Children of Heaven and Earth, How The Heavens Were Separated From The Earth,

Men had but one pair of primitive ancestors, they sprang from the vast Heaven that exists above us, and from the Earth which lies beneath us.according to the traditions of the Maori race.

Rangi and Papa, or Heaven and Earth, were the source from which, in the beginning, all things originated.

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Darkness then rested upon the Heaven and upon the Earth, and they still were both clave together, for they had not yet been rent apart, and the children they had begotten were ever thinking amongst themselves what might be the difference between darkness and light.

They knew that beings had multiplied and increased, and yet light had never broken upon them, but it ever continued dark.

Hence these sayings are found in our ancient religious services.

There was darkness from the first division of time, unto the tenth, to the hundredth, to the thousandth, that is, for a vast space of time, and these divisions of time were considered as beings, and each were termed ‘a Po’, and on their account there was yet no world with its bright light, but darkness only for the beings which existed.

At last the beings who had begotten by Heaven and Earth, worn out by continued darkness. Consulted among themselves, saying.

“Let us now determine what we should do with Rangi and Papa, whether it would be better to slay them, or rend them apart”.

Then spoke Tumatauenga, the fiercest of the children of Heaven and Earth, “It is well, let us slay them”.

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Tumatauenga

Then spoke Tane-mahuta, the father of forests and all things that inhabit them, or are constructed from trees, “Nay, not so”. “It is better to rend them apart, and to let the Heaven stand far above us, and the Earth lie under our feet”. “Let the Sky become as a stranger to us, but the Earth remain close to us as our suckling Mother.

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Tane Mahuta

The brothers all consented with this proposal, with the exception of Tawhiri-ma-tea, the father of winds and storms, and he, fearing that his kingdom was about to be overthrown, grieved greatly at the thought of his parents being torn apart,

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Tawhiri-ma-tea

Five of the brothers willingly consented to the separation of their parents, but one of them would not agree to it.

Hence, also, these sayings of old are found in our prayers. “Darkness, darkness, light, light, the seeking, the searching, in chaos, in chaos”.

These signified the way in which the offspring of Heaven and Earth sought for some mode of dealing with their parents, so that human beings might increase and live.

So, also, these sayings of old time.

“The multitude, the length, signified the multitude of thoughts of the children of Heaven and Earth, and the length of time they considered whether they should slay their parents, that human beings might be called into existence, for it was in this manner that they talked and consulted among themselves.

But at length their plans having been agreed on,

Lo, Rongo-ma-tane, the god and father of the cultivated food of man, rises up, that he may rend apart the Heavens and Earth, he struggles, but he rends them not apart.

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Rongo-ma-tane

Lo, next, Tangaroa, the god and father of fish and reptiles, rises up, that he may rend apart the Heavens and the Earth, he also struggles, but he rends not apart.

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Tangaroa

Lo, next, Haumia-tiki tiki, the god and father of the food of man that springs up without cultivation, rises up and struggles, but ineffectually.

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Haumia-tiki tiki

Lo, then, Tumatauenga, the god and father of fierce human beings rises up and struggles, but he too fails in his efforts.

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Tumatauenga

Then, at last, slowly up rises Tane-mahuta, the god and father of birds, and of insects, and he struggles to rend them apart in vain, with his hands and arms.

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Tane Mahuta

Lo, he pauses, his head is now firmly planted on his mother the Earth, and his feet he raises up and rests against his father the Skies, he strains his back and limbs with mighty effort.

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Now are rent apart Rangi and Papa, and with cries and groans of woe they shriek aloud,

”Wherefore slay you thus your parents”?

“Why commit you so dreadful a crime as to slay us, as to rend your parents apart?”.

But Tane-mahuta pauses not, he regards not their shrieks and cries, far, far beneath him he presses down the Earth, far, far above him he thrusts up the sky.

No sooner was Heaven rent from Earth than the multitude of human beings were discovered whom they had begotten, and who had hitherto lain concealed between the bodies of Rangi and Papa.

