tremely limited, and which is one of the fundamental beliefs on which the whole fabric of the Maori social system was built up—namely, the mysterious primal curse of woman or of the female nature. The ancient Maori held most interesting and unique ideas regarding the sexes, some of which are referred to here. “Tane said to Rangi, ‘Where is the uha?’ Rangi (the Sky Parent) replied, ‘Kei raro te uha, te whare o aitua; e hamama i runga, ko te whare tena o te ora.’ Now, this remark has two applications. The whare o aitua means the female procreative organs (tara, tore, &c.), and is also applied to Mother Earth, because her children (man) die and are taken back to her bosom—i.e., buried; also because of the mysterious primal curse of sex—female—which is ancient beyond compare, and appears in the most ancient myths of the ancient tribes of New Zealand. All troubles, misfortune, sickness, come from the whare o aitua (whence man enters the world)—i.e., from the female sex. On the other hand, the children of the primal pair who remained on high (the sun, moon, stars, &c.) perish not, but live for ever. They represent eternal life, hence the term whare o te ora applies to them. The ure tane (penis), the sacerdotal term for which is tawhito (‘the ancient one’), is another whare o te ora, or representative of life. The tawhito is the salvation of man: it gives mana* Mana = force, power, authority, &c. to his karakia and saves him from sickness and death. A man clasped his penis while repeating karakia to ward off magic spells. The tara wahine, or female genital organs, were, as we have just pointed out, the cause of death entering the world. Maui entered the womb of Hine-nui-te-po (goddess or personification of death) viâ the tara, in order to gain eternal life for man, but the puapua (sphincter vaginæ ?) of Hine closed upon Maui and killed him; hence death came to man. Thus the female genitals represent death, while the male organ signifies life. The first woman, in the Maori mythology, drags down her offspring to Po (night), meaning to death, and the first woman in the Greek mythology, Pandora, introduces all kinds of afflictions as an heritage for hers.” The key to so many Maori customs and superstitions is to be found in their cosmogonic myths, and that portion relating to the creation of woman, and her fall, resulting in the introduction of death and disease into the world, may be briefly summarised here. Commencing with a primitive state of darkness, night, morn, heaven (Rangi), earth (Papa), the winds, were produced in succession, and later Tiki, the first man. Rangi and Papa had numerous children, one of whom was named Tane-nui-a-rangi. This Tane, desiring a wife, made an image in the