valiant, and that you have succeeded
in all feats that you have undertaken in your own country, whether they
were small or great; but now that you have arrived in your father's
country, you will perhaps be overcome." Then Maui asked his father,
"What do you mean? what things are there that I can be vanquished by?"
And his father answered him, "By your great ancestress, by
Hine-nui-te-po, who, if you look, you may see flashing, and, as it were,
opening and shutting there, where the horizon meets the sky." And Maui
answered, "Lay aside such idle thoughts, and let us both fearlessly seek
whether men are to die or live for ever." And his father said, "My
child, there has been an ill omen for us; when I was baptizing you, I
omitted a portion of the fitting prayers, and that I know will be the
cause of your perishing." Then Maui asked his father, "What is my
ancestress Hine-nui-te-po like?" and he answered, "What you see yonder
shining so brightly red are her eyes, and her teeth are as sharp and
hard as pieces of volcanic glass; her body is like that of a man, and
as for the pupils of her eyes, they are jasper; and her hair is like the
tangles of long sea-weed, and her mouth is like that of a barracouta."

[47] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, pp.
233 _sqq._, _s.v._ "Maui"; Horatio Hale, _United States
Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia,
1846), p. 23.

[48] J. L. Nicholas, _Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand_
(London, 1817), i. 61 _sq._, "The New Zealanders make it an
invariable practice, when a child is born among them, to take it
to the _Tohunga_, or priest, who sprinkles it on the face with
water, from a certain leaf which he holds in his hand for that
purpose; and they believe that this ceremony is not only
beneficial to the infant, but that the neglect of it would be
attended with the most baneful consequences. In the latter case,
they consider the child as either doomed to immediate death, or
that, if allowed to live, it will grow up with a most perverse
and wicked disposition." Before or after sprinkling the child
with water the priest bestowed on the infant its name. See W.
Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_ (London, 1835), pp. 82-84; A.
S. Thomson, _The Story of New Zealand_ (London, 1859), i. 118
_sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, Second Edition (London,
1870), pp. 184 _sqq_. Compare