Primal Myths

by Barbara C. Sproul

  Let there be one darkness below (alternate).

  Let there be a darkness unto Tupua,

  Let there be a darkness unto Tawhito;

  It is a darkness overcome and dispelled.

  Let there be one light above,

  Let there be one light below (alternate).

  Let there be a light unto Tupua,

  Let there be a light unto Tawhito.

  A dominion of light,

  A bright light.”

  And now a great light prevailed.

  (Io) then looked to the waters which compassed him about, and spake a fourth time, saying:

  “Ye waters of Tai-kama, be ye separate.

  Heaven, be formed.” Then the sky became suspended.

  “Bring-forth thou Tupua-horo-nuku.”

  And at once the moving earth lay stretched abroad.

  2 Those words (of Io) became impressed on the minds of our ancestors, and by them were they transmitted down through the generations.

  Our priests joyfully referred to them as being:

  “The ancient and original sayings.

  The ancient and original words.

  The ancient and original cosmological wisdom.

  Which caused growth from the void,

  The limitless space-filling void,

  As witness the tidal-waters,

  The evolved heaven,

  The birth-given evolved earth.”

  3 And now my friends, there are three very important applications of those original sayings, as used in our sacred rituals. The first occurs in the ritual for implanting a child within the barren womb. The next occurs in the ritual for enlightening both the mind and the body. The third and last occurs in the ritual on the solemn subjects of death, and of war, of baptism, of genealogical recitals, and such like important subjects, as the priests most particularly concerned themselves in.

  The words by which Io fashioned the Universe—that is to say, by which it was implanted and caused to produce a world of light—the same words are used in the ritual for implanting a child in a barren womb. The words by which Io caused light to shine in the darkness are used in the rituals for cheering a gloomy and despondent heart, the feeble aged, the decrepit; for shedding light into secret places and matters, for inspiration in song-composing, and in many other affairs, affecting man to despair in times of adverse war. For all such the ritual to enlighten and cheer, includes the words (used by Io) to overcome and dispel darkness. Thirdly, there is the preparatory ritual which treats of successive formations within the universe, and the genealogical history of man himself.

  —Hare Hongi (trans.). “A Maori Cosmology.” The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 1907, 14 (63), 113 115. Wellington: Polynesian Society.

  SAMOA

  Tangaroa and the Rock Some 2,500 miles northwest of New Zealand, Samoa comprises seventeen principal islands, only some of which are inhabited. Western Samoa, a U.N. Trust Territory under the control of New Zealand, became independent in 1962; American Samoa is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, and its Polynesian natives are considered American nationals.

  In the Samoan creation myth, Tangaroa (a god of oceans and fishermen in many outer Polynesian regions, but here a primordial sky god) creates all things from a rock (the sacred seed of the world) that grows up where he stood. Typical of many Polynesian myths, the creation is first described in rather abstract terms: qualities of matter, the forms, are created before the contents, the things themselves. Once containing the potential of all things, the rock produces earth, sea, fresh water, sky, and all the necessary parts of man. Tangaroa ordered the world and organized people so that the various primary elements of nature could then join fruitfully to produce all the others. Finally creating objective manifestations of himself (beings evolving from the principle of being), Tangaroa made lesser gods to finish and rule over the earth.

  THE GOD TANGAROA dwelt in the expanse. There was no sky, no country, no earth, no sea; he was alone, and went to and fro in the expanse; but, at the place where he stood, there grew up a rock. He was the creator of all things.

  Tangaroa then said to the rock, “Be thou split up.” Then were brought forth in succession a number of papa [rocks], each with its additional name, and the meanings of these additional names are 1: “To lie down,” 2: “To run, or spread like creeping plants,” 3: “Resembling a flat reef,” 4: “Honeycomb,” 5: “Soft volcanic mud or shale,” 6: “To stand,” 7: “A kind of branching coral” and his children.

