There exists another myth of great interest far superior to the pre-
ceding both in matter and language, but it is entirely of modern
composition, though based in its essential particulars upon ancient
traditions. According to this legend Rangi and Papa, or the sky and
the earth, were the source from which in the beginning all things
originated. Earth and sky were still enveloped in darkness, and they
still clave together for they had not yet been rent apart. But the
children they had begotten were anxious to discover the difference
between light and darkness, and though their numbers had vastly
increased, yet light had never broken upon, them, but darkness ever
continued the same. 1 The darkness had continued from the first
division of time to the tenth, to the hundredth, to the thousandth,
each division being called a po or "a night." The beings begotten by
Rangi and Papa, weary of incessant darkness, consulted among them-
selves saying : " Let us now determine what we should do with Rangi
arid Papa, whether it would be better to slay them or to rend them
apart." Then spake Tu-matauenga the god of war : "It is well, let us
slay them." But Tane-mahuta, the father of the forests and of all
things that inhabit them or that are constructed of trees, interposed
by saying : " Nay, not so ! It is better to rend them apart ; and let
heaven stand far above us, and the earth lie under our feet. Let the
sky become a stranger to us, but let the earth remain close to us as
our nursing mother." All the brothers consented to bring about a.
