VISITS TO THE UNDERWORLD IN MAORI MYTHOLOGY by Adele Schafer In the last issue of ‘Te Ao Hou’ there appeared the texts of two ancient Maori stories telling of visits to the underworld: the story of Niwareka and Mataora, and the story of Pare and Hutu. This article attempts to discover something of the original significance of these two stories. In the first story, Mataora beats his wife Niwareka and she runs away to the under-world. He goes down to the underworld in search of her and there he meets the tohunga Uetonga, the father of Niwareka. Uetonga scoffs at the marks painted on Mataora's face, and he tattoos Mataora with his chisel. Niwareka, who has been occupied with the weaving of garments, finds Mataora and looks after him. When his wounds have healed they return to the upper world. But Mataora omits to pay Kuwatawata, the guardian of the door to the underworld, by giving her one of the garments which Niwareka had woven in the underworld. Because of this omission, Kuwatawata no longer allows anyone to return from the underworld.

Teaches Art of Tattooing When he returns to this world, Mataora teaches people the art of tattooing. In the story of Pare and Hutu, Pare is a young woman (‘puhi’) of very high birth, who lives in a house full of the most beautiful cloaks. She falls in love with a nobleman named Hutu who visits her village and distinguishes himself in the games held by her people. When he rejects her, she hangs herself. With the aid of incantations, Hutu visits the underworld in search of her, and there he attracts her attention by making a new kind of swing (‘morere’). She sits on his shoulders, and by swinging up very high, they escape from the underworld. When they return to her home, Pare's spirit re-enters her body. Pare's people acclaim Hutu and say that it is his powerful incantations which have brought her back to life. Pare marries Hutu, and from this time onwards she is known as Pare-Hutu. These two stories, together with similar accounts, are re-told in Mr A. W. Reed's ‘Treasury of Maori Folklore’ (1963) pp. 96–115. They follow a pattern which is to be found in similar stories all over the world; two of the best known versions are those of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Demeter and her daughter Persephone. A great many of these stories have been closely examined by Sir James Frazer in his monumental work, ‘The Golden Bough’. In all of these myths the first of the two personages, having been offended in some way, goes down to the underworld. The second person, who is either a relative or a lover, follows the runaway down to the underworld and attempts to bring him or her back to life on earth.

Associated With Planting of Fields In his book Frazer shows that these myths of death and resurrection are associated with the planting of the fields. The first of these personages represents the seed (barley, rice, root crops and other products of the earth); he or she goes under the ground just as the seed does at planting time. The second figure, who pursues the first and attempts to bring him or her up again, is often associated with a human sacrifice whose death is regarded as assisting in the annual renewal of the fertility of the fields. Myths following this pattern, and concerned with the renewal of fertility, have been found among agricultural societies all over the world. In the Greek legend of Demeter and Persephone and in the parallel Latin legend of Ceres and Proserpine, the names of the goddesses Demeter and Ceres both signify ‘grain’. In my opinion the names Pare and Niwareka can also be shown to signify a food plant, in that they are related to Sanskrit words for rice. After the Maori people left South-East Asia and the rice plant behind them, they retained these names but forgot their original significance. For a discussion of the sound-shifts upon