Then also there rose up in the breast of Tawhiri-ma-tea, the god and father of winds and storms, a fierce desire to wage war with his brothers, because they had rent apart their common parents,

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He from the start had refused to consent to his Mother being torn from her Lord and children,

It was his brothers alone that wished for this separation and desired that Papa-ti-a-nuku, or the Earth alone, should be left as a parent for them.

The god of hurricanes and storms dreads also that the world should become too fair and beautiful, so he rises, follows his Father to the realm above, and hurries to the sheltered hollows in the boundless Skies, there he hides and clings, and nesting in this place of rest he consults long with his parent.

As the vast Heaven listens to the suggestions of Tawhiri-ma-tea, thoughts and plans are formed in his breast, and Tawhiri-ma-tea also understands what he should do.

Then, by himself, and the vast Heaven were begotten his numerous brood, and hey rapidly increased and grew.

Tawhiri-ma-tea despatches one of them to the Westward, and one to the Southward, and one to the Eastward and one to the Northward, and he gives them corresponding names to himself and to his progeny the mighty winds.

Neat he sends forth fierce squalls, whirlwinds, dense clouds, masse clouds, dark clouds, gloomy clouds, fiery clouds, clouds which precede hurricanes, clouds of fiery black. Clouds reflecting glowing red light, clouds wildly drifting from all quarter, and wildly bursting, and clouds of thunderstorms, flying in the midst of these Tawhiri-ma-tea himself sweeps wildly on.

Alas, alas, then rages the fierce hurricane, and while Tane-mahuta and his gigantic forests still stand, unconscious and unsuspecting, the blast of the breath of the mouth of Tawhiri-ma-tea smites them.

The gigantic trees are snapped off right in the middle,

Alas, Alas, they rent into atoms, dashed to the Earth, with branches torn and scattered, and lying on the Earth, trees and branches all alike left for insect, for the grub, and for loathsome rottenness.

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From the forests and their inhabitants Tawhiri-ma-tea next swoops down upon the seas, and lashes his wrath on the ocean.

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Ah, Ah, waves steep as cliffs arise, whose summits are so lofty that to look from them would make the beholder giddy, these soon eddy in whirlpools and Tangaroa, the god of the ocean and father of all that dwell therein, flies frightened through his seas, but before he fled, his children consulted together how they might secure their safety,

Tangaroa had begotten Punga, and he had begotten two children, Ika-tere, the father of fish, and Tu-te-wehiwehi, or Tu-te-wanawana, the father of reptiles.

When Tangaroa fled for safety to the ocean, then, Tu-te-wehiwehi and Ika-tere, and their children disputed what they should do to escape from the storms, and Tu-te-wehiwehi and his party cried aloud, “Let us fly inland.”

Ika-tere and his party cried aloud, “Let us fly to the sea.”

Some would not obey one order, some would not obey the other, and they escaped in two parties. The party of Tu-te-wehiwehi, or the reptiles, hid themselves ashore, and the party of Punga rushed into the seas.

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This is what, on our ancient religious services is called the separation of Tawhiri-ma-tea.

Hence these traditions have been handed down, Ika-tere, the father of things which inhabit the water, cried aloud to Tu-te-wehiwehi. “Ho, Ho, let us escape to the sea.”

But Tu-te-wehiwehi shouted in answer, “Nay, Nay, let us rather fly inland.”

Then Ika-tere warned him, saying, “Fly inland, then, and the fate of you and your race will be, that when they catch you , before you are cooked, they will singe off your scales over a lighted wisp of dry fern”.

But Tu-te-wehiwehi answered him, saying, “seek safety, then, in the sea, and the future fate of your race will be, that when they serve out little baskets of cooked vegetable food to each person, you will be laid on top of the food to give a relish to it”.

Then without delay these two races of beings separated. The fish fled in confusion to the sea, the reptiles sought safety in the forests and scrubs.