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).