After Hinenuitepo fled away to her ancestors in the realms of Night, she gave birth to Te Po-uriuri (=The Dark one), and to Te Po-tangotango (=The very dark), and afterwards to Pare-koritawa, who married Tawaki, one of the race of Rangi. Hence the proverb when the sky is seen covered with small clouds “_Parekoritawa is tilling her garden._” When Tawaki climbed to Heaven with Parekoritawa, he repeated this _karakia_:— Ascend, O Tawaki, by the narrow path, By which the path of Rangi was followed; The path of Tu-kai-te-uru. The narrow path is climbed, The broad path is climbed, The path by which was followed Your ancestors, Te Aonui, Te Ao-roa, Te Ao-whititera. Now you mount up To your _Ihi_, To your _Mana_, To the Thousands above, To your _Ariki_, To your _Tapairu_, To your _Pukenga_, To your _Wananga_, To your _Tauira_. When Tawaki and Parekoritawa mounted to the Sky, they left behind them a token—a black moth—a token of the mortal body. Pare gave birth to Uenuku (=Rainbow). Afterwards she brought forth Whatitiri (=Thunder). Hence the rainbow in the sky, and the thunder-clap. CHAPTER III. RELIGIOUS RITES OF THE MAORI. Ἀλλ᾿ ἄγε δή τινα μάντιν ἐρείομεν.—Hom. Il. 1-62. The religious rites and ceremonies of the _Maori_ were strange and complex, and must have been a severe burden, as will be understood from the translations of _Maori_ narratives relating to such matters contained in these pages. To make these translations more intelligible to the reader, a brief review of the subject is now given in explanation. The religious rites under consideration are immediately connected with certain laws relating to things _tapu_, or things sacred and prohibited, the breach of which laws by anyone is a crime displeasing to the _Atua_ of his family. Anything _tapu_ must not be allowed to come in contact with any vessel or place where food is kept. This law is absolute. Should such contact take place, the food, the vessel, or place, become _tapu_, and only a few very sacred persons, themselves _tapu_, dare to touch these things. The idea in which this law originated appears to have been that a portion of the sacred essence of an _Atua_, or of a sacred person, was directly communicable to objects which they touched, and also that the sacredness so communicated to any object could afterwards be more or less retransmitted to anything else brought into contact with it. It was therefore necessary that anything containing the sacred essence of an _Atua_ should be made _tapu_ to protect it from being polluted by the contact of food designed to be eaten; for the act of eating food which had touched anything _tapu_, involved the necessity of eating the sacredness of the _Atua_, from whom it derived its sacredness.