THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

NOVEMBER, 1825.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

Mr. URBAN,

Τ

COSMOGONY OF THE TAHEITEANS.

Nov. 1.

T has been asserted more than once in some of your pages, that there is not the least resemblance in the mythologic traditions and Pagan superstition of the inhabitants of the South Seas, to those of the old world. Cut off for many years from all intercourse with the Continent, bounded in their transactions by the group of islands in their own more immediate neighbourhood, it could not be expected that much primitive tradition would be preserved. If we further take into consideration, the frequent occurrence of war, and the almost exterminating conduct with which it is carried on, astonishment will arise, not at the paucity of such indications, but that even the slightest trace should exist of former connexion with the rest of the world.

I do not profess to be fully competent to the inquiry, my knowledge of the Australian language being very limited; but I doubt not with that intimate acquaintance with its different dialects which the Missionaries have obtained, should any one undertake such an investigation, the search would not be altogether fruitless. A long time has elapsed since the voyagers of the South Seas formed a part of my reading; as, however, the few memoranda on this subject, which I then made, may shew that such an investigation would not be without encouragement, I transmit to you the following:

Cosmogony of the Taheiteans.

Dr. Hawkesworth, in his relation of Cook's first voyage to the South Seas, observes: "nothing is more obvious to a rational being, however ignorant or stupid, than that the universe and its various parts, as far as they fall under his notice, were produced by some agent inconceivably more powerful than himself; and nothing is more difficult to be conceived, even by the most sagacious and knowing, than the production of them from nothing, which among us is expressed by the word Creation. It is natural, therefore, as no Being apparently capable of producing the universe is to be seen, that he should be supposed to reside in some distant part of it, or to be in his nature invisible, and that he should have originally produced all that now exists in a manner similar to that in which Nature is renovated by the succession of one generation to another; but the idea of procreation includes in it that of two persons, and from the conjunction of two persons these people imagine every thing in the universe either originally or derivatively to proceed."

This sentiment is by no means to be considered as exclusively characteristic of the Australians, the whole system of Pagan mythology is connected in a similar manner, and seems soon after the first dispersion of mankind to have been adopted by every tribe, except that peculiarly favoured one, which was destined to convey to posterity the only rational and authentic account, clothed in the simple garb of truth.

The various systems of Cosmogony, of all the nations of the old world, on being collected and compared with each other, appear to be but a corrupted representation of the Mosaic record, affording at the same time a curious and most gratifying confirmation of its authenticity, exhibiting, as they do, the imperfect resemblances of a bright original from which they undoubtedly have been copied.

Of the formation of the Universe, according to the ideas of the Taheiteans, we have the accounts of two priests; that most in detail was given by ManneManne, the chief-priest; the other by Tupia, also a priest, and of great mysti

cal

388

Cosmogony of the Taheiteans.

[Nov. cal learning. Neither of their statements, in the form in which we have them, can be considered as quite accurate; Manne-Manne's being interpreted by an ignorant Swedish sailor in the English language, of which he could know little more than of that of O Taheite; and Sir Joseph Banks, to whom Tupia's information was given, observing that "the religious language is in Otaheite as in China, different from that which is in common use; so that Tupia, who took great pains to instruct us, having no words to express his meaning, which we understood, gave us lectures to very little purpose."

Imperfect, therefore, as these accounts must be, and on the present occasion rendered still more so by my ignorance of the language not permitting me in many instances accurately to translate names under which much real information is often mystically veiled, a close connection with the Mosaic cosmogony must not be expected; still, however, a distorted resemblance may be traced in the following comparison.

Mosaic.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, "Let there be light,"and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, &c. *

And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters †,"— and God called the firmament Heaven.

And God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear ;" and it was so, and God called the dry land earth.

And God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruittree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after its kind," and God saw that it was good, and the evening and the morning were the third day.

And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth;" and it was so, and God made two great lights, the greater to rule the day, and the lesser to rule the night, he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.

It is remarkable that in the Taheitean and darkness.

Taheitean.

In the beginning Tane (husband) took Taroa (earth) and begat Avye (fresh water) Te Myde (the sea) and Awa (the waterspout). He also begat Pō (night or darkness) and Hooa no Eatooa (the Spirit of God) was called Fwhanow Pō (the offspring of darkness).

Then he begat Mahanna (the sun) as well as Po (darkness).

