Maui, the powerful young demi-god who dwelt with his mother, the
goddess Hina, in the great cave behind Rainbow Falls, had succeeded in
so many hazardous undertakings, and had the welfare of his people so
much at heart, that he resolved upon what was to be his greatest deed
of prowess and beneficence.
Now Maui had a magic fish-hook which he cleverly used while fishing
with his brothers. Maui was very sly and quick, but he was never a
good fisherman. He would sit in the canoe and drag his hook through
the water, catching no fish himself but snagging those his brothers
caught and laughing merrily at their bewildered expressions when they
pulled in their lines and found nothing.
They distrusted Maui, for he would never let them see his hook, yet
they knew it was shaped differently from theirs. It was more
complicated and had a double barb, while the common fish-hook had but
one. But his brothers could never catch him at his tricks.
At last they no longer allowed him to accompany them on their fishing
trips, as he took all the fish and honors, and they all knew--Maui
included--that he did not deserve them. So Maui would go alone to the
bay, but the hook remained idle in the bottom of his magic canoe
which, as related in the legend of Kuna, he drove from the shores of
the Island of Maui to the mouth of the Wailuku with two sweeps of his
paddle.
While drifting about Maui watched some of his people who were not
blessed with magic canoes, and considered the hard paddling required
to send them through the water.
One day as he sat in his canoe watching another pass by, evidently on
its way to a neighboring island, the demi-god wondered if it might not
make things easier to have all the islands joined together, so people
could travel to any part of the kingdom without the laborious canoe
voyages.
Calling a meeting of Hawaii's chiefs and strong men Maui informed them
of a plan to draw all the islands together. He told them he would need
their help in pulling the islands, but no matter how hard or how long
they pulled they must never look back to see how much was being
accomplished until the islands were firmly joined together.
The men solemnly promised to obey Maui and at once proceeded to their
new task. The island now known as Maui was selected for the first
attempt. Maui fastened his magic fish-hook into that part of the land
nearest Hawaii, and at his command the strong men and chiefs paddled
with all their might. Slowly the island moved behind them.
No one dared look around, though all were burning with curiosity to
see the result of their struggles. Long and steadily they paddled
until the two islands were only a few feet apart. Then one of the
chiefs could no longer control his curiosity and looked around.
In an instant the charm was broken. The island slid back through the
sea to its former position in spite of all that Maui, chiefs and
strong men could do to stop it. Only a small piece of land was
left--that in which the fish-hook was still deeply imbedded. Today
that bit of land is covered with lauhala trees and coconut palms, and
is known as Coconut Island.
So great was Maui's disappointment at this his first failure in any
important enterprise that he would not try again. He said his
fish-hook had lost its charm and sorrowfully he took it away with him
in his canoe. He carried it up the Wailuku River to his home behind
Rainbow Falls, where he grieved for many days over the unsuccessful
attempt. Later, having no more use for the hook, he carried it away
from the cave and threw it into the forest near his home, where it lay
undisturbed until the haole came.
To those early settlers the magic fish-hook of Maui was of less
interest as such than as material for masonry, and not a piece of it
remains. At the forks of the Piihonua-Kaumana road one may, however,
see the peculiar-shaped depression where it lay for so long before
civilization's vanguard swept the tangled jungle of Maui's time from
its hiding-place.
[Illustration: Drawn by Will Herwig. Paradise Eng.