{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_32601/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_32601","id":"gutenberg_32601","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32601","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Hina (Polynesian deity)","Legends -- Hawaii","Legends -- Polynesia","Maui (Polynesian deity)"],"text":"Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Archive/American\nLibraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Hale-a-ka-la Crater, the House of the Sun.]\n\n\n\n\n  LEGENDS\n  OF\n  MA-UI--A DEMI GOD\n  OF\n  POLYNESIA\n  AND OF\n  HIS MOTHER HINA.\n\n  BY\n  W. D. WESTERVELT.\n\n  HONOLULU:\n  THE HAWAIIAN GAZETTE CO., LTD.\n  1910\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE\n\n  I. Maui's Home                                                       3\n\n  II. Maui the Fisherman                                              12\n\n  III. Maui Lifting the Sky                                           31\n\n  IV. Maui Snaring the Sun                                            40\n\n  V. Maui Finding Fire                                                56\n\n  VI. Maui the Skillful                                               78\n\n  VII. Maui and Tuna                                                  91\n\n  VIII. Maui and His Brother-in-Law                                  101\n\n  IX. Maui's Kite-Flying                                             112\n\n  X. Oahu Legends of Maui                                            119\n\n  XI. Maui Seeking Immortality                                       128\n\n  XII. Hina of Hilo                                                  139\n\n  XIII. Hina and the Wailuku River                                   146\n\n  XIV. The Ghosts of the Hilo Hills                                  155\n\n  XV. Hina, the Woman in the Moon                                    165\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                                OPPOSITE\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n  Frontispiece--Haleakala Crater\n\n  \"Rugged Lava of Wailuku River\"                                       7\n\n  Leaping to Swim to Coral Reefs                                      12\n\n  Sea of Sacred Caves                                                 14\n\n  Spearing Fish                                                       21\n\n  Here are the Canoes                                                 29\n\n  Iao Mountain from the Sea                                           43\n\n  Haleakala                                                           53\n\n  Hawaiian Vines and Bushes                                           74\n\n  Bathing Pool                                                        84\n\n  Coconut Grove                                                       96\n\n  Boiling Pots--Wailuku River                                        100\n\n  Outside were other Worlds                                          107\n\n  Hilo Coast--Home of the Winds                                      115\n\n  Bay of Waipio Valley                                               121\n\n  The Ieie Vine                                                      125\n\n  Rainbow Falls                                                      147\n\n  Wailuku River--The Home of Kuna                                    151\n\n  On Lava Beds                                                       163\n\n\n\n\nHELPS TO PRONUNCIATION\n\n\nThere are three simple rules which practically control Hawaiian\npronunciation: (1) Give each vowel the German sound. (2) Pronounce each\nvowel. (3) Never allow a consonant to close a syllable.\n\nInterchangeable consonants are many. The following are the most common:\nh=s; l=r; k=t; n=ng; v=w.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nMaui is a demi god whose name should probably be pronounced Ma-u-i, _i.\ne._, Ma-oo-e. The meaning of the word is by no means clear. It may mean\n\"to live,\" \"to subsist.\" It may refer to beauty and strength, or it may\nhave the idea of \"the left hand\" or \"turning aside.\" The word is\nrecognized as belonging to remote Polynesian antiquity.\n\nMacDonald, a writer of the New Hebrides Islands, gives the derivation of\nthe name Maui primarily from the Arabic word \"Mohyi,\" which means\n\"causing to live\" or \"life,\" applied sometimes to the gods and sometimes\nto chiefs as \"preservers and sustainers\" of their followers.\n\nThe Maui story probably contains a larger number of unique and ancient\nmyths than that of any other legendary character in the mythology of any\nnation.\n\nThere are three centers for these legends, New Zealand in the south,\nHawaii in the north, and the Tahitian group including the Hervey Islands\nin the east. In each of these groups of islands, separated by thousands\nof miles, there are the same legends, told in almost the same way, and\nwith very little variation in names. The intermediate groups of islands\nof even as great importance as Tonga, Fiji or Samoa, possess the same\nlegends in more or less of a fragmentary condition, as if the three\ncenters had been settled first when the Polynesians were driven away\nfrom the Asiatic coasts by their enemies, the Malays. From these\ncenters voyagers sailing away in search of adventures would carry\nfragments rather than complete legends. This is exactly what has been\ndone and there are as a result a large number of hints of wonderful\ndeeds. The really long legends as told about the demi god Ma-u-i and his\nmother Hina number about twenty.\n\nIt is remarkable that these legends have kept their individuality. The\nPolynesians are not a very clannish people. For some centuries they have\nnot been in the habit of frequently visiting each other. They have had\nno written language, and picture writing of any kind is exceedingly rare\nthroughout Polynesia and yet in physical traits, national customs,\ndomestic habits, and language, as well as in traditions and myths, the\ndifferent inhabitants of the islands of Polynesia are as near of kin as\nthe cousins of the United States and Great Britain.\n\nThe Maui legends form one of the strongest links in the mythological\nchain of evidence which binds the scattered inhabitants of the Pacific\ninto one nation. An incomplete list aids in making clear the fact that\ngroups of islands hundreds and even thousands of miles apart have been\npeopled centuries past by the same organic race. Either complete or\nfragmentary Maui legends are found in the single islands and island\ngroups of Aneityum, Bowditch or Fakaofa, Efate, Fiji, Fotuna, Gilbert,\nHawaii, Hervey, Huahine, Mangaia, Manihiki, Marquesas, Marshall, Nauru,\nNew Hebrides, New Zealand, Samoa, Savage, Tahiti or Society, Tauna,\nTokelau and Tonga.\n\nS. Percy Smith of New Zealand in his book Hawaiki mentions a legend\naccording to which Maui made a voyage after overcoming a sea monster,\nvisiting the Tongas, the Tahitian group, Vai-i or Hawaii, and the\nPaumotu Islands. Then Maui went on to U-peru, which Mr. Smith says \"may\nbe Peru.\" It was said that Maui named some of the islands of the\nHawaiian group, calling the island Maui \"Maui-ui in remembrance of his\nefforts in lifting up the heavens.\" Hawaii was named Vai-i, and Lanai\nwas called Ngangai--as if Maui had found the three most southerly\nislands of the group.\n\nThe Maui legends possess remarkable antiquity. Of course, it is\nimpossible to give any definite historical date, but there can scarcely\nbe any question of their origin among the ancestors of the Polynesians\nbefore they scattered over the Pacific ocean. They belong to the\nprehistoric Polynesians. The New Zealanders claim Maui as an ancestor of\ntheir most ancient tribes and sometimes class him among the most ancient\nof their gods, calling him \"creator of land\" and \"creator of man.\"\nTregear, in a paper before the New Zealand Institute, said that Maui was\nsometimes thought to be \"the sun himself,\" \"the solar fire,\" \"the sun\ngod,\" while his mother Hina was called \"the moon goddess.\" The noted\ngreenstone god of the Maoris of New Zealand, Potiki, may well be\nconsidered a representation of Maui-Tiki-Tiki, who was sometimes called\nMaui-po-tiki.\n\nWhether these legends came to the people in their sojourn in India\nbefore they migrated to the Straits of Sunda is not certain; but it may\nwell be assumed that these stories had taken firm root in the memories\nof the priests who transmitted the most important traditions from\ngeneration to generation, and that this must have been done before they\nwere driven away from the Asiatic coasts by the Malays.\n\nSeveral hints of Hindoo connection is found in the Maui legends. The\nPolynesians not only ascribed human attributes to all animal life with\nwhich they were acquainted, but also carried the idea of an alligator or\ndragon with them, wherever they went, as in the mo-o of the story\nTuna-roa.\n\nThe Polynesians also had the idea of a double soul inhabiting the body.\nThis is carried out in the ghost legends more fully than in the Maui\nstories, and yet \"the spirit separate from the spirit which never\nforsakes man\" according to Polynesian ideas, was a part of the Maui\nbirth legends. This spirit, which can be separated or charmed away from\nthe body by incantations was called the \"hau.\" When Maui's father\nperformed the religious ceremonies over him which would protect him and\ncause him to be successful, he forgot a part of his incantation to the\n\"hau,\" therefore Maui lost his protection from death when he sought\nimmortality for himself and all mankind.\n\nHow much these things aid in proving a Hindoo or rather Indian origin\nfor the Polynesians is uncertain, but at least they are of interest\nalong the lines of race origin.\n\nThe Maui group of legends is preeminently peculiar. They are not only\ndifferent from the myths of other nations, but they are unique in the\ncharacter of the actions recorded. Maui's deeds rank in a higher class\nthan most of the mighty efforts of the demi gods of other nations and\nraces, and are usually of more utility. Hercules accomplished nothing to\ncompare with \"lifting the sky,\" \"snaring the sun,\" \"fishing for\nislands,\" \"finding fire in his grandmother's finger nails,\" or \"learning\nfrom birds how to make fire by rubbing dry sticks,\" or \"getting a magic\nbone\" from the jaw of an ancestor who was half dead, that is dead on one\nside and therefore could well afford to let the bone on that side go for\nthe benefit of a descendant. The Maui legends are full of helpful\nimaginations, which are distinctly Polynesian.\n\nThe phrase \"Maui of the Malo\" is used among the Hawaiians in connection\nwith the name Maui a Kalana, \"Maui the son of Akalana.\" It may be well\nto note the origin of the name. It was said that Hina usually sent her\nretainers to gather sea moss for her, but one morning she went down to\nthe sea by herself. There she found a beautiful red malo, which she\nwrapped around her as a pa-u or skirt. When she showed it to Akalana,\nher husband, he spoke of it as a gift of the gods, thinking that it\nmeant the gift of Mana or spiritual power to their child when he should\nbe born. In this way the Hawaiians explain the superior talent and\nmiraculous ability of Maui which placed him above his brothers.\n\nThese stories were originally printed as magazine articles, chiefly in\nthe Paradise of the Pacific, Honolulu; therefore there are sometimes\nrepetitions which it seemed best to leave, even when reprinted in the\npresent form.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nMAUI'S HOME\n\n  \"Akalana was the man;\n  Hina-a-ke-ahi was the wife;\n  Maui First was born;\n  Then Maui-waena;\n  Maui Kiikii was born;\n  Then Maui of the malo.\"\n\n  --Queen Liliuokalani's Family Chant.\n\n\nFour brothers, each bearing the name of Maui, belong to Hawaiian legend.\nThey accomplished little as a family, except on special occasions when\nthe youngest of the household awakened his brothers by some unexpected\ntrick which drew them into unwonted action. The legends of Hawaii,\nTonga, Tahiti, New Zealand and the Hervey group make this youngest Maui\n\"the discoverer of fire\" or \"the ensnarer of the sun\" or \"the fisherman\nwho pulls up islands\" or \"the man endowed with magic,\" or \"Maui with\nspirit power.\" The legends vary somewhat, of course, but not as much as\nmight be expected when the thousands of miles between various groups of\nislands are taken into consideration.\n\nMaui was one of the Polynesian demi-gods. His parents belonged to the\nfamily of supernatural beings. He himself was possessed of supernatural\npowers and was supposed to make use of all manner of enchantments. In\nNew Zealand antiquity a Maui was said to have assisted other gods in the\ncreation of man. Nevertheless Maui was very human. He lived in thatched\nhouses, had wives and children, and was scolded by the women for not\nproperly supporting his household.\n\nThe time of his sojourn among men is very indefinite. In Hawaiian\ngenealogies Maui and his brothers were placed among the descendants of\nUlu and \"the sons of Kii,\" and Maui was one of the ancestors of\nKamehameha, the first king of the united Hawaiian Islands. This would\nplace him in the seventh or eighth century of the Christian Era. But it\nis more probable that Maui belongs to the mist-land of time. His\nmischievous pranks with the various gods would make him another Mercury\nliving in any age from the creation to the beginning of the Christian\nera.\n\nThe Hervey Island legends state that Maui's father was \"the supporter of\nthe heavens\" and his mother \"the guardian of the road to the invisible\nworld.\"\n\nIn the Hawaiian chant, Akalana was the name of his father. In other\ngroups this was the name by which his mother was known. Kanaloa, the\ngod, is sometimes known as the father of Maui. In Hawaii Hina was his\nmother. Elsewhere Ina, or Hina, was the grandmother, from whom he\nsecured fire.\n\nThe Hervey Island legends say that four mighty ones lived in the old\nworld from which their ancestors came. This old world bore the name\nAva-iki, which is the same as Hawa-ii, or Hawaii. The four gods were\nMauike, Ra, Ru, and Bua-Taranga.\n\nIt is interesting to trace the connection of these four names with\nPolynesian mythology. Mauike is the same as the demi-god of New Zealand,\nMafuike. On other islands the name is spelled Mauika, Mafuika, Mafuia,\nMafuie, and Mahuika. Ra, the sun god of Egypt, is the same as Ra in New\nZealand and La (sun) in Hawaii. Ru, the supporter of the heavens, is\nprobably the Ku of Hawaii, and the Tu of New Zealand and other islands,\none of the greatest of the gods worshiped by the ancient Hawaiians. The\nfourth mighty one from Ava-ika was a woman, Bua-taranga, who guarded the\npath to the underworld. Talanga in Samoa, and Akalana in Hawaii were the\nsame as Taranga. Pua-kalana (the Kalana flower) would probably be the\nsame in Hawaiian as Bua-taranga in the language of the Society Islands.\n\nRu, the supporter of the Heavens, married Bua-taranga, the guardian of\nthe lower world. Their one child was Maui. The legends of Raro-Tonga\nstate that Maui's father and mother were the children of Tangaroa\n(Kanaloa in Hawaiian), the great god worshiped throughout Polynesia.\nThere were three Maui brothers and one sister, Ina-ika (Ina, the fish).\n\nThe New Zealand legends relate the incidents of the babyhood of Maui.\n\nMaui was prematurely born, and his mother, not caring to be troubled\nwith him, cut off a lock of her hair, tied it around him and cast him\ninto the sea. In this way the name came to him, Maui-Tiki-Tiki, or \"Maui\nformed in the topknot.\" The waters bore him safely. The jelly fish\nenwrapped and mothered him. The god of the seas cared for and protected\nhim. He was carried to the god's house and hung up in the roof that he\nmight feel the warm air of the fire, and be cherished into life. When he\nwas old enough, he came to his relations while they were all gathered in\nthe great House of Assembly, dancing and making merry. Little Maui crept\nin and sat down behind his brothers. Soon his mother called the children\nand found a strange child, who proved that he was her son, and was taken\nin as one of the family. Some of the brothers were jealous, but the\neldest addressed the others as follows:\n\n\"Never mind; let him be our dear brother. In the days of peace remember\nthe proverb, 'When you are on friendly terms, settle your disputes in a\nfriendly way; when you are at war, you must redress your injuries by\nviolence.' It is better for us, brothers, to be kind to other people.\nThese are the ways by which men gain influence--by laboring for\nabundance of food to feed others, by collecting property to give to\nothers, and by similar means by which you promote the good of others.\"\n\n[Illustration: Rugged Lava of Wailuku River.]\n\nThus, according to the New Zealand story related by Sir George Grey,\nMaui was received in his home.\n\nMaui's home was placed by some of the Hawaiian myths at Kauiki, a\nfoothill of the great extinct crater Haleakala, on the Island of Maui.\nIt was here he lived when the sky was raised to its present position.\nHere was located the famous fort around which many battles were fought\nduring the years immediately preceding the coming of Captain Cook. This\nfort was held by warriors of the Island of Hawaii a number of years. It\nwas from this home that Maui was supposed to have journeyed when he\nclimbed Mt. Haleakala to ensnare the sun.\n\nAnd yet most of the Hawaiian legends place Maui's home by the rugged\nblack lava beds of the Wailuku river near Hilo on the island Hawaii.\nHere he lived when he found the way to make fire by rubbing sticks\ntogether, and when he killed Kuna, the great eel, and performed other\nfeats of valor. He was supposed to cultivate the land on the north side\nof the river. His mother, usually known as Hina, had her home in a lava\ncave under the beautiful Rainbow Falls, one of the fine scenic\nattractions of Hilo. An ancient demigod, wishing to destroy this home,\nthrew a great mass of lava across the stream below the falls. The rising\nwater was fast filling the cave.\n\nHina called loudly to her powerful son Maui. He came quickly and found\nthat a large and strong ridge of lava lay across the stream. One end\nrested against a small hill. Maui struck the rock on the other side of\nthe hill and thus broke a new pathway for the river. The water swiftly\nflowed away and the cave remained as the home of the Maui family.\n\nAccording to the King Kalakaua family legend, translated by Queen\nLiliuokalani, Maui and his brothers also made this place their home.\nHere he aroused the anger of two uncles, his mother's brothers, who were\ncalled \"Tall Post\" and \"Short Post,\" because they guarded the entrance\nto a cave in which the Maui family probably had its home.\n\n\"They fought hard with Maui, and were thrown, and red water flowed\nfreely from Maui's forehead. This was the first shower by Maui.\" Perhaps\nsome family discipline followed this knocking down of door posts, for it\nis said:\n\n  \"They fetched the sacred Awa bush,\n  Then came the second shower by Maui;\n  The third shower was when the elbow of Awa was broken;\n  The fourth shower came with the sacred bamboo.\"\n\nMaui's mother, so says a New Zealand legend, had her home in the\nunder-world as well as with her children. Maui determined to find the\nhidden dwelling place. His mother would meet the children in the evening\nand lie down to sleep with them and then disappear with the first\nappearance of dawn. Maui remained awake one night, and when all were\nasleep, arose quietly and stopped up every crevice by which a ray of\nlight could enter. The morning came and the sun mounted up--far up in\nthe sky. At last his mother leaped up and tore away the things which\nshut out the light.\n\n\"Oh, dear; oh, dear! She saw the sun high in the heavens; so she hurried\naway, crying at the thought of having been so badly treated by her own\nchildren.\"\n\nMaui watched her as she pulled up a tuft of grass and disappeared in the\nearth, pulling the grass back to its place.\n\nThus Maui found the path to the under-world. Soon he transformed himself\ninto a pigeon and flew down, through the cave, until he saw a party of\npeople under a sacred tree, like those growing in the ancient first\nHawaii. He flew to the tree and threw down berries upon the people. They\nthrew back stones. At last he permitted a stone from his father to\nstrike him, and he fell to the ground. \"They ran to catch him, but lo!\nthe pigeon had turned into a man.\"\n\nThen his father \"took him to the water to be baptized\" (possibly a\nmodern addition to the legend). Prayers were offered and ceremonies\npassed through. But the prayers were incomplete and Maui's father knew\nthat the gods would be angry and cause Maui's death, and all because in\nthe hurried baptism a part of the prayers had been left unsaid. Then\nMaui returned to the upper world and lived again with his brothers.\n\nMaui commenced his mischievous life early, for Hervey Islanders say that\none day the children were playing a game dearly loved by\nPolynesians--hide-and-seek. Here a sister enters into the game and hides\nlittle Maui under a pile of dry sticks. His brothers could not find him,\nand the sister told them where to look. The sticks were carefully\nhandled, but the child could not be found. He had shrunk himself so\nsmall that he was like an insect under some sticks and leaves. Thus\nearly he began to use enchantments.\n\nMaui's home, at the best, was only a sorry affair. Gods and demigods\nlived in caves and small grass houses. The thatch rapidly rotted and\nrequired continual renewal. In a very short time the heavy rains beat\nthrough the decaying roof. The home was without windows or doors, save\nas low openings in the ends or sides allowed entrance to those willing\nto crawl through. Off on one side would be the rude shelter, in the\nshadow of which Hina pounded the bark of certain trees into wood pulp\nand then into strips of thin, soft wood-paper, which bore the name of\n\"Tapa cloth.\" This cloth Hina prepared for the clothing of Maui and his\nbrothers. Tapa cloth was often treated to a coat of cocoa-nut, or\ncandle-nut oil, making it somewhat waterproof and also more durable.\n\nHere Maui lived on edible roots and fruits and raw fish, knowing little\nabout cooked food, for the art of fire making was not yet known. In\nlater years Maui was supposed to live on the eastern end of the island\nMaui, and also in another home on the large island Hawaii, on which he\ndiscovered how to make fire by rubbing dry sticks together. Maui was the\nPolynesian Mercury. As a little fellow he was endowed with peculiar\npowers, permitting him to become invisible or to change his human form\ninto that of an animal. He was ready to take anything from any one by\ncraft or force. Nevertheless, like the thefts of Mercury, his pranks\nusually benefited mankind.\n\nIt is a little curious that around the different homes of Maui, there is\nso little record of temples and priests and altars. He lived too far\nback for priestly customs. His story is the rude, mythical survival of\nthe days when of church and civil government there was none and worship\nof the gods was practically unknown, but every man was a law unto\nhimself, and also to the other man, and quick retaliation followed any\ninjury received.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nMAUI THE FISHERMAN\n\n  \"Oh the great fish hook of Maui!\n  Manai-i-ka-lani 'Made fast to the heavens'--its name;\n  An earth-twisted cord ties the hook.\n  Engulfed from the lofty Kauiki.\n  Its bait the red billed Alae,\n  The bird made sacred to Hina.\n  It sinks far down to Hawaii,\n  Struggling and painfully dying.\n  Caught is the land under the water,\n  Floated up, up to the surface,\n  But Hina hid a wing of the bird\n  And broke the land under the water.\n  Below, was the bait snatched away\n  And eaten at once by the fishes,\n  The Ulua of the deep muddy places.\"\n\n  --Chant of Kualii, about A. D. 1700.\n\n\nOne of Maui's homes was near Kauiki, a place well known throughout the\nHawaiian Islands because of its strategic importance. For many years it\nwas the site of a fort around which fierce battles were fought by the\nnatives of the island Maui, repelling the invasions of their neighbors\nfrom Hawaii.\n\n[Illustration: Leaping to Swim to Coral Reefs.]\n\nHaleakala (the House of the Sun), the mountain from which Maui the\ndemi-god snared the sun, looks down ten thousand feet upon the Kauiki\nheadland. Across the channel from Haleakala rises Mauna Kea, \"The White\nMountain\"--the snow-capped--which almost all the year round rears its\nwhite head in majesty among the clouds.\n\nIn the snowy breakers of the surf which washes the beach below these\nmountains, are broken coral reefs--the fishing grounds of the Hawaiians.\nHere near Kauiki, according to some Hawaiian legends, Maui's mother Hina\nhad her grass house and made and dried her kapa cloth. Even to the\npresent day it is one of the few places in the islands where the kapa is\nstill pounded into sheets from the bark of the hibiscus and kindred\ntrees.\n\nHere is a small bay partially reef-protected, over which year after year\nthe moist clouds float and by day and by night crown the waters with\nrainbows--the legendary sign of the home of the deified ones. Here when\nthe tide is out the natives wade and swim, as they have done for\ncenturies, from coral block to coral block, shunning the deep resting\nplaces of their dread enemy, the shark, sometimes esteemed divine. Out\non the edge of the outermost reef they seek the shellfish which cling\nto the coral, or spear the large fish which have been left in the\nbeautiful little lakes of the reef. Coral land is a region of the sea\ncoast abounding in miniature lakes and rugged valleys and steep\nmountains. Clear waters with every motion of the tide surge in and out\nthrough sheltered caves and submarine tunnels, according to an ancient\nHawaiian song--\n\n  \"Never quiet, never failing, never sleeping,\n  Never very noisy is the sea of the sacred caves.\"\n\nSea mosses of many hues are the forests which drape the hillsides of\ncoral land and reflect the colored rays of light which pierce the\nceaselessly moving waves. Down in the beautiful little lakes, under\noverhanging coral cliffs, darting in and out through the fringes of\nseaweed, the purple mullet and royal red fish flash before the eyes of\nthe fisherman. Sometimes the many-tinted glorious fish of paradise\nreveal their beauties, and then again a school of black and gold\ncitizens of the reef follow the tidal waves around projecting crags and\nthrough the hidden tunnels from lake to lake, while above the fisherman\nfollows spearing or snaring as best he can. Maui's brothers were better\nfishermen than he. They sought the deep sea beyond the reef and the\nlarger fish. They made hooks of bone or of mother of pearl, with a\nstraight, slender, sharp-pointed piece leaning backward at a sharp\nangle. This was usually a consecrated bit of bone or mother of pearl,\nand was supposed to have peculiar power to hold fast any fish which had\ntaken the bait.\n\n[Illustration: In the Sea of Sacred Caves.]\n\nThese bones were usually taken from the body of some one who while\nliving had been noted for great power or high rank. This sharp piece was\ntightly tied to the larger bone or shell, which formed the shank of the\nhook. The sacred barb of Maui's hook was a part of the magic bone he had\nsecured from his ancestors in the under-world--the bone with which he\nstruck the sun while lassooing him and compelling him to move more\nslowly through the heavens.\n\n\"Earth-twisted\"--fibres of vines--twisted while growing, was the cord\nused by Maui in tying the parts of his magic hook together.\n\nLong and strong were the fish lines made from the olona fibre, holding\nthe great fish caught from the depths of the ocean. The fibres of the\nolona vine were among the longest and strongest threads found in the\nHawaiian Islands.\n\nSuch a hook could easily be cast loose by the struggling fish, if the\nleast opportunity were given. Therefore it was absolutely necessary to\nkeep the line taut, and pull strongly and steadily, to land the fish in\nthe canoe.\n\nMaui did not use his magic hook for a long time. He seemed to understand\nthat it would not answer ordinary needs. Possibly the idea of making\nthe supernatural hook did not occur to him until he had exhausted his\nlower wit and magic upon his brothers.\n\nIt is said that Maui was not a very good fisherman. Sometimes his end of\nthe canoe contained fish which his brothers had thought were on their\nhooks until they were landed in the canoe.\n\nMany times they laughed at him for his poor success, and he retaliated\nwith his mischievous tricks.\n\n\"E!\" he would cry, when one of his brothers began to pull in, while the\nother brothers swiftly paddled the canoe forward. \"E!\" See we both have\ncaught great fish at the same moment. Be careful now. Your line is\nloose. \"Look out! Look out!\"\n\nAll the time he would be pulling his own line in as rapidly as possible.