Hercules, or the Samson, of the heavens. He broke the strong cords of
cocoanut fibre which Maui made and placed around the opening by which
the sun climbed out from the under-world. Maui made stronger ropes, but
still the sun broke them every one.
Then Maui thought of his sister's hair, the sister Inaika, whom he
cruelly treated in later years. Her hair was long and beautiful. He cut
off some of it and made a strong rope. With this he lassoed or rather
snared the sun, and caught him around the throat. The sun quickly
promised to be more thoughtful of the needs of men and go at a more
reasonable pace across the sky.
A story from the American Indians is told in Hawaii's Young People,
which is very similar to the Polynesian legends.
An Indian boy became very angry with the sun for getting so warm and
making his clothes shrink with the heat. He told his sister to make a
snare. The girl took sinews from a large deer, but they shriveled under
the heat. She took her own long hair and made snares, but they were
burned in a moment. Then she tried the fibres of various plants and was
successful. Her brother took the fibre cord and drew it through his
lips. It stretched and became a strong red cord. He pulled and it became
very long. He went to the place of sunrise, fixed his snare, and caught
the sun. When the sun had been sufficiently punished, the animals of the
earth studied the problem of setting the sun free. At last a mouse as
large as a mountain ran and gnawed the red cord. It broke and the sun
moved on, but the poor mouse had been burned and shriveled into the
small mouse of the present day.
A Samoan legend says that a woman living for a time with the sun bore a
child who had the name "Child of the Sun." She wanted gifts for the
child's marriage, so she took a long vine, climbed a tree, made the vine
into a noose, lassoed the sun, and made him give her a basket of
blessings.
In Fiji, the natives tie the grasses growing on a hilltop over which
they are passing, when traveling from place to place. They do this to
make a snare to catch the sun if he should try to go down before they
reach the end of their day's journey.
This legend is a misty memory of some time when the Polynesian people
were in contact with the short days of the extreme north or south. It is
a very remarkable exposition of a fact of nature perpetuated many
centuries in lands absolutely free from such natural phenomena.
V.
MAUI FINDING FIRE.
"Grant, oh grant me thy hidden fire,
O Banyan Tree.
Perform an incantation,
Utter a prayer
To the Banyan Tree.
Kindle a fire in the dust
Of the Banyan Tree."
--Translation of ancient Polynesian chant.
Among students of mythology certain characters in the legends of the
various nations are known as "culture heroes." Mankind has from time to
time learned exceedingly useful lessons and has also usually ascribed
the new knowledge to some noted person in the national mythology. These
mythical benefactors who have brought these practical benefits to men
are placed among the "hero-gods." They have been teachers or "culture
heroes" to mankind.
Probably the fire finders of the different nations are among the best
remembered of all these benefactors. This would naturally be the case,
for no greater good has touched man's physical life than the discovery
of methods of making fire.
Prometheus, the classical fire finder, is most widely known in
literature. But of all the helpful gods of mythology, Maui, the
mischievous Polynesian, is beyond question the hero of the largest
numbers of nations scattered over the widest extent of territory.
Prometheus belonged to Rome, but Maui belonged to the length and breadth
of the Pacific Ocean. Theft or trickery, the use of deceit of some kind,
is almost inseparably connected with fire finding all over the world.
Prometheus stole fire from Jupiter and gave it to men together with the
genius to make use of it in the arts and sciences. He found the rolling
chariot of the sun, secretly filled his hollow staff with fire, carried
it to earth, put a part in the breast of man to create enthusiasm or
animation, and saved the remainder for the comfort of mankind to be used
with the artist skill of Minerva and Vulcan. In Brittany the golden or
fire-crested wren steals fire and is red-marked while so doing. The
animals of the North American Indians are represented as stealing fire
sometimes from the cuttle fish and sometimes from one another. Some
swiftly-flying bird or fleet-footed coyote would carry the stolen fire
to the home of the tribe.
The possession of fire meant to the ancients all that wealth means to
the family of today. It meant the possession of comfort. The gods were
naturally determined to keep this wealth in their own hands. For any one
to make a sharp deal and cheat a god of fire out of a part of this
valuable property or to make a courageous raid upon the fire guardian
and steal the treasure, was easily sufficient to make that one a
"culture hero." As a matter of fact a prehistoric family without fire
would go to any length in order to get it. The fire finders would
naturally be the hero-gods and stealing fire would be an exploit rather
than a crime.
