chief in whose family this hymn was traditional.[2]
Other hymns of the same character, full of such metaphysical and abstract conceptions as "the proceeding from the nothing," are quoted at great length.
These extracts are obviously speculative rather than in any sense mythological. The element of myth just shows itself when we are told that the sky dwelt with the earth and produced certain islands. But myth of a familiar character is very fully represented among the Maoris. Their mythical gods, though "mixed up with the spirits of ancestors," are great natural powers, first Heaven and Earth, Rangi and Papa, the parents of all. These are conceived as having originally been united in such a close embrace, the Heaven lying on the Earth, that between their frames all was darkness, and in darkness the younger
- ↑ The islands of Hawaiki, being then the only land known, is put for Papa, the earth.
- ↑ Taylor, New Zealand, pp. 110–112.
