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CHAPTER VIII.

HADES; OR, THE DOCTRINE OF

SPIRIT-WORLD.

THE proper name for Hades is Avaiki; in Tahitian, Hawai'i; in New Zealand, Hawaiki. Many other expressions occur in their ancient songs and myths, but they are to be regarded as designations for places or territories in Avaiki, the vast hollow over which the island is supposed to be placed. As the dead were usually thrown down the deepest chasms, it was not unnatural for their friends to imagine the earth to be hollow, and the entrance to this vast nether-world to be down one of these pits. No one can wonder at this who knows that the outer portion of Mangaia is a honeycomb, the rock being pierced in every direction with winding caves and frightful chasms. It is asserted that the Mission premises at Oneroa are built over one of these great caverns, which extends so far towards the sea that the beating of the surf can be distinctly heard, whilst the water, purified from its saline particles, continually drips from the stony roof. The

inland opening to this subterranean territory was the grand repository of the dead, and is known by the significant name of

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THE UNIVERSE, ACCORDING TO THE IDEAS OF THE NATIVES OF

MANGAIA.

Auraka don't.

Doubtless this is the true origin of their idea of the whereabouts of spirit-world.

The proper denizens of Avaiki are the major and lesser divinities, with their dependants. These marry, multiply, and quarrel like mortals. They wear clothing, plant, cook, fish, build, and inhabit dwellings of exactly the same sort as exist on earth. The food of immortals is no better than that eaten by mankind. The story of Kura's marvellous escape from Hades represents some districts of spirit-land as inhabited by cannibals, whose delight is to entrap unwary mortals to their destruction-it is to be presumed without the knowledge of dread Miru. Birds, fish, and rats; the mantis, beetle, and centipede; the cocoa-nut tree, the pandanus, the myrtle, the morindo citrifolia, and the yam, -all abound in Hades, either for the support or adornment of immortals. Murder, adultery, drunkenness, theft, and lying are practised by them. The arts of this world are fac-similes of what primarily belonged to nether-land, and were taught to mankind by the gods. The visible world itself is but a gross copy of what exists in spirit-land. If fire burns, it is because latent flame was hidden in the wood by Mauike in Hades. If the axe cleaves, it is because the fairy of the axe is invisibly present. If the ironwood club kills its victim, it is because a fierce demon from Tonga is enshrined in it.

At a spot named Aremauku, about half a mile from the principal village, on a cliff overhanging the western ocean, it was pretended that the direct road to spirit-land existed. Through it continual communication was anciently kept up with Hades. By this route Māui descended to the home of Mauike, and wrested the secret of fire. In one district lived a race possessed of only one eye apiece! At evening the Sun-god Rā drops down through

the opening made for his convenience at the edge of the horizon, and thus lights up the inhabitants of the nether-world. One myth asserts that he descends thus frequently to Avaiki to visit his wife Tu, who lives with the Great Mother Vari, at the very bottom of the vast cocoa-nut hollow-knees and chin meeting!

Hence the ancient proverb, "Day here; night in Avaiki,” and
As the priest Teka sang (1794):-

vice versa.

Ua po Avaiki

Ua ao nunga nei.

'Tis night now in spirit-land;
For 'tis light in this upper world.

At the appointed interval, the Sun-god Rã climbs up, not without great difficulty, out of nether-world through a hole at the edge of the eastern horizon, and lights up Mangaia. That his movements are so reasonable and regular is due to the exertions of Māui.

The high-road to Avaiki is for ever closed. This was not the fault of mankind, but the penalty of the excesses of the denizens of spirit-land. They became very troublesome to mankind-continually afflicting them with disease and death. They occasioned great dearth by stealing all kinds of food, and even ravished the women of this world. The brave and beautiful Tiki, the sister of Veêtini, determined to put an end to these annoyances. For this purpose she rolled herself alive down into the gloomy opening, which immediately closed upon her. From that memorable day the spirits of mortals have been compelled to descend to Avaiki by a different route. Happily, however, the natives of Avaiki no longer dare molest mankind. The closed chasm is known by the name "te rua ia Tiki " = Tiki's hole.

The spirits of the dead were often spoken of as wandering along the margin of the sea most disconsolately; not a little

annoyed at the extreme sharpness of the rocks, and the entanglement of their feet in the bindweed and thick vines. They were arrayed in ghostly net-work, and a fantastic mourning of weeds picked upon the way, relieved, however, by the fragrant heliotrope which grows freely on the barren rocks. A red creeper, resembling dyed twine, wound round and round the head like a turban, completed their ghostly toilet.

Rather inconsistently with this, a smooth, shelving piece of coral rock on the western coast is known as "te renanga a te atua," ie. the place where ghosts blanch their new-made garments; as if during the weary months of their wanderings over the rough rocks they were driven, like the living, to prepare new clothing from time to time, and thus replace the garments torn by the bushes and thorny creepers. Was it to assist in the manufacture of such garments that females were invariably buried with one or more cloth mallets used in life?

The great delight of these weeping, melancholy spirits, was to follow the sun. At the summer solstice, January, he apparently rises out of the ocean opposite to Ana-kura (the "red-cave," so called as receiving the red rays of the morning); at the winter solstice, June, rising at Karanga-iti ("the little welcome," winter being but half welcome). These points became, therefore, grand rendezvous of disembodied spirits: those belonging to the northern half of the island assembling at the last-named rendezvous, Karanga-iti; those, by far the greater number, belonging to the southern half of the island meeting at the former, Anā-kura.

Many months might elapse ere the projected departure of the ghosts took place. This weary interval was spent in dances and

1 The dead, if buried at all, were buried with the feet towards the setting sun, on account of this ancient solar worship.

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