It is worth noting that in many myths not only was fire stolen, but
birds marked by red or black spots among their feathers were associated
with the theft.
It would naturally be supposed that the Hawaiians living in a volcanic
country with ever-flowing fountains of lava, would connect their fire
myths with some volcano when relating the story of the origin of fire.
But like the rest of the Polynesians, they found fire in trees rather
than in rivers of melted rock. They must have brought their fire legends
and fire customs with them when they came to the islands of active
volcanoes.
Flint rocks as fire producers are not found in the Hawaiian myths, nor
in the stories from the island groups related to the Hawaiians. Indians
might see the fleeing buffalo strike fire from the stones under his hard
hoofs. The Tartars might have a god to teach them "the secret of the
stone's edge and the iron's hardness." The Peruvians could very easily
form a legend of their mythical father Guamansuri finding a way to make
fire after he had seen the sling stones, thrown at his enemies, bring
forth sparks of fire from the rocks against which they struck. The
thunder and the lightning of later years were the sparks and the crash
of stones hurled among the cloud mountains by the mighty gods.
In Australia the story is told of an old man and his daughter who lived
in great darkness. After a time the father found the doorway of light
through which the sun passed on his journey. He opened the door and a
flood of sunshine covered the earth. His daughter looked around her home
and saw numbers of serpents. She seized a staff and began to kill them.
She wielded it so vigorously that it became hot in her hands. At last it
broke, but the pieces rubbed against each other and flashed into sparks
and flames. Thus it was learned that fire was buried in wood.
Flints were known in Europe and Asia and America, but the Polynesian
looked to the banyan and kindred trees for the hidden sparks of fire.
The natives of De Peyster's Island say that their ancestors learned how
to make fire by seeing smoke rise from crossed branches rubbing together
while trees were shaken by fierce winds.
In studying the Maui myths of the Pacific it is necessary to remember
that Polynesians use "t" and "k" without distinguishing them apart, and
also as in the Hawaiian Islands an apostrophe (') is often used in place
of "t" or "k". Therefore the Maui Ki-i-k-i'i of Hawaii becomes the
demi-god Tiki-tiki of the Gilbert Islands--or the Ti'i-ti'i of Samoa or
the Tiki of New Zealand--or other islands of the great ocean. We must
also remember that in the Hawaiian legends Kalana is Maui's father. This
in other groups becomes Talanga or Kalanga or Karanga. Kanaloa, the
great god of most of the different Polynesians, is also sometimes called
the Father of Maui. It is not strange that some of the exploits usually
ascribed to Maui should be in some places transferred to his father
under one name or the other. On one or two groups Mafuia, an ancestress
of Maui, is mentioned as finding the fire. The usual legend makes Maui
the one who takes fire away from Mafuia. The story of fire finding in
Polynesia sifts itself to Maui under one of his widely-accepted names,
or to his father or to his ancestress--with but very few exceptions.
This fact is important as showing in a very marked manner the race
relationship of a vast number of the islanders of the Pacific world.
From the Marshall Islands, in the west, to the Society Islands of the
east; from the Hawaiian Islands in the north to the New Zealand group in
the south, the footsteps of Maui the fire finder can be traced.
The Hawaiian story of fire finding is one of the least marvelous of all
the legends. Hina, Maui's mother, wanted fish. One morning early Maui
saw that the great storm waves of the sea had died down and the fishing
grounds could be easily reached. He awakened his brothers and with them
hastened to the beach. This was at Kaupo on the island of Maui. Out into
the gray shadows of the dawn they paddled. When they were far from shore
they began to fish. But Maui, looking landward, saw a fire on the
mountain side.
"Behold," he cried. "There is a fire burning. Whose can this fire be?"
"Whose, indeed?" his brothers replied.
"Let us hasten to the shore and cook our food," said one.
They decided that they had better catch some fish to cook before they
returned. Thus, in the morning, before the hot sun drove the fish deep
down to the dark recesses of the sea, they fished until a bountiful
supply lay in the bottom of the canoe.
