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Tracks of the Peti and the Papae in New Zealand

In The Mystery of Skara Brae, during our discussions of Orkney Island and the Field of Arou, we cited evidence to suggest that, after a period of some six hundred years characterized by tranquility and peacefulness, the Peti (pygmies whom we believe to have been ancient teachers) and the Papae (clerics whom we associate with the Dogon priests) abruptly left Orkney Island. One question that remained unanswered pertains to the likely locale (or locales) to which they may have migrated. We discussed possible connections of the Peti to later cultures in the British Isles, linked through a group in Ireland called the Tuatha Danaan or Tuatha de Danaan, considered by some (through linguistic implications of their name and other reasons) to be a race of supernaturally gifted people.

The name Tuatha de Danaan is traditionally translated as the “People’s Tribe” or “Followers” of the goddess Danu. Another Irish perspective on the term is that it means “tribe of the gods.”¹ We see Danu as a likely surrogate of the Sakti Earth Mother Goddess Tana Penu and, through the auspices of later symbolic reversals, also of the Maori Earth God Tane. From that perspective, it seems sensible to test possible alternate definitions of the term Tuatha de Danaan against Maori word meanings.

As an immediate observation, we know that the Maori word tua (as the root of the word atua) can refer to the “gods” and so is in line with one definition of the name Tuatha de Danaan. However, it can also refer to “a birth ritual, comparable to a naming ceremony.”² Appropriate to that definition, the Maori word tehe means “circumcised.”³ Based on Maori definitions, the term tua tehe (as a correlate to the term Tuatha de) would mean “ritually circumcised” and would refer to a symbolic act that characterizes our cosmological tradition. Furthermore, the term Tuatha de was similarly applied by Irish monks to the Israelites, whom we also know were ritually circumcised. The more specific term Tuatha de Danaan was later adopted as a clarification to avoid unnecessary confusion between the Israelites and the mythical Irish tribe. Calame-Griaule lists no Dogon word for either “pygmy” or “dwarf.” However, apparent associations between the Tuatha de Danaan and pygmies may be reflected in a Dogon word adene, which means “short.” From this perspective, the term could be a possible correlate to the word danaan.

Irish myth holds that the Tuatha de Danaan were confronted and ultimately defeated in battle, then consigned (in some views) to the Underworld or (in others) to an unspecified mythical land across the Western Sea. They became known as the Aes Sidhe (more commonly known as the Sidhe (pronounced shee) or Siths, or “the people of the mounds,” a term that refers to fairy mounds. These were rounded, dome-like stone structures covered with earth (earthen mounds) that typically featured low, squared entrances, so small that an average-sized modern person would be required to crawl through the opening, rather than walk through.

In light of the traditions that long existed in Scotland and Ireland regarding the notion of fairies, it is quite interesting that the Maori also held similar beliefs. Tregear states that the oldest traditions in New Zealand held that fairies were actually living on the islands when the Maori first arrived. These were classified into three groupings called the Nagati-Kura (“descendants of the Red One”), the Ngaki-Korako (“descendants of the Albino”), and the Ngati-Turehu (“descendants of the Dimly-Seen”).⁴ Tregear tells us that the outward appearance of the light-skinned fairies was such that the Maori, at the first arrival of the Europeans, presumed they must be related. Consequently, certain Maori terms for objects associated with the Europeans include a prefix that means “fairy.” Consonant with the fairy groupings defined by Tregear, David MacRitchie writes in The Testimony of Tradition that Irish fairies were also understood to exist in three varieties: “In some tales, they are fair, and beautiful in feature, and yellow-haired; in others they are swarthy in complexion and hair; and again, they are described as red-, or russet-haired.”⁵

As an apparent counterpart to the question of the ultimate disposition of the Peti and the Papae on Orkney Island, confusion also exists as to the ultimate origins of what the Maori consider to be their earliest ancestors. Best writes in his book Tuhoe, the Children of the Mist, “The ignorance of the [Maori], as to the origin of their principal ancestor, is a very strange thing to anyone acquainted with the way in which traditions, history, genealogies, etc., etc., were preserved and orally transmitted from generation to generation by the Polynesians. It may be that the ancient history of the tribe was lost in some great disaster which overtook the people in past times, or possibly the tribe originated with a band of refugees who took possession of these savage wilds wherein to dwell in peace.”⁶

