TRANSLATIONS
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We must remember to quote the Moriorio fishermen when we arrive at puo: "In the beginning were Rangi and Papa, Sky and Earth. Darkness existed. Rangi adhered over Papa his wife. Man was not. A person arose, a spirit who had no origin; his name was Rangitokona, the Heaven-propper. He went to Rangi and Papa, bid them go apart, but they would not. Therefore Rangitokona separated Rangi and Papa, he thrust the sky above. He thrust him with his pillars ten in number end to end; they reached up to the Fixed-place-of-the-Heavens. After this separation Rangi lamented for his wife: and his tears are the dew and the rain which ever fall on her. This was the chant that did the work: Rangitokona, prop up the heaven! // Rangitokona, prop up the morning! // The pillar stands in the empty space. The thought [memea] stands in the earth-world - // Thought stands also in the sky. The kahi stands in the earth-world - // Kahi stands also in the sky. The pillar stands, the pillar - // It ever stands, the pillar of the sky. Then for the first time was there light between the Sky and the Earth; the world existed. When he had finished this work Rangitokona heaped up earth and of it he made man, he created Tu. This was his chant: Stem heaped up, heaped, heaped up. // Stem gathered together, gathered, gathered together. Heap it in the stem of the tree, // Heap it in the butt of the tree, // Heap it in the foundation of the tree. Heap it in the fibrous roots, // Heap it in the thick root of the tree, // Heap it together, it grows; // Heap it together, it lives. The heaven-stem lives, it is living, E! Stem heaped up, body heaped up - // Let the heaven stand which lives. Heap it in the flower of the tree, // Heap it in the leaf of the tree, // Heap it in the swaying of the tree! Heap it in the spreading branches of the tree, // Heap it in the pattern of the tree, // Heap it in the finishing of the tree! Heap it, it grows! // Heap it, it lives! // The heaven lives - E! Stem heaped up, stem heaped up. // Let the heaven stand which lives, // Let Tu remain. This was the forming of the body of Tu ..." (Moriori myth of creation accoding to Legends of the South Seas) |