When they came to land, Maui leaped out and ran up the mountain side to
get the fire. For a long, long time they had been without fire. The
great volcano Haleakala above them had become extinct--and they had
lost the coals they had tried to keep alive. They had eaten fruits and
uncooked roots and the shell fish broken from the reef--and sometimes
the great raw fish from the far-out ocean. But now they hoped to gain
living fire and cooked food.
But when Maui rushed up toward the cloudy pillar of smoke he saw a
family of birds scratching the fire out. Their work was finished and
they flew away just as he reached the place.
Maui and his brothers watched for fire day after day--but the birds, the
curly-tailed Alae (or the mud-hens) made no fire. Finally the brothers
went fishing once more--but when they looked toward the mountain, again
they saw flames and smoke. Thus it happened to them again and again.
Maui proposed to his brothers that they go fishing leaving him to watch
the birds. But the Alae counted the fishermen and refused to build a
fire for the hidden one who was watching them. They said among
themselves, "Three are in the boat and we know not where the other one
is, we will make no fire today."
So the experiment failed again and again. If one or two remained or if
all waited on the land there would be no fire--but the dawn which saw
the four brothers in the boat, saw also the fire on the land.
Finally Maui rolled some kapa cloth together and stuck it up in one end
of the canoe so that it would look like a man. He then concealed
himself near the haunt of the mud-hens, while his brothers went out
fishing. The birds counted the figures in the boat and then started to
build a heap of wood for the fire.
Maui was impatient--and just as the old Alae began to select sticks with
which to make the flames he leaped swiftly out and caught her and held
her prisoner. He forgot for a moment that he wanted the secret of fire
making. In his anger against the wise bird his first impulse was to
taunt her and then kill her for hiding the secret of fire.
But the Alae cried out: "If you are the death of me--my secret will
perish also--and you cannot have fire."
Maui then promised to spare her life if she would tell him what to do.
Then came the contest of wits. The bird told the demi-god to rub the
stalks of water plants together. He guarded the bird and tried the
plants. Water instead of fire ran out of the twisted stems. Then she
told him to rub reeds together--but they bent and broke and could make
no fire. He twisted her neck until she was half dead--then she cried
out: "I have hidden the fire in a green stick."
Maui worked hard, but not a spark of fire appeared. Again he caught his
prisoner by the head and wrung her neck, and she named a kind of dry
wood. Maui rubbed the sticks together, but they only became warm. The
neck twisting process was resumed--and repeated again and again, until
the mud-hen was almost dead--and Maui had tried tree after tree. At last
Maui found fire. Then as the flames rose he said: "There is one more
thing to rub." He took a fire stick and rubbed the top of the head of
his prisoner until the feathers fell off and the raw flesh appeared.
Thus the Hawaiian mud-hen and her descendants have ever since had bald
heads, and the Hawaiians have had the secret of fire making.
Another Hawaiian legend places the scene of Maui's contest with the
mud-hens a little inland of the town of Hilo on the Island of Hawaii.
There are three small extinct craters very near each other known as The
Halae Hills. One, the southern or Puna side of the hills, is a place
called Pohaku-nui. Here dwelt two brother birds of the Alae family. They
were gods. One had the power of fire making. Here at Pohaku-nui they
were accustomed to kindle a fire and bake their dearly loved food--baked
bananas. Here Maui planned to learn the secret of fire. The birds had
kindled the fire and the bananas were almost done, when the elder Alae
called to the younger: "Be quick, here comes the swift son of Hina."
The birds scratched out the fire, caught the bananas and fled. Maui told
his mother he would follow them until he learned the secret of fire. His
mother encouraged him because he was very strong and very swift. So he
followed the birds from place to place as they fled from him, finding
new spots on which to make their fires. At last they came to Waianae on
the island Oahu. There he saw a great fire and a multitude of birds
gathered around it, chattering loudly and trying to hasten the baking of
the bananas. Their incantation was this: "Let us cook quick." "Let us
cook quick." "The swift child of Hina will come."
