Maori Legends

Te Ao Hou, November 1964, Page 42

Maori Legends The bulk of this legendary material was in the form of prose narrative. In New Zealand and probably elsewhere it may be conveniently divided into two categories: myth, and tradition. Unlike the traditions, the myths are known widely throughout Polynesia. They are set in the remote past, their characters are gods and immortals, and they include stories concerning the origin of the universe and the genesis of gods and of men. In New Zealand those earliest myths which tell of the evolution of the world are expressed only in cryptic, genealogical form. A number of these cosmogonic genealogies, as they were called by Elsdon Best, have been recorded. In some a sequence of periods of chaos is succeeded by periods of darkness which ultimately gave way to light; in some evolution is likened to the growth of a tree, or to the development of a child in the womb. In other parts of Polynesia, notably the Tuamotus, supplementary narrative was added in explanation of the genealogies. The contrast between the evolutionary view revealed in these genealogies, and the Christian belief in an act of creation, was clear to Maori converts. For example, Te Rangikaheke's manuscript entitled ‘The Sons of Heaven’ says, ‘According to European beliefs, God made Heaven and Earth. According to Maori belief however, Heaven and Earth were themselves the source. The Maori people have only one origin, the Sky which stands above and the Earth which lies below.’ The manuscript goes on to explain how from this union of Heaven and Earth there sprang the Departmental gods—the Ocean God, the God of Mankind (who was, appropriately enough, also the God of War), and so on. Next in time came the heroes, such as Maui and Tawhaki, demi-gods known throughout the Polynesian area. In New Zealand at least, there was nothing particularly sacred or esoteric in the myths concerning these heroes. The Maui stories in

particular were spoken of as ‘winter nights' tales.’