  Tangaroa spoke to the rock, and then struck it with his right hand; and it split open and brought forth, first the earth (the parent of all people in the world), and the sea. Then the sea covered To-run-or-spread; and To-lie-down said to To-run-or-spread, “Blessed are you in the possession of your sea”; but Torun-or-spread answered, “Don’t bless me; the sea will soon reach you too.” All the rocks in like manner called him blessed.

  Then sprang up Fresh water; after which Tangaroa again addressed the rock, and the sky was produced; then Tui-te’e-langi or The-chief-to-prop-up-the-sky; then Ilu (Immensity) and Mamao (Space); then came Height.

  Tangaroa again addressed the rock and Two-clouds (male) and Two-fresh-waters (female) came forth, and he appointed these two to the “race at the back of the sky.” Then he spoke again and Aoa-lala (male) and Ngao-ngao-le-tai, or The-desolate-sea (female), were born; then came Man; then the Spirit, then the Heart; then the Will; then Thought.

  That was the end of Tangaroa’s creations, produced from the rock; but they were only floating about in the sea, and had no fixedness there. Tangaroa then made an ordinance to the rock as follows, and with the following results.

  1. The Spirit, Heart, Will and Thought were to join together inside the man, which they did, and so converted him into an intelligent being. This man was then joined to Earth (female); and thus there was a couple—Fatu (the man) and ‘Ele-ele (the woman).

  2. Immensity and Space were ordered to unite with Height, up above the sky. They seem to have been regarded as the father and mother of Height, who was a boy. In the sky there was only a void, and nothing for the sight to rest upon.

  3. Two-clouds and Two-fresh-waters were ordered to people the region of fresh water.

  4. Aoa-lala and The-desolate-sea were ordered to go to the sea and people it.

  5. The couple Fatu and ‘Ele-ele were then ordered to people the left side, opposite the back of the sky.

  6. Chief-to-prop-up-the-sky then by Tangaroa’s orders propped up the heavens; but he was not able to hold them and they fell down again. Eventually he propped them up with the masoa and teve plants…and the sky remained up above, reaching to Immensity and Space.

  Then Immensity and Space gave birth to Po (night) and Ao (day); and this couple was ordained by Tangaroa to produce the Eye-of-sky (the sun), after which Immensity and Space brought forth Le-langi, or the second heavens, and remained there and peopled the sky. Then Langi, the sky, brought forth in succession the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth heavens; and each of these, as it came into being, was propped up by Chief-to-prop-up-the-sky, and was peopled by Immensity and Space.

  After this Tangaroa-the-creator created Tangaroa-the-immovable, Tangaroa-the-omnipresent, Tangaroa-the-extender-of-lands (or peoples), Tangaroa-the-messenger, Tuli-the-bird, and Longonoa, Carrier of tidings.

  Tangaroa-the-creator appointed Tangaroa-the-immovable to be the chief of the heavens. Tangaroa-the-messenger was appointed the ambassador of the heavens from the eighth down to the first. Night and day apparently dwelt in the original or first [lowest] heaven; and they had the following children or offspring: the dark cloudy heavens, the bright clear heavens, the stars, Manu’a, Samoa, the sun and the moon.

  Night and day and their four children—the sun and the moon and Manu’a and Samoa—were summoned by Tangaroa-the-messenger to a general council to be held in “the council ground of tranquillity” in the ninth heaven, where dwelt Tangaroa-the-creator and Tangaroa-the-immovable; and at
this council various decrees were issued. Among other things referred to in the legend, the two boys Manu‘a and Samoa were sent down to be chiefs over the offspring of Fatu and ‘Ele-ele. The sun and the moon were to go and follow night and day, the sun following when the day came, and the moon when the night came; there was to be one portion of the heavens in which they were to pass along; and in like manner the stars were to pass along. The narrator said that the sun and the moon were the shades of Tangaroa.

