still worse one after death."[1] Again, "after Maui came a host of gods, each with his history and wonderful deeds. . . . These were ancestors who became deified by their respective tribes,"[2]— a statement which must be regarded as theoretical. It is odd enough, if true, that Maru should be the war-god of the southern island, and that the planet Mars is called after him, Maru. "There were also gods in human forms, and others with those of reptiles. . . . At one period there seems to have been a mixed offspring from the same parents. Thus while Tawaki was of the human form, his brethren were taniwa and sharks; there were likewise mixed marriages among them." These legends are the natural result of that lack of distinction between man and the other things in the world which, as we demonstrated, prevails in early thought. It appears that the great mythical gods of the Maoris have not much concern with their morality. The myths are "but a magnified history of their chiefs, their wars, murders, and lusts, with the addition of some supernatural powers"—such as the chiefs are very apt to claim.[3] In the opinion of a competent observer, the gods, or Atua, who are feared in daily life are "spirits of the dead," and their attention is chiefly confined to the conduct of their living descendants and clansmen. They inspire courage, the leading virtue. When converted, the natives are said not to expel, but merely to subordinate their Atua, "believing Christ to be a more powerful Atua."[4]
