Polynesian Mythology quotes

Men had but one pair of primitive ancestors; they sprang from the vast heaven that exists above us, and from earth which lies beneath us.

According to the traditions of our race, Rangi and Papa, or Heaven and Earth, were the source from which, in the beginning, all things originated.

It is better to rend them apart, and to let the heaven stand far above us, and the earth lie beneath our feet.

Let the sky become as a stranger to us, but the earth remain close to us as a nursing mother.

”

Then he answered them, “

Never mind, I think I’ll find them out;

” and his brothers replied,

Then little Māui, the infant, answered, “

Ah, I’m your child too.

”

then the sun rose up, and mounted far up above the horizon; now at last his mother moved, and began to think to herself, “

What kind of night can this be to last so long?

” and having thought thus, she dropped to sleep again. Again she awoke, and began to think to herself, but could not tell that it was broad daylight outside, as the window and every chink in the house were stopped closely up.

in the same manner the days appeared too short to him. So at last, one day he said to his brothers, “

Let us now catch the sun in a noose, so that we may compel him to move more slowly, in order that mankind may have long days to labour in to procure subsistence for themselves;

” but they answered him,

they hold him for a long time, at last they let him go, and then weak from wounds the sun crept slowly along its course. Then was learnt by men the second name of the sun, for in its agony the sun screamed out, “

Why am I thus smitten by you! oh, man! do you know what you are doing?

Why should you wish to kill Tamanuiterā?” Thus was learnt his second name. At last they let him go. Oh, then, Tamanuiterā went very slowly and feebly on his course.

Māui then asked his brothers to give him a little bait to bait his hook with; but they replied: “We will not give you any of our bait.”

So he doubled his fist and struck his nose violently, and the blood gushed out, and he smeared his hook with his own blood for bait

, and then be cast it into the sea, and it sank down, and sank down, till it reached to the small carved figure on the roof of a house at the bottom of the sea, then passing by the figure, it descended along the …

“

Oh, what do I care for that? do you think that my perverse proceedings are put a stop to by this? Certainly not; I intend to go on in the same way forever, ever, ever.

”

And Māui replied, “

Lay aside such idle thoughts, and let us both fearlessly seek whether men are to die or live forever.

”

if Māui had passed safely through her, then no more human beings would have died, but death itself would have been destroyed), and we express it by saying, “

The water-wagtail laughing at Māui-tikitiki-o-Taranga made Hinenuitepō squeeze him to death.

” And we have this proverb, “Men make heirs, but death carries them off.”

if Māui had passed safely through her, then no more human beings would have died, but death itself would have been destroyed), and we express it by saying, “The water-wagtail laughing at Māui-tikitiki-o-Taranga made Hinenuitepō squeeze him to death.” And we have this proverb, “

Men make heirs, but death carries them off.

”

“Make him carry the firewood for us, then.” So they took Tāwhaki, and laid a load of firewood upon his back, and made him carry that as well as the axes.

So was this mighty chief treated as a slave even by female slaves.

When they all reached the village, the two women called out, “We’ve caught an old man for a slave.”

thus it was left in a very filthy state. Rupe, who was displeased at seeing this, one day said to Rehua, “Oh, Rehua, they leave this courtyard of yours in a very filthy state;” and then he added, “

Your people are such a set of lazy rogues, that if every mess of dirt was a lizard, I doubt if they could even take the trouble to touch its tail to make it run away,

” and this saying passed into a proverb.

and she listened again to the rattling of the bones, and again she heard the words “Tauparoro, Tauparoro.” And the sister of Tūwhakararo looking up to the bones, said, “

You rattle in vain, O bones of him who was devoured by the Āti Hāpai tribe, for who is there to lament over him or to avenge his death?

”

Then Toi’ held his mouth shut as close as ever he could, but the dog still kept on howling in his inside. Thence Toi’ said as follows, and his words passed into a proverb, “

Oh, hush, hush! I thought I had hid you in the big belly of Toi’, and there you are, you cursed thing, still howling away.

”

So he fell to weeping for all his goods on board the canoe, and for his wife Whakaotirangi, whom Tamatekapua had carried off as a wife for himself. Tamatekapua committed these two great thefts when he sailed for these islands. Hence this proverb, “

A descendant of Tamatekapua will steal anything he can.

”

if you do you will perish, as if swept off by the winds, but rather follow quiet and useful occupations, then you will die tranquilly a natural death. Depart, and dwell in peace with all, leave war and strife behind you here.

Depart, and dwell in peace. It is war and its evils which are driving you from hence; dwell in peace where you are going conduct yourselves like men, let there be no quarrelling amongst you, but build up a great people.

”

They entered the breaches in the town as easily as if they had been walking in at the door of a house left open to receive them, whence this proverb has been handed down to us, “

As soon as you have defeated your enemy storm their town.

” The priests now turned over the bodies of the first slain, termed the holy fish, as offerings set apart for the gods, and said suitable prayers, and when these ceremonies were ended, the conquerors cooked the bodies of their enemies and devoured the whole …

It is over; all the divisions of Hatupatu’s brothers are broken and flying in confusion. What did it matter whether they were many or few, they were all cowards.

Their enemies saw no brave men’s faces, only the black backs of heads running away.

All this time the division of Hatupatu appears to be sitting quietly upon the ground, and when the men in full retreat came running in upon it, Hatupatu rose up to order them to charge again.

… they could not move to make any effectual resistance, and whilst some of the one hundred and forty men of Marutūāhu held the net down, the rest slew with their weapons the whole thousand, not one escaped, whilst they lost not a single man themselves.

Hence “The feast of rotten wood” is a proverb amongst the descendants of Marutūāhu to this day.

This feast of rotten wood was given at a place then named Pukeahau, but which was afterwards called Karihitangata (or, men were the weights which were attached to the net to sink it), upon account of the thousand people who were slain by treachery in …

No word was spoken, or movement made, by the crowd of fierce and angry men, but all, resting upon their arms, looked on in wonder and in silence.

Calm lay the sea, that was before so troubled, all timid and respectful in the lowly hero’s presence

; and the water was taken by Takarangi, and by him was held up to the aged chief;

Then Te Ponga answered,

“You are the water that I thirsted for.”

And as the maiden listened to his words, she thought within herself, “He then has fallen in love with me;”

And a comparison of the intervals discernible in them with the intervals stated to have been performed by the ancient Greeks in some of their divisions of the musical scale called ένος ἐναρμονικὸν, or by others ἁρμονία.

All nations, perhaps, without excepting any, have some method of expressing the more energetic emotions beyond mere speaking or acting; a sense of joy or pain, naturally calling forth ejaculations and vociferations exceeding in limit the tone of voice used in ordinary discourse.

The cry of war, the encouraging to battle, the shout of victory, or the lament of the vanquished, the wailing over a deceased friend, grief at the departure of a lover, each in its turn has prompted or suggested some modification of sound beyond the …

He continues: “He was perfectly charmed with the performance of some female singers, and that the natives are so fascinated as to lavish considerable sums on them.”

Precisely so the Greeks of old.

We must not suppose that the Greek enharmonic was a consecutive gamut of quarter-tones—no; we are told distinctly by all authors (except, perhaps Salinas), that there was a quarter-tone, then another quarter-tone, then a great interval completing the fourth;