  The legend then proceeds with a narrative of the creation of various islands; first were created the eastern groups—identified in a note as being Tahiti and the adjacent islands; then the Fijian group; then the Tongan group; and then the Samoan island of Savai’i. There is no actual reference to the creation of the Samoan island of Manu’a; but the island is referred to, evidently as actually existing, and was, apparently, the land which Tangaroa-the-messenger visited when on earth, and the earthly scene of his operations when creating the other islands, acting under the directions of Tangaroa-the-creator, who was up in the heavens. There is no explanation of the way in which these islands were created, except that Tangaroa-the-creator and Tangaroa-the-messenger caused them to spring up; but Tangaroa-the-creator came down from the heavens to tread them down and prepare them for people to dwell in.

  Three couples, called in the two cases of the eastern islands and Fiji “the children” of Tangaroa, and in that of Tonga his “people,” were then sent down by Tangaroa-the-creator from the heavens to possess the eastern islands, Fiji and Tonga respectively; reference is made to the fact that Fatu and ‘Ele-ele and their children were already in Manu’a, and it is stated that two persons, named Valu’a and Ti’apa, then sent from Manu’a to Savai’i to people the latter, were children of Fatu and ‘Ele-ele.

  After this the two Tangaroas caused the Samoan islands of Upolu and Tutuila to spring up as resting-places for Tangaroa-the-messenger. In order to people these islands the fue, or peopling vine, was planted; and this brought forth a multitude of worms, which Tangaroa-the-creator shred into strips, and out of them created two couples, one to people the island of Upolu, and the other the island of Tutuila.

  —R. W. Williamson. Religious and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia. Vol. 1. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1933, pp. 50–53.

  THREE TAHITIAN COSMOLOGIES

  A part of the Society Islands almost two thousand miles east of Samoa, Tahiti was first settled by Polynesians c. the fourteenth century. It was visited by the English navigator Samual Wallis in 1767 and several times in the next decade by Captain James Cook. Missionaries arrived in the late 1700s, and by 1843 European influence had become so dominating that Queen Pomare was forced to submit to French control. On her death and the subsequent abdication of her son Pomare V, Tahiti became a French colony (1877). In 1946, after having supported the Free French in World War II, Tahitians were granted French citizenship.

  Quite independent of Christian doctrine, the Tahitian creation myth exists in several different but related versions, three of which are included here.

  Taaroa The first myth depicts Taaroa (the Tahitian equivalent of Samoa’s Tangaroa) existing alone in the void; by command, he transformed himself into the universe and became “within…the germ…beneath.” The visible world, and in particular Hawaii, seems to be his shell or outer covering. Thus Taaroa is immanent in all creation.

  HE EXISTED, Taaroa was his name.

  In the immensity (space)

  There was no earth, there was no sky.

  There was no sea, there was no man.

  Above, Taaroa calls.

  Existing alone, he became the universe.

  Taaroa is the origin, the rocks

  Taaroa is the sands,

  It is thus that he is named.

  Taaroa is the light;

  Taaroa is within;

  Taaroa is the germ.

  Taaroa is beneath;

  Taaroa is firm;

  Taaroa is wise.

  He created the land of Hawaii,

  Hawaii the great and sacred,

  As a body or shell for Taaroa.

  —E. S. Craighill Handy. Polynesian Religion. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 34. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1927, p. 11.

  Shells Within Shells In the second Tahitian myth, the distinction between inner power and outer manifestation is drawn more clearly and evolves into a dichotomy of mind and body. Commencing in shells within shells, Taaroa tore them all apart to create the universe. Finally, the innermost shell, his own body, is used to make the world, and only his head (his mind) remains unmanifest, sacred to himself. The myth is clear in pointing out the structural similarity between macrocosm and microcosm: as Taaroa’s body is to his mind, so the earth is to creatures and men and women are to each other.

  FOR A LONG PERIOD Ta’aroa dwelt in his shell (crust). It was round like an egg and revolved in space in continuous darkness.

  There was no sun, no moon, no land, no mountain, all was in a confluent state. There was no man, no beast, no fowl, no dog, no living thing, no sea, and no fresh water.

  But at last Ta’aroa was filliping his shell, as he sat in close confinement, and it cracked, and broke open. Then he slipped out and stood upon the shell, and he cried out, “Who is above there? Who is below there?” No voice answered! “Who is in front there? Who is in back there?” No voice answered! Only the echo of his own voice resounded and nothing else.

