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Polynesia

 The general location of Polynesia is in the central and western Pacific, al­though there is sometimes argument as to which islands are to be included. I have taken the area to be that bounded by the triangle between Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. Many societies in this region were without pottery or metals when discovered by European explorers, and no written language. They did have, however, a rich tradition of song and poetry, fragments of which have been recorded by visitors to the islands. Located as they are on scattered islands, the Polynesians have much to say about the sea, islands, and storms. But there is also a rich tradition of human relationships that is re­corded in their songs. The example below deals with a more abstract subject and comes from the Maoris of New Zealand

         Cosmogony

From the conception the increase,

From the increase the swelling,

From the swelling the thought,

From the thought the remembrance,

From the remembrance the consciousness, the desire.

The word became fruitful;

It dwelt with the feeble glimmering;

It brought forth night;

The great night, the long night,

The lowest night, the loftiest night,

The thick night, to be felt,

The night to be touched, the night unseen,

The night following on,

The night ending in death.

From the nothing the begetting,

From the nothing the increase,

From the nothing the abundance,

The power of increasing, the living breath;

It dwelt with the empty space,

It produced the atmosphere which is above us.

The atmosphere which floats above the earth,

The great firmament above us,

The spread out space dwelt with the early dawn, then the moon sprung forth;

The atmosphere above dwelt with the glowing sky,

Forthwith was produced the sun,

They were thrown up above as the chief eyes of heaven:

Then the heavens became light,

The early dawn, the early day, the mid-day.

The blaze of day from the sky. . .

Source

      Te Ika a Maui; or, New Zealand and its Inhabitants  by Richard Taylor. London, William Maclntosh, 1870. Quoted in The Unwritten Song, Volume II  by Willard R. Trask. The Macmillan Company, New York. 1967