The Press. — London, England, 1855-03-24 00:00:00

MARCH 24, 1855. ocean, but his children dispute as to whether they shall seek safety on land or in the sea : Tka-tere, the father of things which inhabit water, cried aloud to Tu-tewehiwehi, " Ho, ho, let us all escape to the am" But Tu-te wehiwehi shouted in answer, " Nay, nay, let ns rather fly inland." Then Ike-tete warned him, saying, "Fly inland, then; and the fate of you and your race will be, that when they catch you, before you are cooked, they will singe off your scales over a lighted wisp of dry fern." But Tu-te-wehiwehi answered him, saying," Seek safety, then, in the sea ; and the future fate of your race will be, that when they serve out little baskets of cooked vegetable food to each person, you will be laid upon the top of the food to give a relish to it." Then without delay these two races of beings separated. The fish fled in confusion to the sea, the reptiles sought safety in the forests and shrubs. The god of storms having in turn vanquished all his brothers but Tu-matauenga, now tries to vanquish him, but the god of man laughs Ta whiri-ma-tea to scorn, and stands still erect upon the breast of his mother Earth; and having thus withstood the god who had overcome all his brothers, Tu-matauenga determines to subdue them himself. Four of them were entirely deposed by him, and became his food, but Tawhiri-ma-tea, the god of storms, he could never vanquish, and " so he, the last born " child of Heaven, was left as an enemy to " man, and still, with a rage equal to that of " Maui, this brother ever attacks him in storms " and hurricanes, endeavouring to destroy " him alike by sea and land." Such is their theory of the universe. There was a " sense of the Infinite " in the minds of those men who created this theory, and no ono can deny the exquisite poetry of their conceptions, as manifested, for example, in this description of the effect of the separation of heaven and earth : Up to this time the vast Heaven has still ever remained separated from his spouse the Earth. Yet their mutual love still continues—the soft warm sighs of her loving bosom !till ever rise up to him, ascending from the woody mountains and 'valleys, and men call these mists; and the vast Heaven, as be mourns through the long nights his separation from his beloved, drops frequent tears upon her bosom, and men seeing these, term them dewdrops. It is a matter of surprise that a race so fall of feeling for the beauties of nature, so full of the highest poetical sentiment, and possess ing a great share of intellectual capacity, should have never emerged from barbarism. Among their legends we find that daughters of heaven, who see that the sons of men are fair to look upon, come down to the earth and live with their chosen spouses. And some of their adventures ate very poetically described. But in general these legends relate only to the perpetual wars and contests of their ancestors, who appear to possess supernatural powers, and who appear, moreover, to be intimately connected with the deities. from the frequent visits they make to heaven when alive, while ultimately the most successful become deities in their turn. Their adventures and exploits are so fully detailed that it would be impossi ble to relate them in this limited space, but as a specimen of the style of description, we will endeavour to epitomise one of their love legends. Hine-Moa was a mailen of rare beauty and high rank, and so great was the fame of her beauty, that the four sons of Whakaue, a great chief, and their illegitimate brother Tutanekai (for the wife of Whakaue tan away from the great chief for a time, and Tutanekai was the fruit of elopement), each desired to have her for a wife. Now, Tutanekai was fond of music, and having contracted a great friendship for a young man named Tiki, they both on calm sum mer evenings used top lay, one on the horn and the other on the pipe, and the sound of music was wafted by the gentle land breeze across the lake to the village where Hine-Moa dwelt, and she, when she heard the sweet sounding music, would say to herself, "Ah ! " that is the music of Tutauekai which I hear:" for Tutanekai and Hine-Moa had often met one another, and to the heart of each of them the other appeared pleasing and worthy of love; but Tutanekai was diffident and could not venture to approach Hine-Moa to take her hand to see if she would press his in return, " because," said he, " perhaps I may be by no " means agreeable to her;" and Hine-Moa was bashful also, for her heart said to her, " If you THE PRESS. " send one of your female friends to