and fails; then the father of fish
and reptiles; then the father of uncultivated food; then the father of
fierce human beings. Then at last slowly uprises Tane-mahuta, the
father of forests, birds, and insects, and he struggles with his
parents; in vain he strives to rend them apart with his hands and
arms. Lo, he pauses; his head is now firmly planted on his mother, the
earth; his feet he raises up and rests against his father, the skies;
he strains his back and limbs with mighty effort, and at last are rent
apart Rangi and Papa, who shriek aloud with cries and groans. But
Tane-mahuta pauses not, he regards not their shrieks and cries; far,
far beneath him he presses down the earth; far, far above him he
thrusts up the sky. Then were discovered a multitude of human beings
whom heaven and earth had begotten, and who had hitherto lain
concealed. But Tawhiri-ma-tea, the wind and storm, the brother who had
not consented, is angry at this rending apart of his parents, and he
rises and follows his father, the sky, and fights fiercely with the
earth and his brothers.[187]

The explanation of this myth is simple. Unaided by the facts of
science, the New Zealand savages could only think of the facts of
their own experience. Only two personalities could produce the various
products of the world; therefore the earth was the mother and the sky
the father. But they are now separated and apart. Only a personality
could have separated, and the forest, root-sown in the earth,
branch-up in the sky, is evidently the means of this separation. And
so, satisfactorily to their own minds, these rude savages settled the
question of the origin of heaven and earth.

The close similarity of this to the story of Kronos has frequently
been pointed out; but a Greek story is always worth repeating. Near
the beginning of things Earth gave birth to Heaven. Later, Heaven
became the husband of Earth, and they had many children. Some of these
became the gods of the various elements, among whom were Okeanos, and
Hyperion, the sun. The youngest child was Kronos of crooked counsel,
who ever hated his mighty sire. Now the children of Heaven and Earth
were concealed in the hollows of Earth, and both the Earth and her
children resented this. At last they conspired against their father,
Heaven, and, taking their mother into the counsels, she produced Iron
and bade her children avenge her wrongs. Fear fell upon all of them
except Kronos, and he determined to