Page:Maori Religion and Mythology.djvu/9



Maori MSS. of which translations are now published were collected by the author many years ago. The persons through whom the MSS. wers obtained are now, with one exception, no longer living. They were all of them men of good birth, and competent authorities. One who could write sent me, from time to time, in MS. such information as he himself possessed, or he could obtain from the tohunga, or wise men of his family. Chapters iii. and iv. contain selections from information derived from this source.

The others not being sufficiently skilled in writing, it was necessary to take down their information from dictation. In doing this I particularly instructed my informant to tell his tale as if he were relating it to his own people, and to use the same words that he would use if he were recounting similar tales to them when assembled in a sacred house. This they are, or perhaps I should rather say were, in the habit of doing at times of great weather disturbance accompanied with storm of wind and rain, believing an effect to be thereby produced quieting the spirits of the sky.

As the dictation went on I was careful never to ask any question, or otherwise interrupt the thread of the narrative: but wrote as nearly as I could every word,