After this he begat Matãi (the wind) and Arye (the sky).

Then he made a rock, which he called Poppo-harra Harreha, (the ......... messenger) and all the brethren and sisters of Mahauna (the Sun) at his birth turned to earth.

Mahānna having assumed the shape of a man, was called Оērōa Tabōoa, (the very sacred.........) and he embraced the rock Poppo-harra Harreha, which consequently produced Te Tooboo Amata hatoo (the...... branches) after which the rock returned to its original state, and Oērōa Tabooa died and returned to dust.

When Mahanna (the sun) was begotten, his brethren and sisters all turned to earth, but Tane (creator) had another daughter, whose name was Townoo (......) Mahānna therefore, under the name and form of Oeroa Taboa took her to wife, and she conceived and bare thirteen children, who are the thirteen months. Their names were, 1. Papeeree. 2. Ownoonoo. 3. Pararomoree. 4. Paroromoree. 5. Mooreeha. 6. Heaiha. 7. Taoa. 8. Hoororoera. 9. Hooreeama. 10. Teayre. 11. Tetgi. 12. Waeho. 13. Weaha. After this Mahānna copulating with (eclipsing §) Malama (the moon) produced Whettua (the stars).

language the same word expresses both night

+ In the Taheitean account the several kinds of water are mentioned distinctively in the first part of the cosmogony.

This is an allegory for the genial influence of the sun on the earth in the production of vegetable substances.

§ When an eclipse takes place, the Taheiteans suppose the luminaries to be in the act of copulation, a notion common to all Pagans.

Manne

1825.]

Cosmogony of the Taheiteans.

389 Manne-Manne, in this account of the Cosmogony, has omitted to state any productions similar to what, according to the Mosaic doctrine, occupied the Deity on the fifth day. Something analogous might probably have been detailed, had the question been directly put, but omissions have been sufficiently accounted for in the preceding observations.

Mosaic.

And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion, &c." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

Taheitean.

Te Tooboo amata hatoo embraced the sand of the sea, which conceived a son of the name of Tee (inferior spirit*) and a daughter called Opeera (.........). Te Tooboo amata hatoo dying, and returning to earth, Tee took his sister Opeera to wife.

The following seems to relate to the wicked transactions in the garden of Eden.

Behold the man is become as one of us to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground whence he was taken.

Opeera became ill, and in her illness she entreated her husband to cure her, and she would do the same for him if he fell sick, that thus they might live for ever; but he refused, and she died.

Next appears to follow an account of Noah, who being considered as a second Adam, or universal progenitor, bore the same title Tee, and his wife is said to have been the daughter that is descended from Opeera.

In the self-same day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japhet, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them.

These are the families of the sons of Noah after their generations in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

Tee having preferred his daughter, named Oheera Reene Moonoa, (the ............ unclean spirit) had by her three sons and three daughters: the sous were named Ora (......) Wanoo (......) and Tytory (......) the daughters Hennatoomorroora (......) Henaroa (tall......) and Noowya (................).

The father and mother dying, the brothers and sisters said, "Let us take our sisters to wife and become many." So men bagan to multiply upon the earth.

Here ends the curious specimen given by Manne-Manne; Tupia's account to Sir Joseph Banks was as follows:

The Supreme Deity, one of the two first beings according to the traditions of Taheite, is called Taroa Taihe Toomoo (causer of earthquakes) and the other whom they suppose to have been a rock, Te Papa † (the sky). A daughter of these was T'ettow Mata Tayo §, (the ...... friend) the year or thirteen months collectively, and she, by the common father, produced the months, and the months by conjunction with each other, the days. The stars are partly the immediate offspring of the first pair, and the remainder have increased among themselves; the different species of plants were produced in the same manner. Among other progeny of Taroa Taihe Toomo and Te Papa were an inferior race of deities, who are called Eatua. Two of these Eatuas (or inferior spirits) at some very remote period of time, inhabited the earth, and were the parents of the first men. When this man, their common ancestor was born, he was round like a ball, but his mother, with great care, drew out his limbs, and having at length moulded him as in man's present form, she called him Eothe (finished). He being prompted by the universal instinct to propagate his kind, and being able to find no female

This inferior spirit, sometimes bad and sometimes good, is like the manes of antiquity, the departed soul of a man, and then considered his guardian angel. The Taheitean description comes nearer chap. ii. verse 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Or "unclean lying down." Moe is "to lie down," and Mooe is "the principle of life." I regret much that I am unable to translate Heera Reene, as much information might be derived therefrom.

