Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/156

148 into the bowels of the earth in order to reach this under-world, it was probable that the ancestors of the Polynesians had acquaintance with natural fire drawn from volcanic sources; but that Maui's gift, like that of Prometheus, was the art of procuring fire by friction. Maui's birth and parentage were then considered; the difficulties in the parent-names, &c., compared one with the other, and the suggestion made that probably place-names, personified as myth, might account for some of the discrepancies. The assumption of the dove-form and hawk-form by Maui was consistent with the belief current in the ancient world as to the shapes assumed by divinities, and especially by solar deities. The "seed of fire," an expression used in the traditions for the inflammable nature of certain woods, was an idiom common in old days to the continental nations, and a singular instance of survival of linguistic phrase. Fire-worship continued to have its devotees in Europe until comparatively recent days; and the sacred fire was always "new fire," kindled by friction, or not previously used for common purposes. The deity who was supposed in India to be the father of fire, and of the birth of fire by friction, was the maker of Indra's thunderbolts, and is probably identical in name with the thunder-divinity of New Zealand. A distinct legend is preserved in Eastern Polynesia as to the descent of the Maori people from a race whose name is identical with that of the fire-kindling instrument used in India.