latter appear to have been more distinctly anthropomorphous; at least, they are credited with human passions, and are said to have performed divers manual feats and tasks.

The primal beings above mentioned would seem to have been animistic conceptions, personifications of eras and æons of time. They represented chaos, they emerged from nothingness, from the dark void, from the womb of time. They were the origin of the Maori cosmos, and as time rolled on the universe became more ordered, the elements came into being through the same agency of sex, the heavenly bodies appeared as offspring of sexed personifications, after which came the heroes of Maori mythology, gods and demigods, and then man appeared—that is to say, man as we know him, man of the world of light, the world of life and being. Such is, in few words, the spirit of the Maori cosmogony and anthropogeny, as also the origin of sex. In fine, Maori myths and origins are noted for the mytho-poetic ideas and animistic conceptions which they contain and are based upon.

When Rangi and Papa, the Sky Parent and the Earth Mother, came into being they embraced each other as husband and wife, and produced certain beings who were the origin or personification of trees, birds, fish, winds, war, peace, &c.; and these children, objecting to the state of darkness in which they lived, on account of the sky lying pressed down upon the earth, cast about for a plan whereby they might enjoy light and space. This ended in their forcing their parents apart. Tane, tutelary deity of trees, forests, and birds, thrust the sky upwards and propped it up with poles. Observe here the origin of divorce, and the name thereof. Toko (noun), a pole; also; a ray of light. Toko (verb), to propel with a pole. Now, the Maori term for divorce is toko, and in the invocation repeated by the priest during the performance of the divorce rite occur the words—

Ka tokona atu nei korua
Tu ke Rangi, tau ke Papa—
(You two are forced apart as were Rangi and Papa).

But of divorce and its ritual more anon. We have not yet married our Polynesian couple.

The first marriages mentioned in Maori myth in which members of this world (te ao marama, the world of life, light, or being) were concerned were those of Tiki and Tane. Tiki, who was of the Po (world of Darkness or Chaos), married Ea,^* who was of this world. They had Kurawaka, who married Tane-nui-a-rangi, one of the offspring of Rangi and Papa. Hence the expression Te Aitanga a Tiki (the Offspring of Tiki) is applied to man by the Maori people.

Tane sought long for woman ere he found her. He married many singular beings and produced offspring of passing strangeness ere he came to Kurawaka. For instance, he married Hine-tu-maunga, and produced Para-whenua-mea (personification of flood-waters). He married Hine-wao-riki, and had the kahika (a forest tree). He married Mumuhanga, and produced the totara (a forest tree). He married Tukapua, and had the tawai (a tree which grows on high ranges). He married Mango-nui, and had the tawa and hinau (both trees). He married Te Pu-whakahara (a star name), and had the maire (a tree). And so on, a long list of such unions, until he went to Rangi and asked, “Where is the uha (female, or female nature)?” And Rangi said, “The whare o aitua is below.” Then Tane came and found woman of this world. The expression whare o aitua appears to mean “the origin of misfortune and death,” and to be applied to the female sex or nature. Even so, Tane came to earth and found woman. And the Maori people trace their descent from Tane, as they do from Tiki. Thus, also, the trees of the forest are their distant relatives, fellow-descendants of Tane. And this is one reason why the Maori is so close in touch with nature. He speaks of the forest trees as if they were sentient beings; he fells a tree and says, “Tane has fallen”; he performs strange rites in order to placate the gods of the forest; he peoples the forest depths with singular beings.

In Maori myth the heavenly bodies are credited with the possession of sex and of human attributes. The sun has two wives, Hine-raumati and Hine-takurua, the Summer Maiden and the Winter Maiden. The star Rehua (Antares) has also two wives, Whakaonge-kai and Ruuhi, the latter being also known as Peke-hawani. The moon, which is deemed a male, has two wives (perhaps I should say two legal wives, inasmuch as the moon is said to be the husband of all women, and is the cause of menstruation).

Such animistic illustrations might be given ad nauseam, but we will now give a few items from the Tuhoean folklore tales. The Tuhoe Tribe were originally known as Nga-Potiki, the Children, or the Descendants of Potiki. These aborigines are descended from one Potiki, a remote ancestor, whose origin was a most singular one, as follows: One Hine-pukohu-rangi is the personification of mist in Tuhoean myth. It was this Maid of the Heavenly Mist who lured to earth Te Maunga, the Mountain, and from the union of these two sprang Potiki (the Child), from whom sprang Nga Potiki (the Children, or Descendants of Potiki), who are now known as Te Ure-wera and Tuhoe. They are the Children of the Mist.

A similar being seems to have been one Tairi-a-kohu, who descended to this world in order that she might bathe in the