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Let us continue with selections from “Children of Heaven and Earth” in the book “Polynesian Mythology & Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealanders,” by Sir George Grey. Here, most of Heaven and Earth’s children have agreed to separate their parents so light can shine on the world. However, their child, Tāwhirimātea, the god of weather, initially disagreed and created storms, which is why a greater part of Mother Earth is submerged. Children of Heaven and Earth (KO NGA TAMA A RANGI-- Tradition relating to the Origin of the Human Race) “[…] There arose in the breast of Tāwhirimātea, the god and father of winds and storms, a fierce desire to wage war with his brothers, because they had rent apart their common parents. He, from the first, had refused to consent to his mother being torn from her lord and children; it was his brothers alone that wished for this separation, and desired that Papatūānuku, or the Earth alone, should be left as a parent for them. The god of hurricanes and storms dreads also that the world should become too fair and beautiful, so he rises, follows his father to the realm above, and hurries to the sheltered hollows in the boundless skies; there he hides and clings, and nestling in this place of rest he consults long with his parent, and as the vast Heaven listens to the suggestions of Tāwhirimātea, thoughts and plans are formed in his breast, and Tāwhirimātea also understands what he should do. Then by himself and the vast Heaven were begotten his numerous brood, and they rapidly increased and grew. […] The bursting forth of the wrathful fury of Tāwhirimātea against his brothers was the cause of the disappearance of a great part of the dry land; during that contest, a great part of Mother Earth was submerged. The names of those beings of ancient days who submerged so large a portion of the Earth were – Terrible-rain, Long-continued rain, Fierce-hailstorms; and their progeny were, Mist, Heavy-dew, and Light-dew, and these together submerged the greater part of the Earth, so that only a small portion of dry land projected above the sea. From that time, clear light increased upon the Earth, and all the beings which were hidden between Rangi and Papa before they were separated, now multiplied upon the Earth. The first beings begotten by Rangi and Papa were not like human beings. […] Up to this time, the vast Heaven has still ever remained separated from his spouse, the Earth. Yet their mutual love still continues – the soft warm sighs of her loving bosom still ever rise up to him, ascending from the woody mountains and valleys and men see these mists; and the vast Heaven, as he mourns through the long nights his separation from his beloved, drops frequent tears upon her bosom, and men seeing these, term them dew-drops.”
