Creation Myths.
According to the legend of Kumuhonua the creation of the world and of man proceeded in this wise. In the beginning there were four ages or “po.” First: po-loa. Second: po-nui-au-wa-ea. Third: po-kanaka. Fourth: po-hana.
1. During the po-loa there was neither heaven nor earth; there was simply a deep, immeasurable darkness, in which dwelt the god Kane, called “Kane-i-ka-po-loa.” He was a spirit (uhane) without a body.
2. During the po-nui-au-wa-ea or po-nui-aea, the world and man were created by Kane, Ku, and Lono. Light was first made, and when it appeared the world (honua) was seen floating about in the darkness; then all other things were created, and lastly man.
3. During the po-kanaka man was created. Kumuhonua was the first man. He was made from the settlings of muddy water (Koana wai lepo), in the manner of steam rising from the water (puholoholoia). He was also called Honua-ula or the red earth. Afterwards Kane created the woman who was called Lalo-honua. She was made from the side of Kumuhonua. Lalo is an ancient name in Hawaiian for the ribs (iwiaoao).
4. The po-hana is divided in two parts: the po-hana and the po-auhulihia.
The po-hana reaches from the creation of Kumuhonua to the time of Nuu. At first Kane lived with Kumuhonua on earth; then Kane gave him laws and instructions and went up to heaven to reside, and Kumuhonua and Lalo-honua remained on earth. Kumuhonua was now called Kane-laau-uli. He broke the law of Kane. The law referred to a laau kapu (forbidden tree), and uli (feebleness, death,) was the punishment.
The po-auhulihia, so called because the earth and all on it was destroyed by the flood (kai-a-kahinalii). Nuu built a big canoe called Waa-halau-alii-o-ka-moku.
The gods (Kane, Ku, and Lono), seeing the man without a wife, descended on earth, put him into a sleep, took out one of his ribs (lalo-puhaka) and made it into a woman. They then awoke the man who found the woman on his right side, and she was called Ke-Ola-Ku-Honua.
The Hawaiian Legend of Welaahilani is substantially the same, but the first woman’s name is Owe.
A Tahitian legend also refers to the creation of the first woman from a rib of the first man, and calls her Owa, or Owe.
In the Mele of Kamapuaa reference is made to Ku, Kane, Kanaloa, as the gods of the night and of the day.
Kamapuaa is also called “ka haole nui, maka[1] olohilohi,” and is said to have eight legs and eight eyes.
The legend of Pele and Kamapuaa represents some confused and half forgotten [[336]]conception or knowledge of the contest between religious sects, the followers of Pele being worshipers and Kamapuaa, a believer in the efficacy of water.
The people of Pulo-Nias, to the west of Sumatra, believe in a Supreme God called Lora-Langi. He is not worshiped. Below him is a god called Batu Da Danaw who has charge of the earth. The world contains several stages. The one immediately below us is occupied by dwarfs. The heavens or sky above us (holi yawa) are peopled by a superior order of men called barucki, who are gifted with wings and have the power to become invisible at pleasure. They are governed by kings of their own. The people of the earth continued in a savage state until the wife of one king (the present) of the barucki (Leo Mepuhana) had pity on them and taught arts and civilization; then also they were taught to speak. The language, habits and institutions of the Pulo-Nias are strikingly different from the other Malay and Asiatic Islanders. Hindustan and Islamism have left no trace here. (Memoir of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Vol. II, Ch. 17.)
Rangi and Papa originated all things, but “Po,” of which there was a succession, enveloped everything.
There was no separation or interval between Rangi and Papa. The children of Rangi and Papa were: Tumatauenga (father of man); Tane-mahuta (father of forests, etc.); Tawhiri-ma-tea (father of winds, etc.); Rongo-ma-tane (father of cultivated food); Tangaroa (father of fish and reptiles); Haumia-tikitiki (father of wild grown food).
It was Tane-mahuta who rent Rangi and Papa asunder and let in light on the earth. One of Papa’s names after that was Papa-tu-a-nuku. Tawhiri-ma-tea did not approve of the separation and followed his father Rangi to the skies and there begat and named his offspring, the winds.