tell him " of your love, perchance he will not be pleased " with you." At last Tutanekai takes courage and sends her a loving message, and when Hine-Moa had heard the words of his message, " Eli-hu!" she cried, " and have we then each " loved alike?" One night it happened that Tutanekai's brothers were each asserting that they had made a conquest of Hine-Moa, and Tutanekai could not bear this, and he told them that he alone had pressed Hine Moa'a hand, and received a pressure in return, bat his elder brothers cried out, " No such thing! " do you think she would take any notice of " such a low-born fellow as you are?" Tutane kai replied not, but laid his plans to secure Hine-lodes, and arranged with her at last that when he sounded his trumpet she should paddle her canoe to that place. But Hine- Moa's friends began to suspect something, and so every night they hauled up all the canoes high u; nn the beach; and alter many nights she reflected in her heart how she could cross the lake, and as she sat down to rest, the soft music from the horn of Tutane kai reached her, and she felt as if tai earth quake shook her, to make her go to the be loved of her heart; and at last she thought that she might swim across. Then she threw off her clothes and plunged into the water, and after much weariness she reached the island; and she found a warm spring, and she got into this, for she trembled all over, partly from cold, and partly from modesty at the thoughts of meeting Tutanekai. Now, it happened that Tutanekai was very thirsty, and sent his slave with a calabash to get some water from this warm spring; and Hine-Moe., hiding herself in the water, assumed the gruff voice of a man, asked for whom the water was required, and the slave replied for Tutanekai ; then she took the calabash and broke it, and the slave returned for another, and each time she asked to drink and broke the calabash. At last the slave complained to Tutanekai, and he cried out, " Who is this rascal that dares to break " my calabashes : why, 1 shall die for rage ;" and he rushed down to the spring and cried out, " Where's that fellow who broke my " calabashes?" — And Hine-Moa knew the voice, that the sound of it was that of the beloved of her heart; and she hid herself under the overhanging rocks of the hot-spring; but her biding was hardly a real hiding, but rather a bashful concealing of herself from Tutanekai, that he might not find her at once, but only after trouble and careful searching for her; so he went feeling about along the banks of the hot spring, searching everywhere, whilst she la 3 coyly hid under the ledges of the rock, peeping out. wondering when she would be found. At last he caught hold of a hand, and cried out, " Hollo, who's this ? " And Hine-Moa answered, " 1, Tutanekai." And he said, " But who are you?—who's I? " Then she spoke louder, and said. " It's 1, 't is Hine- Moa." And he amid, "Ho ! ho ! ho ! can such in very truth be the case? let us two go then to my house." And she answered, "Yes ; " and she rose up in the water as beautiful as the wild white hawk, and stepped upon the edge of the bath as graceful as the shy white mime ; and he threw garments over her and took her, and they pro ceeded to his house, and reposed there ; and thenceforth, according to the ancient laws of the Maori, they were man and wife. There are some beautiful touches of nature in this little story. Hine-Moa's modesty and her hiding herself behind the rocks are exquisitely described, and so true to nature. The result of each legend has generally given rise to a proverb, and some are remarkably good. We met with one. which was appended to the story of a great battle and a successful assault upon the enemy's town, which would do no harm to be transcriLed for the benefit of European generals. After at once defeat ing the enemy and assaulting the town, we are told that they entered the breaches in the town as easily as if they had been walking in at the door of a house left open to receive them, whence this proverb has been handed down—" As soon as ever you have defeated " your enemy. storm his town ! " Of the accuracy of Sir George's translations it is impossible to speak, as the New Zealand language is not studied in Europe, but he appears to have thoroughly caught the spirit and vivacity of the people, without losing one single trait of their highly poetical mode of expression. We regard the book as a very valuable and interesting contribution to our knowledge of the traditional history of the almost extinct mythology of the South Sea Islands. 