\nOnward rushed the canoe. Each fisherman shouting to encourage the\nothers. Soon the lines by the tricky manipulation of Maui would be\ncrossed. Then as the great fish was brought near the side of the boat\nMaui the little, the mischievous one, would slip his hook toward the\nhead of the fish and flip it over into the canoe--causing his brother's\nline to slacken for a moment. Then his mournful cry rang out: \"Oh, my\nbrother, your fish is gone. Why did you not pull more steadily? It was a\nfine fish, and now it is down deep in the waters.\" Then Maui held up his\nsplendid catch (from his brother's hook) and received somewhat\nsuspicious congratulations. But what could they do, Maui was the smart\none of the family.\n\nTheir father and mother were both members of the household of the gods.\nThe father was \"the supporter of the heavens\" and the mother was \"the\nguardian of the way to the invisible world,\" but pitifully small and\nvery few were the gifts bestowed upon their children. Maui's brothers\nknew nothing beyond the average home life of the ordinary Hawaiian, and\nMaui alone was endowed with the power to work miracles. Nevertheless the\nstudent of Polynesian legends learns that Maui is more widely known than\nalmost all the demi-gods of all nations as a discoverer of benefits for\nhis fellows, and these physical rather than spiritual. After many\nfishing excursions Maui's brothers seemed to have wit enough to\nunderstand his tricks, and thenceforth they refused to take him in their\ncanoe when they paddled out to the deep-sea fishing grounds. Then those\nwho depended upon Maui to supply their daily needs murmured against his\npoor success. His mother scolded him and his brothers ridiculed him.\n\nIn some of the Polynesian legends it is said that his wives and children\ncomplained because of his laziness and at last goaded him into a new\neffort.\n\nThe ex-Queen Liliuokalani, in a translation of what is called \"the\nfamily chant,\" says that Maui's mother sent him to his father for a hook\nwith which to supply her need.\n\n  \"Go hence to your father,\n  'Tis there you find line and hook.\n  This is the hook--'Made fast to the heavens--'\n  'Manaia-ka-lani'--'tis called.\n  When the hook catches land\n  It brings the old seas together.\n  Bring hither the large Alae,\n  The bird of Hina.\"\n\nWhen Maui had obtained his hook, he tried to go fishing with his\nbrothers. He leaped on the end of their canoe as they pushed out into\ndeep water. They were angry and cried out: \"This boat is too small for\nanother Maui.\" So they threw him off and made him swim back to the\nbeach. When they returned from their day's work, they brought back only\na shark. Maui told them if he had been with them better fish would have\nbeen upon their hooks--the Ulua, for instance, or, possibly, the\nPimoe--the king of fish. At last they let him go far out outside the\nharbor of Kipahula to a place opposite Ka Iwi o Pele, \"The bone of\nPele,\" a peculiar piece of lava lying near the beach at Hana on the\neastern side of the island Maui. There they fished, but only sharks were\ncaught. The brothers ridiculed Maui, saying: \"Where are the Ulua, and\nwhere is Pimoe?\"\n\nThen Maui threw his magic hook into the sea, baited with one of the Alae\nbirds, sacred to his mother Hina. He used the incantation, \"When I let\ngo my hook with divine power, then I get the great Ulua.\"\n\nThe bottom of the sea began to move. Great waves arose, trying to carry\nthe canoe away. The fish pulled the canoe two days, drawing the line to\nits fullest extent. When the slack began to come in the line, because of\nthe tired fish, Maui called for the brothers to pull hard against the\ncoming fish. Soon land rose out of the water. Maui told them not to look\nback or the fish would be lost. One brother did look back--the line\nslacked, snapped, and broke, and the land lay behind them in islands.\n\nOne of the Hawaiian legends also says that while the brothers were\npaddling in full strength, Maui saw a calabash floating in the water. He\nlifted it into the canoe, and behold! his beautiful sister Hina of the\nsea. The brothers looked, and the separated islands lay behind them,\nfree from the hook, while Cocoanut Island--the dainty spot of beauty in\nHilo harbor--was drawn up--a little ledge of lava--in later years the\nhome of a cocoanut grove.\n\nThe better, the more complete, legend comes from New Zealand, which\nmakes Maui so mischievous that his brothers refuse his\ncompanionship--and therefore, thrown on his own resources, he studies\nhow to make a hook which shall catch something worth while. In this\nlegend Maui is represented as making his own hook and then pleading with\nhis brothers to let him go with them once more. But they hardened their\nhearts against him, and refused again and again.\n\nMaui possessed the power of changing himself into different forms. At\none time while playing with his brothers he had concealed himself for\nthem to find. They heard his voice in a corner of the house--but could\nnot find him. Then under the mats on the floor, but again they could not\nfind him. There was only an insect creeping on the floor. Suddenly they\nsaw their little brother where the insect had been. Then they knew he\nhad been tricky with them. So in these fishing days he resolved to go\nback to his old ways and cheat his brothers into carrying him with them\nto the great fishing grounds.\n\nSir George Gray says that the New Zealand Maui went out to the canoe and\nconcealed himself as an insect in the bottom of the boat so that when\nthe early morning light crept over the waters and his brothers pushed\nthe canoe into the surf they could not see him. They rejoiced that Maui\ndid not appear, and paddled away over the waters.\n\nThey fished all day and all night and on the morning of the next day,\nout from among the fish in the bottom of the boat came their troublesome\nbrother.\n\nThey had caught many fine fish and were satisfied, so thought to paddle\nhomeward; but their younger brother plead with them to go out, far out,\nto the deeper seas and permit him to cast his hook. He said he wanted\nlarger and better fish than any they had captured.\n\n[Illustration: Spearing Fish.]\n\nSo they paddled to their outermost fishing grounds--but this did not\nsatisfy Maui--\n\n  \"Farther out on the waters,\n  O! my brothers,\n  I seek the great fish of the sea.\"\n\nIt was evidently easier to work for him than to argue with\nhim--therefore far out in the sea they went. The home land disappeared\nfrom view; they could see only the outstretching waste of waters. Maui\nurged them out still farther. Then he drew his magic hook from under his\nmalo or loin-cloth. The brothers wondered what he would do for bait. The\nNew Zealand legend says that he struck his nose a mighty blow until the\nblood gushed forth. When this blood became clotted, he fastened it upon\nhis hook and let it down into the deep sea.\n\nDown it went to the very bottom and caught the under world. It was a\nmighty fish--but the brothers paddled with all their might and main and\nMaui pulled in the line. It was hard rowing against the power which held\nthe hook down in the sea depths--but the brothers became enthusiastic\nover Maui's large fish, and were generous in their strenuous endeavors.\nEvery muscle was strained and every paddle held strongly against the sea\nthat not an inch should be lost. There was no sudden leaping and darting\nto and fro, no \"give\" to the line; no \"tremble\" as when a great fish\nwould shake itself in impotent wrath when held captive by a hook. It was\nsimply a struggle of tense muscle against an immensely heavy dead\nweight. To the brothers there came slowly the feeling that Maui was in\none of his strange moods and that something beyond their former\nexperiences with their tricky brother was coming to pass.\n\nAt last one of the brothers glanced backward. With a scream of intense\nterror he dropped his paddle. The others also looked. Then each caught\nhis paddle and with frantic exertion tried to force their canoe onward.\nDeep down in the heavy waters they pushed their paddles. Out of the\ngreat seas the black, ragged head of a large island was rising like a\nfish--it seemed to be chasing them through the boiling surf. In a little\nwhile the water became shallow around them, and their canoe finally\nrested on a black beach.\n\nMaui for some reason left his brothers, charging them not to attempt to\ncut up this great fish. But the unwise brothers thought they would fill\nthe canoe with part of this strange thing which they had caught. They\nbegan to cut up the back and put huge slices into their canoe. But the\ngreat fish--the island--shook under the blows and with mighty earthquake\nshocks tossed the boat of the brothers, and their canoe was destroyed.\nAs they were struggling in the waters, the great fish devoured them. The\nisland came up more and more from the waters--but the deep gashes made\nby Maui's brothers did not heal--they became the mountains and valleys\nstretching from sea to sea.\n\nWhite of New Zealand says that Maui went down into the underworld to\nmeet his great ancestress, who was one side dead and one side alive.\nFrom the dead side he took the jaw bone, made a magic hook, and went\nfishing. When he let the hook down into the sea, he called:\n\n  \"Take my bait. O Depths!\n  Confused you are. O Depths!\n      And coming upward.\"\n\nThus he pulled up Ao-tea-roa--one of the large islands of New Zealand.\nOn it were houses, with people around them. Fires were burning. Maui\nwalked over the island, saw with wonder the strange men and the\nmysterious fire. He took fire in his hands and was burned. He leaped\ninto the sea, dived deep, came up with the other large island on his\nshoulders. This island he set on fire and left it always burning. It is\nsaid that the name for New Zealand given to Captain Cook was Te ika o\nMaui, \"The fish of Maui.\" Some New Zealand natives say that he fished up\nthe island on which dwelt \"Great Hina of the Night,\" who finally\ndestroyed Maui while he was seeking immortality.\n\nOne legend says that Maui fished up apparently from New Zealand the\nlarge island of the Tongas. He used this chant:\n\n  \"O Tonga-nui!\n  Why art Thou\n  Sulkily biting, biting below?\n  Beneath the earth\n  The power is felt,\n  The foam is seen,\n      Coming.\n  O thou loved grandchild\n  Of Tangaroa-meha.\"\n\nThis is an excellent poetical description of the great fish delaying the\nquick hard bite. Then the island comes to the surface and Maui, the\nbeloved grandchild of the Polynesian god Kanaloa, is praised.\n\nIt was part of one of the legends that Maui changed himself into a bird\nand from the heavens let down a line with which he drew up land, but the\nline broke, leaving islands rather than a mainland. About two hundred\nlesser gods went to the new islands in a large canoe. The greater gods\npunished them by making them mortal.\n\nTurner, in his book on Samoa, says there were three Mauis, all brothers.\nThey went out fishing from Rarotonga. One of the brothers begged the\n\"goddess of the deep rocks\" to let his hooks catch land. Then the island\nManahiki was drawn up. A great wave washed two of the Mauis away. The\nother Maui found a great house in which eight hundred gods lived. Here\nhe made his home until a chief from Rarotonga drove him away. He fled\ninto the sky, but as he leaped he separated the land into two islands.\n\nOther legends of Samoa say that Tangaroa, the great god, rolled stones\nfrom heaven. One became the island Savaii, the other became Upolu. A god\nis sometimes represented as passing over the ocean with a bag of sand.\nWherever he dropped a little sand islands sprang up.\n\nPayton, the earnest and honored missionary of the New Hebrides Islands,\nevidently did not know the name Mauitikitiki, so he spells the name of\nthe fisherman Ma-tshi-ktshi-ki, and gives the myth of the fishing up of\nthe various islands. The natives said that Maui left footprints on the\ncoral reefs of each island where he stood straining and lifting in his\nendeavors to pull up each other island. He threw his line around a large\nisland intending to draw it up and unite it with the one on which he\nstood, but his line broke. Then he became angry and divided into two\nparts the island on which he stood. This same Maui is recorded by Mr.\nPayton as being in a flood which put out one volcano--Maui seized\nanother, sailed across to a neighboring island and piled it upon the top\nof the volcano there, so the fire was placed out of reach of the flood.\n\nIn the Hervey Group of the Tahitian or Society Islands the same story\nprevails and the natives point out the place where the hook caught and a\nprint was made by the foot in the coral reef. But they add some very\nmythical details. Maui's magic fish hook is thrown into the skies, where\nit continuously hangs, the curved tail of the constellation which we\ncall Scorpio. Then one of the gods becoming angry with Maui seized him\nand threw him also among the stars. There he stays looking down upon his\npeople. He has become a fixed part of the scorpion itself.\n\nThe Hawaiian myths sometimes represent Maui as trying to draw the\nislands together while fishing them out of the sea. When they had pulled\nup the island of Kauai they looked back and were frightened. They\nevidently tried to rush away from the new monster and thus broke the\nline. Maui tore a side out of the small crater Kaula when trying to draw\nit to one of the other islands. Three aumakuas, three fishes supposed to\nbe spirit-gods, guarded Kaula and defeated his purpose. At Hawaii\nCocoanut Island broke off because Maui pulled too hard. Another place\nnear Hilo on the large island of Hawaii where the hook was said to have\ncaught is in the Wailuku river below Rainbow Falls.\n\nMaui went out from his home at Kauiki, fishing with his brothers. After\nthey had caught some fine fish the brothers desired to return, but Maui\npersuaded them to go out farther. Then when they became tired and\ndetermined to go back, he made the seas stretch out and the shores\nrecede until they could see no land. Then drawing the magic hook, he\nbaited it with the Alae or sacred mud hen belonging to his Mother Hina.\nQueen Liliuokalani's family chant has the following reference to this\nmyth:\n\n  \"Maui longed for fish for Hina-akeahi (Hina of the fire, his mother),\n  Go hence to your father,\n  There you will find line and hook.\n  Manaiakalani is the hook.\n  Where the islands are caught,\n  The ancient seas are connected.\n  The great bird Alae is taken,\n  The sister bird,\n  Of that one of the hidden fire of Maui.\"\n\nMaui evidently had no scruples against using anything which would help\nhim carry out his schemes. He indiscriminately robbed his friends and\nthe gods alike.\n\nDown in the deep sea sank the hook with its struggling bait, until it\nwas seized by \"the land under the water.\"\n\nBut Hina the mother saw the struggle of her sacred bird and hastened to\nthe rescue. She caught a wing of the bird, but could not pull the Alae\nfrom the sacred hook. The wing was torn off. Then the fish gathered\naround the bait and tore it in pieces. If the bait could have been kept\nentire, then the land would have come up in a continent rather than as\nan island. Then the Hawaiian group would have been unbroken. But the\nbait broke--and the islands came as fragments from the under world.\n\nMaui's hook and canoe are frequently mentioned in the legends. The\nHawaiians have a long rock in the Wailuku river at Hilo which they call\nMaui's canoe. Different names were given to Maui's canoe by the Maoris\nof New Zealand. \"Vine of Heaven,\" \"Prepare for the North,\" \"Land of the\nReceding Sea.\" His fish hook bore the name \"Plume of Beauty.\"\n\nOn the southern end of Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, there is a curved ledge\nof rocks extending out from the coast. This is still called by the\nMaoris \"Maui's fish-hook,\" as if the magic hook had been so firmly\ncaught in the jaws of the island that Maui could not disentangle it, but\nhad been compelled to cut it off from his line.\n\nThere is a large stone on the sea coast of North Kohala on the island of\nHawaii which the Hawaiians point out as the place where Maui's magic\nhook caught the island and pulled it through the sea.\n\nIn the Tonga Islands, a place known as Hounga is pointed out by the\nnatives as the spot where the magic hook caught in the rocks. The hook\nitself was said to have been in the possession of a chief-family for\nmany generations.\n\n[Illustration: Here are the Canoes.]\n\nAnother group of Hawaiian legends, very incomplete, probably referring\nto Maui, but ascribed to other names, relates that a fisherman caught a\nlarge block of coral. He took it to his priest. After sacrificing, and\nconsulting the gods, the priest advised the fisherman to throw the coral\nback into the sea with incantations. While so doing this block became\nHawaii-loa. The fishing continued and blocks of coral were caught and\nthrown back into the sea until all the islands appeared. Hints of this\nlegend cling to other island groups as well as to the Hawaiian Islands.\nFornander credits a fisherman from foreign lands as thus bringing forth\nthe Hawaiian Islands from the deep seas. The reference occurs in part of\na chant known as that of a friend of Paao--the priest who is supposed to\nhave come from Samoa to Hawaii in the eleventh century. This priest\ncalls for his companions:\n\n  \"Here are the canoes. Get aboard.\n  Come along, and dwell on Hawaii with the green back.\n  A land which was found in the ocean,\n  A land thrown up from the sea--\n  From the very depths of Kanaloa,\n  The white coral, in the watery caves,\n  That was caught on the hook of the fisherman.\"\n\nThe god Kanaloa is sometimes known as a ruler of the under-world, whose\nland was caught by Maui's hook and brought up in islands. Thus in the\nlegends the thought has been perpetuated that some one of the ancestors\nof the Polynesians made voyages and discovered islands.\n\nIn the time of Umi, King of Hawaii, there is the following record of an\nimmense bone fish-hook, which was called the \"fish-hook of Maui:\"\n\n\"In the night of Muku (the last night of the month), a priest and his\nservants took a man, killed him, and fastened his body to the hook,\nwhich bore the name Manai-a-ka-lani, and dragged it to the heiau\n(temple) as a 'fish,' and placed it on the altar.\"\n\nThis hook was kept until the time of Kamehameha I. From time to time he\ntried to break it, and pulled until he perspired.\n\nPeapea, a brother of Kaahumanu, took the hook and broke it. He was\nafraid that Kamehameha would kill him. Kaahumanu, however, soothed the\nKing, and he passed the matter over. The broken bone was probably thrown\naway.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nMAUI LIFTING THE SKY.\n\n\nMaui's home was for a long time enveloped by darkness. The heavens had\nfallen down, or, rather, had not been separated from the earth.\nAccording to some legends, the skies pressed so closely and so heavily\nupon the earth that when the plants began to grow, all the leaves were\nnecessarily flat. According to other legends, the plants had to push up\nthe clouds a little, and thus caused the leaves to flatten out into\nlarger surface, so that they could better drive the skies back and hold\nthem in place. Thus the leaves became flat at first, and have so\nremained through all the days of mankind. The plants lifted the sky inch\nby inch until men were able to crawl about between the heavens and the\nearth, and thus pass from place to place and visit one another.\n\nAfter a long time, according to the Hawaiian legends, a man, supposed to\nbe Maui, came to a woman and said: \"Give me a drink from your gourd\ncalabash, and I will push the heavens higher.\" The woman handed the\ngourd to him. When he had taken a deep draught, he braced himself\nagainst the clouds and lifted them to the height of the trees. Again he\nhoisted the sky and carried it to the tops of the mountains; then with\ngreat exertion he thrust it upwards once more, and pressed it to the\nplace it now occupies. Nevertheless dark clouds many times hang low\nalong the eastern slope of Maui's great mountain--Haleakala--and descend\nin heavy rains upon the hill Kauwiki; but they dare not stay, lest Maui\nthe strong come and hurl them so far away that they cannot come back\nagain.\n\nA man who had been watching the process of lifting the sky ridiculed\nMaui for attempting such a difficult task. When the clouds rested on the\ntops of the mountains, Maui turned to punish his critic. The man had\nfled to the other side of the island. Maui rapidly pursued and finally\ncaught him on the sea coast, not many miles north of the town now known\nas Lahaina. After a brief struggle the man was changed, according to the\nstory, into a great black rock, which can be seen by any traveler who\ndesires to localize the legends of Hawaii.\n\nIn Samoa Tiitii, the latter part of the full name of Mauikiikii, is used\nas the name of the one who braced his feet against the rocks and pushed\nthe sky up. The foot-prints, some six feet long, are said to be shown\nby the natives.\n\nAnother Samoan story is almost like the Hawaiian legend. The heavens had\nfallen, people crawled, but the leaves pushed up a little; but the sky\nwas uneven. Men tried to walk, but hit their heads, and in this confined\nspace it was very hot. A woman rewarded a man who lifted the sky to its\nproper place by giving him a drink of water from her cocoanut shell.\n\nA number of small groups of islands in the Pacific have legends of their\nskies being lifted, but they attribute the labor to the great eels and\nserpents of the sea.\n\nOne of the Ellice group, Niu Island, says that as the serpent began to\nlift the sky the people clapped their hands and shouted \"Lift up!\"\n\"High!\" \"Higher!\" But the body of the serpent finally broke into pieces\nwhich became islands, and the blood sprinkled its drops on the sky and\nbecame stars.\n\nOne of the Samoan legends says that a plant called daiga, which had one\nlarge umbrella-like leaf, pushed up the sky and gave it its shape.\n\nThe Vatupu, or Tracey Islanders, said at one time the sky and rocks were\nunited. Then steam or clouds of smoke rose from the rocks, and, pouring\nout in volumes, forced the sky away from the earth. Man appeared in\nthese clouds of steam or smoke. Perspiration burst forth as this man\nforced his way through the heated atmosphere. From this perspiration\nwoman was formed. Then were born three sons, two of whom pushed up the\nsky. One, in the north, pushed as far as his arms would reach. The one\nin the south was short and climbed a hill, pushing as he went up, until\nthe sky was in its proper place.\n\nThe Gilbert Islanders say the sky was pushed up by men with long poles.\n\nThe ancient New Zealanders understood incantations by which they could\ndraw up or discover. They found a land where the sky and the earth were\nunited. They prayed over their stone axe and cut the sky and land apart.\n\"Hau-hau-tu\" was the name of the great stone axe by which the sinews of\nthe great heaven above were severed, and Langi (sky) was separated from\nPapa (earth).\n\nThe New Zealand Maoris were accustomed to say that at first the sky\nrested close upon the earth and therefore there was utter darkness for\nages. Then the six sons of heaven and earth, born during this period of\ndarkness, felt the need of light and discussed the necessity of\nseparating their parents--the sky from the earth--and decided to attempt\nthe work.\n\nRongo (Hawaiian god Lono) the \"father of food plants,\" attempted to lift\nthe sky, but could not tear it from the earth. Then Tangaroa (Kanaloa),\nthe \"father of fish and reptiles,\" failed. Haumia Tiki-tiki (Maui\nKiikii), the \"father of wild food plants,\" could not raise the clouds.\nThen Tu (Hawaiian Ku), the \"father of fierce men,\" struggled in vain.\nBut Tane (Hawaiian Kane), the \"father of giant forests,\" pushed and\nlifted until he thrust the sky far up above him. Then they discovered\ntheir descendants--the multitude of human beings who had been living on\nthe earth concealed and crushed by the clouds. Afterwards the last son,\nTawhiri (father of storms), was angry and waged war against his\nbrothers. He hid in the sheltered hollows of the great skies. There he\nbegot his vast brood of winds and storms with which he finally drove all\nhis brothers and their descendants into hiding places on land and sea.\nThe New Zealanders mention the names of the canoes in which their\nancestors fled from the old home Hawaiki.\n\nTu (father of fierce men) and his descendants, however, conquered wind\nand storm and have ever since held supremacy.\n\nThe New Zealand legends also say that heaven and earth have never lost\ntheir love for each other. \"The warm sighs of earth ever ascend from the\nwooded mountains and valleys, and men call them mists. The sky also lets\nfall frequent tears which men term dew drops.\"\n\nThe Manihiki islanders say that Maui desired to separate the sky from\nthe earth. His father, Ru, was the supporter of the heavens. Maui\npersuaded him to assist in lifting the burden. Maui went to the north\nand crept into a place, where, lying prostrate under the sky, he could\nbrace himself against it and push with great power. In the same way Ru\nwent to the south and braced himself against the southern skies. Then\nthey made the signal, and both pressed \"with their backs against the\nsolid blue mass.\" It gave way before the great strength of the father\nand son. Then they lifted again, bracing themselves with hands and knees\nagainst the earth. They crowded it and bent it upward. They were able to\nstand with the sky resting on their shoulders. They heaved against the\nbending mass, and it receded rapidly. They quickly put the palms of\ntheir hands under it; then the tips of their fingers, and it retreated\nfarther and farther. At last, \"drawing themselves out to gigantic\nproportions, they pushed the entire heavens up to the very lofty\nposition which they have ever since occupied.\"\n\nBut Maui and Ru had not worked perfectly together; therefore the sky was\ntwisted and its surface was very irregular. They determined to smooth\nthe sky before they finished their task, so they took large stone adzes\nand chipped off the rough protuberances and ridges, until by and by the\ngreat arch was cut out and smoothed off. They then took finer tools and\nchipped and polished until the sky became the beautifully finished blue\ndome which now bends around the earth.\n\nThe Hervey Island myth, as related by W. W. Gill, states that Ru, the\nfather of Maui, came from Avaiki (Hawa-iki), the underworld or abode of\nthe spirits of the dead. He found men crowded down by the sky, which was\na mass of solid blue stone. He was very sorry when he saw the condition\nof the inhabitants of the earth, and planned to raise the sky a little.\nSo he planted stakes of different kinds of trees. These were strong\nenough to hold the sky so far above the earth \"that men could stand\nerect and walk about without inconvenience.\" This was celebrated in one\nof the Hervey Island songs:\n\n  \"Force up the heavens,\n        O, Ru!\n  And let the space be clear.\"\n\nFor this helpful deed Ru received the name \"The supporter of the\nheavens.\" He was rather proud of his achievement and was gratified\nbecause of the praise received. So he came sometimes and looked at the\nstakes and the beautiful blue sky resting on them. Maui, the son, came\nalong and ridiculed his father for thinking so much of his work. Maui is\nnot represented, in the legends, as possessing a great deal of love and\nreverence for his relatives provided his affection interfered with his\nmischief; so it was not at all strange that he laughed at his father. Ru\nbecame angry and said to Maui: \"Who told youngsters to talk? Take care\nof yourself, or I will hurl you out of existence.\"\n\nMaui dared him to try it. Ru quickly seized him and \"threw him to a\ngreat height.\" But Maui changed himself to a bird and sank back to earth\nunharmed.\n\nThen he changed himself back into the form of a man, and, making himself\nvery large, ran and thrust his head between the old man's legs. He pried\nand lifted until Ru and the sky around him began to give. Another lift\nand he hurled them both to such a height that the sky could not come\nback.\n\nRu himself was entangled among the stars. His head and shoulders stuck\nfast, and he could not free himself. How he struggled, until the skies\nshook, while Maui went away. Maui was proud of his achievement in having\nmoved the sky so far away. In this self-rejoicing he quickly forgot his\nfather.\n\nRu died after a time. \"His body rotted away and his bones, of vast\nproportions, came tumbling down from time to time, and were shivered on\nthe earth into countless fragments. These shattered bones of Ru are\nscattered over every hill and valley of one of the islands, to the very\nedge of the sea.\"\n\nThus the natives of the Hervey Islands account for the many pieces of\nporous lava and the small pieces of pumice stone found occasionally in\ntheir islands. The \"bones\" were very light and greatly resembled\nfragments of real bone. If the fragments were large enough they were\nsometimes taken and worshiped as gods. One of these pieces, of\nextraordinary size, was given to Mr. Gill when the natives were\nbringing in a large collection of idols. \"This one was known as 'The\nLight Stone,' and was worshiped as the god of the wind and the waves.