Maui's mother Hina had taught him how to know the fire-maker. "If you go
up to the fire, you will find many birds. Only one is the guardian. This
is the small, young Alae. His name is Alae-iki: Only this one knows how
to make fire." So whenever Maui came near to the fire-makers he always
sought for the little Alae. Sometimes he made mistakes and sometimes
almost captured the one he desired. At Waianae he leaped suddenly among
the birds. They scattered the fire, and the younger bird tried to snatch
his banana from the coals and flee, but Maui seized him and began to
twist his neck. The bird cried out, warning Maui not to kill him or he
would lose the secret of fire altogether. Maui was told that the fire
was made from a banana stump. He saw the bananas roasting and thought
this was reasonable. So, according to directions, he began to rub
together pieces of the banana. The bird hoped for an unguarded moment
when he might escape, but Maui was very watchful and was also very
angry when he found that rubbing only resulted in squeezing out juice.
Then he twisted the neck of the bird and was told to rub the stem of the
taro plant. This also was so green that it only produced water. Then he
was so angry that he nearly rubbed the head of the bird off--and the
bird, fearing for its life, told the truth and taught Maui how to find
the wood in which fire dwelt.
They learned to draw out the sparks secreted in different kinds of
trees. The sweet sandalwood was one of these fire trees. Its Hawaiian
name is "Ili-ahi"--the "ili" (bark) and "ahi" (fire), the bark in which
fire is concealed.
A legend of the Society Islands is somewhat similar. Ina (Hina) promised
to aid Maui in finding fire for the islanders. She sent him into the
under-world to find Tangaroa (Kanaloa). This god Tangaroa held fire in
his possession--Maui was to know him by his tattooed face. Down the dark
path through the long caves Maui trod swiftly until he found the god.
Maui asked him for fire to take up to men. The god gave him a lighted
stick and sent him away. But Maui put the fire out and went back again
after fire. This he did several times, until the wearied giver decided
to teach the intruder the art of fire making. He called a white duck to
aid him. Then, taking two sticks of dry wood, he gave the under one to
the bird and rapidly moved the upper stick across the under until fire
came. Maui seized the upper stick, after it had been charred in the
flame, and burned the head of the bird back of each eye. Thus were made
the black spots which mark the head of the white duck. Then arose a
quarrel between Tangaroa and Maui--but Maui struck down the god, and,
thinking he had killed him, carried away the art of making fire. His
father and mother made inquiries about their relative--Maui hastened
back to the fire fountain and made the spirit return to the body--then,
coming back to Ina, he bade her good bye and carried the fire sticks to
the upper-world. The Hawaiians, and probably others among the
Polynesians, felt that any state of unconsciousness was a form of death
in which the spirit left the body, but was called back by prayers and
incantations. Therefore, when Maui restored the god to consciousness, he
was supposed to have made the spirit released by death return into the
body and bring it back to life.
In the Samoan legends as related by G. Turner, the name Ti'iti'i is
used. This is the same as the second name found in Maui Ki'i-ki'i. The
Samoan legend of Ti'iti'i is almost identical with the New Zealand fire
myth of Maui, and is very similar to the story coming from the Hervey
Islands from Savage Island and also from the Tokelau and other island
groups. The Samoan story says that the home of Mafuie the earthquake
god was in the land of perpetual fire. Maui's or Ti'iti'i's father
Talanga (Kalana) was also a resident of the under-world and a great
friend of the earthquake god.
Ti'iti'i watched his father as he left his home in the upper-world.
Talanga approached a perpendicular wall of rock, said some prayer or
incantation--and passed through a door which immediately closed after
him. (This is a very near approach to the "open sesame" of the Arabian
Nights stories.)
Ti'iti'i went to the rock, but could not find the way through. He
determined to conceal himself the next time so near that he could hear
his father's words.
After some days he was able to catch all the words uttered by his father
as he knocked on the stone door--
"O rock! divide.
I am Talanga,
I come to work
On my land
Given by Mafuie."
Ti'iti'i went to the perpendicular wall and imitating his father's voice
called for a rock to open. Down through a cave he passed until he found
his father working in the under-world.
The astonished father, learning how his son came, bade him keep very
quiet and work lest he arouse the anger of Mafuie. So for a time the
boy labored obediently by his father's side.
In a little while the boy saw smoke and asked what it was. The father
told him that it was the smoke from the fire of Mafuie, and explained
what fire would do.