287 The Works of Virgil. Closely rendered into English Rytbm. By the Rev. R. C. Singleton, M.A. Two Vols. Vol. I. London : Bell. THE "Curiosities of Literature" might supply a motto for Mr. Singleton's translation. " The erudi " tion of words is frequently found not to be allied to " the sensibility of taste." Account for it as we may, textual critics are frequently unable to appreciate the meaning and spiritof their authors, while among the instructors of youth we often ttnd total inability to comprehend much more than the grammatical structure of language. Mr. Singleton tells us that " he has for several years had his attention directed to " the training of the young," and it might be thought that he would be competent to give a decent version of a poet so well known as Virgil ; but his endeavour to introduce " a higher order of translation " than has yet been attempted is a ludicrous failure. In his pedantic preface, he dwells particularly on the " poe tical expression" of his version. "In quarterq," he says, " where an unpoetical expression in a Latin " verse exercise would be eliminated from it with as " much zeal as a cobra from the couch of the Anglo• " Indian, a prosaic word in the version of a poet is " tolerated as if it were neither nuisance nor intru " sion ;" and a little later he instructs us that, " As " the penumbra of an eclipse presents a region where, " if one may so speak, light and darkness both have " libtrty to range, so there is a common of language " to which both poetry and prose have the freest ac " cess." Unfortunately, his notion of poetical expres sion something resembles that of "slashing Bentley," who, in his efforts to improve Milton, would substitute his own " transpicuous gloom" for the poet's "nark " ness visible." In Virgil, the goddess mother of /Eneas opens her history of Dido with the words, Longa eat Nulls, long. Ambages: sed SWIMS sequir facig a rerum. And this, with his genius for "poetical expression , " Mr. Singleton renders : Tedious is her wrong, Its intricacies tedious; but I'll trace The points most prominent of her Mgrs. We give his version of the lines, " Musa, mihi causas " inemora" complete, that lie may not complain of injustice by the selection of detached passages :- 0 Muse, the reasons unto me rehearse, What godhead outraged, or the queen of the gods At what a fretting, should ha%e furred a man Marked for religiousness to undergo Mishaps so many, meet so many toils. [Dwells there J such grievous wrath in heavenly souls? Lengthened criticism must be thrown away on a translator who deliberately renders " Quidve dolens " regina clam" by The queen of the gods At what a fretting. Mr. Singleton's notion of " rigid accuracy " in trans ' lation is curious. " Hospitio probibeniur arouse" is rendered by From a hosklry of sand We are barred. In another place, " hospitio" has the same significa tion given to it:— That the Infant towers Of Carthage for a hostelry may he Open unto the Trojans. He claims credit for his choice of Anglo Saxon words, and, as the translation of " ne fati neacia Did° fiuibus arceret," presents us with— Lest, of fats Unknowing, Did° fend them from her bourns. The " improvida pectora turbat," ushering in the catastrophe of Laocoon, is rendered by Our weetless breasts it blanks. Were this version much better done than it is, we doubt whether there would be any place for it. A literal rendering, line for line and word for word, might be useful, and would convey some notion of the poetry of the original; but this attempt has neither the accuracy of such a plan, nor has it the grace and spirit of a free translation. Taking the first book of the " /Eneid," we find that the 760 lines of the original are expanded into what. on Mr. Singleton's authority, we may (-all 1,074 of his "blanks." We can tolerate literal accuracy in a translation, but the kind of style indicated better than any words of oars can express by one example we have selected from Mr. Singleton, the rendering of " summa fastigia rerum" by The points most prominent of her affairs, seems to us equally futile and tasteless, without value t the youthful stdent, and merely contemptible if intended for person u s who desire to obtain some knowledge of Virgil through the medium of our English tongue. God's Word the Basis of Faith. An Appeal to Common Sense. By Charles E. Parry, 8.A., late Curate of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge. London Burns and Lambert. " A LATE Curate of St. Paul's, Knightahridge " may, perhaps, hope to find some reader , for a pamphlet set tine forth in plain terms that A nglicanism is " a sham,'" and that faith can only find repose in Rom. f I