\nUpon occasions of a hurricane, incantations and offerings of food would\nbe made to it.\"\n\nThus, according to different Polynesian legends, Maui raised the sky and\nmade the earth inhabitable for his fellow-men.\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nMAUI SNARING THE SUN.\n\n  \"Maui became restless and fought the sun\n  With a noose that he laid.\n  And winter won the sun,\n  And summer was won by Maui.\"\n\n  --Queen Liliuokalani's family chant.\n\n\nA very unique legend is found among the widely-scattered Polynesians.\nThe story of Maui's \"Snaring the Sun\" was told among the Maoris of New\nZealand, the Kanakas of the Hervey and Society Islands, and the ancient\nnatives of Hawaii. The Samoans tell the same story without mentioning\nthe name of Maui. They say that the snare was cast by a child of the sun\nitself.\n\nThe Polynesian stories of the origin of the sun are worthy of note\nbefore the legend of the change from short to long days is given.\n\nThe Tongan Islanders, according to W. W. Gill, tell the story of the\norigin of the sun and moon. They say that Vatea (Wakea) and their\nancestor Tongaiti quarreled concerning a child--each claiming it as his\nown. In the struggle the child was cut in two. Vatea squeezed and rolled\nthe part he secured into a ball and threw it away, far up into the\nheavens, where it became the sun. It shone brightly as it rolled along\nthe heavens, and sank down to Avaiki (Hawaii), the nether world. But the\nball came back again and once more rolled across the sky. Tongaiti had\nlet his half of the child fall on the ground and lie there, until made\nenvious by the beautiful ball Vatea made.\n\nAt last he took the flesh which lay on the ground and made it into a\nball. As the sun sank he threw his ball up into the darkness, and it\nrolled along the heavens, but the blood had drained out of the flesh\nwhile it lay upon the ground, therefore it could not become so red and\nburning as the sun, and had not life to move so swiftly. It was as white\nas a dead body, because its blood was all gone; and it could not make\nthe darkness flee away as the sun had done. Thus day and night and the\nsun and moon always remain with the earth.\n\nThe legends of the Society Islands say that a demon in the west became\nangry with the sun and in his rage ate it up, causing night. In the same\nway a demon from the east would devour the moon, but for some reason\nthese angry ones could not destroy their captives and were compelled to\nopen their mouths and let the bright balls come forth once more. In\nsome places a sacrifice of some one of distinction was needed to placate\nthe wrath of the devourers and free the balls of light in times of\neclipse.\n\nThe moon, pale and dead in appearance, moved slowly; while the sun, full\nof life and strength, moved quickly. Thus days were very short and\nnights were very long. Mankind suffered from the fierceness of the heat\nof the sun and also from its prolonged absence. Day and night were alike\na burden to men. The darkness was so great and lasted so long that\nfruits would not ripen.\n\nAfter Maui had succeeded in throwing the heavens into their place, and\nfastening them so that they could not fall, he learned that he had\nopened a way for the sun-god to come up from the lower world and rapidly\nrun across the blue vault. This made two troubles for men--the heat of\nthe sun was very great and the journey too quickly over. Maui planned to\ncapture the sun and punish him for thinking so little about the welfare\nof mankind.\n\n[Illustration: Iao Mountain From the Sea.]\n\nAs Rev. A. O. Forbes, a missionary among the Hawaiians, relates, Maui's\nmother was troubled very much by the heedless haste of the sun. She had\nmany kapa-cloths to make, for this was the only kind of clothing known\nin Hawaii, except sometimes a woven mat or a long grass fringe worn as a\nskirt. This native cloth was made by pounding the fine bark of\ncertain trees with wooden mallets until the fibres were beaten and\nground into a wood pulp. Then she pounded the pulp into thin sheets from\nwhich the best sleeping mats and clothes could be fashioned. These kapa\ncloths had to be thoroughly dried, but the days were so short that by\nthe time she had spread out the kapa the sun had heedlessly rushed\nacross the sky and gone down into the under-world, and all the cloth had\nto be gathered up again and cared for until another day should come.\nThere were other troubles. \"The food could not be prepared and cooked in\none day. Even an incantation to the gods could not be chanted through\nere they were overtaken by darkness.\"\n\nThis was very discouraging and caused great suffering, as well as much\nunnecessary trouble and labor. Many complaints were made against the\nthoughtless sun.\n\nMaui pitied his mother and determined to make the sun go slower that the\ndays might be long enough to satisfy the needs of men. Therefore, he\nwent over to the northwest of the island on which he lived. This was Mt.\nIao, an extinct volcano, in which lies one of the most beautiful and\npicturesque valleys of the Hawaiian Islands. He climbed the ridges until\nhe could see the course of the sun as it passed over the island. He saw\nthat the sun came up the eastern side of Mt. Haleakala. He crossed over\nthe plain between the two mountains and climbed to the top of Mt.\nHaleakala. There he watched the burning sun as it came up from Koolau\nand passed directly over the top of the mountain. The summit of\nHaleakala is a great extinct crater twenty miles in circumference, and\nnearly twenty-five hundred feet in depth. There are two tremendous gaps\nor chasms in the side of the crater wall, through which in days gone by\nthe massive bowl poured forth its flowing lava. One of these was the\nKoolau, or eastern gap, in which Maui probably planned to catch the sun.\n\nMt. Hale-a-ka-la of the Hawaiian Islands means House-of-the-sun. \"La,\"\nor \"Ra,\" is the name of the sun throughout parts of Polynesia. Ra was\nthe sun-god of ancient Egypt. Thus the antiquities of Polynesia and\nEgypt touch each other, and today no man knows the full reason thereof.\n\nThe Hawaiian legend says Maui was taunted by a man who ridiculed the\nidea that he could snare the sun, saying, \"You will never catch the sun.\nYou are only an idle nobody.\"\n\nMaui replied, \"When I conquer my enemy and my desire is attained, I will\nbe your death.\"\n\nAfter studying the path of the sun, Maui returned to his mother and told\nher that he would go and cut off the legs of the sun so that he could\nnot run so fast.\n\nHis mother said: \"Are you strong enough for this work?\" He said, \"Yes.\"\nThen she gave him fifteen strands of well-twisted fiber and told him to\ngo to his grandmother, who lived in the great crater of Haleakala, for\nthe rest of the things in his conflict with the sun. She said: \"You must\nclimb the mountain to the place where a large wiliwili tree is standing.\nThere you will find the place where the sun stops to eat cooked bananas\nprepared by your grandmother. Stay there until a rooster crows three\ntimes; then watch your grandmother go out to make a fire and put on\nfood. You had better take her bananas. She will look for them and find\nyou and ask who you are. Tell her you belong to Hina.\"\n\nWhen she had taught him all these things, he went up the mountain to\nKaupo to the place Hina had directed. There was a large wiliwili tree.\nHere he waited for the rooster to crow. The name of that rooster was\nKalauhele-moa. When the rooster had crowed three times, the grandmother\ncame out with a bunch of bananas to cook for the sun. She took off the\nupper part of the bunch and laid it down. Maui immediately snatched it\naway. In a moment she turned to pick it up, but could not find it. She\nwas angry and cried out: \"Where are the bananas of the sun?\" Then she\ntook off another part of the bunch, and Maui stole that. Thus he did\nuntil all the bunch had been taken away. She was almost blind and could\nnot detect him by sight, so she sniffed all around her until she\ndetected the smell of a man. She asked: \"Who are you? To whom do you\nbelong?\" Maui replied: \"I belong to Hina.\" \"Why have you come?\" Maui\ntold her, \"I have come to kill the sun. He goes so fast that he never\ndries the tapa Hina has beaten out.\"\n\nThe old woman gave a magic stone for a battle axe and one more rope. She\ntaught him how to catch the sun, saying: \"Make a place to hide here by\nthis large wiliwili tree. When the first leg of the sun comes up, catch\nit with your first rope, and so on until you have used all your ropes.\nFasten them to the tree, then take the stone axe to strike the body of\nthe sun.\"\n\nMaui dug a hole among the roots of the tree and concealed himself. Soon\nthe first ray of light--the first leg of the sun--came up along the\nmountain side. Maui threw his rope and caught it. One by one the legs of\nthe sun came over the edge of the crater's rim and were caught. Only one\nlong leg was still hanging down the side of the mountain. It was hard\nfor the sun to move that leg. It shook and trembled and tried hard to\ncome up. At last it crept over the edge and was caught by Maui with the\nrope given by his grandmother.\n\nWhen the sun saw that his sixteen long legs were held fast in the ropes,\nhe began to go back down the mountain side into the sea. Then Maui tied\nthe ropes fast to the tree and pulled until the body of the sun came up\nagain. Brave Maui caught his magic stone club or axe, and began to\nstrike and wound the sun, until he cried: \"Give me my life.\" Maui said:\n\"If you live, you may be a traitor. Perhaps I had better kill you.\" But\nthe sun begged for life. After they had conversed a while, they agreed\nthat there should be a regular motion in the journey of the sun. There\nshould be longer days, and yet half the time he might go quickly as in\nthe winter time, but the other half he must move slowly as in summer.\nThus men dwelling on the earth should be blessed.\n\nAnother legend says that he made a lasso and climbed to the summit of\nMt. Haleakala. He made ready his lasso, so that when the sun came up the\nmountain side and rose above him he could cast the noose and catch the\nsun, but he only snared one of the sun's larger rays and broke it off.\nAgain and again he threw the lasso until he had broken off all the\nstrong rays of the sun.\n\nThen he shouted exultantly, \"Thou art my captive; I will kill thee for\ngoing so swiftly.\"\n\nThen the sun said, \"Let me live and thou shalt see me go more slowly\nhereafter. Behold, hast thou not broken off all my strong legs and left\nme only the weak ones?\"\n\nSo the agreement was made, and Maui permitted the sun to pursue his\ncourse, and from that day he went more slowly.\n\nMaui returned from his conflict with the sun and sought for Moemoe, the\nman who had ridiculed him. Maui chased this man around the island from\none side to the other until they had passed through Lahaina (one of the\nfirst mission stations in 1828). There on the seashore near the large\nblack rock of the legend of Maui lifting the sky he found Moemoe. Then\nthey left the seashore and the contest raged up hill and down until Maui\nslew the man and \"changed the body into a long rock, which is there to\nthis day, by the side of the road going past Black Rock.\"\n\nBefore the battle with the sun occurred Maui went down into the\nunderworld, according to the New Zealand tradition, and remained a long\ntime with his relatives. In some way he learned that there was an\nenchanted jawbone in the possession of some one of his ancestors, so he\nwaited and waited, hoping that at last he might discover it.\n\nAfter a time he noticed that presents of food were being sent away to\nsome person whom he had not met.\n\nOne day he asked the messengers, \"Who is it you are taking that present\nof food to?\"\n\nThe people answered, \"It is for Muri, your ancestress.\"\n\nThen he asked for the food, saying, \"I will carry it to her myself.\"\n\nBut he took the food away and hid it. \"And this he did for many days,\"\nand the presents failed to reach the old woman.\n\nBy and by she suspected mischief, for it did not seem as if her friends\nwould neglect her so long a time, so she thought she would catch the\ntricky one and eat him. She depended upon her sense of smell to detect\nthe one who had troubled her. As Sir George Grey tells the story: \"When\nMaui came along the path carrying the present of food, the old chiefess\nsniffed and sniffed until she was sure that she smelt some one coming.\nShe was very much exasperated, and her stomach began to distend itself\nthat she might be ready to devour this one when he came near.\n\nThen she turned toward the south and sniffed and not a scent of anything\nreached her. Then she turned to the north, and to the east, but could\nnot detect the odor of a human being. She made one more trial and turned\ntoward the west. Ah! then came the scent of a man to her plainly and she\ncalled out, 'I know, from the smell wafted to me by the breeze, that\nsomebody is close to me.'\"\n\nMaui made known his presence and the old woman knew that he was a\ndescendant of hers, and her stomach began immediately to shrink and\ncontract itself again.\n\nThen she asked, \"Art thou Maui?\"\n\nHe answered, \"Even so,\" and told her that he wanted \"the jaw-bone by\nwhich great enchantments could be wrought.\"\n\nThen Muri, the old chiefess, gave him the magic bone and he returned to\nhis brothers, who were still living on the earth.\n\nThen Maui said: \"Let us now catch the sun in a noose that we may compel\nhim to move more slowly in order that mankind may have long days to\nlabor in and procure subsistence for themselves.\"\n\nThey replied, \"No man can approach it on account of the fierceness of\nthe heat.\"\n\nAccording to the Society Island legend, his mother advised him to have\nnothing to do with the sun, who was a divine living creature, \"in form\nlike a man, possessed of fearful energy,\" shaking his golden locks both\nmorning and evening in the eyes of men. Many persons had tried to\nregulate the movements of the sun, but had failed completely.\n\nBut Maui encouraged his mother and his brothers by asking them to\nremember his power to protect himself by the use of enchantments.\n\nThe Hawaiian legend says that Maui himself gathered cocoanut fibre in\ngreat quantity and manufactured it into strong ropes. But the legends of\nother islands say that he had the aid of his brothers, and while working\nlearned many useful lessons. While winding and twisting they discovered\nhow to make square ropes and flat ropes as well as the ordinary round\nrope. In the Society Islands, it is said, Maui and his brothers made six\nstrong ropes of great length. These he called aeiariki (royal nooses).\n\nThe New Zealand legend says that when Maui and his brothers had finished\nmaking all the ropes required they took provisions and other things\nneeded and journeyed toward the east to find the place where the sun\nshould rise. Maui carried with him the magic jaw-bone which he had\nsecured from Muri, his ancestress, in the under-world.\n\nThey traveled all night and concealed themselves by day so that the sun\nshould not see them and become too suspicious and watchful. In this way\nthey journeyed, until \"at length they had gone very far to the eastward\nand had come to the very edge of the place out of which the sun rises.\nThere they set to work and built on each side a long, high wall of clay,\nwith huts of boughs of trees at each end to hide themselves in.\"\n\nHere they laid a large noose made from their ropes and Maui concealed\nhimself on one side of this place along which the sun must come, while\nhis brothers hid on the other side.\n\nMaui seized his magic enchanted jaw-bone as the weapon with which to\nfight the sun, and ordered his brothers to pull hard on the noose and\nnot to be frightened or moved to set the sun free.\n\n\"At last the sun came rising up out of his place like a fire spreading\nfar and wide over the mountains and forests.\n\nHe rises up.\n\nHis head passes through the noose.\n\nThe ropes are pulled tight.\n\nThen the monster began to struggle and roll himself about, while the\nsnare jerked backwards and forwards as he struggled. Ah! was not he held\nfast in the ropes of his enemies.\n\nThen forth rushed that bold hero Maui with his enchanted weapon. The sun\nscreamed aloud and roared. Maui struck him fiercely with many blows.\nThey held him for a long time. At last they let him go, and then weak\nfrom wounds the sun crept very slowly and feebly along his course.\"\n\nIn this way the days were made longer so that men could perform their\ndaily tasks and fruits and food plants could have time to grow.\n\nThe legend of the Hervey group of islands says that Maui made six snares\nand placed them at intervals along the path over which the sun must\npass. The sun in the form of a man climbed up from Avaiki (Hawaiki).\nMaui pulled the first noose, but it slipped down the rising sun until it\ncaught and was pulled tight around his feet.\n\n[Illustration: Hale-a-ka-la Crater. Where the Sun Was Caught.]\n\nMaui ran quickly to pull the ropes of the second snare, but that also\nslipped down, down, until it was tightened around the knees. Then Maui\nhastened to the third snare, while the sun was trying to rush along\non his journey. The third snare caught around the hips. The fourth snare\nfastened itself around the waist. The fifth slipped under the arms, and\nyet the sun sped along as if but little inconvenienced by Maui's\nefforts.\n\nThen Maui caught the last noose and threw it around the neck of the sun,\nand fastened the rope to a spur of rock. The sun struggled until nearly\nstrangled to death and then gave up, promising Maui that he would go as\nslowly as was desired. Maui left the snares fastened to the sun to keep\nhim in constant fear.\n\n\"These ropes may still be seen hanging from the sun at dawn and\nstretching into the skies when he descends into the ocean at night. By\nthe assistance of these ropes he is gently let down into Ava-iki in the\nevening, and also raised up out of shadow-land in the morning.\"\n\nAnother legend from the Society Islands is related by Mr. Gill:\n\nMaui tried many snares before he could catch the sun. The sun was the\nHercules, or the Samson, of the heavens. He broke the strong cords of\ncocoanut fibre which Maui made and placed around the opening by which\nthe sun climbed out from the under-world. Maui made stronger ropes, but\nstill the sun broke them every one.\n\nThen Maui thought of his sister's hair, the sister Inaika, whom he\ncruelly treated in later years. Her hair was long and beautiful. He cut\noff some of it and made a strong rope. With this he lassoed or rather\nsnared the sun, and caught him around the throat. The sun quickly\npromised to be more thoughtful of the needs of men and go at a more\nreasonable pace across the sky.\n\nA story from the American Indians is told in Hawaii's Young People,\nwhich is very similar to the Polynesian legends.\n\nAn Indian boy became very angry with the sun for getting so warm and\nmaking his clothes shrink with the heat. He told his sister to make a\nsnare. The girl took sinews from a large deer, but they shriveled under\nthe heat. She took her own long hair and made snares, but they were\nburned in a moment. Then she tried the fibres of various plants and was\nsuccessful. Her brother took the fibre cord and drew it through his\nlips. It stretched and became a strong red cord. He pulled and it became\nvery long. He went to the place of sunrise, fixed his snare, and caught\nthe sun. When the sun had been sufficiently punished, the animals of the\nearth studied the problem of setting the sun free. At last a mouse as\nlarge as a mountain ran and gnawed the red cord. It broke and the sun\nmoved on, but the poor mouse had been burned and shriveled into the\nsmall mouse of the present day.\n\nA Samoan legend says that a woman living for a time with the sun bore a\nchild who had the name \"Child of the Sun.\" She wanted gifts for the\nchild's marriage, so she took a long vine, climbed a tree, made the vine\ninto a noose, lassoed the sun, and made him give her a basket of\nblessings.\n\nIn Fiji, the natives tie the grasses growing on a hilltop over which\nthey are passing, when traveling from place to place. They do this to\nmake a snare to catch the sun if he should try to go down before they\nreach the end of their day's journey.\n\nThis legend is a misty memory of some time when the Polynesian people\nwere in contact with the short days of the extreme north or south. It is\na very remarkable exposition of a fact of nature perpetuated many\ncenturies in lands absolutely free from such natural phenomena.\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nMAUI FINDING FIRE.\n\n  \"Grant, oh grant me thy hidden fire,\n    O Banyan Tree.\n  Perform an incantation,\n  Utter a prayer\n    To the Banyan Tree.\n  Kindle a fire in the dust\n    Of the Banyan Tree.\"\n\n  --Translation of ancient Polynesian chant.\n\n\nAmong students of mythology certain characters in the legends of the\nvarious nations are known as \"culture heroes.\" Mankind has from time to\ntime learned exceedingly useful lessons and has also usually ascribed\nthe new knowledge to some noted person in the national mythology. These\nmythical benefactors who have brought these practical benefits to men\nare placed among the \"hero-gods.\" They have been teachers or \"culture\nheroes\" to mankind.\n\nProbably the fire finders of the different nations are among the best\nremembered of all these benefactors. This would naturally be the case,\nfor no greater good has touched man's physical life than the discovery\nof methods of making fire.\n\nPrometheus, the classical fire finder, is most widely known in\nliterature. But of all the helpful gods of mythology, Maui, the\nmischievous Polynesian, is beyond question the hero of the largest\nnumbers of nations scattered over the widest extent of territory.\nPrometheus belonged to Rome, but Maui belonged to the length and breadth\nof the Pacific Ocean. Theft or trickery, the use of deceit of some kind,\nis almost inseparably connected with fire finding all over the world.\nPrometheus stole fire from Jupiter and gave it to men together with the\ngenius to make use of it in the arts and sciences. He found the rolling\nchariot of the sun, secretly filled his hollow staff with fire, carried\nit to earth, put a part in the breast of man to create enthusiasm or\nanimation, and saved the remainder for the comfort of mankind to be used\nwith the artist skill of Minerva and Vulcan. In Brittany the golden or\nfire-crested wren steals fire and is red-marked while so doing. The\nanimals of the North American Indians are represented as stealing fire\nsometimes from the cuttle fish and sometimes from one another. Some\nswiftly-flying bird or fleet-footed coyote would carry the stolen fire\nto the home of the tribe.\n\nThe possession of fire meant to the ancients all that wealth means to\nthe family of today. It meant the possession of comfort. The gods were\nnaturally determined to keep this wealth in their own hands. For any one\nto make a sharp deal and cheat a god of fire out of a part of this\nvaluable property or to make a courageous raid upon the fire guardian\nand steal the treasure, was easily sufficient to make that one a\n\"culture hero.\" As a matter of fact a prehistoric family without fire\nwould go to any length in order to get it. The fire finders would\nnaturally be the hero-gods and stealing fire would be an exploit rather\nthan a crime.\n\nIt is worth noting that in many myths not only was fire stolen, but\nbirds marked by red or black spots among their feathers were associated\nwith the theft.\n\nIt would naturally be supposed that the Hawaiians living in a volcanic\ncountry with ever-flowing fountains of lava, would connect their fire\nmyths with some volcano when relating the story of the origin of fire.\nBut like the rest of the Polynesians, they found fire in trees rather\nthan in rivers of melted rock. They must have brought their fire legends\nand fire customs with them when they came to the islands of active\nvolcanoes.\n\nFlint rocks as fire producers are not found in the Hawaiian myths, nor\nin the stories from the island groups related to the Hawaiians. Indians\nmight see the fleeing buffalo strike fire from the stones under his hard\nhoofs. The Tartars might have a god to teach them \"the secret of the\nstone's edge and the iron's hardness.\" The Peruvians could very easily\nform a legend of their mythical father Guamansuri finding a way to make\nfire after he had seen the sling stones, thrown at his enemies, bring\nforth sparks of fire from the rocks against which they struck. The\nthunder and the lightning of later years were the sparks and the crash\nof stones hurled among the cloud mountains by the mighty gods.\n\nIn Australia the story is told of an old man and his daughter who lived\nin great darkness. After a time the father found the doorway of light\nthrough which the sun passed on his journey. He opened the door and a\nflood of sunshine covered the earth. His daughter looked around her home\nand saw numbers of serpents. She seized a staff and began to kill them.\nShe wielded it so vigorously that it became hot in her hands. At last it\nbroke, but the pieces rubbed against each other and flashed into sparks\nand flames. Thus it was learned that fire was buried in wood.\n\nFlints were known in Europe and Asia and America, but the Polynesian\nlooked to the banyan and kindred trees for the hidden sparks of fire.\nThe natives of De Peyster's Island say that their ancestors learned how\nto make fire by seeing smoke rise from crossed branches rubbing together\nwhile trees were shaken by fierce winds.\n\nIn studying the Maui myths of the Pacific it is necessary to remember\nthat Polynesians use \"t\" and \"k\" without distinguishing them apart, and\nalso as in the Hawaiian Islands an apostrophe (') is often used in place\nof \"t\" or \"k\". Therefore the Maui Ki-i-k-i'i of Hawaii becomes the\ndemi-god Tiki-tiki of the Gilbert Islands--or the Ti'i-ti'i of Samoa or\nthe Tiki of New Zealand--or other islands of the great ocean. We must\nalso remember that in the Hawaiian legends Kalana is Maui's father. This\nin other groups becomes Talanga or Kalanga or Karanga. Kanaloa, the\ngreat god of most of the different Polynesians, is also sometimes called\nthe Father of Maui. It is not strange that some of the exploits usually\nascribed to Maui should be in some places transferred to his father\nunder one name or the other. On one or two groups Mafuia, an ancestress\nof Maui, is mentioned as finding the fire. The usual legend makes Maui\nthe one who takes fire away from Mafuia. The story of fire finding in\nPolynesia sifts itself to Maui under one of his widely-accepted names,\nor to his father or to his ancestress--with but very few exceptions.\nThis fact is important as showing in a very marked manner the race\nrelationship of a vast number of the islanders of the Pacific world.\nFrom the Marshall Islands, in the west, to the Society Islands of the\neast; from the Hawaiian Islands in the north to the New Zealand group in\nthe south, the footsteps of Maui the fire finder can be traced.\n\nThe Hawaiian story of fire finding is one of the least marvelous of all\nthe legends. Hina, Maui's mother, wanted fish. One morning early Maui\nsaw that the great storm waves of the sea had died down and the fishing\ngrounds could be easily reached. He awakened his brothers and with them\nhastened to the beach. This was at Kaupo on the island of Maui. Out into\nthe gray shadows of the dawn they paddled. When they were far from shore\nthey began to fish. But Maui, looking landward, saw a fire on the\nmountain side.\n\n\"Behold,\" he cried. \"There is a fire burning. Whose can this fire be?\"\n\n\"Whose, indeed?\" his brothers replied.\n\n\"Let us hasten to the shore and cook our food,\" said one.\n\nThey decided that they had better catch some fish to cook before they\nreturned. Thus, in the morning, before the hot sun drove the fish deep\ndown to the dark recesses of the sea, they fished until a bountiful\nsupply lay in the bottom of the canoe.\n\nWhen they came to land, Maui leaped out and ran up the mountain side to\nget the fire. For a long, long time they had been without fire. The\ngreat volcano Haleakala above them had become extinct--and they had\nlost the coals they had tried to keep alive. They had eaten fruits and\nuncooked roots and the shell fish broken from the reef--and sometimes\nthe great raw fish from the far-out ocean. But now they hoped to gain\nliving fire and cooked food.\n\nBut when Maui rushed up toward the cloudy pillar of smoke he saw a\nfamily of birds scratching the fire out. Their work was finished and\nthey flew away just as he reached the place.\n\nMaui and his brothers watched for fire day after day--but the birds, the\ncurly-tailed Alae (or the mud-hens) made no fire. Finally the brothers\nwent fishing once more--but when they looked toward the mountain, again\nthey saw flames and smoke. Thus it happened to them again and again.