The boy determined to get some fire--he went to the place from which the
smoke arose and there found the god, and asked him for fire. Mafuie gave
him fire to carry to his father. The boy quickly had an oven prepared
and the fire placed in it to cook some of the taro they had been
cultivating. Just as everything was ready an earthquake god came up and
blew the fire out and scattered the stones of the oven.
Then Ti'iti'i was angry and began to talk to Mafuie. The god attacked
the boy, intending to punish him severely for daring to rebel against
the destruction of the fire.
What a battle there was for a time in the under-world! At last Ti'iti'i
seized one of the arms of Mafuie and broke it off. He caught the other
arm and began to twist and bend it.
Mafuie begged the boy to spare him. His right arm was gone. How could he
govern the earthquakes if his left arm were torn off also? It was his
duty to hold Samoa level and not permit too many earthquakes. It would
be hard to do that even with one arm--but it would be impossible if
both arms were gone.
Ti'iti'i listened to the plea and demanded a reward if he should spare
the left arm. Mafuie offered Ti'iti'i one hundred wives. The boy did not
want them.
Then the god offered to teach him the secret of fire finding to take to
the upper-world.
The boy agreed to accept the fire secret, and thus learned that the gods
in making the earth had concealed fire in various trees for men to
discover in their own good time, and that this fire could be brought out
by rubbing pieces of wood together.
The people of Samoa have not had much faith in Mafuie's plea that he
needed his left arm in order to keep Samoa level. They say that Mafuie
has a long stick or handle to the world under the islands--and when he
is angry or wishes to frighten them he moves this handle and easily
shakes the islands. When an earthquake comes, they give thanks to
Ti'iti'i for breaking off one arm--because if the god had two arms they
believe he would shake them unmercifully.
One legend of the Hervey Islands says that Maui and his brothers had
been living on uncooked food--but learned that their mother sometimes
had delicious food which had been cooked. They learned also that fire
was needed in order to cook their food. Then Maui wanted fire and
watched his mother.
Maui's mother was the guardian of the way to the invisible world. When
she desired to pass from her home to the other world, she would open a
black rock and pass inside. Thus she went to Hawaiki, the under-world.
Maui planned to follow her, but first studied the forms of birds that he
might assume the body of the strongest and most enduring. After a time
he took the shape of a pigeon and, flying to the black rock, passed
through the door and flew down the long dark passage-way.
After a time he found the god of fire living in a bunch of banyan
sticks. He changed himself into the form of a man and demanded the
secret of fire.
The fire god agreed to give Maui fire if he would permit himself to be
tossed into the sky by the god's strong arms.
Maui agreed on condition that he should have the right to toss the fire
god afterwards.
The fire-god felt certain that there would be only one exercise of
strength--he felt that he had everything in his own hands--so readily
agreed to the tossing contest. It was his intention to throw his
opponent so high that when he fell, if he ever did fall, there would be
no antagonist uncrushed.
He seized Maui in his strong arms and, swinging him back and forth,
flung him upward--but the moment Maui left his hands he changed himself
into a feather and floated softly to the ground.
Then the boy ran swiftly to the god and seized him by the legs and
lifted him up. Then he began to increase in size and strength until he
had lifted the fire god very high. Suddenly he tossed the god upward and
caught him as he fell--again and again--until the bruised and dizzy god
cried enough, and agreed to give the victor whatever he demanded.
Maui asked for the secret of fire producing. The god taught him how to
rub the dry sticks of certain kinds of trees together, and, by friction,
produce fire, and especially how fire could be produced by rubbing fire
sticks in the fine dust of the banyan tree.
A Society Island legend says Maui borrowed a sacred red pigeon,
belonging to one of the gods, and, changing himself into a dragon fly,
rode this pigeon through a black rock into Avaiki (Hawaiki), the
fire-land of the under-world. He found the god of fire, Mau-ika, living
in a house built from a banyan tree. Mau-ika taught Maui the kinds of
wood into which when fire went out on the earth a fire goddess had
thrown sparks in order to preserve fire. Among these were the "au"
(Hawaiian hau), or "the lemon hibiscus"--the "argenta," the "fig" and
the "banyan." She taught him also how to make fire by swift motion when
rubbing the sticks of these trees. She also gave him coals for his
present need.