the background, either of real life or of life among the gods, familiar
to the Polynesian mind.

The conception of the heavens is purely objective, corresponding, in
fact, to Anaxagoras's sketch of the universe. Earth is a plain, walled
about far as the horizon, where, according to Hawaiian expression, rise
the confines of Kahiki, _Kukulu o Kahiki_.[1] From this point the
heavens are superimposed one upon the other like cones, in number
varying in different groups from 8 to 14; below lies the underworld,
sometimes divided into two or three worlds ruled by deified ancestors
and inhabited by the spirits of the dead, or even by the gods[2]--the
whole inclosed from chaos like an egg in a shell.[3] Ordinarily the gods
seem to be conceived as inhabiting the heavens. As in other mythologies,
heaven and the life the gods live there are merely a reproduction or
copy of earth and its ways. In heaven the gods are ranged by rank; in
the highest heaven dwells the chief god alone enjoying his supreme right
of silence, _tabu moe_; others inhabit the lower heavens in gradually
descending grade corresponding to the social ranks recognized among the
Polynesian chiefs on earth. This physical world is again the prototype
for the activities of the gods, its multitudinous manifestations
representing the forms and forces employed by the myriad gods in making
known their presence on earth. They are not these forms themselves, but
have them at their disposal, to use as transformation bodies in their
appearances on earth, or they may transfer them to their offspring on
earth. This is due to the fact that the gods people earth, and from them
man is descended. Chiefs rank, in fact, according to their claim to
direct descent from the ancient gods.[4]

Just how this came about is not altogether uniformly explained. In the
Polynesian creation story[5] three things are significant--a monistic