\n\nMaui proposed to his brothers that they go fishing leaving him to watch\nthe birds. But the Alae counted the fishermen and refused to build a\nfire for the hidden one who was watching them. They said among\nthemselves, \"Three are in the boat and we know not where the other one\nis, we will make no fire today.\"\n\nSo the experiment failed again and again. If one or two remained or if\nall waited on the land there would be no fire--but the dawn which saw\nthe four brothers in the boat, saw also the fire on the land.\n\nFinally Maui rolled some kapa cloth together and stuck it up in one end\nof the canoe so that it would look like a man. He then concealed\nhimself near the haunt of the mud-hens, while his brothers went out\nfishing. The birds counted the figures in the boat and then started to\nbuild a heap of wood for the fire.\n\nMaui was impatient--and just as the old Alae began to select sticks with\nwhich to make the flames he leaped swiftly out and caught her and held\nher prisoner. He forgot for a moment that he wanted the secret of fire\nmaking. In his anger against the wise bird his first impulse was to\ntaunt her and then kill her for hiding the secret of fire.\n\nBut the Alae cried out: \"If you are the death of me--my secret will\nperish also--and you cannot have fire.\"\n\nMaui then promised to spare her life if she would tell him what to do.\n\nThen came the contest of wits. The bird told the demi-god to rub the\nstalks of water plants together. He guarded the bird and tried the\nplants. Water instead of fire ran out of the twisted stems. Then she\ntold him to rub reeds together--but they bent and broke and could make\nno fire. He twisted her neck until she was half dead--then she cried\nout: \"I have hidden the fire in a green stick.\"\n\nMaui worked hard, but not a spark of fire appeared. Again he caught his\nprisoner by the head and wrung her neck, and she named a kind of dry\nwood. Maui rubbed the sticks together, but they only became warm. The\nneck twisting process was resumed--and repeated again and again, until\nthe mud-hen was almost dead--and Maui had tried tree after tree. At last\nMaui found fire. Then as the flames rose he said: \"There is one more\nthing to rub.\" He took a fire stick and rubbed the top of the head of\nhis prisoner until the feathers fell off and the raw flesh appeared.\nThus the Hawaiian mud-hen and her descendants have ever since had bald\nheads, and the Hawaiians have had the secret of fire making.\n\nAnother Hawaiian legend places the scene of Maui's contest with the\nmud-hens a little inland of the town of Hilo on the Island of Hawaii.\nThere are three small extinct craters very near each other known as The\nHalae Hills. One, the southern or Puna side of the hills, is a place\ncalled Pohaku-nui. Here dwelt two brother birds of the Alae family. They\nwere gods. One had the power of fire making. Here at Pohaku-nui they\nwere accustomed to kindle a fire and bake their dearly loved food--baked\nbananas. Here Maui planned to learn the secret of fire. The birds had\nkindled the fire and the bananas were almost done, when the elder Alae\ncalled to the younger: \"Be quick, here comes the swift son of Hina.\"\n\nThe birds scratched out the fire, caught the bananas and fled. Maui told\nhis mother he would follow them until he learned the secret of fire. His\nmother encouraged him because he was very strong and very swift. So he\nfollowed the birds from place to place as they fled from him, finding\nnew spots on which to make their fires. At last they came to Waianae on\nthe island Oahu. There he saw a great fire and a multitude of birds\ngathered around it, chattering loudly and trying to hasten the baking of\nthe bananas. Their incantation was this: \"Let us cook quick.\" \"Let us\ncook quick.\" \"The swift child of Hina will come.\"\n\nMaui's mother Hina had taught him how to know the fire-maker. \"If you go\nup to the fire, you will find many birds. Only one is the guardian. This\nis the small, young Alae. His name is Alae-iki: Only this one knows how\nto make fire.\" So whenever Maui came near to the fire-makers he always\nsought for the little Alae. Sometimes he made mistakes and sometimes\nalmost captured the one he desired. At Waianae he leaped suddenly among\nthe birds. They scattered the fire, and the younger bird tried to snatch\nhis banana from the coals and flee, but Maui seized him and began to\ntwist his neck. The bird cried out, warning Maui not to kill him or he\nwould lose the secret of fire altogether. Maui was told that the fire\nwas made from a banana stump. He saw the bananas roasting and thought\nthis was reasonable. So, according to directions, he began to rub\ntogether pieces of the banana. The bird hoped for an unguarded moment\nwhen he might escape, but Maui was very watchful and was also very\nangry when he found that rubbing only resulted in squeezing out juice.\nThen he twisted the neck of the bird and was told to rub the stem of the\ntaro plant. This also was so green that it only produced water. Then he\nwas so angry that he nearly rubbed the head of the bird off--and the\nbird, fearing for its life, told the truth and taught Maui how to find\nthe wood in which fire dwelt.\n\nThey learned to draw out the sparks secreted in different kinds of\ntrees. The sweet sandalwood was one of these fire trees. Its Hawaiian\nname is \"Ili-ahi\"--the \"ili\" (bark) and \"ahi\" (fire), the bark in which\nfire is concealed.\n\nA legend of the Society Islands is somewhat similar. Ina (Hina) promised\nto aid Maui in finding fire for the islanders. She sent him into the\nunder-world to find Tangaroa (Kanaloa). This god Tangaroa held fire in\nhis possession--Maui was to know him by his tattooed face. Down the dark\npath through the long caves Maui trod swiftly until he found the god.\nMaui asked him for fire to take up to men. The god gave him a lighted\nstick and sent him away. But Maui put the fire out and went back again\nafter fire. This he did several times, until the wearied giver decided\nto teach the intruder the art of fire making. He called a white duck to\naid him. Then, taking two sticks of dry wood, he gave the under one to\nthe bird and rapidly moved the upper stick across the under until fire\ncame. Maui seized the upper stick, after it had been charred in the\nflame, and burned the head of the bird back of each eye. Thus were made\nthe black spots which mark the head of the white duck. Then arose a\nquarrel between Tangaroa and Maui--but Maui struck down the god, and,\nthinking he had killed him, carried away the art of making fire. His\nfather and mother made inquiries about their relative--Maui hastened\nback to the fire fountain and made the spirit return to the body--then,\ncoming back to Ina, he bade her good bye and carried the fire sticks to\nthe upper-world. The Hawaiians, and probably others among the\nPolynesians, felt that any state of unconsciousness was a form of death\nin which the spirit left the body, but was called back by prayers and\nincantations. Therefore, when Maui restored the god to consciousness, he\nwas supposed to have made the spirit released by death return into the\nbody and bring it back to life.\n\nIn the Samoan legends as related by G. Turner, the name Ti'iti'i is\nused. This is the same as the second name found in Maui Ki'i-ki'i. The\nSamoan legend of Ti'iti'i is almost identical with the New Zealand fire\nmyth of Maui, and is very similar to the story coming from the Hervey\nIslands from Savage Island and also from the Tokelau and other island\ngroups. The Samoan story says that the home of Mafuie the earthquake\ngod was in the land of perpetual fire. Maui's or Ti'iti'i's father\nTalanga (Kalana) was also a resident of the under-world and a great\nfriend of the earthquake god.\n\nTi'iti'i watched his father as he left his home in the upper-world.\nTalanga approached a perpendicular wall of rock, said some prayer or\nincantation--and passed through a door which immediately closed after\nhim. (This is a very near approach to the \"open sesame\" of the Arabian\nNights stories.)\n\nTi'iti'i went to the rock, but could not find the way through. He\ndetermined to conceal himself the next time so near that he could hear\nhis father's words.\n\nAfter some days he was able to catch all the words uttered by his father\nas he knocked on the stone door--\n\n  \"O rock! divide.\n  I am Talanga,\n  I come to work\n  On my land\n  Given by Mafuie.\"\n\nTi'iti'i went to the perpendicular wall and imitating his father's voice\ncalled for a rock to open. Down through a cave he passed until he found\nhis father working in the under-world.\n\nThe astonished father, learning how his son came, bade him keep very\nquiet and work lest he arouse the anger of Mafuie. So for a time the\nboy labored obediently by his father's side.\n\nIn a little while the boy saw smoke and asked what it was. The father\ntold him that it was the smoke from the fire of Mafuie, and explained\nwhat fire would do.\n\nThe boy determined to get some fire--he went to the place from which the\nsmoke arose and there found the god, and asked him for fire. Mafuie gave\nhim fire to carry to his father. The boy quickly had an oven prepared\nand the fire placed in it to cook some of the taro they had been\ncultivating. Just as everything was ready an earthquake god came up and\nblew the fire out and scattered the stones of the oven.\n\nThen Ti'iti'i was angry and began to talk to Mafuie. The god attacked\nthe boy, intending to punish him severely for daring to rebel against\nthe destruction of the fire.\n\nWhat a battle there was for a time in the under-world! At last Ti'iti'i\nseized one of the arms of Mafuie and broke it off. He caught the other\narm and began to twist and bend it.\n\nMafuie begged the boy to spare him. His right arm was gone. How could he\ngovern the earthquakes if his left arm were torn off also? It was his\nduty to hold Samoa level and not permit too many earthquakes. It would\nbe hard to do that even with one arm--but it would be impossible if\nboth arms were gone.\n\nTi'iti'i listened to the plea and demanded a reward if he should spare\nthe left arm. Mafuie offered Ti'iti'i one hundred wives. The boy did not\nwant them.\n\nThen the god offered to teach him the secret of fire finding to take to\nthe upper-world.\n\nThe boy agreed to accept the fire secret, and thus learned that the gods\nin making the earth had concealed fire in various trees for men to\ndiscover in their own good time, and that this fire could be brought out\nby rubbing pieces of wood together.\n\nThe people of Samoa have not had much faith in Mafuie's plea that he\nneeded his left arm in order to keep Samoa level. They say that Mafuie\nhas a long stick or handle to the world under the islands--and when he\nis angry or wishes to frighten them he moves this handle and easily\nshakes the islands. When an earthquake comes, they give thanks to\nTi'iti'i for breaking off one arm--because if the god had two arms they\nbelieve he would shake them unmercifully.\n\nOne legend of the Hervey Islands says that Maui and his brothers had\nbeen living on uncooked food--but learned that their mother sometimes\nhad delicious food which had been cooked. They learned also that fire\nwas needed in order to cook their food. Then Maui wanted fire and\nwatched his mother.\n\nMaui's mother was the guardian of the way to the invisible world. When\nshe desired to pass from her home to the other world, she would open a\nblack rock and pass inside. Thus she went to Hawaiki, the under-world.\nMaui planned to follow her, but first studied the forms of birds that he\nmight assume the body of the strongest and most enduring. After a time\nhe took the shape of a pigeon and, flying to the black rock, passed\nthrough the door and flew down the long dark passage-way.\n\nAfter a time he found the god of fire living in a bunch of banyan\nsticks. He changed himself into the form of a man and demanded the\nsecret of fire.\n\nThe fire god agreed to give Maui fire if he would permit himself to be\ntossed into the sky by the god's strong arms.\n\nMaui agreed on condition that he should have the right to toss the fire\ngod afterwards.\n\nThe fire-god felt certain that there would be only one exercise of\nstrength--he felt that he had everything in his own hands--so readily\nagreed to the tossing contest. It was his intention to throw his\nopponent so high that when he fell, if he ever did fall, there would be\nno antagonist uncrushed.\n\nHe seized Maui in his strong arms and, swinging him back and forth,\nflung him upward--but the moment Maui left his hands he changed himself\ninto a feather and floated softly to the ground.\n\nThen the boy ran swiftly to the god and seized him by the legs and\nlifted him up. Then he began to increase in size and strength until he\nhad lifted the fire god very high. Suddenly he tossed the god upward and\ncaught him as he fell--again and again--until the bruised and dizzy god\ncried enough, and agreed to give the victor whatever he demanded.\n\nMaui asked for the secret of fire producing. The god taught him how to\nrub the dry sticks of certain kinds of trees together, and, by friction,\nproduce fire, and especially how fire could be produced by rubbing fire\nsticks in the fine dust of the banyan tree.\n\nA Society Island legend says Maui borrowed a sacred red pigeon,\nbelonging to one of the gods, and, changing himself into a dragon fly,\nrode this pigeon through a black rock into Avaiki (Hawaiki), the\nfire-land of the under-world. He found the god of fire, Mau-ika, living\nin a house built from a banyan tree. Mau-ika taught Maui the kinds of\nwood into which when fire went out on the earth a fire goddess had\nthrown sparks in order to preserve fire. Among these were the \"au\"\n(Hawaiian hau), or \"the lemon hibiscus\"--the \"argenta,\" the \"fig\" and\nthe \"banyan.\" She taught him also how to make fire by swift motion when\nrubbing the sticks of these trees. She also gave him coals for his\npresent need.\n\nBut Maui was viciously mischievous and set the banyan house on fire,\nthen mounted his pigeon and fled toward the upper-world. But the flames\nhastened after him and burst out through the rock doors into the sunlit\nland above--as if it were a volcanic eruption.\n\nThe Tokelau Islanders say that Talanga (Kalana) known in other groups of\nislands as the father of Maui, desired fire in order to secure warmth\nand cooked food. He went down, down, very far down in the caves of the\nearth. In the lower world he found Mafuika--an old blind woman, who was\nthe guardian of fire. He told her he wanted fire to take back to men.\nShe refused either to give fire or to teach how to make it. Talanga\nthreatened to kill her, and finally persuaded her to teach how to make\nfire in any place he might dwell--and the proper trees to use, the\nfire-yielding trees. She also taught him how to cook food--and also the\nkind of fish he should cook, and the kinds which should be eaten raw.\nThus mankind learned about food as well as fire.\n\nThe Savage Island legend adds the element of danger to Maui's\nmischievous theft of fire. The lad followed his father one day and saw\nhim pull up a bunch of reeds and go down into the fire-land beneath.\nMaui hastened down to see what his father was doing. Soon he saw his\nopportunity to steal the secret of fire. Then he caught some fire and\nstarted for the upper-world.\n\nHis father caught a glimpse of the young thief and tried to stop him.\n\nMaui ran up the passage through the black cave--bushes and trees\nbordered his road.\n\nThe father hastened after his son and was almost ready to lay hands upon\nhim, when Maui set fire to the bushes. The flames spread rapidly,\ncatching the underbrush and the trees on all sides and burst out in the\nface of the pursuer. Destruction threatened the under-world, but Maui\nsped along his way. Then he saw that the fire was chasing him. Bush\nafter bush leaped into flame and hurled sparks and smoke and burning air\nafter him. Choked and smoke-surrounded, he broke through the door of the\ncavern and found the fresh air of the world. But the flames followed him\nand swept out in great power upon the upper-world a mighty volcanic\neruption.\n\nThe New Zealand legends picture Maui as putting out, in one night, all\nthe fires of his people. This was serious mischief, and Maui's mother\ndecided that he should go to the under-world and see his ancestress,\nMahuika, the guardian of fire, and get new fire to repair the injury he\nhad wrought. She warned him against attempting to play tricks upon the\ninhabitants of the lower regions.\n\n[Illustration: Hawaiian Vines and Bushes.]\n\nMaui gladly hastened down the cave-path to the house of Mahuika, and\nasked for fire for the upper-world. In some way he pleased her so that\nshe pulled off a finger nail in which fire was burning and gave it to\nhim. As soon as he had gone back to a place where there was water, he\nput the fire out and returned to Mahuika, asking another gift, which he\ndestroyed. This he did for both hands and feet until only one nail\nremained. Maui wanted this. Then Mahuika became angry and threw the last\nfinger nail on the ground. Fire poured out and laid hold of everything.\nMaui ran up the path to the upper-world, but the fire was\nswifter-footed. Then Maui changed himself into an eagle and flew high up\ninto the air, but the fire and smoke still followed him. Then he saw\nwater and dashed into it, but it was too hot. Around him the forests\nwere blazing, the earth burning and the sea boiling. Maui, about to\nperish, called on the gods for rain. Then floods of water fell and the\nfire was checked. The great rain fell on Mahuika and she fled, almost\ndrowned. Her stores of fire were destroyed, quenched by the storm. But\nin order to save fire for the use of men, as she fled she threw sparks\ninto different kinds of trees where the rain could not reach them, so\nthat when fire was needed it might be brought into the world again by\nrubbing together the fire sticks.\n\nThe Chatham Islanders give the following incantation, which they said\nwas used by Maui against the fierce flood of fire which was pursuing\nhim:\n\n  \"To the roaring thunder;\n  To the great rain--the long rain;\n  To the drizzling rain--the small rain;\n  To the rain pattering on the leaves.\n  These are the storms--the storms\n  Cause them to fall;\n  To pour in torrents.\"\n\nThe legend of Savage Island places Maui in the role of fire-maker. He\nhas stolen fire in the under-world. His father tries to catch him, but\nMaui sets fire to the bushes by the path until a great conflagration is\nraging which pursues him to the upper-world.\n\nSome legends make Maui the fire-teacher as well as the fire-finder. He\nteaches men how to use hardwood sticks in the fine dry dust on the bark\nof certain trees, or how to use the fine fibre of the palm tree to catch\nsparks.\n\nIn Tahiti the fire god lived in the \"Hale-a-o-a,\" or House of the\nBanyan. Sometimes human sacrifices were placed upon the sacred branches\nof this tree of the fire god.\n\nIn the Bowditch or Fakaofa Islands the goddess of fire when conquered\ntaught not only the method of making fire by friction but also what fish\nwere to be cooked and what were to be eaten raw.\n\nThus some of the myths of Maui, the mischievous, finding fire are told\nby the side of the inrolling surf, while natives of many islands,\naround their poi bowls, rest in the shade of the far-reaching boughs and\nthick foliage of the banyan and other fire-producing trees.\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nMAUI THE SKILLFUL.\n\n\nAccording to the New Zealand legends there were six Mauis--the Hawaiians\ncounted four. They were a band of brothers. The older five were known as\n\"the forgetful Mauis.\" The tricky and quick-witted youngest member of\nthe family was called Maui te atamai--\"Maui the skillful.\"\n\nHe was curiously accounted for in the New Zealand under-world. When he\nwent down through the long cave to his ancestor's home to find fire, he\nwas soon talked about. \"Perhaps this is the man about whom so much is\nsaid in the upper-world.\" His ancestress from whom he obtained fire\nrecognized him as the man called \"the deceitful Maui.\" Even his parents\ntold him once, \"We know you are a tricky fellow--more so than any other\nman.\" One of the New Zealand fire legends while recording his flight to\nthe under-world and his appearance as a bird, says: \"The men tried to\nspear him, and to catch him in nets. At last they cried out, 'Maybe you\nare the man whose fame is great in the upper-world.' At once he leaped\nto the ground and appeared in the form of a man.\"\n\nHe was not famous for inventions, but he was always ready to improve\nupon anything which was already in existence. He could take the sun in\nhand and make it do better work. He could tie the moon so that it had to\nswim back around the island to the place in the ocean from which it\nmight rise again, and go slowly through the night.\n\nHis brothers invented a slender, straight and smooth spear with which to\nkill birds. He saw the fluttering, struggling birds twist themselves off\nthe smooth point and escape. He made a good light bird spear and put\nnotches in it and kept most of the birds stuck. His brothers finally\nexamined his spear and learned the reason for its superiority. In the\nsame way they learned how to spear fish. They could strike and wound and\nsometimes kill--but they could not with their smooth spears draw the\nfish from the waters of the coral caves. But Maui the youngest made\nbarbs, so that the fish could not easily shake themselves loose. The\nothers soon made their spears like his.\n\nThe brothers were said to have invented baskets in which to trap eels,\nbut many eels escaped. Maui improved the basket by secretly making an\ninside partition as well as a cover, and the eels were securely trapped.\nIt took the brothers a long time to learn the real difference between\ntheir baskets and his. One of the family made a basket like his and\ncaught many eels. Then Maui became angry and chanted a curse over him\nand bewildered him, then changed him into a dog.\n\nThe Manahiki Islanders have the legend that Maui made the moon, but\ncould not get good light from it. He tried experiments and found that\nthe sun was quite an improvement. The sun's example stimulated the moon\nto shine brighter.\n\nOnce Maui became interested in tattooing and tried to make a dog look\nbetter by placing dark lines around the mouth. The legends say that one\nof the sacred birds saw the pattern and then marked the sky with the red\nlines sometimes seen at sunrise and sunset. An Hawaiian legend says that\nMaui tattooed his arm with a sacred name and thus that arm was strong\nenough to hold the sun when he lassoed it. There is a New Zealand legend\nin which Maui is made one of three gods who first created man and then\nwoman from one of the man's ribs.\n\nThe Hawaiians dwelling in Hilo have many stories of Maui. They say that\nhis home was on the northern bank of the Wailuku River. He had a strong\nstaff made from an ohia tree (the native apple tree). With this he\npunched holes through the lava, making natural bridges and boiling\npools, and new channels for its sometimes obstructed waters, so that the\npeople could go up or down the river more easily. Near one of the\nnatural bridges is a figure of the moon carved in the rocks, referred by\nsome of the natives to Maui.\n\nMaui is said to have taught his brothers the different kinds of fish\nnets and the use of the strong fibre of the olona, which was much better\nthan cocoanut threads.\n\nThe New Zealand stories relate the spear-throwing contests of Maui and\nhis brothers. As children, however, they were not allowed the use of\nwooden spears. They took the stems of long, heavy reeds and threw them\nat each other, but Maui's reeds were charmed into stronger and harder\nfibre so that he broke his mother's house and made her recognize him as\none of her children. He had been taken away as soon as he was born by\nthe gods to whom he was related. When he found his way back home his\nmother paid no attention to him. Thus by a spear thrust he won a home.\n\nThe brothers all made fish hooks, but Maui the youngest made two kinds\nof hooks--one like his brothers' and one with a sharp barb. His\nbrothers' hooks were smooth so that it was difficult to keep the fish\nfrom floundering and shaking themselves off, but they noticed that the\nfish were held by Maui's hook better than by theirs. Maui was not\ninclined to devote himself to hard work, and lived on his brothers as\nmuch as possible--but when driven out by his wife or his mother he\nwould catch more fish than the other fishermen. They tried to examine\nhis hooks, but he always changed his hooks so that they could not see\nany difference between his and theirs. At such times they called him the\nmischievous one and tried to leave him behind while they went fishing.\nThey were, however, always ready to give him credit for his\nimprovements. They dealt generously with him when they learned what he\nhad really accomplished. When they caught him with his barbed hook they\nforgot the past and called him \"ke atamai\"--the skillful.\n\nThe idea that fish hooks made from the jawbones of human beings were\nbetter than others, seemed to have arisen at first from the angle formed\nin the lower jawbone. Later these human fish hooks were considered\nsacred and therefore possessed of magic powers. The greater sanctity and\npower belonged to the bones which bore more especial relation to the\nowner. Therefore Maui's \"magic hook,\" with which he fished up islands,\nwas made from the jawbone of his ancestress Mahuika. It is also said\nthat in order to have powerful hooks for every-day fishing he killed two\nof his children. Their right eyes he threw up into the sky to become\nstars. One became the morning and the other the evening star.\n\nThe idea that the death of any members of the family must not stand in\nthe way of obtaining magical power, has prevailed throughout Polynesia.\n\nFrom this angle in the jawbone Maui must have conceived the idea of\nmaking a hook with a piece of bone or shell which should be fastened to\nthe large bone at a very sharp angle, thus making a kind of barb. Hooks\nlike this have been made for ages among the Polynesians.\n\nMaui and his brothers went fishing for eels with bait strung on the\nflexible rib of a cocoanut leaf. The stupid brothers did not fasten the\nends of the string. Therefore the eels easily slipped the bait off and\nescaped. But Maui made the ends of his string fast, and captured many\neels.\n\nThe little things which others did not think about were the foundation\nof Maui's fame. Upon these little things he built his courage to snare\nthe sun and seek fire for mankind.\n\nIn a New Zealand legend, quoted by Edward Tregear, Maui is called\nMaui-maka-walu, or \"Maui with eyes eight.\" This eight-eyed Maui would be\nallied to the Hindoo deities who with their eight eyes face the four\nquarters of the world--thus possessing both insight into the affairs of\nmen and foresight into the future.\n\nFornander, the Hawaiian ethnologist, says: \"In Hawaiian mythology,\nKamapuaa, the demigod opponent of the goddess Pele, is described as\nhaving eight eyes and eight feet; and in the legends Maka-walu,\n'eight-eyed,' is a frequent epithet of gods and chiefs.\" He notes this\ncoincidence with the appearance of some of the principal Hindoo deities\nas having some bearing upon the origin of the Polynesians. It may be\nthat a comparative study of the legends of other islands of the Pacific\nby some student will open up other new and important facts.\n\nIn Tahiti, on the island Raiatea, a high priest or prophet lived in the\nlong, long ago. He was known as Maui the prophet of Tahiti. He was\nprobably not Maui the demigod. Nevertheless he was represented as\npossessing very strange prophetical powers.\n\nAccording to the historian Ellis, who previous to 1830 spent eight years\nin the Society and Hawaiian Islands, this prophet Maui clearly\nprophesied the coming of an outriggerless canoe from some foreign land.\nAn outrigger is a log which so balances a canoe that it can ride safely\nthrough the treacherous surf.\n\nThe chiefs and prophets charged him with stating the impossible.\n\nHe took his wooden calabash and placed it in a pool of water as an\nillustration of the way such a boat should float.\n\nThen with the floating bowl before him he uttered the second prophecy,\nthat boats without line to tie the sails to the masts, or the masts to\nthe ships, should also come to Tahiti.\n\n[Illustration: Hawaiian Bathing Pool.]\n\nWhen English ships under Captain Wallis and Captain Cook, in the latter\npart of the eighteenth century, visited these islands, the natives cried\nout, \"O the canoes of Maui--the outriggerless canoes.\"\n\nPassenger steamships, and the men-of-war from the great nations, have\ntaught the Tahitians that boats without sails and masts can cross the\ngreat ocean, and again they have recurred to the words of the prophet\nMaui, and have exclaimed, \"O the boats without sails and masts.