Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/115

Rh of the nooses caught the Sun round the neck. Ra, or the Sun, now terribly frightened, struggled hard for his liberty, but to no purpose. For Maui pulled the rope so tight as almost to strangle the Sun, and then fastened the end of his rope to a point of rock.

Ra, now nearly dead, confessed himself to be vanquished; and, fearing for his life, gladly agreed to the demand of Maui that he should be in future a little more reasonable and deliberate in his movements through the heavens so as to enable the inhabitants of this world to get through their employments with ease.

The Sun god Ra was now allowed to proceed on his way; but Maui wisely declined to take off these ropes, wishing to keep Ra in constant fear. These ropes may still be seen hanging from the Sun at dawn and when he descends into the ocean at night. By the assistance of the ropes he is gently let down into Avaiki, and in the morning raised up out of the shades; while the islanders still say when they see rays of light diverging from the Sun, " Tena te taura a Maui! " "Behold the ropes of Maui. "

Such is the pretty story as given by Mr. W. W. Gill, in his Myths and Songs of the South Pacific, and it would be impossible to find a simpler instance of a nature folk-lore story, or tale to account for the origin of the aspects of nature. Here we have the story in a simple form, but Sir George Grey gives a variant of the same from New Zealand in which all trace of nature origin is lost.

What we have to note here is that a climate where rays form nearly every day is very different from that of Scotland, where the appearance is uncommon. I wish I could have developed here in more detail the relation of mythology to climate.

The modern explanation of diverging rays is very simple. They are simply parallel rays of light, streaming through chinks between the clouds, but appearing to converge from the effect of perspective. When the sun is high, the rays appear bright against the dark undersurface of the clouds, which are in shadow; but when the sun is below the horizon the rays are pink and the surrounding sky green.

These need not detain us long, as they are too formless to attract men's minds.