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
summer evenings used toplay, 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