\" This\nrather remarkable prophecy could easily have occurred to Maui as he saw\na wooden calabash floating over rough waters.\n\nMaui's improvement upon nature's plan in regard to certain birds is also\ngiven in the legends as a proof of his supernatural powers.\n\nWhite relates the story as follows: \"Maui requested some birds to go and\nfetch water for him. The first one would not obey, so he threw it into\nthe water. He requested another bird to go--and it refused, so he threw\nit into the fire, and its feathers were burnt. But the next bird obeyed,\nbut could not carry the water, and he rewarded it by making the feathers\nof the fore part of its head white. Then he asked another bird to go,\nand it filled its ears with water and brought it to Maui, who drank, and\nthen pulled the bird's legs and made them long in payment for its act of\nkindness.\"\n\nDiffenbach says: \"Maui, the Adam of New Zealand, left the cat's cradle\nto the New Zealanders as an inheritance.\" The name \"Whai\" was given to\nthe game. It exhibited the various steps of creation according to Maori\nmythology. Every change in the cradle shows some act in creation. Its\nvarious stages were called \"houses.\" Diffenbach says again: \"In this\ngame of Maui they are great proficients. It is a game like that called\ncat's cradle in Europe. It is intimately connected with their ancient\ntraditions and in the different figures which the cord is made to assume\nwhilst held on both hands, the outline of their different varieties of\nhouses, canoes or figures of men and women are imagined to be\nrepresented.\" One writer connects this game with witchcraft, and says it\nwas brought from the under-world. Some parts of the puzzle show the\nadventures of Maui, especially his attempt to win immortality for men.\n\nIn New Zealand it was said Maui found a large, fine-grained stone block,\nbroke it in pieces, and from the fragments learned how to fashion stone\nimplements.\n\nWhite also tells the New Zealand legend of Maui and the winds.\n\n\"Maui caught and held all the winds save the west wind. He put each wind\ninto a cave, so that it might not blow. He sought in vain for the west\nwind, but could not find from whence it came. If he had found the cave\nin which it stayed he would have closed the entrance to that cave with\nrocks. When the west wind blows lightly it is because Maui has got near\nto it, and has nearly caught it, and it has gone into its home, the\ncave, to escape him. When the winds of the south, east, and north blow\nfuriously it is because the rocks have been removed by the stupid people\nwho could not learn the lessons taught by Maui. At other times Maui\nallows these winds to blow in hurricanes to punish that people, and also\nthat he may ride on these furious winds in search of the west wind.\"\n\nIn the Hawaiian legends Maui is represented as greatly interested in\nmaking and flying kites. His favorite place for the sport was by the\nboiling pools of the Wailuku river near Hilo. He had the winds under his\ncontrol and would call for them to push his kites in the direction he\nwished. His incantation calling up the winds is given in this Maui\nproverb--\n\n  \"Strong wind come,\n  Soft wind come.\"\n\nWhite in his \"Ancient History of the Maoris,\" relates some of Maui's\nexperiences with the people whom he found on the islands brought up from\nthe under-world. On one island he found a sand house with eight hundred\ngods living in it. Apparently Maui discovered islands with inhabitants,\nand was reported to have fished them up out of the depths of the ocean.\nFishing was sailing over the ocean until distant lands were drawn near\nor \"fished up.\"\n\nMaui walked over the islands and found men living on them and fires\nburning near their homes. He evidently did not know much about fire, for\nhe took it in his hands. He was badly burned and rushed into the sea.\nDown he dived under the cooling waters and came up with one of the New\nZealand islands on his shoulders. But his hands were still burning, so\nwherever he held the island it was set on fire.\n\nThese fires are still burning in the secret recesses of the volcanoes,\nand sometimes burst out in flowing lava. Then Maui paid attention to the\npeople whom he had fished up. He tried to teach them, but they did not\nlearn as he thought they should. He quickly became angry and said, \"It\nis a waste of light for the sun to shine on such stupid people.\" So he\ntried to hold his hands between them and the sun, but the rays of the\nsun were too many and too strong; therefore, he could not shut them out.\nThen he tried the moon and managed to make it dark a part of the time\neach month. In this way he made a little trouble for the stupid people.\n\nThere are other hints in the legends concerning Maui's desire to be\nrevenged upon any one who incurred his displeasure. It was said that\nMaui for a time lived in the heavens above the earth. Here he had a\nfoster brother Maru. The two were cultivating the fields. Maru sent a\nsnowstorm over Maui's field. (It would seem as if this might be a\nPolynesian memory of a cold land where their ancestors knew the cold\nwinter, or a lesson learned from the snow-caps of high mountains.) At\nany rate, the snow blighted Maui's crops. Maui retaliated by praying for\nrain to destroy Maru's fields. But Maru managed to save a part of his\ncrops. Other legends make Maui the aggressor. At the last, however, Maui\nbecame very angry. The foster parents tried to soothe the two men by\nsaying, \"Live in peace with each other and do not destroy each other's\nfood.\" But Maui was implacable and lay in wait for his foster brother,\nwho was in the habit of carrying fruit and grass as an offering to the\ngods of a temple situated on the summit of a hill. Here Maui killed Maru\nand then went away to the earth.\n\nThis legend is told by three or four different tribes of New Zealand and\nis very similar to the Hebrew story of Cain and Abel. At this late day\nit is difficult to say definitely whether or not it owes its origin to\nthe early touch of Christianity upon New Zealand when white men first\nbegan to live with the natives. It is somewhat similar to stories found\nin the Tonga Islands and also in the Hawaiian group, where a son of the\nfirst gods, or rather of the first men, kills a brother. In each case\nthere is the shadow of the Biblical idea. It seems safe to infer that\nsuch legends are not entirely drawn from contact with Christian\ncivilization. The natives claim that these stories are very ancient, and\nthat their fathers knew them before the white men sailed on the\nPacific.\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nMAUI AND TUNA.\n\n\nWhen Maui returned from the voyages in which he discovered or \"fished\nup\" from the ocean depths new islands, he gave deep thought to the\nthings he had found. As the islands appeared to come out of the water he\nsaw they were inhabited. There were houses and stages for drying and\npreserving food. He was greeted by barking dogs. Fires were burning,\nfood cooking and people working. He evidently had gone so far away from\nhome that a strange people was found. The legend which speaks of the\ndeath of his brothers, \"eaten\" by the great fish drawn up from the floor\nof the sea, may very easily mean that the new people killed and ate the\nbrothers.\n\nMaui apparently learned some new lessons, for on his return he quickly\nestablished a home of his own, and determined to live after the fashion\nof the families in the new islands.\n\nMaui sought Hina-a-te-lepo, \"daughter of the swamp,\" and secured her as\nhis wife. The New Zealand tribes tell legends which vary in different\nlocalities about this woman Hina. She sometimes bore the name\nRau-kura--\"The red plume.\"\n\nShe cared for his thatched house as any other Polynesian woman was in\nthe habit of doing. She attempted the hurried task of cooking his food\nbefore he snared the sun and gave her sufficient daylight for her\nlabors.\n\nThey lived near the bank of a river from which Hina was in the habit of\nbringing water for the household needs.\n\nOne day she went down to the stream with her calabash. She was entwined\nwith wreaths of leaves and flowers, as was the custom among Polynesian\nwomen. While she was standing on the bank, Tuna-roa, \"the long eel,\" saw\nher. He swam up to the bank and suddenly struck her and knocked her into\nthe water and covered her with slime from the blow given by his tail.\n\nHina escaped and returned to her home, saying nothing to Maui about the\ntrouble. But the next day, while getting water, she was again overthrown\nand befouled by the slime of Tuna-roa.\n\nThen Hina became angry and reported the trouble to Maui.\n\nMaui decided to punish the long eel and started out to find his hiding\nplace. Some of the New Zealand legends as collected by White, state\nthat Tuna-roa was a very smooth skinned chief, who lived on the opposite\nbank of the stream, and, seeing Hina, had insulted her.\n\nWhen Maui saw this chief, he caught two pieces of wood over which he was\naccustomed to slide his canoe into the sea. These he carried to the\nstream and laid them from bank to bank as a bridge over which he might\nentice Tuna-roa to cross.\n\nMaui took his stone axe, Ma-Tori-Tori, \"the severer,\" and concealed\nhimself near the bank of the river.\n\nWhen \"the long eel\" had crossed the stream, Maui rushed out and killed\nhim with a mighty blow of the stone axe, cutting the head from the body.\n\nOther legends say that Maui found Tuna-roa living as an eel in a deep\nwater hole, in a swamp on the sea-coast of Tata-a, part of the island\nAo-tea-roa. Other stories located Tuna-roa in the river near Maui's\nhome.\n\nMaui saw that he could not get at his enemy without letting off the\nwater which protected him.\n\nTherefore into the forest went Maui, and with sacred ceremonies,\nselected trees from the wood of which he prepared tools and weapons.\n\nMeanwhile, in addition to the insult given to Hina, Tuna-roa had caught\nand devoured two of Maui's children, which made Maui more determined to\nkill him.\n\nMaui made the narrow spade (named by the Maoris of New Zealand the \"ko,\"\nand by the Hawaiians \"o-o\") and the sharp spears, with which to pierce\neither the earth or his enemy. These spears and spades were consecrated\nto the work of preparing a ditch by which to draw off the water\nprotecting \"the long eel.\"\n\nThe work of trench-making was accomplished with many incantations and\nprayers. The ditch was named \"The sacred digging,\" and was tabooed to\nall other purposes except that of catching Tuna-roa.\n\nAcross this ditch Maui stretched a strong net, and then began a new\nseries of chants and ceremonies to bring down an abundance of rain. Soon\nthe flood came and the overflowing waters rushed down the sacred ditch.\nThe walls of the deep pool gave way and \"the long eel\" was carried down\nthe trench into the waiting net. Then there was commotion. Tuna-roa was\nstruggling for freedom.\n\nMaui saw him and hastened to grasp his stone axe, \"the severer.\"\nHurrying to the net, he struck Tuna-roa a terrible blow, and cut off the\nhead. With a few more blows, he cut the body in pieces. The head and\ntail were carried out into the sea. The head became fish and the tail\nbecame the great conger-eel. Other parts of the body became sea\nmonsters. But some parts which fell in fresh water became the common\neels. From the hairs of the head came certain vines and creepers among\nthe plants.\n\nAfter the death of Tuna-roa the offspring of Maui were in no danger of\nbeing killed and soon multiplied into a large family.\n\nAnother New Zealand legend related by White says that Maui built a\nsliding place of logs, over which Tuna-roa must pass when coming from\nthe river.\n\nMaui also made a screen behind which he could secrete himself while\nwatching for Tuna-roa.\n\nHe commanded Hina to come down to the river and wait on the bank to\nattract Tuna-roa. Soon the long eel was seen in the water swimming near\nto Hina. Hina went to a place back of the logs which Maui had laid down.\n\nTuna-roa came towards her, and began to slide down the skids.\n\nMaui sprang out from his hiding place and killed Tuna-roa with his axe,\nand cut him in pieces.\n\nThe tail became the conger-eel. Parts of his body became fresh-water\neels. Some of the blood fell upon birds and always after marked them\nwith red spots. Some of the blood was thrown into certain trees, making\nthis wood always red. The muscles became vines and creepers.\n\nFrom this time the children of Maui caught and ate the eels of both salt\nand fresh water. Eel traps were made, and Maui taught the people the\nproper chants or incantations to use when catching eels.\n\nThis legend of Maui and the long eel was found by White in a number of\nforms among the different tribes of New Zealand, but does not seem to\nhave had currency in many other island groups.\n\nIn Turner's \"Samoa\" a legend is related which was probably derived from\nthe Maui stories and yet differs in its romantic results. The Samoans\nsay that among their ancient ones dwelt a woman named Sina. Sina among\nthe Polynesians is the same as Hina--the \"h\" is softened into \"s\". She\ncaptured a small eel and kept it as a pet. It grew large and strong and\nfinally attacked and bit her. She fled, but the eel followed her\neverywhere. Her father came to her assistance and raised high mountains\nbetween the eel and herself. But the eel passed over the barrier and\npursued her. Her mother raised a new series of mountains. But again the\neel surmounted the difficulties and attempted to seize Sina. She broke\naway from him and ran on and on. Finally she wearily passed through a\nvillage. The people asked her to stay and eat with them, but she said\nthey could only help her by delivering her from the pursuing eel. The\ninhabitants of that village were afraid of the eel and refused to fight\nfor her. So she ran on to another place. Here the chief offered her a\ndrink of water and promised to kill the eel for her. He prepared awa, a\nstupefying drink, and put poison in it. When the eel came along the\nchief asked him to drink. He took the awa and prepared to follow Sina.\nWhen he came to the place where she was the pains of death had already\nseized him. While dying he begged her to bury his head by her home. This\nshe did, and in time a plant new to the islands sprang up. It became a\ntree, and finally produced a cocoanut, whose two eyes could continually\nlook into the face of Sina.\n\nTuna, in the legends of Fiji, was a demon of the sea. He lived in a deep\nsea cave, into which he sometimes shut himself behind closed doors of\ncoral. When he was hungry, he swam through the ocean shadows, always\nwatching the restless surface. When a canoe passed above him, he would\nthrow himself swiftly through the waters, upset the canoe, and seize\nsome of the boatmen and devour them. He was greatly feared by all the\nfishermen of the Fijian coasts.\n\n[Illustration: A Coconut Grove in Kona.]\n\nRoko--a mo-o or dragon god--in his journey among the islands, stopped at\na village by the sea and asked for a canoe and boatmen. The people said:\n\"We have nothing but a very old canoe out there by the water.\" He went\nto it and found it in a very bad condition. He put it in the water, and\ndecided that he could use it. Then he asked two men to go with him and\npaddle, but they refused because of fear, and explained this fear by\ntelling the story of the water demon, who continually sought the\ndestruction of this canoe, and also their own death. Roko encouraged\nthem to take him to wage battle with Tuna, telling them he would destroy\nthe monster. They paddled until they were directly over Tuna's cave.\nRoko told them to go off to one side and wait and watch, saying: \"I am\ngoing down to see this Tuna. If you see red blood boil up through the\nwater, you may be sure that Tuna has been killed. If the blood is black,\nthen you will know that he has the victory and I am dead.\"\n\nRoko leaped into the water and went down--down to the door of the cave.\nThe coral doors were closed. He grasped them in his strong hands and\ntore them open, breaking them in pieces. Inside he found cave after cave\nof coral, and broke his way through until at last he awoke Tuna. The\nangry demon cried: \"Who is that?\" Roko answered: \"It is I, Roko, alone.\nWho are you?\"\n\nTuna aroused himself and demanded Roko's business and who guided him to\nthat place. Roko replied: \"No one has guided me. I go from place to\nplace, thinking that there is no one else in the world.\"\n\nTuna shook himself angrily. \"Do you think I am nothing? This day is your\nlast.\"\n\nRoko replied: \"Perhaps so. If the sky falls, I shall die.\"\n\nTuna leaped upon Roko and bit him. Then came the mighty battle of the\ncoral caves. Roko broke Tuna into several pieces--and the red blood\npoured in boiling bubbles upward through the clear ocean waters, and\nthe boatmen cried: \"The blood is red--the blood is red--Tuna is dead by\nthe hand of Roko.\"\n\nRoko lived for a time in Fiji, where his descendants still find their\nhome. The people use this chant to aid them in difficulties:\n\n  \"My load is a red one.\n  It points in front to Kawa (Roko's home).\n  Behind, it points to Dolomo--(a village on another island).\"\n\nIn the Hawaiian legends, Hina was Maui's mother rather than his wife,\nand Kuna (Tuna) was a mo-o, a dragon or gigantic lizard possessing\nmiraculous powers.\n\nHina's home was in the large cave under the beautiful Rainbow Falls near\nthe city of Hilo. Above the falls the bed of the river is along the\nchannel of an ancient lava flow. Sometimes the water pours in a torrent\nover the rugged lava, sometimes it passes through underground passages\nas well as along the black river bed, and sometimes it thrusts itself\ninto boiling pools.\n\nMaui lived on the northern side of the river, but a chief named\nKuna-moo--a dragon--lived in the boiling pools. He attacked Hina and\nthrew a dam across the river below Rainbow Falls, intending to drown\nHina in her cave. The great ledge of rock filled the river bed high up\nthe bank on the Hilo side of the river. Hina called on Maui for aid.\nMaui came quickly and with mighty blows cut out a new channel for the\nriver--the path it follows to this day. The waters sank and Hina\nremained unharmed in her cave.\n\nThe place where Kuna dwelt was called Wai-kuna--the Kuna water. The\nriver in which Hina and Kuna dwelt bears the name Wailuku--\"the\ndestructive water.\" Maui went above Kuna's home and poured hot water\ninto the river. This part of the myth could easily have arisen from a\nlava outburst on the side of the volcano above the river. The hot water\nswept in a flood over Kuna's home. Kuna jumped from the boiling pools\nover a series of small falls near his home into the river below. Here\nthe hot water again scalded him and in pain he leaped from the river to\nthe bank, where Maui killed him by beating him with a club. His body was\nwashed down the river over the falls under which Hina dwelt, into the\nocean.\n\nThe story of Kuna or Tuna is a legend with a foundation in the enmity\nbetween two chiefs of the long ago, and also in a desire to explain the\norigin of the family of eels and the invention of nets and traps.\n\n[Illustration: Wailuku River--the Boiling Pots.]\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nMAUI AND HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW.\n\n\nThe \"Stories of Maui's Brother-in-Law,\" and of \"Maui seeking\nImmortality,\" are not found in Hawaiian mythology. We depend upon Sir\nGeorge Grey and John White for the New Zealand myths in which both of\nthese legends occur.\n\nMaui's sister Hina-uri married Ira-waru, who was willing to work with\nhis skillful brother-in-law. They hunted in the forests and speared\nbirds. They fished and farmed together. They passed through many\nexperiences similar to those Maui's own brothers had suffered before the\nbrother-in-law took their place as Maui's companion. They made spears\ntogether--but Maui made notched barbs for his spear ends--and slipped\nthem off when Ira-waru came near. So for a long time the proceeds of\nbird hunting fell to Maui. But after a time the brother-in-law learned\nthe secret as the brothers had before, and Maui was looked up to by his\nfellow hunter as the skillful one. Sometimes Ira-waru was able to see\nat once Maui's plan and adopt it. He discovered Maui's method of making\nthe punga or eel baskets for catching eels.\n\nThe two hunters went to the forest to find a certain creeping vine with\nwhich to weave their eel snares. Ira-waru made a basket with a hole, by\nwhich the eels could enter, but they could turn around and go out the\nsame way. So he very seldom caught an eel. But Maui made his basket with\na long funnel-shaped door, by which the eels could easily slide into the\nsnare but could scarcely escape. He made a door in the side which he\nfastened tight until he wished to pour the eels out.\n\nIra-waru immediately made a basket like Maui. Then Maui became angry and\nuttered incantations over Ira-waru. The man dropped on the ground and\nbecame a dog. Maui returned home and met his sister, who charged him\nwith sorcery concerning her husband.\n\nMaui did not deny the exercise of his power, but taught his sister a\nchant and sent her out to the level country. There she uttered her chant\nand a strange dog with long hair came to her, barking and leaping around\nher. Then she knew what Maui had done. \"Thus Ira-waru became the first\nof the long-haired dogs whose flesh has been tabooed to women.\"\n\nThe Tahu and Hau tribes of New Zealand tell a different story. They say\nthat Maui went to visit Ira-waru. Together they set out on a journey.\nAfter a time they rested by the wayside and became sleepy. Maui asked\nIra-waru to cleanse his head. This gave him the restful, soothing touch\nwhich aided sleep. Then Maui proposed that Ira-waru sleep. Taking the\nhead in his hands, Maui put his brother-in-law to sleep. Then by\nincantations he made the sleep very deep and prolonged. Meanwhile he\npulled the ears and arms and limbs until they were properly lengthened.\nHe drew out the under jaw until it had the form of a dog's mouth. He\nstretched the end of the backbone into a tail, and then wakened Ira-waru\nand drove him back when he tried to follow the path to the settlement.\n\nHina-uri went out and called her husband. He came to her, leaping and\nbarking. She decided that this was her husband, and in her agony\nreproached Maui and wandered away.\n\nThe Rua-nui story-tellers of New Zealand say that Maui's anger was\naroused against Ira-waru because he ate all the bait when they went\nfishing, and they could catch no fish after paddling out to the fishing\ngrounds. When they came to land, Maui told Ira-waru to lie down in the\nsand as a roller over which to drag the canoe up the beach. When he was\nlying helpless under the canoe, Maui changed him into a dog.\n\nThe Arawa legends make the cause of Maui's anger the success of\nIra-waru while fishing. Ira-waru had many fish while Maui had captured\nbut few. The story is told thus: \"Ira-waru hooked a fish and in pulling\nit in his line became entangled with that of Maui. Maui felt the jerking\nand began to pull in his line. Soon they pulled their lines close up to\nthe canoe, one to the bow, the other to the stern, where each was\nsitting. Maui said: 'Let me pull the lines to me, as the fish is on my\nhook.' His brother-in-law said: 'Not so; the fish is on mine.' But Maui\nsaid: 'Let me pull my line in.' Ira-waru did so and saw that the fish\nwas on his hook. Then he said: 'Untwist your lines and let mine go, that\nI may pull the fish in.' Maui said: 'I will do so, but let me have\ntime.' He took the fish off Ira-waru's hook and saw that there was a\nbarb on the hook. He said to Ira-waru: 'Perhaps we ought to return to\nland.' When they were dragging the canoe on shore, Maui said to\nIra-waru: 'Get between the canoe and outrigger and drag.' Ira-waru did\nso and Maui leaped on the outrigger and weighed it heavily down and\ncrushed Ira-waru prostrate on the beach. Maui trod on him and pulled his\nbackbone long like a tail and changed him into a dog.\"\n\nMaui is said to have tattooed the muzzle of the dog with a beautiful\npattern which the birds (kahui-zara, a flock of tern) used in marking\nthe sky. From this also came the red glow which sometimes flushes the\nface of man.\n\nAnother Arawa version of the legend was that Maui and Ira-waru were\njourneying together. Ira-waru was gluttonous and ate the best food. At\nlast Maui determined to punish his companion. By incantation he\nlengthened the way until Ira-waru became faint and weary. Maui had\nprovided himself with a little food and therefore was enabled to endure\nthe long way. While Ira-waru slept Maui trod on his backbone and\nlengthened it and changed the arms and limbs into the legs of a dog.\nWhen Hina-uri saw the state of her husband she went into the thatched\nhouse by which Ira-waru had so often stood watching the hollow log in\nwhich she dried the fish and preserved the birds speared in the\nmountains. She bound her girdle and hala-leaf apron around her and went\ndown to the sea to drown herself, that her body might be eaten by the\nmonsters of the sea. When she came to the shell-covered beach, she sat\ndown and sang her death song--\n\n  \"I weep, I call to the steep billows of the sea\n  And to him, the great, the ocean god;\n  To monsters, all now hidden,\n  To come and bury me,\n  Who now am wrapped in mourning.\n  Let the waves wear their mourning, too,\n  And sleep as sleeps the dead.\"\n\n  --Ancient Maui Chant of New Zealand.\n\nThen Hina-uri threw herself into the sea and was borne on the waves many\nmoons, at last drifting to shore, to be found by two fishermen. They\ncarried the body off to the fire and warmed it back to life. They\nbrushed off the sea moss and sea weeds and rubbed her until she awoke.\n\nSoon they told their chief, Tini-rau, what a beautiful woman they had\nfound in the sea. He came and took her away to make her one of his\nwives. But the other wives were jealous and drove Hina-uri away from the\nchief's houses.\n\nAnother New Zealand legend says that Hina came to the sea and called for\na little fish to aid her in going away from the island. It tried to\ncarry her, but was too weak. Hina struck it with her open hand. It had\nstriped sides forever after. She tried a larger fish, but fell off\nbefore they had gone far from shore. Her blow gave this fish its\nbeautiful blue spots. Another received black spots. Another she stamped\nher foot upon, making it flat. At last a shark carried her far away. She\nwas very thirsty, and broke a cocoanut on the shark's head, making a\nbump, which has been handed down for generations. The shark carried her\nto the home of the two who rescued her and gave her new strength.\n\nMeanwhile Rupe or Maui-mua, a brother of Hina-uri and Maui, grieved for\nhis sister. He sought for her throughout the land and then launched his\ncanoe upon the blue waters surrounding Ao-tea-roa (The Great White Land;\nthe ancient native New Zealand) and searched the coasts. He only\nlearned that his sister had, as the natives said, \"leaped into the\nwaters and been carried away into the heavens.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"Outside Were Other Worlds.\"]\n\nRupe's heart filled with the desire to find and protect the frenzied\nsister who had probably taken a canoe and floated away, out of the\nhorizon, seen from New Zealand coasts, into new horizons. During the\nViking age of the Pacific, when many chiefs sailed long distances,\nvisiting the most remote islands of Polynesia, they frequently spoke of\nbreaking through from the home land into new heavens--or of climbing up\nthe path of the sun on the waters into a new heaven. This was their\npoetical way of passing from horizon to horizon. The horizon around\ntheir particular island surrounded their complete world. Outside,\nsomewhere, were other worlds and other heavens. Rupe's voyage was an\nidyll of the Pacific. It was one more story to be added to the prose\npoems of consecrated travel. It was a brother feeling through the\nmysteries of unknown lands for a sister, as dear to him as an Evangeline\nhas been to other men.\n\nFrom the mist-land of the Polynesian race comes this story of the\ntrickery of Maui the learned, and the faithfulness of his older brother\nMaui-mua or Rupe--one of the \"five forgetful Mauis.\" Rupe hoisted\nmat-sails over his canoe and thus made the winds serve him. He paddled\nthe canoe onward through the hours when calms rested on glassy waves.\n\nThus he passed out of sight of Ao-tea-roa, away from his brothers, and\nout of the reach of all tricks and incantations of Maui, the\nmischievous. He sailed until a new island rose out of the sea to greet\nhim. Here in a \"new heaven\" he found friends to care for him and prepare\nhim for his longer journey. His restless anxiety for his sister urged\nhim onward until days lengthened into months and months into years. He\npassed from the horizons of newly-discovered islands, into the horizons\nof circling skies around islands of which he had never heard before.\nSometimes he found relatives, but more frequently his welcome came from\nthose who could trace no historical touch in their genealogies.