In their book Counterpoint in Maori Culture, Allan and Louise Hanson cite a Maori myth (described as one of a large set of variant storylines) in which a tribal group called the Tainui had prepared a field for planting but were “unable to use it due to a precipitous departure.”⁷ This myth repeats events that we believe may have actually played out historically on Orkney Island at the time it was abandoned (circa 2600 BCE), under what appear to have been urgent circumstances. As mentioned, we associate the instructors at this sanctuary with the mythical (and ostensibly nonmaterial) Nummo teachers of the Dogon and their students, who as Dogon ancestor-priests would have been Black Africans. Appropriate to that outlook, the Maori word tai means “the other side” or “beyond,”⁸ and the word nui refers to a “person of high rank.”⁹ In contrast to the instructional purpose we infer for Orkney Island, the Maori myth is expressed in relation to a parent and a child, rather than a teacher and a student. In the Maori myth, the departure from the mythic land was by canoe (called the Tainui canoe) and was ostensibly from the ancestral Maori homeland Hawaiki, and the destination was New Zealand. Mythic parallels to the events in the region of Orkney Island suggest the possibility that an earlier migration, prior to the celebrated one from Hawaiki, might have occurred—this one originating from Ireland.

The Maori term Aotea or Aotearoa represents an ancient name for New Zealand, although the derivation of the word is unknown. However, according to Tregear, it also represents the name of “the first circle of the Lower-World (Papa), as opposed to the Upper-World (Rangi).”¹⁰

Geographically speaking, the cosmological terms Upper and Lower could sensibly apply conceptually in this case to the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Interestingly, words of the Faroese language of Orkney Island provide us with a similar construction. In Faroese, ao means “world,”¹¹tehea means “which,”¹² and raro means “under.”¹³ From this perspective, the combined term ao-tehea-raro (Maori aotearoa) could be interpreted to mean “world which is under.”

Tregear tells us that the Maori word aotea can be literally translated as “white day,” as opposed to the concept of “dark night.” However, from a cosmological perspective, we equate the term ao to the name of the Hebrew god Yah. In the Hindu fable of the Seven Houses, we interpreted Yah’s declaration “Let there be light” as a command that effectively reawakens a sleeping Mother Goddess who is the symbol of the nonmaterial source from which material creation derives. We also know that both the Maori and Faroese terms te can mean “the.”¹⁴ From that perspective, the name Aotearoa can be interpreted as appropriately referring to “the reawakening of Arou.” The suggestion is that those who made the long journey may have seen the migration as a kind of fresh start for their Orkney Island tradition.

From another perspective, we can look at the name Aotearoa as a compound of two terms. The first of these, Aotea, we have said is also taken as an ancient name for New Zealand. The same word was also the name of a mythic canoe in which some of the original Maori were said to have migrated to New Zealand. Given other Maori/Egyptian commonalities and realizing that the vowel sounds of Egyptian hieroglyphic words are uncertain, it seems credible that the word is a correlate to the Egyptian term ata, meaning “boat.”¹⁵ The second of the two terms, aroa, is a Maori/Polynesian word that implies the meaning “to turn face upward.”¹⁶ In combination, the words aotea aroa convey the meaning of “overturned boat,” the same essential meaning that, in our view, also defined the name of Skara Brae on Orkney Island. Another outlook on the ancient name Aotearoa is that it relates much more directly to Orkney Island in its apparent cosmological/mythical role as the Field of Reeds. From this perspective, the term combines the ancient Egyptian word aat-t, meaning “field” or “meadow,”¹⁷ with the term aaru, meaning “reeds.”¹⁸

