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The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume 2 (of 3)

Note 69 — Chapter V

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W. Ellis, op. cit. i. 230, 232. Ellis does not admit that Orotetefa and Urutetefa were, strictly speaking, the sons of Oro. He writes: "According to the traditions of the people, Taaroa created, and, by means of Hina, brought forth when full grown Orotetefa and Urutetefa. They were not his sons; oriori is the term employed by the people, which seems to mean create" (op. cit. i. 230). With regard to Hina (Heena), interpreted as the moon, or the goddess of the moon, see J. R. Forster, Observations, p. 549; G. Forster, Voyage, ii. 152; J. A. Moerenhout, op. cit.. i. 428 sq., 458, 472; E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, p. 69. s.v. "Hina," "Hina is by far the best known of all Polynesian legendary personages. In the more easterly islands she is a goddess, and is almost certainly the Moon-goddess." Similarly Mr. E. E. V. Collocot observes that Hina "is generally regarded as the Moon-goddess, and this view was spontaneously put forward by a Tongan; in conversation with me" (Journal of the Polynesian Society, xxx. (1921) p. 238).

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