Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/112

100 from the traditions, we may see a reference to some of the wild animals of Indonesia:—

First, with respect to the snake. There is a harmless reddish snake in Samoa, which the natives do not fear in the least, and also in Fiji, I am told. It is called in Samoa a ngata, a name the Maoris apply to the snail. Whether this is connected with the Indian word naga for a snake I am not prepared to say. In the Maori ear-ornament, called a koropepe, the snake is clearly shown with long curling body, tail, head, eyes, &c. Some people fancy they see in this a representation of the eagle-headed snake of the old world mythologies. The snake also occurs in the carvings. This is particularly noticeable in the large boards of a carved house inland of Opotiki, where two snakes, each about 15 feet long, are faithfully depicted. The name moko to be found in the dialects of several islands, appears originally to have represented a snake-like animal, though now it is applied generally to a lizard. It is probable that some of the Maori stories referring to a large animal that was able to hold on to the branches of trees by its tail, and there defend itself against its pursuers, was a snake.

All these monsters have left a deep impression on the Maori mind, and it is quite possible that we may see in those of a snake-like character, the dim remembrance of Indian snake worship, which was so common amongst the Dravidian tribes, who were their nearest neighbours on the west. Fornander (loc. cit., p. 43) says: "Traces of serpent worship, another peculiarly Cushite outgrowth of religious ideas, occur in Polynesian traditions, when reference is frequently made to the moko or moo, enormous powerful reptiles or serpents, evil beings generally, to be propitiated by sacrifices and offerings. In the Fiji group, where so much of ancient Polynesian lore, now forgotten elsewhere,