Tangaroa begat Panga, and he begat Ika-tere (father of fish) and Tu-ti-wehiwehi or Tu-ti-wanawana (father of reptiles).
Tu-matauenga subdued all his brothers except Tawhiri-ma-tea, and then assumed the different names of Tu-kariri, Tu-ka-nguha, Tu-ka-taua, Tu-whaka-heke-tangata, Tu-mata-wehe-iti.
Among the children of Rangi and Papa, Tu-matauenga bore the likeness of man, so did his brothers, so did Po, a Ao, a Kore, ti Kimihanga, and Runuku, and thus they continued until the time of Ngainui and of Whirote-kupua and of Tiki-tawhito-ariki and their generations till the present time.
Many generations after Tu-matauenga lived Taranga (w.) and Makeatu-kara (k.), who were the parents of Maui-taha, Maui-roto, Maui-pae, Maui-waho and of Maui-tikitiki-a-Taranga. In their time Death first had power over earth because Maui-a-Taranga tried to deceive the goddess and ancestress Hina-nui-ti-po (goddess of death).
Maui caught the sun in a noose, beat him and compelled him ever after to travel slower and with a lesser heat. He fished up a great portion of the submerged land, and his fish-hook, made from the jaw-bone of his ancestress Muri-ranga-whenua, is still shown in the district of Heretaunga in New Zealand, transformed into the south end of Hawke’s Bay. He got fire from his ancestress Mahu-ika, who pulled out her nails and [[337]]fire followed. Maui had a sister Hina-uri, whose husband, Irawaru, was changed into a dog by Maui. From Irawaru sprang all dogs. Maui and his descendants lived in Hawaiki, until some of them left there and went to Aotea-roa (New Zealand). (Sir Geo. Grey’s Pol. Mythol.)
According to Moerenhout (Voyage aux Iles du Grand Ocean, I, 446), Rii (a secondary god) separated Heaven and Earth by stretching out the former like a curtain. Mahui “brought the earth up from the depths of the ocean, and when mankind suffered from the prolonged absence of the sun and had lived mournfully in deep obscurity, and when fruits would not ripen, he stopped the sun and regulated its course so as to make day and night equal.” (Does not that legend indicate that Polynesians formerly lived in a zone where the inequality of day and night was greater than in the tropics?). Ru (god of winds), caused the ocean to swell over and break up the continent into its present island condition. Moerenhout says further (Op. Cit. p. 568): “On ne trouve, nulle part, de vestiges des deux principes, ni de ces combats entre les ténèbres et la lumiere, la vie et la mort.” Compare, however, the Marquesan cosmogony. He says also (Op. Cit. p. 571) that Polynesian legends represent the ocean as overflowing its bed and rising up to the highest mountains “sans que, nulle part, il soit question des eaux pluviales.” See, however, the mele of the Deluge in Hawaiian and Marquesan.
The frequent reference in Polynesian legends to moo, enormous, powerful and magical lizards or serpents, relates to a previous residence in some country where such reptiles exist, for in Polynesia these are of the smallest kind. It is more likely to be a remembrance of the serpent worship which obtained in the Hamitic-Arabic race and was by them spread over India and the archipelago.
Manua was another Hawaiian name for the god or chief of the infernal regions, called “Po-pau-ole,” “Po-ia-Milu,” “Po-kini-kini,” “Po-kuakini,” “Po-lua-ahi,” “Po-papaia-owa.” Manua is said to have been the original lord of this place. Milu was only a wicked chief, whose spirit was retained there. It was not an entirely dark place—there was light and there was fire. The legends record several instances where spirits of the dead who had been sent thither were withdrawn from there and brought to the light and life of the upper world again. Moku-lehua brought his wife Pueo up again from there. Maluae brought his son Kaalii back from there; the former by the help of his god Kanikaniula, the latter by that of Kane and Kanaloa; and thus Hiku brought up the spirit of Kawelu (w.) and revived her. [[338]]
[1] Maka olohilohi, or more properly alohilohi, means bright, sparkling eyes. [↑]