According to a Maori myth, at the time of this incident of migration, an ancestor of the Maori named Hotunui (meaning “to long for the nui,” which refers to something great or large) left behind a wife who was pregnant. In the ancient creation traditions, the domed or hemispheric shape of a pregnant womb can be symbolic of a temple or sanctuary. Before leaving the agricultural field, Hotunui instructed his wife that, once the child was born, it should be named Maru-tuahu (if it was male) or Pare-tuahu (if it was female). The Maori term maru means “sheltered” or “sheltered from the wind,”¹⁹ and the word tuahu means “sacred place.” We noted in The Mystery of Skara Brae that wind is a characteristic feature of the climate on Orkney Island. The sheltered sacred place that we associate with the instructional sanctuary on Orkney Island is a cluster of nearby islands called the Faroe Islands. These islands feature numerous natural defensive features that include high, unapproachable cliffs, channels with multiple whirlpools, shallow shoals where boats may run aground, and frequent, intense, but oddly localized storms—all protective circumstances that could make these islands an ideal safe haven for a group of ancient teachers.

We have said that the Egyptian word per-aa means “pharaoh” (for Dogon-related tribes, faro) and originally referred to a place, not a person. Tregear defines a Maori word for “a shelter from wind” as paruru.²⁰ From this same interpretive perspective, the phonetically similar Maori word pare means “to turn aside” or “to ward off.”²¹ Based on the ways in which cosmological words have survived in comparative cultures, we understand the phonetic values f and p to have been interchangeable correlates of one another in various ancient languages, and so terms like per-aa and faro or pharaoh can be taken as cognates of one another. An associated Maori word parua refers to “the edge of a nest.”²² One Dogon cosmological metaphor that is applied to their egg-of-the-world is given in relation to the concept of a nest. This can be seen as consistent with the “egg” designation itself, which for a bird is often found in a nest. If we consider the symbolic structures on Orkney Island as a representation of this same symbolic nest, then the Faroe Islands can be reasonably said to rest at “the edge” of the nest. A related Maori word parea means “inverted.”²³ Taken in the context of other Upper World and Lower World references, the terms Maru-tuahu and Pare-tuahu could refer to two sheltered sanctuaries, one in the Faroe Islands and one in New Zealand.

In support of these interpretations, the Maori word turehu, which might be seen as phonetically quite similar to the term tuahu, refers to a “fairy or any supernatural being.”²⁴ In Northern Scotland, the concept of a fairy is one that we also associate, both phonetically and cosmologically, with the Faroe Islands. The word ture, which can be seen as a phonetic root of the word turehu, means “law,” “rule,” or “commandment” and so reflects notions of authority, such as we assign to the ancient teachers who may have taken shelter in the Faroe Islands. Likewise, in his dictionary entry, Tregear defines the word turehu as having come “from the other side of the ocean.”

One version of the Maori myth of Hotunui includes an episode in which the son Maru-tuahu is able to locate and reunite with his father, who has been badly treated by the group he is living with. This version of the myth tells of the mass killing of the detractors of Hotunui by his son at a large feast.²⁵ The final departure that is inferred by archaeologists to have occurred on Orkney Island also involved a large community feast in which a great number of domesticated animals, not people, were killed, and the animals were subsequently eaten, presumably as an alternative to simply leaving them uncared for. One Egyptian word for “enemy” is given by Budge as sab, while the term for “cattle for sacrifice” is defined as sben-t.²⁶

Maru-tuahu, whose name bears a phonetic resemblance to Maori, was said to have founded a Maori tribe called the Ngati-Maru, or “descendants of Maru.”²⁷ Related words from a similar root can imply descendants of a high or royal bloodline. They can also imply the meaning of “magician,” the same term that we believe was applied to the Nem or the Nummo teachers of the Dogon on Orkney Island. The word Ngati also bears a phonetic resemblance to the name of the mythical Naga serpents of India, whom we know were closely associated with the god Vishnu and therefore with the instructed knowledge in the Sakti Cult.

Tregear and other researchers of New Zealand cite broad bodies of evidence that seem to reflect the presence of pre-Maori inhabitants in New Zealand. The traditional view is that the Maori may have arrived at the islands around 1200 CE, but the departure event we describe for Orkney Island occurred thousands of years earlier, perhaps as early as 2600 BCE. By comparison, Irish myths regarding the Tuatha de Danaan were first written down by Christian monks in the early centuries CE, and so, if the myths describe events that are historic, those events would have occurred sometime during the intervening centuries.