\n\nHere and there, apparently, he found traces of a woman whose description\nanswered that of his sister Hina-uri. At last he looked through the\nheavens upon a new world, and saw his sister in great trouble.\n\nAccording to some legends the jealous wives of the great chief,\nTini-rau, attack Hina, who was known among them as Hina-te-ngaru-moana,\n\"Hina, the daughter of the ocean.\" Tini-rau and Hina lived away from the\nvillage of the chief until their little boy was born. When they needed\nfood, the chief said, \"Let us go to my settlement and we shall have food\nprovided.\"\n\nBut Hina chanted:\n\n  \"Let it down, let it down,\n  Descend, oh! descend--\"\n\nand sufficient food fell before them. After a time their frail clothing\nwore out, and the cold chilled them, then Hina again uttered the\nincantation and clothing was provided for their need.\n\nBut the jealous wives, two in number, finally heard where Hina and the\nchief were living, and started to see them.\n\nTini-rau said to Hina, \"Here come my other wives--be careful how you act\nbefore them.\"\n\nShe replied, \"If they come in anger it will be evil.\"\n\nShe armed herself with an obsidian or volcanic-glass knife, and waited\ntheir coming.\n\nThey tried to throw enchantments around her to kill her. Then one of\nthem made a blow at her with a weapon, but she turned it aside and\nkilled her enemy with the obsidian knife.\n\nThen the other wife made an attack, and again the obsidian knife brought\ndeath. She ripped open the stomachs of the jealous ones and showed the\nchief fish lines and sinkers and other property which they had eaten in\nthe past and which Tini-rau had never been able to trace.\n\nAnother legend says that the two women came to kill Hina when they heard\nof the birth of her boy. For a time she was greatly terrified. Then she\nsaw that they were coming from different directions. She attacked the\nnearest one with a stone and killed her. The body burst open, and was\nseen to be full of green stone. Then she killed the second wife in the\nsame way, and found more green stones. \"Thus, according to the legends,\noriginated the greenstone\" from which the choicest and most valuable\nstone tools have since been made. For a time the chief and Hina lived\nhappily together. Then he began to neglect her and abuse her, until she\ncried aloud for her brother--\n\n  \"O Rupe! come down.\n  Take me and my child.\"\n\nRupe assumed the form of a bird and flew down to this world in which he\nhad found his sister. He chanted as he came down--\n\n  \"It is Rupe, yes Rupe,\n  The elder brother;\n  And I am here.\"\n\nHe folded the mother and her boy under his wings and flew away with\nthem. Sir George Gray relates a legend in which Maui-mua or Rupe is\nrecorded as having carried his sister and her child to one of the new\nlands, found in his long voyage, where dwelt an aged relative, of chief\nrank, with his retainers.\n\nSome legends say that Tini-rau tried to catch Rupe, who was compelled\nto drop the child in order to escape with the mother. Tini-rau caught\nthe child and carefully cared for him until he grew to be a strong young\nlad.\n\nThen he wanted to find his mother and bring her back to his father. How\nthis was done, how Rupe took his sister back to the old chief, and how\ncivil wars arose are not all these told in the legends of the Maoris.\nThus the tricks of Maui the mischievous brought trouble for a time, but\nwere finally overshadowed by happy homes in neighboring lands for his\nsuffering sister and her descendants.\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\nMAUI'S KITE FLYING.\n\n\nMaui the demi-god was sometimes the Hercules of Polynesia. His exploits\nwere fully as marvelous as those of the hero of classic mythology. He\nsnared the sun. He pulled up islands from the ocean depths. He lifted\nthe sky into its present position and smoothed its arched surface with\nhis stone adze. These stories belong to all Polynesia.\n\nThere are numerous less important local myths, some of them peculiar to\nNew Zealand, some to the Society Islands and some to the Hawaiian group.\n\nOne of the old native Hawaiians says that in the long, long ago the\nbirds were flying around the homes of the ancient people. The flutter of\ntheir wings could be heard and the leaves and branches moved when the\nmotion of the wings ceased and the wanderers through the air found\nresting places. Then came sweet music from the trees and the people\nmarvelled. Only one of all mankind could see the winged warblers. Maui,\nthe demi-god, had clear vision. The swift-flying wings covered with red\nor gold he saw. The throats tinted many colors and reflecting the\nsunlight with diamond sparks of varied hues he watched while they\ntrembled with the melody of sweet bird songs. All others heard but did\nnot see. They were blind and yet had open vision.\n\nSometimes the iiwi (a small red bird) fluttered in the air and uttered\nits shrill, happy song, and Maui saw and heard. But the bird at that\ntime was without color in the eyes of the ancient people and only the\nclear voice was heard, while no speck of bird life flecked the clear sky\noverhead.\n\nAt one time a god from one of the other islands came to visit Maui. Each\nboasted of and described the beauties and merits of his island. While\nthey were conversing, Maui called for his friends the birds. They\ngathered around the house and fluttered among the leaves of the\nsurrounding trees. Soon their sweet voices filled the air on all sides.\nAll the people wondered and worshiped, thinking they heard the fairy or\nmenehune people. It was said that Maui had painted the bodies of his\ninvisible songsters and for a long time had kept the delight of their\nflashing colors to himself. But when the visitor had rejoiced in the\nmysterious harmonies, Maui decided to take away whatever veil shut out\nthe sight of these things beautiful, that his bird friends might be\nknown and honored ever after. So he made the birds reveal themselves\nperched in the trees or flying in the air. The clear eyes of the god\nfirst recognized the new revelation, then all the people became dumb\nbefore the sweet singers adorned in all their brilliant tropical\nplumage.\n\nThe beautiful red birds, iiwi and akakani, and the birds of glorious\nyellow feathers, the oo and the mamo, were a joy to both eye and ear and\nfound high places in Hawaiian legend and story, and all gave their most\nbeautiful feathers for the cloaks and helmets of the chiefs.\n\nThe Maoris of New Zealand say that Maui could at will change himself\ninto a bird and with his feathered friends find a home in leafy\nshelters. In bird form he visited the gods of the under-world. His\ncapricious soul was sensitive to the touch of all that mysterious life\nof nature.\n\nWith the birds as companions and the winds as his servants Maui must\nsoon have turned his inventive mind to kite making.\n\nThe Hawaiian myths are perhaps the only ones of the Pacific Ocean which\ngive to any of the gods the pleasure and excitement of kite flying.\nMaui, after repeated experiments, made a large kite for himself. It was\nmuch larger than any house of his time or generation. He twisted a long\nline from the strong fibers of the native plant known as the olona. He\nendowed both kite and string with marvelous powers and launched the\nkite up toward the clouds. It rose very slowly. The winds were not\nlifting it into the sky.\n\n[Illustration: The Home of the Winds, Hilo Coast.]\n\nMaui remembered that an old priest lived in Waipio valley, the largest\nand finest valley of the large island, Hawaii, on which he made his\nhome.\n\nThis priest had a covered calabash in which he compelled the winds to\nhide when he did not wish them to play on land and sea. The priest's\nname was Kaleiioku, and his calabash was known as ipu-makani-a ka\nmaumau, \"the calabash of the perpetual winds.\" Maui called for the\npriest who had charge of the winds to open his calabash and let them\ncome up to Hilo and blow along the Wailuku river. The natives say that\nthe place where Maui stood was marked by the pressure of his feet in the\nlava rocks of the river bank as he braced himself to hold the kite\nagainst the increasing force of the winds which pushed it towards the\nsky. Then the enthusiasm of kite flying filled his youthful soul and he\ncried aloud, screaming his challenge along the coast of the sea toward\nWaipio--\n\n  \"O winds, winds of Waipio,\n  In the calabash of Kaleiioku.\n  Come from the ipu-makani,\n  O wind, the wind of Hilo,\n  Come quickly, come with power.\"\n\nThen the priest lifted the cover of the calabash of the winds and let\nthe strong winds of Hilo escape. Along the sea coast they rushed until\nas they entered Hilo Bay they heard the voice of Maui calling--\n\n  \"O winds, winds of Hilo,\n  Hasten and come to me.\"\n\nWith a tumultuous rush the strong winds turned toward the mountains.\nThey forced their way along the gorges and palisades of the Wailuku\nriver. They leaped into the heavens, making a fierce attack upon the\nmonster which Maui had sent into the sky. The kite struggled as it was\npushed upward by the hands of the fierce winds, but Maui rejoiced. His\nheart was uplifted by the joy of the conflict in which his strength to\nhold was pitted against the power of the winds to tear away. And again\nhe shouted toward the sea--\n\n  \"O winds, the winds of Hilo,\n  Come to the mountains, come.\"\n\nThe winds which had been stirring up storms on the face of the waters\ncame inland. They dashed against Maui. They climbed the heights of the\nskies until they fell with full violence against their mighty foe\nhanging in the heavens.\n\nThe kite had been made of the strongest kapa (paper cloth) which Maui's\nmother could prepare. It was not torn, although it was bent backward to\nits utmost limit. Then the strain came on the strong cord of olona\nfibre. The line was stretched and strained as the kite was pushed back.\nThen Maui called again and again for stronger winds to come. The cord\nwas drawn out until the kite was far above the mountains. At last it\nbroke and the kite was tossed over the craters of the volcanoes to the\nland of the district of Ka-u on the other side of the island.\n\nThen Maui was angry and hastily leaped over the mountains, which are\nnearly fourteen thousand feet in altitude. In a half dozen strides he\nhad crossed the fifty or sixty miles from his home to the place where\nthe kite lay. He could pass over many miles with a single step. His name\nwas Maui-Mama, \"Maui the Swift.\" When Maui returned with his kite he was\nmore careful in calling the winds to aid him in his sport.\n\nThe people watched their wise neighbor and soon learned that the kite\ncould be a great blessing to them. When it was soaring in the sky there\nwas always dry and pleasant weather. It was a day for great rejoicing.\nThey could spread out their kapa cloth to dry as long as the kite was in\nthe sky. They could carry out their necessary work without fear of the\nrain. Therefore when any one saw the kite beginning to float along the\nmountain side he would call out joyfully, \"E! Maui's kite is in the\nheavens.\" Maui would send his kite into the blue sky and then tie the\nline to the great black stones in the bed of the Wailuku river.\n\nMaui soon learned the power of his kite when blown upon by a fierce\nwind. With his accustomed skill he planned to make use of his strong\nservant, and therefore took the kite with him on his journeys to the\nother islands, using it to aid in making swift voyages. With the wind in\nthe right direction, the kite could pull his double canoe very easily\nand quickly to its destination.\n\nTime passed, and even the demi-god died. The fish hook with which he\ndrew the Hawaiian Islands up from the depths of the sea was allowed to\nlie on the lava by the Wailuku river until it became a part of the\nstone. The double canoe was carried far inland and then permitted to\npetrify by the river side. The two stones which represent the double\ncanoe now bear the name \"Waa-Kauhi,\" and the kite has fallen from the\nsky far up on the mountain side, where it still rests, a flat plot of\nrich land between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.\n\n\n\n\nX.\n\nTHE OAHU LEGENDS OF MAUI.\n\n\nSeveral Maui legends have been located on the island of Oahu. They were\ngiven by Mr. Kaaia to Mr. T. G. Thrum, the publisher of what is well\nknown in the Hawaiian Islands as \"Thrum's Annual.\" He has kindly\nfurnished them for added interest to the present volume. The legends\nhave a distinctly local flavor confined entirely to Oahu. It has seemed\nbest to reserve them for a chapter by themselves although they are\nchiefly variations of stories already told.\n\n\nMAUI AND THE TWO GODS.\n\nThis history of Maui and his grandmother Hina begins with their arrival\nfrom foreign lands. They dwelt in Kane-ana (Kane's cave), Waianae, Oahu.\nThis is an \"ana,\" or cave, at Puu-o-hulu. Hina had wonderful skill in\nmaking all kinds of tapa according to the custom of the women of ancient\nHawaii.\n\nMaui went to the Koolau side and rested at Kaha-luu, a diving place in\nKoolaupoko. In that place there is a noted hill called Ma-eli-eli. This\nis the story of that hill. Maui threw up a pile of dirt and concealed\nrubbish under it. The two gods, Kane and Kanaloa, came along and asked\nMaui what he was doing. He said, \"What you see. You two dig on that side\nto the foot of the pali, (precipice) and I will go down at Kaha-luu. If\nyou two dig through first, you may kill me. If I get through first I\nwill kill you.\" They agreed, and began to dig and throw up the dirt.\nThen Maui dug three times and tossed up some of the hills of that place.\nKane and Kanaloa saw that Maui was digging very fast, so they put forth\nvery great strength and threw the dirt into a hill. Meanwhile Maui ran\naway to the other side of the island. Thus by the aid of the gods the\nhill Ma-eli-eli was thrown up and received its name \"eli,\" meaning\n\"dig.\" \"Ma-eli-eli\" meant \"the place of digging.\"\n\n\nHOW THEY FOUND FIRE.\n\nIt was said that Maui and Hina had no fire. They were often cold and had\nno cooked food. Maui saw flames rising in a distant place and ran to see\nhow they were made. When he came to that place the fire was out and some\nbirds flew away. One of them was Ka-Alae-huapi, \"the stingy Alae\"--a\nsmall duck, the Hawaiian mud hen. Maui watched again and saw fire.\nWhen he went up the birds saw him coming and scattered the fire,\ncarrying the ashes into the water; but he leaped and caught the little\nAlae. \"Ah!\" he said, \"I will kill you, because you do not let me have\nfire.\" The bird replied, \"If you kill me you cannot find fire.\" Maui\nsaid, \"Where is fire?\" The Alae said, \"Go up on the high land where\nbeautiful plants with large leaves are standing; rub their branches.\"\nMaui set the bird free and went inland from Halawa and found dry land\ntaro. He began to rub the stalks, but only juice came out like water. He\nhad no red fire. He was very angry and said, \"If that lying Alae is\ncaught again by me I will be its death.\"\n\n[Illustration: Bay of Waipio Valley.]\n\nAfter a while he saw the fire burning and ran swiftly. The birds saw him\nand cried, \"The cooking is over. Here comes the swift grandchild of\nHina.\" They scattered the fire, threw the ashes away and flew into the\nwater. But again Maui caught the Alae and began to kill it, saying: \"You\ngave me a plant full of water from which to get fire.\" The bird said,\n\"If I die you can never find fire. I will give you the secret of fire.\nTake a branch of that dry tree and rub.\" Maui held the bird fast in one\nhand while he rubbed with the other until smoke and fire came out. Then\nhe took the fire stick and rubbed the head of the bird, making a place\nwhere red and white feathers have grown ever since.\n\nHe returned to Hina and taught her how to make fire, using the two fire\nsticks and how to twist coconut fibre to catch the fire when it had been\nkindled in wood. But the Alae was not forgotten. It was called huapi,\n\"stingy,\" because it selfishly kept the knowledge of fire making to\nitself.\n\n\nMAUI CATCHING THE SUN.\n\nMaui watched Hina making tapa. The wet tapa was spread on a long tapa\nboard, and Hina began at one end to pound it into shape; pounding from\none end to another. He noticed that sunset came by the time she had\npounded to the middle of the board. The sun hurried so fast that she\ncould only begin her work before the day was past.\n\nHe went to the hill Hele-a-ka-la, which means \"journey of the sun.\" He\nthought he would catch the sun and make it move slowly. He went up the\nhill and waited. When the sun began to rise, Maui made himself long,\nstretching up toward the sky. Soon the shining legs of the sun came up\nthe hillside. He saw Maui and began to run swiftly, but Maui reached out\nand caught one of the legs, saying: \"O sun, I will kill you. You are a\nmischief maker. You make trouble for Hina by going so fast.\" Then he\nbroke the shining leg of the sun. The sufferer said, \"I will change my\nway and go slowly--six months slow and six months faster.\" Thus arose\nthe saying, \"Long shall be the daily journey of the sun and he shall\ngive light for all the people's toil.\" Hina learned that she could pound\nuntil she was tired while the farmers could plant and take care of their\nfields. Thus also this hill received its name Hele-a-ka-la. This is one\nof the hills of Waianae near the precipice of the hill Puu-o-hulu.\n\n\nUNITING THE ISLANDS.\n\nMaui suggested to Hina that he had better try to draw the islands\ntogether, uniting them in one land. Hina told Maui to go and see\nAlae-nui-a-Hina, who would tell him what to do. The Alae told him they\nmust go to Ponaha-ke-one (a fishing place outside of Pearl Harbor) and\nfind Ka-uniho-kahi, \"the one toothed,\" who held the land under the sea.\n\nMaui went back to Hina. She told him to ask his brothers to go fishing\nwith him. They consented and pushed out into the sea. Soon Maui saw a\nbailing dish floating by the canoe and picked it up. It was named\nHina-a-ke-ka, \"Hina who fell off.\" They paddled to Ponaha-ke-one. When\nthey stopped they saw a beautiful young woman in the boat. Then they\nanchored and again looked in the boat, but the young woman was gone.\nThey saw the bailing dish and threw it into the sea.\n\nMaui-mua threw his hook and caught a large fish, which was seen to be a\nshark as they drew it to the surface. At once they cut the line. So also\nMaui-hope and Maui-waena. At last Maui threw his hook Manai-i-ka-lani\ninto the sea. It went down, down into the depths. Maui cried,\n\"Hina-a-ke-ka has my hook in her hand. By her it will be made fast.\"\nHina went down with the hook until she met Ka-uniho-kahi. She asked him\nto open his mouth, then threw the hook far inside and made it fast. Then\nshe pulled the line so that Maui should know that the fish was caught.\nMaui fastened the line to the outrigger of the canoe and asked his\nbrothers to paddle with all diligence, and not look back. Long, long,\nthey paddled and were very tired. Then Maui took a paddle and dipped\ndeep in the sea. The boat moved more swiftly through the sea. The\nbrothers looked back and cried, \"There is plenty of land behind us.\" The\ncharm was broken. The hook came out of \"the one toothed,\" and the raised\nislands sank back into their place. The native say, \"The islands are now\nunited to America. Perhaps Maui has been at work.\"\n\n\nMAUI AND PEA-PEA THE EIGHT-EYED.\n\nMaui had been fishing and had caught a great fish upon which he was\nfeasting. He looked inland and saw his wife, Kumu-lama, seized and\ncarried away by Pea-pea-maka-walu, \"Pea-pea the eight-eyed.\" This\nis a legend derived from the myths of many islands in which Lupe or Rupe\n(pigeon) changed himself into a bird and flew after his sister Hina who\nhad been carried on the back of a shark to distant islands. Sometimes as\na man and sometimes as a bird he prosecuted his search until Hina was\nfound.\n\n[Illustration: The Ie-ie Vine.]\n\nMaui pursued Pea-pea, but could not catch him. He carried Maui's wife\nover the sea to a far away island. Maui was greatly troubled but his\ngrandmother sent him inland to find an old man who would tell him what\nto do. Maui went inland and looking down toward Waipahu saw this man\nKu-olo-kele. He was hump-backed. Maui threw a large stone and hit the\n\"hill on the back\" knocked it off and made the back straight. The old\nman lifted up the stone and threw it to Waipahu, where it lies to this\nday. Then he and Maui talked together. He told Maui to go and catch\nbirds and gather ti leaves and fibers of the ie-ie vine, and fill his\nhouse. These things Maui secured and brought to him. He told Maui to go\nhome and return after three days.\n\nKu-olo-kele took the ti leaves and the ie-ie threads and made the body\nof a great bird which he covered with bird feathers. He fastened all\ntogether with the ie-ie. This was done in the first day. The second day\nhe placed food inside and tried his bird and it flew all right.\n\"Thus,\" as the Hawaiians say, \"the first flying ship was made in the\ntime of Maui.\" This is a modern version of Rupe changing himself into a\nbird.\n\nOn the third day Maui came and saw the wonderful bird body thoroughly\nprepared for his journey. Maui went inside. Ku-olo-kele said, \"When you\nreach that land, look for a village. If the people are not there look to\nthe beach. If there are many people, your wife and Pea-pea the\neight-eyed will be there. Do not go near, but fly out over the sea. The\npeople will say, 'O, the strange bird;' but Pea-pea will say, 'This is\nmy bird. It is tabu.' You can then come to the people.\"\n\nMaui pulled the ie-ie ropes fastened to the wings and made them move.\nThus he flew away into the sky. Two days was his journey before he came\nto that strange island, Moana-liha-i-ka-wao-kele. It was a beautiful\nland. He flew inland to a village, but there were no people; according\nto the ancient chant:\n\n  \"The houses of Lima-loa stand,\n  But there are no people;\n  They are at Mana.\"\n\nThe people were by the sea. Maui flew over them. He saw his wife, but he\npassed on flying out over the sea, skimming like a sea bird down to the\nwater and rising gracefully up to the sky. Pea-pea called out, \"This\nis my bird. It is tabu.\" Maui heard and came to the beach. He was caught\nand placed in a tabu box. The servants carried him up to the village and\nput him in the chief's sleeping house, when Pea-pea and his people\nreturned to their homes.\n\nIn the night Pea-pea and Maui's wife lay down to sleep. Maui watched\nPea-pea, hoping that he would soon sleep. Then he would kill him. Maui\nwaited. One eye was closed, seven eyes were opened. Then four eyes\nclosed, leaving three. The night was almost past and dawn was near. Then\nMaui called to Hina with his spirit voice, \"O Hina, keep it dark.\" Hina\nmade the gray dawn dark in the three eyes and two closed in sleep. The\nlast eye was weary, and it also slept. Then Maui went out of the bird\nbody and cut off the head of Pea-pea and put it inside the bird. He\nbroke the roof of the house until a large opening was made. He took his\nwife, Kumu-lama, and flew away to the island of Oahu. The winds blew\nhard against the flying bird. Rain fell in torrents around it, but those\ninside had no trouble.\n\n\"Thus Maui returned with his wife to his home in Oahu. The story is pau\n(finished).\"\n\n\n\n\nXI.\n\nMAUI SEEKING IMMORTALITY.\n\n  Climb up, climb up,\n  To the highest surface of heaven,\n  To all the sides of heaven.\n\n  Climb then to thy ancestor,\n  The sacred bird in the sky,\n  To thy ancestor Rehua\n      In the heavens.\n\n  --New Zealand kite incantation.\n\n\nThe story of Maui seeking immortality for the human race is one of the\nfinest myths in the world. For pure imagination and pathos it is\ndifficult to find any tale from Grecian or Latin literature to compare\nwith it. In Greek and Roman fables gods suffered for other gods, and yet\nnone were surrounded with such absolutely mythical experiences as those\nthrough which the demi-god Maui of the Pacific Ocean passed when he\nentered the gates of death with the hope of winning immortality for\nmankind. The really remarkable group of legends which cluster around\nMaui is well concluded by the story of his unselfish and heroic battle\nwith death.\n\nThe different islands of the Pacific have their Hades, or abode of dead.\nIt is, with very few exceptions, down in the interior of the earth.\nSometimes the tunnels left by currents of melted lava are the passages\ninto the home of departed spirits. In Samoa there are two circular holes\namong the rocks at the west end of the island Savaii. These are the\nentrances to the under-world for chiefs and people. The spirits of those\nwho die on the other islands leap into the sea and swim around the land\nfrom island to island until they reach Savaii. Then they plunge down\ninto their heaven or their hades.\n\nThe Tongans had a spirit island for the home of the dead. They said that\nsome natives once sailed far away in a canoe and found this island. It\nwas covered with all manner of beautiful fruits, among which rare birds\nsported. They landed, but the trees were shadows. They grasped but could\nnot hold them. The fruits and the birds were shadows. The men ate, but\nswallowed nothing substantial. It was shadow-land. They walked through\nall the delights their eyes looked upon, but found no substance. They\nreturned home, but ever seemed to listen to spirits calling them back to\nthe island. In a short time all the voyagers were dead.\n\nThere is no escape from death. The natives of New Zealand say: \"Man\nmay have descendants, but the daughters of the night strangle his\noffspring\"; and again: \"Men make heroes, but death carries them away.\"\n\nThere are very few legends among the Polynesians concerning the death of\nMaui. And these are usually fragmentary, except among the Maoris of New\nZealand.\n\nThe Hawaiian legend of the death of Maui is to the effect that he\noffended some of the greater gods living in Waipio valley on the Island\nof Hawaii. Kanaloa, one of the four greatest gods of Hawaii, seized him\nand dashed him against the rocks. His blood burst from the body and\ncolored the earth red in the upper part of the valley. The Hawaiians in\nanother legend say that Maui was chasing a boy and girl in Honolii\ngulch, Hawaii. The girl climbed a breadfruit tree. Maui changed himself\ninto an eel and stretched himself along the side of the trunk of the\ntree. The tree stretched itself upward and Maui failed to reach the\ngirl. A priest came along and struck the eel and killed it, and so Maui\ndied. This is evidently a changed form of the legend of Maui and the\nlong eel. Another Hawaiian fragment approaches very near to the\nbeautiful New Zealand myth. The Hawaiians said that Maui attempted to\ntear a mountain apart. He wrenched a great hole in the side. Then the\nelepaio bird sang and the charm was broken. The cleft in the mountain\ncould not be enlarged. If the story could be completed it would not be\nstrange if the death of Maui came with this failure to open the path\nthrough the mountain.\n\nThe Hervey Islands say that after Maui fished up the islands his hook\nwas thrown into the heavens and became the curved tail of the\nconstellation of stars which we know as \"The Scorpion.\" Then the people\nbecame angry with Maui and threw him up into the sky and his body is\nstill thought to be hanging among the stars of the scorpion.\n\nThe Samoans, according to Turner, say that Maui went fishing and tried\nto catch the land under the seas and pull it to the surface. Finally an\nisland appeared, but the people living on it were angry with Maui and\ndrove him away into the heavens.\n\nAs he leaped from the island it separated into two parts. Thus the\nSamoans account for the origin of two of their islands and also for the\npassing away of Maui from the earth.\n\nThe natives of New Zealand have many myths concerning the death of Maui.\nEach tribe tells the story with such variations as would be expected\nwhen the fact is noted that these tribes have preserved their\nindividuality through many generations. The substance of the myth,\nhowever, is the same.\n\nIn Maui's last days he longed for the victory over death. His innate\nlove of life led him to face the possibility of escaping and\novercoming the relentless enemy of mankind and thus bestow the boon of\ndeathlessness upon his fellow-men. He had been successful over and over\nagain in his contests with both gods and men. When man was created, he\nstood erect, but, according to an Hawaiian myth, had jointless arms and\nlimbs. A web of skin connected and fastened tightly the arms to the body\nand the legs to each other. \"Maui was angry at this motionless statue\nand took him and broke his legs at ankle, knee and hip and then, tearing\nthem and the arms from the body, destroyed the web. Then he broke the\narms at the elbow and shoulder. Then man could move from place to place,\nbut he had neither fingers or toes.\" Here comes the most ancient\nPolynesian statement of the theory of evolution: \"Hunger impelled man to\nseek his food in the mountains, where his toes were cut out by the\nbrambles in climbing, and his fingers were also formed by the sharp\nsplinters of the bamboo while searching with his arms for food in the\nground.