Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/64

52 original Father-land. In a Moriori karakia, speeding the parting spirit on its way, we find it directed to the Tupuaki-o-Hiti, to Hui-te-rangiora, and it is well-known that the latter name is an expression for Paradise, the place of departed spirits, and synonymous with Father-land.

Altogether then, it seems reasonable to suppose that Tawhiti-nui, was a name for some part of the ancient Father-land; and that like Hawaiki it has been applied frequently to stages in the migrations of the race.

To those who have the means of following out the course of reasoning herein adopted in the identification of these ancient homes of the Polynesians, I would make the following suggestion as a possible confirmation regarding Tawhiti-nui as a sacred mountain in India. It is wellknown to all Polynesian scholars that Miru is the goddess of Hades, or the "Po," the place where departed spirits all go before arriving at Hui-te-rangiora, or Paradise. Now it may be that Miru = Meru, or Mount Meru in India "the high Kailasa, the heaven of the Sivaites, the first great mountain (deity) of India * * * According to the Kishnu Puranā, the ocean fell on this Meru, and coursing down it, and four times round it, formed the four rivers of Paradise." It has always been stated that the Maori account of the Deluge is connected with the river Tohinga which is said to be in Hawaiki. Can there be any connection between the Puranā and Maori accounts? and can the name of the goddess have become applied to