‘the place of Mataora’), and there he was made beautiful by tattooing. He went on to the home of Tu-te-koropango where he found his wife, who admired his beauty and the glow of his red garments. She swam out to his canoe; he cut her body in half, wrapped the top half in his garments, took it home and buried it. When summer came he heard a sound, unburied the body and found Rukutia restored to life. According to one of the two versions of the story quoted by White, ‘from that time her name was changed to Patunga-tapu’.

Similar in Many Ways This myth has obvious similarities with the two myths discussed above. By being tattooed and wearing beautiful garments, Tama-nui-a-raki wins back his wife. Rukutia dies, and is subsequently restored to life. Though there are many references to garments, it is not said that Rukutia learnt the art of weaving in the underworld. However, it is interesting to note that a figure named Rukutia is elsewhere said to be the ‘founder of the art of weaving’.6. See Apirana Ngata's ‘Nga Moteatea’ vol. I, p. 200. As mentioned above, when Rukutia is restored to life she receives the new name of ‘Patunga-tapu’, that is, ‘sacred victim’. In the same way, when Pare is restored to life she is given the new name of ‘Pare-Hutu’. As shown above, the name ‘Pare’ refers to the spirit of the rice, and the name ‘Hutu’ means ‘a sacrifice’. Hence ‘Pare-Hutu’ means ‘the sacrificed spirit of the rice’, a similar meaning to ‘Patunga-tapu’. This article is a preliminary attempt to consider relationships existing between Maori mythology and the mythology and customs of India and South-East Asia. I consider that despite the great difficulties, many names occurring in Maori mythology can be identified with their Asian originals, and that this is potentially one of the most rewarding approaches to a study of Maori mythology.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MAORI AND SANSKRIT LANGUAGES by Adele Schafer The writer believes that Maori and other Polynesian languages have developed from Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. Most of the languages spoken in Europe are closely related, and are derived from a common source. The ancient language from which they are descended was either Sanskrit, or more probably a language which was closely related to Sanskrit, and is now lost. The people who spoke this ancient Indo-European language later became widely separated, sections of them migrating to new lands.

Changes in Pronunciation As time went on they acquired new words from the new places where they were living, and they lost some old words. Furthermore, they came to pronounce some of the sounds in their language in a new way. These changes in pronunciation followed regular patterns which are known as ‘sound shifts’. Sound shifts occurred mostly in the case of consonants; though the vowels (that is to say, the sounds a, e, i, o, u and their combinations) also changed, these vowel changes did not follow such a clear pattern. Because the changes in the pronunciation of consonants did follow a clear pattern, it is possible to trace their history and thereby to show the hidden relationships which exist between these related languages. Here is an example. English : three Sanskrit : tri Latin : tres French : trois German : drei The same regular pattern of sound changes can be traced in the case of some other related consonants. As is well known, Polynesian languages