\"\n\nIt was not strange that Maui should feel self-confident when considering\nthe struggle for immortality as a gift to be bestowed upon mankind. And\nyet his father warned him that his time of failure would surely come.\n\nWhite, who has collected many of the myths and legends of New Zealand,\nstates that after Maui had ill-treated Mahu-ika, his grandmother, the\ngoddess and guardian of fire in the under-world, his father and mother\ntried to teach him to do differently. But he refused to listen. Then the\nfather said:\n\n\"You heard our instructions, but please yourself and persist for life or\ndeath.\"\n\nMaui replied: \"What do I care? Do you think I shall cease? Rather I will\npersist forever and ever.\"\n\nThen his father said: \"There is one so powerful that no tricks can be of\nany avail.\"\n\nMaui asked: \"By what shall I be overcome?\" The answer was that one of\nhis ancestors, Hine-nui-te-po (Great Hine of the night), the guardian of\nlife, would overcome him.\n\nWhen Maui fished islands out of the deep seas, it was said that Hine\nmade her home on the outer edge of one of the outermost islands. There\nthe glow of the setting sun lighted the thatch of her house and covered\nit with glorious colors. There Great Hine herself stood flashing and\nsparkling on the edge of the horizon.\n\nMaui, in these last days of his life, looked toward the west and said:\n\"Let us investigate this matter and learn whether life or death shall\nfollow.\"\n\nThe father replied: \"There is evil hanging over you. When I chanted the\ninvocation of your childhood, when you were made sacred and guarded by\ncharms, I forgot a part of the ceremony. And for this you are to die.\"\n\nThen Maui said, \"Will this be by Hine-nui-te-po? What is she like?\"\n\nThe father said that the flashing eyes they could see in the distance\nwere dark as greenstone, the teeth were as sharp as volcanic glass, her\nmouth was large like a fish, and her hair was floating in the air like\nsea-weed.\n\nOne of the legends of New Zealand says that Maui and his brothers went\ntoward the west, to the edge of the horizon, where they saw the goddess\nof the night. Light was flashing from her body. Here they found a great\npit--the home of night. Maui entered the pit--telling his brothers not\nto laugh. He passed through and turning about started to return. The\nbrothers laughed and the walls of night closed in around him and held\nhim till he died.\n\nThe longer legend tells how Maui after his conversation with his father,\nremembered his conflict with the moon. He had tied her so that she could\nnot escape, but was compelled to bathe in the waters of life and return\nnight after night lest men should be in darkness when evening came.\n\nMaui said to the goddess of the moon: \"Let death be short. As the moon\ndies and returns with new strength, so let men die and revive again.\"\n\nBut she replied: \"Let death be very long, that man may sigh and sorrow.\nWhen man dies, let him go into darkness, become like earth, that those\nhe leaves behind may weep and wail and mourn.\"\n\nMaui did not lay aside his purpose, but, according to the New Zealand\nstory, \"did not wish men to die, but to live forever. Death appeared\ndegrading and an insult to the dignity of man. Man ought to die like the\nmoon, which dips in the life-giving waters of Kane and is renewed again,\nor like the sun, which daily sinks into the pit of night and with\nrenewed strength rises in the morning.\"\n\nMaui sought the home of Hine-nui-te-po--the guardian of life. He heard\nher order her attendants to watch for any one approaching and capture\nall who came walking upright as a man. He crept past the attendants on\nhands and feet, found the place of life, stole some of the food of the\ngoddess and returned home. He showed the food to his brothers and\npersuaded them to go with him into the darkness of the night of death.\nOn the way he changed them into the form of birds. In the evening they\ncame to the house of the goddess on the island long before fished up\nfrom the seas.\n\nMaui warned the birds to refrain from making any noise while he made the\nsupreme effort of his life. He was about to enter upon his struggle for\nimmortality. He said to the birds: \"If I go into the stomach of this\nwoman, do not laugh until I have gone through her, and come out again\nat her mouth; then you can laugh at me.\"\n\nHis friends said: \"You will be killed.\" Maui replied: \"If you laugh at\nme when I have only entered her stomach I shall be killed, but if I have\npassed through her and come out of her mouth I shall escape and\nHine-nui-te-po will die.\"\n\nHis friends called out to him: \"Go then. The decision is with you.\"\n\nHine was sleeping soundly. The flashes of lightning had all ceased. The\nsunlight had almost passed away and the house lay in quiet gloom. Maui\ncame near to the sleeping goddess. Her large, fish-like mouth was open\nwide. He put off his clothing and prepared to pass through the ordeal of\ngoing to the hidden source of life, to tear it out of the body of its\nguardian and carry it back with him to mankind. He stood in all the\nglory of savage manhood. His body was splendidly marked by the\ntattoo-bones, and now well oiled shone and sparkled in the last rays of\nthe setting sun.\n\nHe leaped through the mouth of the enchanted one and entered her\nstomach, weapon in hand, to take out her heart, the vital principle\nwhich he knew had its home somewhere within her being. He found\nimmortality on the other side of death. He turned to come back again\ninto life when suddenly a little bird (the Pata-tai) laughed in a clear,\nshrill tone, and Great Hine, through whose mouth Maui was passing,\nawoke. Her sharp, obsidian teeth closed with a snap upon Maui, cutting\nhis body in the center. Thus Maui entered the gates of death, but was\nunable to return, and death has ever since been victor over rebellious\nmen. The natives have the saying:\n\n\"If Maui had not died, he could have restored to life all who had gone\nbefore him, and thus succeeded in destroying death.\"\n\nMaui's brothers took the dismembered body and buried it in a cave called\nTe-ana-i-hana, \"The cave dug out,\" possibly a prepared burial place.\n\nMaui's wife made war upon the spirits, the gods, and killed as many as\nshe could to avenge her husband's death. One of the old native poets of\nNew Zealand, in chanting the story to Mr. White, said: \"But though Maui\nwas killed, his offspring survived. Some of these are at Hawa-i-i-ki and\nsome at Aotea-roa (New Zealand), but the greater part of them remained\nat Hawa-i-ki. This history was handed down by the generations of our\nancestors of ancient times, and we continue to rehearse it to our\nchildren, with our incantations and genealogies, and all other matters\nrelating to our race.\"\n\n  \"But death is nothing new,\n  Death is, and has been ever since old Maui died.\n  Then Pata-tai laughed loud\n  And woke the goblin-god,\n  Who severed him in two, and shut him in,\n  So dusk of eve came on.\"\n\n  --Maori death chant, New Zealand.\n\n\n\n\nXII.\n\nHINA OF HILO.\n\n\nHina is not an uncommon name in Hawaiian genealogies. It is usually\naccompanied by some adjective which explains or identifies the person to\nwhom the name is given. In Hawaii the name Hina is feminine. This is\nalso true throughout all Polynesia except in a few cases where Hina is\nreckoned as a man with supernatural attributes. Even in these cases it\nis apparent that the legend has been changed from its original form as\nit has been carried to small islands by comparatively ignorant people\nwhen moving away from their former homes.\n\nHina is a Polynesian goddess whose story is very interesting--one worthy\nof study when comparing the legends of the island groups of the Pacific.\nThe Hina of Hilo is the same as the goddess of that name most widely\nknown throughout Polynesia--and yet her legends are located by the\nancient Hawaiians in Hilo, as if that place were her only home. The\nlegends are so old that the Hawaiians have forgotten their origin in\nother lands. The stories were brought with the immigrants who settled on\nthe Hilo coast. Thus the stories found their final location with the\nfamilies who brought them. There are three Hawaiian Hinas practically\ndistinct from each other, although a supernatural element is connected\nwith each one. Hina who was stolen from Hawaii by a chief of the Island\nof Molokai was an historical character, although surrounded by mythical\nstories. Another Hina, who was the wife of Kuula, the fish god, was\npre-eminently a local deity, having no real connection with the legends\nof the other islands of the Pacific, although sometimes the stories told\nconcerning her have not been kept entirely distinct from the legends of\nthe Hina of Hilo.\n\nThe Hilo Hina was the true legendary character closely connected with\nall Polynesia. The stories about her are of value not simply as legends,\nbut as traditions closely uniting the Hawaiian Islands with the island\ngroups thousands of miles distant. The Wailuku river, which flows\nthrough the town of Hilo, has its own peculiar and weird beauty. For\nmiles it is a series of waterfalls and rapids. It follows the course of\nan ancient lava flow, sometimes forcing its way under bridges of lava,\nthus forming what are called boiling pots, and sometimes pouring in\nmassive sheets over the edges of precipices which never disintegrate.\nBy the side of this river Hina's son Maui had his lands. In the very bed\nof the river, in a cave under one of the largest falls, Hina made her\nown home, concealed from the world by the silver veil of falling water\nand lulled to sleep by the continual roar of the flood falling into the\ndeep pool below. By the side of this river, the legends say, she pounded\nher tapa and prepared her food. Here were the small, graceful mamake and\nthe coarser wauke trees, from which the bark was stripped with which she\nmade tapa cloth. Branches were cut or broken from these and other trees\nwhose bark was fit for the purpose. These branches were well soaked\nuntil the bark was removed easily. Then the outer bark was scraped off,\nleaving only the pliable inner bark. The days were very short and there\nwas no time for rest while making tapa cloth. Therefore, as soon as the\nmorning light reddened the clouds, Hina would take her calabash filled\nwith water to pour upon the bark, and her little bundle of round clubs\n(the hohoa) and her four-sided mallets (the i-e-kuku) and hasten to the\nsacred spot where, with chants and incantations, the tapa was made.\n\nThe bark was well soaked in the water all the days of the process of\ntapa making. Hina took small bundles of the wet inner bark and laid them\non the kua or heavy tapa board, pounding them together into a pulpy mass\nwith her round clubs. Then using the four-sided mallets, she beat this\npulp into thin sheets. Beautiful tapa, soft as silk, was made by adding\npulpy mass to pulpy mass and beating it day after day until the fibres\nwere lost and a sheet of close-woven bark cloth was formed. Although\nHina was a goddess and had a family possessing miraculous power, it\nnever entered the mind of the Hawaiian legend tellers to endow her with\nease in producing wonderful results. The legends of the Southern Pacific\nIslands show more imagination. They say that Ina (Hina) was such a\nwonderful artist in making beautiful tapas that she was placed in the\nskies, where she beat out glistening fine tapas, the white and glorious\nclouds. When she stretches these cloud sheets out to dry, she places\nstones along the edges, so that the fierce winds of the heavens shall\nnot blow them away. When she throws these stones aside, the skies\nreverberate with thunder. When she rolls her cloud sheets of tapa\ntogether, the folds glisten with flashes of light and lightning leaps\nfrom sheet to sheet.\n\nThe Hina of Hilo was grieved as she toiled because after she had pounded\nthe sheets out so thin that they were ready to be dried, she found it\nalmost impossible to secure the necessary aid of the sun in the drying\nprocess. She would rise as soon as she could see and hasten to spread\nout the tapa made the day before. But the sun always hurried so fast\nthat the sheets could not dry. He leaped from the ocean waters in the\nearth, rushed across the heavens and plunged into the dark waters again\non the other side of the island before she could even turn her tapas so\nthat they might dry evenly. This legend of very short days is strange\nbecause of its place not only among the myths of Hawaii but also because\nit belongs to practically all the tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean.\nIn Tahiti the legends said that the sun rushed across the sky very\nrapidly. The days were too short for fruits to ripen or for work to be\nfinished. In Samoa the \"mats\" made by Sina had no time to dry. The\nancestors of the Polynesians sometime somewhere must have been in the\nregion of short days and long nights. Hina found that her incantations\nhad no influence with the sun. She could not prevail upon him to go\nslower and give her more time for the completion of her task. Then she\ncalled on her powerful son, Maui-ki-i-ki-i, for aid.\n\nSome of the legends of the Island Maui say that Hina dwelt by the sea\ncoast of that island near the high hill Kauwiki at the foot of the great\nmountain Haleakala, House of the Sun, and that there, facing the\nsouthern skies under the most favorable conditions for making tapa, she\nfound the days too short for the tapa to dry. At the present time the\nHawaiians point out a long, narrow stone not far from the surf and\nalmost below the caves in which the great queen Kaahumanu spent the\nearliest days of her childhood. This stone is said to be the kua or\ntapa board on which Hina pounded the bark for her cloth. Other legends\nof that same island locate Hina's home on the northeast coast near\nPohakuloa.\n\nThe Hilo legends, however, do not deem it necessary that Hina and Maui\nshould have their home across the wide channel which divides the Island\nHawaii from the Island Maui in order to wage war successfully with the\ninconsiderate sun. Hina remained in her home by the Wailuku river,\nsometimes resting in her cave under Rainbow Falls, and sometimes working\non the river bank, trusting her powerful son Maui to make the\nswiftly-passing lord of day go more slowly.\n\nMaui possessed many supernatural powers. He could assume the form of\nbirds or insects. He could call on the winds to do his will, or he\ncould, if he wished, traverse miles with a single stride. It is\ninteresting to note that the Hilo legends differ as to the way in which\nMa-ui the man passed over to Mau-i the island. One legend says that he\ncrossed the channel, miles wide, with a single step. Another says that\nhe launched his canoe and with a breath the god of the winds placed him\non the opposite coast, while another story says that Maui assumed the\nform of a white chicken, which flew over the waters to Haleakala. Here\nhe took ropes made from the fibre of trees and vines and lassoed the sun\nwhile it climbed the side of the mountain and entered the great crater\nwhich hollows out the summit. The sun came through a large gap in the\neastern side of the crater, rushing along as rapidly as possible. Then\nMaui threw his lassoes one after the other over the sun's legs (the rays\nof light), holding him fast and breaking off some of them. With a magic\nclub Maui struck the face of the sun again and again. At last, wounded\nand weary, and also limping on its broken legs, the sun promised Maui to\ngo slowly forevermore.\n\n\"La\" among the Polynesians, like the word \"Ra\" among the Egyptians,\nmeans \"sun\" or \"day\" or \"sun-god\"--and the mountain where the son of\nHina won his victory over the monster of the heavens has long borne the\nname Hale-a-ka-la, or House of the Sun.\n\nHina of Hilo soon realized the wonderful deed which Maui had done. She\nspread out her fine tapas with songs of joy and cheerily performed the\ntask which filled the hours of the day. The comfort of sunshine and\ncooling winds came with great power into Hina's life, bringing to her\nrenewed joy and beauty.\n\n\n\n\nXIII.\n\nHINA AND THE WAILUKU RIVER.\n\n\nThere are two rivers of rushing, tumbling rapids and waterfalls in the\nHawaiian Islands, both bearing the name of Wailuku. One is on the Island\nof Maui, flowing out of a deep gorge in the side of the extinct volcano\nIao. Yosemite-like precipices surround this majestically-walled crater.\nThe name Iao means \"asking for clouds.\" The head of the crater-valley is\nalmost always covered with great masses of heavy rain clouds. Out of the\ncrater the massed waters rush in a swift-flowing stream of only four or\nfive miles, emptying into Kahului harbor. The other Wailuku river is on\nthe Island of Hawaii. The snows melt on the summits of the two great\nmountains, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The water seeps through the porous\nlava from the eastern slope of Mauna Loa and the southern slope of Mauna\nKea, meeting where the lava flows of centuries from each mountain have\npiled up against each other. Through the fragments of these volcanic\nbattles the waters creep down the mountain side toward the sea.\n\n[Illustration: Rainbow Falls, Hina's Home.]\n\nAt one place, a number of miles above the city of Hilo, the waters were\nheard gurgling and splashing far below the surface. Water was needed for\nthe sugar plantations, which modern energy has established all along the\neastern coast of the large island. A tunnel was cut into the lava, the\nunderground stream was tapped--and an abundant supply of water secured\nand sluiced down to the large plantations below. The head waters of the\nWailuku river gathered from the melting snow of the mountains found\nthese channels, which centered at last in the bed of a very ancient and\nvery interesting lava flow. Sometimes breaking forth in a large,\nturbulent flood, the stream forces its way over and around the huge\nblocks of lava which mark the course of the eruption of long ago.\nSometimes it courses in a tunnel left by the flowing lava and comes up\nfrom below in a series of boiling pools. Then again it falls in majestic\nsheets over high walls of worn precipices. Several large falls and some\nvery picturesque smaller cascades interspersed with rapids and natural\nbridges give to this river a beauty peculiarly its own. The most weird\nof all the rough places through which the Wailuku river flows is that\nknown as the basin of Rainbow Falls near Hilo. Here Hina, the moon\ngoddess of the Polynesians, lived in a great open cave, over which the\nfalls hung their misty, rainbow-tinted veil. Her son Maui, the mighty\ndemi-god of Polynesia, supposed by some writers to be the sun-god of the\nPolynesians, had extensive lands along the northern bank of the river.\nHere among his cultivated fields he had his home, from which he went\nforth to accomplish the wonders attributed to him in the legends of the\nHawaiians.\n\nBelow the cave in which Hina dwelt the river fought its way through a\nnarrow gorge and then, in a series of many small falls, descended to the\nlittle bay, where its waters mingled with the surf of the salt sea. Far\nabove the cave, in the bed of the river, dwelt Kuna. The district\nthrough which that portion of the river runs bears to this day the name\n\"Wai-kuna\" or \"Kuna's river.\" When the writer was talking with the\nnatives concerning this part of the old legend, they said \"Kuna is not a\nHawaiian word. It means something like a snake or a dragon, something we\ndo not have in these islands.\" This, they thought, made the connection\nwith the Hina legend valueless until they were shown that Tuna (or kuna)\nwas the New Zealand name of a reptile which attacked Hina and struck her\nwith his tail like a crocodile, for which Maui killed him. When this was\nunderstood, the Hawaiians were greatly interested to give the remainder\nof this legend and compare it with the New Zealand story. In New Zealand\nthere are several statements concerning Tuna's dwelling place. He is\nsometimes represented as coming from a pool to attack Hina and sometimes\nfrom a distant stream, and sometimes from the river by which Hina dwelt.\nThe Hawaiians told of the annoyances which Hina endured from Kuna while\nhe lived above her home in the Wailuku. He would stop up the river and\nfill it with dirt as when the freshets brought down the debris of the\nstorms from the mountain sides. He would throw logs and rolling stones\ninto the stream that they might be carried over the falls and drive Hina\nfrom her cave. He had sought Hina in many ways and had been repulsed\nagain and again until at last hatred took the place of all more kindly\nfeelings and he determined to destroy the divine chiefess.\n\nHina was frequently left with but little protection, and yet from her\nhome in the cave feared nothing that Kuna could do. Precipices guarded\nthe cave on either side, and any approach of an enemy through the\nfalling water could be easily thwarted. So her chants rang out through\nthe river valley even while floods swirled around her, and Kuna's\nmissiles were falling over the rocky bed of the stream toward her. Kuna\nbecame very angry and, uttering great curses and calling upon all his\nmagic forces to aid him, caught a great stone and at night hurled it\ninto the gorge of the river below Hina's home, filling the river bed\nfrom bank to bank. \"Ah, Hina! Now is the danger, for the river rises.\nThe water cannot flow away. Awake! Awake!\"\n\nHina is not aware of this evil which is so near. The water rises and\nrises, higher and higher. \"Auwe! Auwe! Alas, alas, Hina must perish!\"\nThe water entered the opening of the cave and began to creep along the\nfloor. Hina cannot fly, except into the very arms of her great enemy,\nwho is waiting to destroy her. Then Hina called for Maui. Again and\nagain her voice went out from the cave. It pierced through the storms\nand the clouds which attended Kuna's attack upon her. It swept along the\nside of the great mountain. It crossed the channel between the islands\nof Hawaii and Maui. Its anguish smote the side of the great mountain\nHaleakala, where Maui had been throwing his lassoes around the sun and\ncompelling him to go more slowly. When Maui heard Hina's cry for help\nechoing from cliff to cliff and through the ravines, he leaped at once\nto rush to her assistance.\n\nSome say that Hina, the goddess, had a cloud servant, the \"ao-opua,\" the\n\"warning cloud,\" which rose swiftly above the falls when Hina cried for\naid and then, assuming a peculiar shape, stood high above the hills that\nMaui might see it. Down the mountain he leaped to his magic canoe.\nPushing it into the sea with two mighty strokes of his paddle he crossed\nthe sea to the mouth of the Wailuku river. Here even to the present day\nlies a long double rock, surrounded by the waters of the bay, which\nthe natives call Ka waa o Maui, \"The canoe of Maui.\" It represents to\nHawaiian thought the magic canoe with which Maui always sailed over the\nocean more swiftly than any winds could carry him. Leaving his canoe,\nMaui seized the magic club with which he had conquered the sun after\nlassoing him, and rushed along the dry bed of the river to the place of\ndanger. Swinging the club swiftly around his head, he struck the dam\nholding back the water of the rapidly-rising river.\n\n[Illustration: Wailuku River, the Home of Kuna.]\n\n\"Ah! Nothing can withstand the magic club. The bank around one end of\nthe dam gives way. The imprisoned waters leap into the new channel. Safe\nis Hina the goddess.\"\n\nKuna heard the crash of the club against the stones of the river bank\nand fled up the river to his home in the hidden caves by the pools in\nthe river bed. Maui rushed up the river to punish Kuna-mo-o for the\ntrouble he had caused Hina. When he came to the place where the dragon\nwas hidden under deep waters, he took his magic spear and thrust it\nthrough the dirt and lava rocks along one side of the river, making a\nlong hole, through which the waters rushed, revealing Kuna-mo-o's hiding\nplace. This place of the spear thrust is known among the Hawaiians as Ka\npuka a Maui, \"the door made by Maui.\" It is also known as \"The natural\nbridge of the Wailuku river.\"\n\nKuna-mo-o fled to his different hiding places, but Maui broke up the\nriver bed and drove the dragon out from every one, following him from\nplace to place as he fled down the river. Apparently this is a legendary\naccount of earthquakes. At last Kuna-mo-o found what seemed to be a safe\nhiding place in a series of deep pools, but Maui poured a lava flow into\nthe river. He threw red-hot burning stones into the water until the\npools were boiling and the steam was rising in clouds. Kuna uttered\nincantation after incantation, but the water scalded and burned him.\nDragon as he was, his hard, tough skin was of no avail. The pain was\nbecoming unbearable. With cries to his gods he leaped from the pools and\nfled down the river. The waters of the pools are no longer scalding, but\nthey have never lost the tumbling, tossing, foaming, boiling swirl which\nMaui gave to them when he threw into them the red-hot stones with which\nhe hoped to destroy Kuna, and they are known today as \"The Boiling\nPots.\"\n\nSome versions of the legend say that Maui poured boiling water in the\nriver and sent it in swift pursuit of Kuna, driving him from point to\npoint and scalding his life out of him. Others say that Maui chased the\ndragon, striking him again and again with his consecrated weapons,\nfollowing Kuna down from falls to falls until he came to the place where\nHina dwelt. Then, feeling that there was little use in flight, Kuna\nbattled with Maui. His struggles were of no avail. He was forced over\nthe falls into the stream below. Hina and her women encouraged Maui by\ntheir chants and strengthened him by the most powerful incantations with\nwhich they were acquainted. Great was their joy when they beheld Kuna's\nponderous body hurled over the falls. Eagerly they watched the dragon as\nthe swift waters swept him against the dam with which he had hoped to\ndestroy Hina; and when the whirling waves caught him and dashed him\nthrough the new channel made by Maui's magic club, they rejoiced and\nsang the praise of the mighty warrior who had saved them. Maui had\nrushed along the bank of the river with tremendous strides overtaking\nthe dragon as he was rolled over and over among the small waterfalls\nnear the mouth of the river. Here Maui again attacked Kuna, at last\nbeating the life out of his body. \"Moo-Kuna\" was the name given by the\nHawaiians to the dragon. \"Moo\" means anything in lizard shape, but Kuna\nwas unlike any lizard known in the Hawaiian Islands. Moo Kuna is the\nname sometimes given to a long black stone lying like an island in the\nwaters between the small falls of the river. As one who calls attention\nto this legendary black stone says: \"As if he were not dead enough\nalready, every big freshet in the stream beats him and pounds him and\ndrowns him over and over as he would have drowned Hina.\" A New Zealand\nlegend relates a conflict of incantations, somewhat like the filling in\nof the Wailuku river by Kuna, and the cleaving of a new channel by Maui\nwith the different use of means. In New Zealand the river is closed by\nthe use of powerful incantations and charms and reopened by the use of\nthose more powerful.\n\nIn the Hervey Islands, Tuna, the god of eels, loved Ina (Hina) and\nfinally died for her, giving his head to be buried. From this head\nsprang two cocoanut trees, bearing fruit marked with Tuna's eyes and\nmouth.\n\nIn Samoa the battle was between an owl and a serpent. The owl conquered\nby calling in the aid of a friend.\n\nThis story of Hina apparently goes far back in the traditions of\nPolynesians, even to their ancient home in Hawaiki, from which it was\ntaken by one branch of the family to New Zealand and by another to the\nHawaiian Islands and other groups in the Pacific Ocean. The dragon may\neven be a remembrance of the days when the Polynesians were supposed to\ndwell by the banks of the River Ganges in India, when crocodiles were\ndangerous enemies and heroes saved families from their destructive\ndepredations.\n\n\n\n\nXIV.\n\nGHOSTS OF THE HILO HILLS.\n\n\nThe legends about Hina and her famous son Maui and her less widely known\ndaughters are common property among the natives of the beautiful little\ncity of Hilo. One of these legends of more than ordinary interest finds\nits location in the three small hills back of Hilo toward the mountains.\n\nThese hills are small craters connected with some ancient lava flow of\nunusual violence. The eruption must have started far up on the slopes of\nMauna Loa. As it sped down toward the sea it met some obstruction which,\nalthough overwhelmed, checked the flow and caused a great mass of\ncinders and ashes to be thrown out until a large hill with a hollow\ncrater was built up, covering many acres of ground.