"This is the Genesis of the New Zealanders:

"The Heavens which are above us, and the Earth which lies
beneath us, are the progenitors of men, and the origin of
all things.

"Formerly the Heaven lay upon the Earth, and all was
darkness....

"And the children of Heaven and Earth sought to discover the
difference between light and darkness, between day and
night....

"So the sons of Rangi (Heaven) and of Papa (Earth) consulted
together, and said, 'Let us seek means whereby to destroy
Heaven and Earth, or to separate them from each other.'

"Then said Tumatauenga (the God of War), 'Let us destroy
them both.'

"Then said Tane-Mahuta (the Forest God), 'Not so; let them
be separated. Let one of them go upward and become a
stranger to us; let the other remain below and be a parent
for us.'

"Then four of the gods tried to separate Heaven and Earth,
but did not succeed, while the fifth, Tane, succeeded.

"After Heaven and Earth had been separated, great storms
arose, or, as the poet expresses it, one of their sons,
Tawhiri-Matea, the god of the winds, tried to revenge the
outrage committed on his parents by his brothers. Then
follow dismal dusky days, and dripping chilly skies, and
arid scorching blasts. All the gods fight, till at last Tu
only remains, the god of war, who had devoured all his
brothers, except the Storm. More fights follow, in which the
greater part of the earth was overwhelmed by the waters, and
but a small portion remained dry. After that, light
continued to increase, and as the light increased, so also
the people who had been hidden between Heaven and Earth
increased.... And so generation was added to generation
down to the time of Maui-Potiki, he who brought death into
the world.

"Now in these latter days Heaven remains far removed from
his wife, the Earth; but the love of the wife rises upward
in sighs toward her husband. These are the mists which fly
upward from the mountain-tops; and the tears of Heaven fall
downward on his wife; behold the dew-drops!"

So far the Maori Genesis.

Let us now return to the Veda, and compare these crude and somewhat
grotesque legends with the language of the ancient Aryan poets. In the
hymns of the Rig-Veda the separating and keeping apart of Heaven and
Earth