ipg which we underftood, gave us leCtures to very little
purpofe: what we learnt, however, I will relate with a»
much perfpicuity as I can.
Nothing is more obvious to a rational being, however ignorant
or ftupid, than that the univerfe and its various parts,
as far as they fall under his notice, were produced by fome
agent inconceivably more powerful than himfelf; and nothing
is more difficult to be conceived, even by the moft' fa-
gacious and knowing, than the production of them from
nothing, which among us is expreffed by the word Creationt
It is natural therefore, as no Being apparently- capable of
producing the univerfe is to be feen, that he ffiould be
fuppofed to refide in fome diftant part of it, or to- be in-
ins nature invffible, and that he- ffiould have originally
produced all that now exifts in a manner fimilar to-ffiatim
which nature is renovated by the fucccffion of one genera*-
tion to another 5 but- the idea of procreation includes in it
that of two perfons, and from the conjunction of two perfons-.
thefe people imagine every thing in the univerfe either originally
or derivatively to proceed.
The Supreme Deity, one of thefe two- firft beings, they-
call T a r o a t u h Stb&ytogi and the Other, whom they fuppofe-
to have been a rock, T ei-apa. A daughter of thefe was-
T ettowm atat A YO, the year, or thirteen months colle&ively,
which they never name but upon this occafion, and ffie by-
the-common father, produced the months, and the months
by conjunction with each other, the days ; the liars they
fuppofe partly to be the immediate offspring of the firft pair,
and partly to have increafed among themfelves; and they have
the fame notion-with refpeCt to ffie different fpecies of plants.
Among other progeny of Taroaraihetoornoo and Tepapa,
they- fuppofe an inferior race of deifies-- whom they call
5 Eatuas.
E a t u a s . Two of thefe Eatuas, they fay, at fome remote period
of time, inhabited the earth, and were ffie parents o f
ffie firft man. When this man, their common anceftor, was-
born, they fay that he was round like a ball, but that his-
mother, with great eare, drew out his limbs, and having at
length moulded him into his prefent form, ffie called him
E o f h e , which fignifies finijlxd. That being prompted by
ffie univerfal inftinCt to propagate his kind, and being able’
to find no female but his mother, he begot upon her x
daughter, and upon the daughter other daughters for feveral
generations, before there was a fon ; a fon, however, being
at length born, he, by ffie affiftance of his fillers, peopled;
ffie world.
' Befides their daughter Tettowma-tatayo, the firft progenitors
of nature had a fon whom they called T ake. Taro&tai-
hctoomoo, the Supreme Deity, they emphatically ftile the-'
caufer o f earthquakes ; but their prayers are more generally
addreffed to Tane, whom they fuppofe to- take a greater parts
in the affairs of mankind.
Their fubordinate deities or Eatuas, which are numerous,,
are o f b o * fexes: the male are worffiipped by the men, anff
the female by the women ; and each have Morais to w ic
the other fex is not admitted, though they have alfo Morais
common to both. Men perform the office of pncffi to bo
fexes, but each fex has its priefts, for thofe who officiate fon
one fex, do not officiate for the other.
They believe the immortality of the foul, at leafl its-
exiftence in a feparate ftate, and that there are two fitu-
ations o f different degrees of happinefs, fomewhat analogous
to- our heaven and- hell: the fuperior fituation they
call Tavirua Term, ffie other Tiahotm, They do not, however,
confider them as places of- reward and pumffiment,
’ buu