Papa, in the language of Tonga Taboo, signifies the sky or horizon, the English being called Papa langee, "men of the sky."

This name the Taheiteans regard as so sacred that except upon this occasion, they Dever mention it.

but

390

Cosmogony of the Taheiteans.

[Nov. but his mother, he begot upon her a daughter, and upon the daughter other daughters for several generations before there was a son; a son, however, being born, he with the assistance of his sisters peopled the world. Besides their daughter T'ettow Mata Tayo, the first progenitors of nature had a son whom they called Tane *, and as he takes a greater part in the affairs of mankind than the other gods, the Taheiteans generally address their prayers to him.

Contemplating these strong but disguised resemblances, we cannot but admit, and must do it with gratifying feelings, mixed with reverential awe, that they exhibit the distorted features of the simple, yet sublime detail of Moses; and this circumstance acquires a stronger effect, when it is remembered that it is an universal practice in all the tales of mythology, to make a person one while the father, and at another the son. The various characters of polytheism, and even those composing the same genealogy, have been fairly demonstrated by the pioneers to mystical lore, Bryant, Faber, Maurice, and Davies, to be often but one and the same person; we may therefore regard the Taheitean cosmogony as not altogether so wild and distempered a composition, as it at first sight appears. Triune Deity of the Taheiteans.

It is a fact no less curious than undeniable, that traces of that most obstruse doctrine of our faith, the blessed Trinity, are to be found, not only in the fabulous traditions of antiquity, but in the Pagan nations of the present day. The Brahminical Triad of India, which has received so much illustration from the indefatigable research and ingenuity of the late Rev. Mr. Maurice, is not a more striking evidence of this, than the triune Deity of the Taheiteans. We learn from the missionary voyage, that the general name for the deity in all its ramifications is Eatooa, a word that seems to signify spiritual essence in opposition to matter.

An appellation thus single with regard to itself, but admitting of the most extensive application, appears to carry with it the idea of one Supreme Being, and of his being contemplated under different characters. Accordingly on investigation we shall find this to be the case. The comprehensive title of the supreme god, Tupia told Sir Joseph Banks was Taroa Taihe Toomo (the causer of earthquakes) a name of the most awful import in reference to Taheite, as that island, and the other society isles, are very frequently visited by this dreadful monitor of mortality.

But, according to the Missionaries, the Deity is also viewed in his three-fold character; for that is what is to be understood when they say "Three are equally held supreme, standing in a height of celestial dignity, that no others can approach unto; and what is more extraordinary, the names are personal appellations." Not only is the circumstance thus noticed as extraordinary, but the very import of the terins still more wonderfully striking.

Eatooa (God)

The triadic titles are:

1. Tāne, te Medova (Creator, the father).

2. Oro mattow, "Tooa tee te Myda (...... God in the son). 3. Taroa, Mannoo te Hooa (terrestial bird, the Spirit †). The eternity of the Triune Deity is clearly expressed by making him both singly and in his threefold character Fwhanow Po (the offspring of night or primæval darkness).

The Missionaries considering these as they would Roman divinities have termed them Dii majores, and give us the following account. To these dii majores they only address their prayers in times of greatest distress, and seasons of peculiar exigency, supposing them too exalted to be troubled with matters of less moment than the illness of a chief, storms, devastations, war, or any great calamity. Indeed fear and suffering seem to be more motives to worship than gratitude."

Husband, and therefore the father and creator of all things. Their own ignorance of the origin of their traditions has led them into error, or they might be regarded as offering their prayers to the Deity under this title, rather than to address a separate god.

The holy spirit assuming on earth the form of a bird. That remarkable parallel passage, “The spirit of God descending (i. e. coming to the earth) like a dove,” will naturally occur to every one.

From

Visits to St. Katherine's by the Tower.

From the same source we learn that "the house of these Fwhanow Po," by which we are most probably to understand the temple where they were wor shipped, is as Oparre, the residence, particularly appropriated to the Earhea rahie (sovereign, or supreme lord) or king.

I shall, probably, if I succeed in collecting my memoranda, trouble you with some remarks on the mythology of other Australian isles. n. S. R. M.