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Preface

The subject of this Bulletin is one that embraces many forms of Maori belief from the highest to the lowest phases thereof. In Maori cosmogony, anthropogeny, and the conceptions of the Supreme Being and the Universal Soul in nature, we observe the most exalted aspects of the results of introspective thought on the part of a barbaric people. In the lower phases of their religious beliefs and practices, in their system of magic and their puerile superstitions, we note the shackles that have bound and cramped the human mind for countless centuries.

The material collected for this paper is somewhat voluminous, hence it has been found necessary to produce it in two parts. At the same time, it has not been deemed necessary to republish herein many native traditions and myths that have already appeared in the works of Sir George Grey, Mr. John White, the Rev. R. Taylor, and other writers.

In the higher forms of myth and of spiritual concepts we may observe the finest evidence of the mentality of the Maori, of his mythopoetic faculty, of his endeavours to grasp the origin of the universe and of life. The data collected provides a considerable amount of evidence highly illustrative of the development of religion and of social usages, such matter as is ever welcomed by anthropologists.

The second part of this paper [Bulletin No. 11] will include a description of Maori magic, and also many illustrations of native myths and folk-tales.

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