\n\nSoon the lava found another vent and then another obstruction and a\nsecond and then a third hill were formed nearer the sea. These hills or\nextinct craters bear the names Halai, Opeapea and Puu Honu. They are\nnot far from the Wailuku river, famous for its picturesque waterfalls\nand also for the legends which are told along its banks. Here Maui had\nhis lands overlooking the steep bluffs. Here in a cave under the Rainbow\nFalls was the home of Hina, the mother of Maui, according to the\nHawaiian stories. Other parts of the Pacific sometimes make Hina Maui's\nwife, and sometimes a goddess from whom he descended. In the South Sea\nlegends Hina was thought to have married the moon. Her home was in the\nskies, where she wove beautiful tapa cloths (the clouds), which were\nbright and glistening, so that when she rolled them up flashes of light\n(cloud lightning) could be seen on the earth. She laid heavy stones on\nthe corners of these tapas, but sometimes the stones rolled off and made\nthe thunder. Hina of the Rainbow Falls was a famous tapa maker whose\ntapa was the cause of Maui's conflict with the sun.\n\nHina had several daughters, four of whose names are given: Hina Ke Ahi,\nHina Ke Kai, Hina Mahuia, and Hina Kuluua. Each name marked the peculiar\n\"mana\" or divine gift which Hina, the mother, had bestowed upon her\ndaughters.\n\nHina Ke Ahi meant the Hina who had control of fire. This name is\nsometimes given to Hina the mother. Hina Ke Kai was the daughter who had\npower over the sea. She was said to have been in a canoe with her\nbrother Maui when he fished up Cocoanut Island, his line breaking\nbefore he could pull it up to the mainland and make it fast. Hina Kuluua\nwas the mistress over the forces of rain. The winds and the storms were\nsupposed to obey her will. Hina Mahuia is peculiarly a name connected\nwith the legends of the other island groups of the Pacific. Mahuia or\nMafuie was a god or goddess of fire all through Polynesia.\n\nThe legend of the Hilo hills pertains especially to Hina Ke Ahi and Hina\nKuluua. Hina the mother gave the hill Halai to Hina Ke Ahi and the hill\nPuu Honu to Hina Kuluua for their families and dependents.\n\nThe hills were of rich soil and there was much rain. Therefore, for a\nlong time, the two daughters had plenty of food for themselves and their\npeople, but at last the days were like fire and the sky had no rain in\nit. The taro planted on the hillsides died. The bananas and sugar cane\nand sweet potatoes withered and the fruit on the trees was blasted. The\npeople were faint because of hunger, and the shadow of death was over\nthe land. Hina Ke Ahi pitied her suffering friends and determined to\nprovide food for them. Slowly her people labored at her command. Over\nthey went to the banks of the river course, which was only the bed of an\nancient lava stream, over which no water was flowing; the famished\nlaborers toiled, gathering and carrying back whatever wood they could\nfind, then up the mountain side to the great koa and ohia forests,\ngathering their burdens of fuel according to the wishes of their\nchiefess.\n\nTheir sorcerers planted charms along the way and uttered incantations to\nward off the danger of failure. The priests offered sacrifices and\nprayers for the safe and successful return of the burden-bearers. After\nmany days the great quantity of wood desired by the goddess was piled up\nby the side of the Halai Hill.\n\nThen came the days of digging out the hill and making a great imu or\ncooking oven and preparing it with stones and wood. Large quantities of\nwood were thrown into the place. Stones best fitted for retaining heat\nwere gathered and the fires kindled. When the stones were hot, Hina Ke\nAhi directed the people to arrange the imu in its proper order for\ncooking the materials for a great feast. A place was made for sweet\npotatoes, another for taro, another for pigs and another for dogs. All\nthe form of preparing the food for cooking was passed through, but no\nreal food was laid on the stones. Then Hina told them to make a place in\nthe imu for a human sacrifice. Probably out of every imu of the long ago\na small part of the food was offered to the gods, and there may have\nbeen a special place in the imu for that part of the food to be cooked.\nAt any rate Hina had this oven so built that the people understood that\na remarkable sacrifice would be offered in it to the gods, who for some\nreason had sent the famine upon the people.\n\nHuman sacrifices were frequently offered by the Hawaiians even after the\ndays of the coming of Captain Cook. A dead body was supposed to be\nacceptable to the gods when a chief's house was built, when a chief's\nnew canoe was to be made or when temple walls were to be erected or\nvictories celebrated. The bodies of the people belonged to the will of\nthe chief. Therefore it was in quiet despair that the workmen obeyed\nHina Ke Ahi and prepared the place for sacrifice. It might mean their\nown holocaust as an offering to the gods. At last Hina Ke Ahi bade the\nlaborers cease their work and stand by the side of the oven ready to\ncover it with the dirt which had been thrown out and piled up by the\nside. The people stood by, not knowing upon whom the blow might fall.\n\nBut Hina Ke Ahi was \"Hina the kind,\" and although she stood before them\nrobed in royal majesty and power, still her face was full of pity and\nlove. Her voice melted the hearts of her retainers as she bade them\ncarefully follow her directions.\n\n\"O my people. Where are you? Will you obey and do as I command? This imu\nis my imu. I shall lie down on its bed of burning stones. I shall sleep\nunder its cover. But deeply cover me or I may perish. Quickly throw the\ndirt over my body. Fear not the fire. Watch for three days. A woman\nwill stand by the imu. Obey her will.\"\n\nHina Ke Ahi was very beautiful, and her eyes flashed light like fire as\nshe stepped into the great pit and lay down on the burning stones. A\ngreat smoke arose and gathered over the imu. The men toiled rapidly,\nplacing the imu mats over their chiefess and throwing the dirt back into\nthe oven until it was all thoroughly covered and the smoke was quenched.\n\nThen they waited for the strange, mysterious thing which must follow the\nsacrifice of this divine chiefess.\n\nHalai hill trembled and earthquakes shook the land round about. The\ngreat heat of the fire in the imu withered the little life which was\nstill left from the famine. Meanwhile Hina Ke Ahi was carrying out her\nplan for securing aid for her people. She could not be injured by the\nheat for she was a goddess of fire. The waves of heat raged around her\nas she sank down through the stones of the imu into the underground\npaths which belonged to the spirit world. The legend says that Hina made\nher appearance in the form of a gushing stream of water which would\nalways supply the want of her adherents. The second day passed. Hina was\nstill journeying underground, but this time she came to the surface as a\npool named Moe Waa (canoe sleep) much nearer the sea. The third day came\nand Hina caused a great spring of sweet water to burst forth from the\nsea shore in the very path of the ocean surf. This received the name\nAuauwai. Here Hina washed away all traces of her journey through the\ndepths. This was the last of the series of earthquakes and the\nappearance of new water springs. The people waited, feeling that some\nmore wonderful event must follow the remarkable experiences of the three\ndays. Soon a woman stood by the imu, who commanded the laborers to dig\naway the dirt and remove the mats. When this was done, the hungry people\nfound a very great abundance of food, enough to supply their want until\nthe food plants should have time to ripen and the days of the famine\nshould be over.\n\nThe joy of the people was great when they knew that their chiefess had\nescaped death and would still dwell among them in comfort. Many were the\nsongs sung and stories told about the great famine and the success of\nthe goddess of fire.\n\nThe second sister, Hina Kuluua, the goddess of rain, was always very\njealous of her beautiful sister Hina Ke Ahi, and many times sent rain to\nput out fires which her sister tried to kindle. Hina Ke Ahi could not\nstand the rain and so fled with her people to a home by the seaside.\n\nHina Kuluua (or Hina Kuliua as she was sometimes known among the\nHawaiians) could control rain and storms, but for some reason failed to\nprovide a food supply for her people, and the famine wrought havoc\namong them. She thought of the stories told and songs sung about her\nsister and wished for the same honor for herself. She commanded her\npeople to make a great imu for her in the hill Puu Honu. She knew that a\nstrange power belonged to her and yet, blinded by jealousy, forgot that\nrain and fire could not work together. She planned to furnish a great\nsupply of food for her people in the same way in which her sister had\nworked.\n\nThe oven was dug. Stones and wood were collected and the same ghostly\narray of potatoes, taro, pig and dog prepared as had been done before by\nher sister.\n\nThe kahunas or priests knew that Hina Kuluua was going out of her\nprovince in trying to do as her sister had done, but there was no use in\nattempting to change her plans. Jealousy is self-willed and obstinate\nand no amount of reasoning from her dependents could have any influence\nover her.\n\nThe ordinary incantations were observed, and Hina Kuluua gave the same\ndirections as those her sister had given. The imu was to be well heated.\nThe make-believe food was to be put in and a place left for her body. It\nwas the goddess of rain making ready to lie down on a bed prepared for\nthe goddess of fire. When all was ready, she lay down on the heated\nstones and the oven mats were thrown over her and the ghostly\nprovisions. Then the covering of dirt was thrown back upon the mats and\nheated stones, filling the pit which had been dug. The goddess of\nrain was left to prepare a feast for her people as the goddess of fire\nhad done for her followers.\n\n[Illustration: On Lava Beds.]\n\nSome of the legends have introduced the demi-god Maui into this story.\nThe natives say that Maui came to \"burn\" or \"cook the rain\" and that he\nmade the oven very hot, but that the goddess of rain escaped and hung\nover the hill in the form of a cloud. At least this is what the people\nsaw--not a cloud of smoke over the imu, but a rain cloud. They waited\nand watched for such evidences of underground labor as attended the\npassage of Hina Ke Ahi through the earth from the hill to the sea, but\nthe only strange appearance was the dark rain cloud. They waited three\ndays and looked for their chiefess to come in the form of a woman. They\nwaited another day and still another and no signs or wonders were\nmanifest. Meanwhile Maui, changing himself into a white bird, flew up\ninto the sky to catch the ghost of the goddess of rain which had escaped\nfrom the burning oven. Having caught this spirit, he rolled it in some\nkapa cloth which he kept for food to be placed in an oven and carried it\nto a place in the forest on the mountain side where again the attempt\nwas made to \"burn the rain,\" but a great drop escaped and sped upward\ninto the sky. Again Maui caught the ghost of the goddess and carried it\nto a pali or precipice below the great volcano Kilauea, where he again\ntried to destroy it in the heat of a great lava oven, but this time the\nspirit escaped and found a safe refuge among kukui trees on the mountain\nside, from which she sometimes rises in clouds which the natives say are\nthe sure sign of rain.\n\nWhether this Maui legend has any real connection with the two Hinas and\nthe famine we do not surely know. The legend ordinarily told among the\nHawaiians says that after five days had passed the retainers decided on\ntheir own responsibility to open the imu. No woman had appeared to give\nthem directions. Nothing but a mysterious rain cloud over the hill. In\ndoubt and fear, the dirt was thrown off and the mats removed. Nothing\nwas found but the ashes of Hina Kuluua. There was no food for her\nfollowers and the goddess had lost all power of appearing as a chiefess.\nHer bitter and thoughtless jealousy brought destruction upon herself and\nher people. The ghosts of Hina Ke Ahi and Hina Kuluua sometimes draw\nnear to the old hills in the form of the fire of flowing lava or clouds\nof rain while the old men and women tell the story of the Hinas, the\nsisters of Maui, who were laid upon the burning stones of the imus of a\nfamine.\n\n\n\n\nXV.\n\nHINA, THE WOMAN IN THE MOON.\n\n\nThe Wailuku river has by its banks far up the mountain side some of the\nmost ancient of the various interesting picture rocks of the Hawaiian\nIslands. The origin of the Hawaiian picture writing is a problem still\nunsolved, but the picture rocks of the Wailuku river are called \"na kii\no Maui,\" \"the Maui pictures.\" Their antiquity is beyond question.\n\nThe most prominent figure cut in these rocks is that of the crescent\nmoon. The Hawaiian legends do not attempt any direct explanation of the\nmeaning of this picture writing. The traditions of the Polynesians both\nconcerning Hina and Maui look to Hina as the moon goddess of their\nancestors, and in some measure the Hawaiian stories confirm the\ntraditions of the other island groups of the Pacific.\n\nFornander, in his history of the Polynesian race, gives the Hawaiian\nstory of Hina's ascent to the moon, but applies it to a Hina the wife\nof a chief called Aikanaka rather than to the Hina of Hilo, the wife of\nAkalana, the father of Maui. However, Fornander evidently found some\ndifficulty in determining the status of the one to whom he refers the\nlegend, for he calls her \"the mysterious wife of Aikanaka.\" In some of\nthe Hawaiian legends Hina, the mother of Maui, lived on the southeast\ncoast of the Island Maui at the foot of a hill famous in Hawaiian story\nas Kauiki. Fornander says that this \"mysterious wife\" of Aikanaka bore\nher children Puna and Huna, the latter a noted sea-rover among the\nPolynesians, at the foot of this hill Kauiki. It can very easily be\nsupposed that a legend of the Hina connected with the demi-god Maui\nmight be given during the course of centuries to the other Hina, the\nmother of Huna. The application of the legend would make no difference\nto anyone were it not for the fact that the story of Hina and her ascent\nto the moon has been handed down in different forms among the traditions\nof Samoa, New Zealand, Tonga, Hervey Islands, Fate Islands, Nauru and\nother Pacific island groups. The Polynesian name of the moon, Mahina or\nMasina, is derived from Hina, the goddess mother of Maui. It is even\npossible to trace the name back to \"Sin,\" the moon god of the Assyrians.\n\nThe moon goddess of Ponape was Ina-maram. (Hawaiian Hina-malamalama),\n\"Hina giving light.\"\n\nIn the Paumotan Islands an eclipse of the sun is called Higa-higa-hana\n(Hina-hiua-hana), \"The act (hana) of Hina--the moon.\"\n\nIn New Zealand moonless nights were called \"Dark Hina.\"\n\nIn Tahiti it is said there was war among the gods. They cursed the\nstars. Hina saved them, although they lost a little light. Then they\ncursed the sea, but Hina preserved the tides. They cursed the rivers,\nbut Hina saved the springs--the moving waters inland, like the tides in\nthe ocean.\n\nThe Hawaiians say that Hina and her maidens pounded out the softest,\nfinest kapa cloth on the long, thick kapa board at the foot of Kauiki.\nIncessantly the restless sea dashed its spray over the picturesque\ngroups of splintered lava rocks which form the Kauiki headland. Here\nabove the reach of the surf still lies the long, black stone into which\nthe legends say Hina's kapa board was changed. Here Hina took the leaves\nof the hala tree and, after the manner of the Hawaiian women of the ages\npast, braided mats for the household to sleep upon, and from the nuts of\nthe kukui trees fashioned the torches which were burned around the homes\nof those of high chief rank.\n\nAt last she became weary of her work among mortals. Her family had\nbecome more and more troublesome. It was said that her sons were unruly\nand her husband lazy and shiftless. She looked into the heavens and\ndetermined to flee up the pathway of her rainbow through the clouds.\n\nThe Sun was very bright and Hina said, \"I will go to the Sun.\" So she\nleft her home very early in the morning and climbed up, higher, higher,\nuntil the heat of the rays of the sun beat strongly upon her and\nweakened her so that she could scarcely crawl along her beautiful path.\nUp a little higher and the clouds no longer gave her even the least\nshadow. The heat from the sun was so great that she began to feel the\nfire shriveling and torturing her. Quickly she slipped down into the\nstorms around her rainbow and then back to earth. As the day passed her\nstrength came back, and when the full moon rose through the shadows of\nthe night she said, \"I will climb to the moon and there find rest.\"\n\nBut when Hina began to go upward her husband saw her and called to her:\n\"Do not go into the heavens.\" She answered him: \"My mind is fixed; I\nwill go to my new husband, the moon.\" And she climbed up higher and\nhigher. Her husband ran toward her. She was almost out of reach, but he\nleaped and caught her foot. This did not deter Hina from her purpose.\nShe shook off her husband, but as he fell he broke her leg so that the\nlower part came off in his hands. Hina went up through the stars, crying\nout the strongest incantations she could use. The powers of the night\naided her. The mysterious hands of darkness lifted her, until she stood\nat the door of the moon. She had packed her calabash with her most\npriceless possessions and had carried it with her even when injured by\nher cruel husband. With her calabash she limped into the moon and found\nher abiding home. When the moon is full, the Hawaiians of the long ago,\naye and even today, look into the quiet, silvery light and see the\ngoddess in her celestial home, her calabash by her side.\n\nThe natives call her now Lono-moku, \"the crippled Lono.\" From this watch\ntower in the heavens she pointed out to Kahai, one of her descendents,\nthe way to rise up into the skies. The ancient chant thus describes his\nascent:\n\n  \"The rainbow is the path of Kahai.\n  Kahai rose. Kahai bestirred himself.\n  Kahai passed on the floating cloud of Kane.\n  Perplexed were the eyes of Alihi.\n  Kahai passed on on the glancing light.\n  The glancing light on men and canoes.\n  Above was Hanaiakamalama.\" (Hina).\n\nThus under the care of his ancestress Hina, Kahai, the great sea-rover,\nmade his ascent in quest of adventures among the immortals.\n\nIn the Tongan Islands the legends say that Hina remains in the moon\nwatching over the \"fire-walkers\" as their great protecting goddess.\n\nThe Hervey Island traditions say that the Moon (Marama) had often seen\nHina and admired her, and at last had come down and caught her up to\nlive with himself. The moonlight in its glory is called Ina-motea, \"the\nbrightness of Ina.\"\n\nThe story as told on Atiu Island (one of the Society group) is that Hina\ntook her human husband with her to the moon, where they dwelt happily\nfor a time, but as he grew old she prepared a rainbow, down which he\ndescended to the earth to die, leaving Hina forevermore as \"the woman in\nthe moon.\" The Savage Islanders worshiped the spirits of their\nancestors, saying that many of them went up to the land of Sina, the\nalways bright land in the skies. To the natives of Niue Island, Hina has\nbeen the goddess ruling over all tapa making. They say that her home is\n\"Motu a Hina,\" \"the island of Hina,\" the home of the dead in the skies.\n\nThe Samoans said that the Moon received Hina and a child, and also her\ntapa board and mallet and material for the manufacture of tapa cloth.\nTherefore, when the moon is shining in full splendor, they shade their\neyes and look for the goddess and the tools with which she fashions the\ntapa clouds in the heavens.\n\nThe New Zealand legend says that the woman went after water in the\nnight. As she passed down the path to the spring the bright light of the\nfull moon made the way easy for her quick footsteps, but when she had\nfilled her calabash and started homeward, suddenly the bright light was\nhidden by a passing cloud and she stumbled against a stone in the path\nand fell to the ground, spilling the water she was carrying. Then she\nbecame very angry and cursed the moon heartily. Then the moon became\nangry and swiftly swept down upon her from the skies, grasping her and\nlifting her up. In her terrible fight she caught a small tree with one\nhand and her calabash with the other. But oh! the strong moon pulled her\nup with the tree and the calabash and there in the full moon they can\nall be traced when the nights are clear.\n\nPleasant or Nauru Island, in which a missionary from Central Union\nChurch, Honolulu, is laboring, tells the story of Gigu, a beautiful\nyoung woman, who has many of the experiences of Hina. She opened the\neyes of the Mother of the Moon as Hina, in some of the Polynesian\nlegends, is represented to have opened the eyes of one of the great\ngoddesses, and in reward is married to Maraman, the Moon, with whom she\nlives ever after, and in whose embrace she can always be seen when the\nmoon is full. Gigu is Hina under another and more guttural form of\nspeech. Maraman is the same as Malama, one of the Polynesian names for\nthe moon.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\n                          Page.\n\n  Akea or Atea, see Wakea, 41\n\n  Akalana, or Ataranga, 3, 4, 166\n\n  Alae birds, 12, 18, 27, 62, 65, 120, 123\n\n  Alae-Huapi, 120\n\n  Alae-nui-a-Hina, 123\n\n  Ao-tea-roa, 23, 93, 106, 108, 128, 137\n\n  Aumakuas, 26\n\n  Ava-iki, or Hawa-i-ki, 5, 37, 41, 52, 72, 137\n\n  Awa, 8\n\n  Axe, stone, 93, 94\n\n\n  Bailing dish, 123\n\n  Bananas, 45, 64\n\n  Banyan, 56, 71\n\n  Barbs, spears, 79, 101\n\n  Birds, 85, 110, 112, 135, 144\n\n  Bird-machine, 125\n\n  Birds, painted, 85, 112\n\n  Black rock, 32, 48\n\n  Boiling pots, 100, 152\n\n  Bones, fish hooks, 15, 83\n\n  Brittany, 57\n\n  Bua-Tarana-ga, 5\n\n\n  Cain and Abel, 89\n\n  Calabash, 19, 31, 84, 115\n\n  Cannibalism, 91, 93\n\n  Canoe, Maui's, 28, 118, 150\n\n  Cats-cradle, 86\n\n  Cloud, Maui's-ao-opua, 150\n\n  Coco-nut Island, 19, 26\n\n  Cook, Captain, 7\n\n  Cooking the rain, 163\n\n  Coral, 29\n\n  Creation, 4, 80, 86\n\n  Crocodile, 148\n\n\n  Death, 25, 38, 67, 82, 137, 170\n\n  Death chant, 138\n\n  Dog, 80, 102\n\n  Dragon, 97, 148, 153\n\n\n  Earth twisted, 12, 15\n\n  Eclipse, 42, 158\n\n  Eel, 7, 33, 83, 94, 130\n\n  Eel baskets, 79, 102\n\n  Eight-eyed, 83, 124\n\n  Ellis, William, 84\n\n  Egypt, 44\n\n  Evolution, 85, 103, 109, 132\n\n\n  Fairies, 113\n\n  Fire-finding--\n    Australia, 59\n    Bowditch Islands, 76\n    Chatham Islands, 75\n    De Peysters Islands, 59\n    Hawaii, 61, 120\n    Hervey Islands, 67, 70\n    Indians, 57\n    New Zealand, 67, 74, 88\n    Peruvians, 59\n    Samoa, 67, 70\n    Savage Islands, 67, 72\n    Society Islands, 66, 72\n    Tartary, 59\n    Tokelau Island, 67\n\n  First man, 89\n\n  Fishing up islands--\n    Hawaii, 14, 18, 26\n    Hervey Islands, 26\n    New Hebrides, 25\n    New Zealand, 19, 88\n    Samoa, 24\n    Tonga, 24, 28\n\n  Fish hooks, 12, 15, 20, 26, 81, 118\n\n  Fish nets, 81\n\n  Flood, 25\n\n  Flying machine, 125\n\n  Forbes, Rev. A. O., 42\n\n  Fornander, A., 83\n\n\n  Ganges, 154\n\n  Gilbert Islands, 34, 60\n\n  Gill, W. W., 36\n\n  Gray, Sir George, 7, 20, 23, 49, 101, 110\n\n  Green stone, 110, 134\n\n  Guardian of under-world, 4, 5, 17, 70\n\n\n  Hades, 129\n\n  Halai hills, 64, 155\n\n  Hale-a-ka-la, 7, 13, 32, 43, 62, 143\n\n  Hale-a-o-a, 76\n\n  Hau tree, 102\n\n  Hau spirit, Preface\n\n  Haumia-Tiki-Tiki, 34\n\n  Hawa-iki, 5, 35, 37, 137, 154\n\n  Hawaii-loa, 29\n\n  Hawke's bay, 28\n\n  Hele-a-ka-la, 122\n\n  Hercules, 53, 112\n\n  Hervey Islands, 4, 5, 10\n\n  Hide-and-seek, 10\n\n  Hilo, 7, 19, 26, 64, 129, 147, 155\n\n  Hina, 5, 7, 10, 12, 18, 45, 61, 64, 121, 139\n\n  Hina-a-ke-ahi, 3, 27, 157\n\n  Hina-a-ke-ka, 123\n\n  Hina-a-te-lepo, 91\n\n  Hina-Kulu-ua, 157, 161\n\n  Hina-uri, 101\n\n  Hine-nui-te-po, 23, 123, 133\n\n  Hina's daughters, 156\n\n  Horizon or heaven, 107\n\n  Human sacrifices, 159\n\n  Hump-back, 125\n\n  Huna, 166\n\n\n  Iao, 43\n\n  Ie-ie, fiber, 125\n\n  Iiwi, 113\n\n  Ika-o-Maui, 23\n\n  Ili-ahi, 66\n\n  Immortality, Maui, 128\n\n  Imu, oven, 159\n\n  Ina, see Hina, 5, 66, 142\n\n  India, 154\n\n  Indians, fire-finding, 57\n\n  Indians, snaring sun, 54\n\n  Ira Waru, 101\n\n\n  Kaahumanu, 143\n\n  Ka-alae-huapi, 120\n\n  Kahai chant, 169\n\n  Ka-iwi-o-Pele, 18\n\n  Kalakaua, 8\n\n  Kalana-Kalanga, see Akalana, 3, 4, 60\n\n  Kalau-hele-moa, 45\n\n  Kamapuaa, 83\n\n  Kanaloa, 5, 24, 29, 120\n\n  Kane, 35, 119, 135\n\n  Kane's cave, 119\n\n  Kauai, 26\n\n  Kauiki, or Kauwiki, 7, 12, 26, 143, 168\n\n  Kaula Island, 26\n\n  Kipahula, 18\n\n  Ki-i-ki-i, 6, 32, 143\n\n  Kite-flying, 87, 112, 128\n\n  Ko, spade, 94\n\n  Kohala, 28\n\n  Koolau, 44\n\n  Ku, 5\n\n  Kualii, 12\n\n  Kuna, see Tuna, 7, 99\n\n  Ku-olo--Kele, 125\n\n  Ku-ula, fish god, 140\n\n\n  La, or Ra, 5, 44\n\n  Langi, Lani, 34\n\n  Lahaina, 32\n\n  Lasso, 47, 51, 80, 144\n\n  Lifting the sky--\n    Ellice Islands, 33\n    Gilbert Islands, 34\n    Hawaii, 31\n    Hervey Islands, 36\n    Manahiki, 35\n    New Zealand, 34\n    Samoa, 32\n\n  Liliuokalani chants, 3, 8, 17, 27, 40\n\n  Long Eel, 92\n\n  Lono, 34\n\n\n  Ma-eli-eli hill, 120\n\n  Magic fish hook, 82\n\n  Mahui, Mahuika, Mafuia, 5, 60, 68, 73, 132\n\n  Mahina, or Masina, 166\n\n  Mamo bird, 114\n\n  Manahiki Islands, 24, 80\n\n  Maori, 28, 34\n\n  Marama, or Malama, 166, 171\n\n  Marshall Islands, 60\n\n  Maru, 89\n\n  Mauna Kea, 13\n\n  Maui Akalana--\n    Akamai, 78, 82\n    baptized, 10, 133\n    birth, 6\n    bird or insect, 9, 10, 20, 24, 71, 114, 144\n    brothers, 3, 6, 14, 22, 24, 78, 107\n    canoes, 28\n    children, 82, 93, 137\n    creation, 4, 80\n    death, 25, 26\n    Hawaii, 130\n    Hervey Islands, 131\n    New Zealand, 137\n    Samoa, 131\n    eight-eyed, 83\n    footprints, 25, 33\n    god or demi-god, 4, 148\n    home, 4, 7, 10, 31, 119\n    hook, 12, 15, 19, 26, 28\n    of the malo, Preface\n    prophet, 84\n    sister, 6\n    the swift, 64, 117, 121\n    uncles, 8\n\n  Maui-Mua, or Rupe, 106, 125\n\n  Maui Hope, 124\n\n  Maui Waena, 3, 124\n\n  Mercury, 11\n\n  Moemoe, 48\n\n  Mo-o, 41, 97, 99\n\n  Moon, 41, 89, 134\n\n  Moon, Hina the goddess, 147, 156, 165\n\n  Motu, or Mokua Hina, 170\n\n  Mudhen, 120\n\n  Muri, 48, 50\n\n\n  Nauru Islands, 171\n\n  New Heavens, 107\n\n  New Hebrides Islands, 25\n\n  New Zealand, 4, 5, 7, 9\n\n  Niu Islands, 33\n\n\n  Oahu legends--\n    Maui and the two gods, 119\n    How they found fire, 120\n    Maui catching the sun, 122\n    Uniting the islands, 123\n    Maui and Pea-pea, 124\n\n  Obsidian, 109, 134\n\n  Ohia trees, 80\n\n  Olona, 81, 114, 117\n\n  O-o, spade, 94\n\n  O-o, bird, 114\n\n\n  Paoa, 29\n\n  Papa, 34\n\n  Payton, 25\n\n  Pea-pea, the eight-eyed, 124\n\n  Pearl Harbor, 123\n\n  Peruvians, 59\n\n  Pictographs, 165\n\n  Pigeon, 9\n\n  Pimoe, 18\n\n  Pohakunui, 64\n\n  Prometheus, 57\n\n  Puka-a-Maui, 151\n\n  Pumice stone, 38\n\n  Puna, 166\n\n  Puu-o-hulu, 119, 123\n\n\n  Ra or La, sun-god, 5, 44\n\n  Rainbow Falls, 8, 26, 99, 147\n\n  Raro Tonga, 6, 24\n\n  Roko, 97\n\n  Rongo, 34\n\n  Ru, 5, 35\n\n  Rupe, Maui-mua, 106, 125\n\n\n  Samoa, 5, 24, 29\n\n  Sandalwood, 66\n\n  Savage Islands, 74\n\n  Savaii, 29, 129\n\n  Scorpion, 26\n\n  Serpent, 33\n\n  Sharks, 18, 123\n\n  Short days, 143\n\n  Sina, see Hina, 96, 143, 166, 171\n\n  Snaring the sun--\n    Fiji, 54\n    Hawaii, 42, 122, 144\n    Hervey Islands, 52\n    Indians, 54\n    New Zealand, 48\n    Samoa, 143\n    Society Islands, 41, 50, 53, 143\n    Tonga, 40\n\n  Snow, 89\n\n  Society Islands, 5\n\n  Spears, 81\n\n  Spirits, islands of, 129\n\n  Stone implements, 86, 93, 110\n\n  Sun, created, 41\n\n  Supporter of the Heavens, 37\n\n\n  Tabu, 102, 126\n\n  Tahiti, 76, 86\n\n  Talanga or Kalana, 5, 68\n\n  Tane, see Kane, 35\n\n  Tangaroa or Kanaloa, 6, 24, 25, 34, 66\n\n  Tapa, 11, 13, 42, 62, 116, 119, 122, 141\n\n  Taro, 121\n\n  Tattooing, 80, 104, 136\n\n  Tawhiri, 35\n\n  Te-ika-o-Maui, 23\n\n  Ti leaves, 125\n\n  Ti-i-Ti-i}\n           }      Kii-Kii, 6, 25, 32, 34, 60, 68\n  Tiki-Tiki}\n\n  Tini-rau, 106, 108\n\n  Tokelau Island, 67\n\n  Tonga, 28, 40, 89, 129\n\n  Tonga-iti, 41\n\n  Tracey Islands, 33\n\n  Tu or Ku, 35\n\n  Tuna or Kuna, 91\n    Fiji, 91\n    Hawaii, 99, 148\n    Hervey Islands, 154\n    New Zealand, 92\n    Samoa, 96\n\n  Turner, 24\n\n\n  Ulua, 12, 18\n\n  Under-world, 4, 9, 15, 51, 68, 129\n\n  Uniting the islands, 123\n\n  Upolu, 25\n\n\n  Vatea, or Wakea, 41\n\n  Vatupu Islands, 33\n\n\n  Waianae, 65, 119\n\n  Waikuna, 100, 148\n\n  Wailuku, 7, 26, 80, 140, 146\n\n  Waipahu, 125\n\n  Waipio, 115\n\n  Wakea, Vatea, Atea, 4, 41\n\n  Water of life, 134\n\n  White, John, 87, 96, 101, 132\n\n  Wife of Maui, 91, 124, 137, 156\n\n  Wiliwili tree, 44\n\n  Winds, 86, 115\n\n  Woman in the Moon, 165","title":"Legends of Ma-ui\u2014a demi god of Polynesia, and of his mother Hina","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":41401}