Some say Maui noticed that the sun and moon rose again from their daily
death, by virtue of a fountain in Hades (Hine-nui-te-po) where they
bathed. Others say he wished to kill Hine-nui-te-po (conceived of as a
woman) and to carry off her heart. Whatever the reason, Maui was to be
swallowed up in the giant frame of Hades, or Night, and, if he escaped
alive, Death would never have power over men. He made the desperate
adventure, and would have succeeded but for the folly of one of the birds
which accompanied him. This little bird, which sings at sunset, burst
out laughing inopportunely, wakened Hine-nui-te-po, and she crushed to
death Maui and all hopes of earthly immortality. Had he only come forth
alive, men would have been deathless. Now, except that the bird which
laughed sings at sunset, what is there 'solar' in all this? _The sun
does daily what Maui failed to do_, {190a} passes through darkness and
death back into light and life. Not only does the sun daily succeed
where Maui failed, but it was his observation of this fact which
encouraged Maui to risk the adventure. If Maui were the sun, we should
all be immortal, for Maui's ordeal is daily achieved by the sun. But Dr.
Tylor says: {190b} 'It is seldom that solar characteristics are more
distinctly marked in the several details of a myth than they are here.'
To us the characteristics seem to be precisely the reverse of solar.
Throughout the cycle of Maui he is constantly set in direct opposition to
the sun, and the very point of the final legend is that what the sun
could do Maui could not. Literally the one common point between Maui and
the sun is that the little bird, the tiwakawaka, which sings at the daily
death of day, sang at the eternal death of Maui.
Without pausing to consider the Tongan myth of the Origin of Death, we
may go on to investigate the legends of the Aryan races. According to
the Satapatha Brahmana, Death was made, like the gods and other
creatures, by a being named Prajapati. Now of Prajapati, half was
mortal, half was immortal. With his mortal half he feared Death, and
concealed himself from Death in earth and water. Death said to the gods,
'What hath become of him who created us?' They answered, 'Fearing thee,
hath he entered the earth.' The gods and Prajapati now freed themselves
from the dominion of Death by celebrating an enormous number of
sacrifices. Death was chagrined by their escape from the 'nets and
clubs' which he carries in the Aitareya Brahmana. 'As you have escaped
me, so will men also escape,' he grumbled. The gods appeased him by the
promise that, _in the body_, no man henceforth for ever should evade
Death. 'Every one who is to become immortal shall do so by first parting
with his body.'