In 1999, a New Zealand–raised Californian named Martin Doutre published a book on controversial aspects of pre-Maori archaeology, which he specifically tied to Celtic Ireland, called Ancient Celtic New Zealand. One section of the book focuses on an ancient population in New Zealand, which is referred to by the names Turehu, Patu-Pai-Arehe, or Potu-Pakeha. Doutre writes, “Certain of these peoples become an easy target for relegating to the realm of Maori mythology, due to descriptions, given that [they] speak of individuals of small stature [emphasis original]. These ‘small’ (Caucasoid Pygmy) people had other described qualities which make them sound elusive, mystical and fairy like. . . . I have been advised that the main body and thrust of my work will be discounted on the basis of my obvious lack of credibility in believing in ‘fairies.’”²⁸

Given the apparent correlations to the Peti on Orkney Island, whom we associate in ancient times with the term arou, or aaru, phonetic parallels to the term Patu-Pai-Arehe, a collective name for early tribes that populated New Zealand, seem suggestive. Along similar lines, and consistent with what we know to be true about the peaceful nature of the earliest inhabitants on Orkney Island, Best quotes an informant named Pio of Awa in his work Tuhoe, the Children of the Mist: “The original Maori people of Aotea-roa were a very peaceful folk. War, strife, quarrelling were brought hither by the people who came [in a later period] from Hawaiki.”

The Patu-Pai-Arehe were also known by the alternate term Turehu. Doutre writes, “The Pre-Celtic people of Ireland, referred to in secular history as the ‘Firbolgs,’ seem to fit the description of the ‘small stature’ Turehu.” These people are described in mythological tales such as the “Cet-Chat Maige Tuired” and in an early collection of poems and prose writings called Lebor Gabála Érenn, which ostensibly reports events of the early history of Ireland. In these accounts, the Firbolgs were described as the People of Nemed, a term that phonetically conjures the mythical Nummo teachers of the Dogon, whom we linked to the Peti on Orkney Island in The Mystery of Skara Brae. Some reports also exist of Turehu tribe members who were said to be of average stature. In Doutre’s opinion, late-era evidence of these groups makes it difficult to sort out which pre-Maori group was which, or whether, as on Orkney Island, members of more than one group, perhaps closely associated with one another, might have been present. In accordance with that outlook, Doutre writes:

Besides the types of people already described, there are legends and oral traditions regarding a tall, possibly black African group who were adept “gardeners.” These people are said to have been so skilled at their art that they could grow Kumera [a type of sweet potato], even in the permafrost locations of the South Island of New Zealand. Other authors have clearly shown linguistic links between the Maori language and ancient Eastern Libyan or Egyptian civilisations. I believe that much of the Maori language, customs and mythology were gleaned over several centuries from the earlier civilisation, before the era of hostility.²⁹

Descriptions such as these from Doutre align well with what we know to be true of the Dogon, who have also shown themselves to be adept farmers, even under often difficult desert conditions in southern Mali. They are known for their ability to cultivate crops on small flat terraces of ground along an escarpment in Mali. Again, the phonetics of the Maori language helps provide possible links between Doutre’s descriptions of agriculturally adept Black Africans and the Papae of Orkney Island, who were associated with their godlike teachers, the Peti. For example, Tregear tells us that the Maori word for sacred food that was prepared for the Maori High Priestess and eaten in religious ceremonies was referred to as popoa. This same food was given as a reward to an ariki priest after successful completion of his initiate’s instruction.³⁰

The Peti, whom we regard as the nonhuman teachers of the Dogon collective memory, are described in passages cited in The Mystery of Skara Brae as having been pygmies or dwarfs who were closely linked with sorcery. The name seemingly given to this group by the Dogon was Nummo, which may well relate to an Egyptian word nem or nemma, meaning “pygmy” or “dwarf.”³¹ A Maori word for “dwarf ” is tupepe.³² The prefix tu refers both to the name and notion of a god, while the suffix pepe recalls the name of the Papae on Orkney Island, whom we identify with the Dogon. Combined, the term tupepe could be seen to imply the notion of “god of the Papae” and so would be an appropriate term for the Peti. Likewise, the Maori word tupe means “to disable and make weak by means of a charm.”³³