  Then Ta’aroa said, “O rock, crawl hither!” But there was no rock to crawl to him. And he said, “O sand, crawl hither!” But there was no sand to crawl to him. Then he got vexed because he was not obeyed.

  So he overturned his shell and raised it up to form a dome for the sky and called it Rumia. And he became wearied and after a short period he slipped out of another shell that covered him, which he took for rock and for sand. But his anger was not yet appeased, so he took his spine for a mountain range, his ribs for mountain slopes, his vitals for broad floating clouds, his flare and his flesh for fatness of the earth, his arms and legs for strength for the earth; his finger nails and toe nails for scales and shells for the fishes; his feathers for trees, shrubs, and creepers, to clothe the earth; and his intestines for lobsters, shrimps, and eels for the rivers and the seas; and the blood of Ta’aroa got heated and drifted away for redness for the sky and for rainbows.

  But Ta’aroa’s head remained sacred to himself, and he still lived, the same head on an indestructible body. He was master of everything. There was expansion and there was growth.

  Ta’aroa conjured forth gods, but it was much later that man was conjured, when Tu was with him.

  As Ta’aroa had crusts, that is, shells, so has everything a shell.

  The sky is a shell, that is, endless space in which the gods placed the sun, the moon, the Sporades, and the constellations of the gods.

  The earth is a shell to the stones, the water, and plants that spring from it.

  Man’s shell is woman because it is by her that he comes into the world; and woman’s shell is woman because she is born of woman.

  One cannot enumerate the shells of all the things that this world produces.

  —Teuira Henry. Ancient Tahiti. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 48. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1928, pp. 339–340.

  The Mitigator of Many Things In many regards like the Maori myth of heaven and earth, the third Tahitian cosmology explains that Taaroa was known in four aspects as gods of the sky, foundation, earth, and underworld. With the help of his assistant Tu (“to stand,” “to strike,” a god of war), Taaroa conjured forth gods (powers) for every part of the universe, delivered Ti’i (the principle of masculinity) from mother earth and created Hina (the principle of femininity) to be his wife. The rest of the myth describes a struggle between forces of retribution and destruction on the one hand and preservation on the other, and it outlines the resultant nature of change that Hina manages to establish as a compromise.

  TA’AROA (unique) was the great supr
eme being, who existed alone in a little world, in a shell like an egg, revolving in dark empty space for ages. At length, he burst forth from confinement, and finding himself quite alone he conjured forth the famous god Tu, who became his companion and artisan in the great work of creation. When the universe was completed, gods innumerable were conjured into existence to fill every region, and, last of all creatures, man was made to inhabit the earth, which was prepared for him.

  Ta’aroa was known under four titles according to his attributes: Ta’aroa of the heaven, said to be ten in number; Ta’aroa the great foundation, in a rock in the centre of the earth, from which land grew; Ta’aroa of the surface of the earth; and Ta’aroa of the netherlands….

  The first man that was created was Ti’i, clothed in sand, whom Ta’aroa conjured from out of the earth, and then pronounced him perfect. Then was born a wife for Ti’i, Hina, to extricate and mitigate many things, a demi-goddess, whose parents were Te-fatu (the lord) and Fa’ahotu (be fruitful), and she had a face before and behind, and was full of goodness. Ti’i was malicious and had a white heron to bewitch and slay mankind.

  After the creation, peace and harmony everywhere existed for a long time. But at last, discontentment arose and there was war among the gods in their different regions, and among men, so Ta’aroa and Tu uttered curses to punish them.

  They cursed the stars, which made them blink; and they cursed the moon, which caused it to wane and go out. But Hina, the mitigator of many things, saved their lives since which the host of stars are ever bright, but keep on twinkling; and the moon always returns after it appears.

  They cursed the sea, which caused low tide; but Hina preserved the sea, which produced high tide; and so these tides have followed each other ever since.

  They cursed the rivers, which frightened away the waters, so that they hid beneath the soil; but Hina reproduced the shy waters, which formed springs, and so they continue thus to exist.