fabric of the universe is constantly sustained by this primary being. Above this extreme point is Te-tangaengae, or Te-vaerua; that is to say, Breathing, or Life. This demon is stouter and [Tango Enua Kura, or Land of red parrot-feathers: home of [mateanaca Eicho Te paraitea, or The hollo. Moana Irakau for Deep-Ocean home of Ra Te-enua-teki, or The mute land: home of the Great Mother Vari-mate-ta kore The Originator of all things, and her pet child Tu-metera = Stick by the parent This diagram will suit the mythology of many other islands; substituting, for instance, "Tahiti" for " 'Mangaia," as the land where egress and ingress to Avaiki exist. stronger than the former one. But the thickest part of the stem is Te-manava-roa, or The-long-lived, the third and last of the primary, ever-stationary, sentient spirits, who themselves constitute the foundation, and insure the permanence and well-being of all the rest of the universe. We advance now to the interior of the supposed cocoa-nut shell. In the lowest depth of Avaiki, where the sides of the imaginary shell nearly meet, lives a woman-a demon, of flesh and blood-named Vari-ma-te-takere, or The-very-beginning. Such is the narrowness of her territory that her knees and chin touch, no other position being possible. Vari-ma-te-takere was very anxious for progeny. One day she plucked off a bit of her right side, and it became a human being-the first man Avatea, or Vatea (the elision of the a in Avatea is compensated by the elongation of the second vowel). Now Vatea, the father of gods and men, was half man and half fish, the division being like the two halves of the human body. The species of fish to which this great divinity was allied being the taairangi (Cetacea), or great sea monsters, i.e. porpoises, whose sides are covered with pure fat, and whose home is the boundless ocean. Thus one eye of Vātea was human, the other a fish-eye. His right side was furnished with an arm; the left with a fin. He had one proper foot, and half a fish-tail. But there is another, and probably far more ancient, account of Vātea, or Avatea, which means noon in all the dialects of Eastern Polynesia.2 Vātea is a man possessed of two magnificent eyes, rarely visible at the same time. In general, whilst one, 1 Literally, The-beginning-and-the-bottom of the hollow cocoa-nut shell. 2 Vatea is the Wakea of the Hawaiians, with a similar meaning and history. + called by mortals the sun, is seen here in this upper world, the other eye, called by men the moon, shines in Avaiki. (A contradictory myth represents the sun and moon as living beings.) IMAGINARY REPRESENTATION OF VĀTEA. Compare with this a remarkable picture of a fish-god, from Layard, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, p. 381 (central picture). The land assigned by the Great Mother to Vātea was Tepapa-rairai, or The-thin-land. Another designation for his home was Te enua mārama o Vātea, or The-bright-land-of-Vatea, implying the perfect contrast between the brightness of noon-day, or Avatea, and the utter gloom of Po, or night which is equivalent to Avaiki. On another occasion Vari-ma-te-takere tore off a second bit from that same right side, and it became Tinirau, or Innumerable, who, like his brother, had a second and fishy form. The sort of fish which composed his half fish body was of the sprat-kind. The Great Mother gave him the land of MotuTapu, or Sacred Isle as his own domain.1 There were his celebrated ponds full of all kinds of fish. Tinirau was lord of the finny inhabitants of the sea, from the shark downwards. Another day Vari-ma-te-takere took a bit off her left side, and it became Tango, or Support, who went to live at Enua-Kura,2 or The-land-of-red-parrot-feathers. A fourth child was produced from a bit of the same left side, and was named Tumuteanaoa, or Echo, whose home was Te-pāraitea, or The-hollow-grey-rocks. Echo is represented as a female. A fifth child originated from a bit of that same left side of the Great Mother, and was designated Raka, or Trouble, who presides, like Aeolus, over the winds. Raka found a congenial home in Moana-Irakau, or Deep-ocean. Raka received from Vari-mate-takere a great basket in which the winds were hidden; also the knowledge of many useful inventions. The children of Raka are the numerous winds and storms which distress mankind. To each child is allotted a hole at the edge of the horizon, through which he blows at pleasure. Vari, or The-very-beginning, finding that her left side had been more injured than her right, resolved to make both sides alike by taking a third bit from the right side, and named this, her last child, Tu-metua, Stick-by-the-parent. Now, this sixth and most beloved child, as the name implies, lives with the Great Mother in 1 At Ngatangiia, Rarotonga, there is an islet, covered with cocoa-nut trees, so named. This is, of course, a modern identification. The "Sacred Isle" is supposed to be in the shades. 2 Manuae, or Hervey's Island: yet mystically the scene is laid in Avaiki. that narrow strip of territory constituting the very bottom of Avaiki, and which is designated Te-enua-te-ki, or The-mute-land. Do what you may to the attached mother and daughter, you cannot provoke an angry reply; for the only language known in The-mute-land is that of signs-such as nods, elevated eyebrows, grimaces, and smiles. It is to The-mute-land that Potiki, temporal lord of Mangaia, circa 1790, referred in a fête song :— E enua parere i Avaiki E enua mu matangi ē! Aore e kite i te tara ē! 66 دو In Avaiki is a land of strange utterance, And the gift of speech is unknown. Tu-metua is usually shortened into Tu, a principal god in most of the Polynesian mythologies, to whom the fourteenth night in every moon was sacred. On Cook's second visit to Tahiti, he found the king to be Otoo, ancestor of the present Pomare. Otoo should be written Tu, the O being a mere prefix to all proper names. This mythological name was adopted in order to secure for its owner the superstitious reverence due to the gods which are unseen by mortals. Tu was the tutelar goddess of Moorea. On Mangaia Tu was invariably linked with her nephew Tangaroa; but was little regarded. The second islet of Hervey's Island is known as "the kingdom of Tu" (au-o-Tu). = At Raiatea Tu-papa Tu-of-the-lowest-depths (the same as Tu-metua) becomes the wife of Ra, the Sun-god, whose too frequent visits to her home required to be checked by Maui. It was deemed by Vari very unseemly that Vātea's land, which originally was immediately above her own, should be underneath, |