Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, as Furnished by Their Priests and Chiefs

For more than eight years, George Grey devoted a great part of his available time to collecting ancient myths, poems and legends of the New Zealanders. Once, when he had amassed a large amount of materials to aid him in his studies, the Government House was destroyed by fire, and with it were burnt the materials he had so painstakingly collected, and thus he was left to recommence his difficult task. The ultimate result, however, was the collection of a large mass of materials. He felt unwilling that the result of his labours should be lost to those whose duty it may be thereafter to deal with the natives of New Zealand; and so he published his extensive collection of ancient traditional poems, religious chants and songs of the Maori race. It is in this volume that George Grey first presented "to the European reader" the first written record and translation of the principal portions of ancient Maori mythology and of some of their most interesting legends.