** The sun, when beaten, cried out and revealed his great name, exactly as Indra did in his terror and flight after slaying the serpent. Taylor, op. cit., p. 131. He was the culture-hero who invented barbs for spears and hooks; he turned his brother into the first dog, whence dogs are sacred, he fished New Zealand out of the sea; he stole fire for men. How Maui performed this feat, and how he "brought death into the world and all our woe," are topics that belong to the myths of _Death_ and of the _Fire-Stealer_.* Maui could not only change men into animals, but could himself assume animal shapes at will. Such is a brief account of the ancient traditions of mythical Maori gods and of the culture-hero. In practice, the conception of _Atua_ (or a kind of extra-natural power or powers) possesses much influence in New Zealand. All manner of spirits in all manner of forms are _Atuas_. "A great chief was regarded as a malignant god in life, and a still worse one after death."** Again, "after Maui came a host of gods, each with his history and wonderful deeds.... These were ancestors who became deified by their respective tribes,"***--a statement which must be regarded as theoretical. * See La Mythologie, A. L., Paris, 1886. ** Taylor, op. cit., pp. 134, 136. ***Op. cit., p. 136. It is odd enough, if true, that Maru should be the war-god of the southern island, and that the planet Mars is called after him Maru. "There were also gods in human forms, and others with those of reptiles.... At one period there seems to have been a mixed offspring from the same parents. Thus while Tawaki was of the human form, his brethren were _taniwa_ and sharks; there were likewise mixed marriages among them." These legends are the natural result of that lack of distinction between man and the other things in the world which, as we demonstrated, prevails in early thought. It appears that the great mythical gods of the Maoris have not much concern with their morality. The myths are "but a magnified history of their chiefs, their wars, murders and lusts, with the addition of some supernatural powers"--such as the chiefs are very apt to claim.* In the opinion of a competent observer, the gods, or Atua, who are feared in daily life, are "spirits of the dead," and _their_ attention is chiefly confined to the conduct of their living descendants and clansmen. They inspire courage, the leading virtue. When converted, the natives are said not to expel, but merely to subordinate their Atua, "believing Christ to be a more powerful Atua".** * Op. cit., p. 137. ** Shortland, Trad, and Superst. of New Zealanders, 1856, pp. 83-85.