then mounted his pigeon and fled toward the upper-world. But the flames
hastened after him and burst out through the rock doors into the sunlit
land above--as if it were a volcanic eruption.
The Tokelau Islanders say that Talanga (Kalana) known in other groups of
islands as the father of Maui, desired fire in order to secure warmth
and cooked food. He went down, down, very far down in the caves of the
earth. In the lower world he found Mafuika--an old blind woman, who was
the guardian of fire. He told her he wanted fire to take back to men.
She refused either to give fire or to teach how to make it. Talanga
threatened to kill her, and finally persuaded her to teach how to make
fire in any place he might dwell--and the proper trees to use, the
fire-yielding trees. She also taught him how to cook food--and also the
kind of fish he should cook, and the kinds which should be eaten raw.
Thus mankind learned about food as well as fire.
The Savage Island legend adds the element of danger to Maui's
mischievous theft of fire. The lad followed his father one day and saw
him pull up a bunch of reeds and go down into the fire-land beneath.
Maui hastened down to see what his father was doing. Soon he saw his
opportunity to steal the secret of fire. Then he caught some fire and
started for the upper-world.
His father caught a glimpse of the young thief and tried to stop him.
Maui ran up the passage through the black cave--bushes and trees
bordered his road.
The father hastened after his son and was almost ready to lay hands upon
him, when Maui set fire to the bushes. The flames spread rapidly,
catching the underbrush and the trees on all sides and burst out in the
face of the pursuer. Destruction threatened the under-world, but Maui
sped along his way. Then he saw that the fire was chasing him. Bush
after bush leaped into flame and hurled sparks and smoke and burning air
after him. Choked and smoke-surrounded, he broke through the door of the
cavern and found the fresh air of the world. But the flames followed him
and swept out in great power upon the upper-world a mighty volcanic
eruption.
The New Zealand legends picture Maui as putting out, in one night, all
the fires of his people. This was serious mischief, and Maui's mother
decided that he should go to the under-world and see his ancestress,
Mahuika, the guardian of fire, and get new fire to repair the injury he
had wrought. She warned him against attempting to play tricks upon the
inhabitants of the lower regions.
[Illustration: Hawaiian Vines and Bushes.]
Maui gladly hastened down the cave-path to the house of Mahuika, and
asked for fire for the upper-world. In some way he pleased her so that
she pulled off a finger nail in which fire was burning and gave it to
him. As soon as he had gone back to a place where there was water, he
put the fire out and returned to Mahuika, asking another gift, which he
destroyed. This he did for both hands and feet until only one nail
remained. Maui wanted this. Then Mahuika became angry and threw the last
finger nail on the ground. Fire poured out and laid hold of everything.
Maui ran up the path to the upper-world, but the fire was
swifter-footed. Then Maui changed himself into an eagle and flew high up
into the air, but the fire and smoke still followed him. Then he saw
water and dashed into it, but it was too hot. Around him the forests
were blazing, the earth burning and the sea boiling. Maui, about to
perish, called on the gods for rain. Then floods of water fell and the
fire was checked. The great rain fell on Mahuika and she fled, almost
drowned. Her stores of fire were destroyed, quenched by the storm. But
in order to save fire for the use of men, as she fled she threw sparks
into different kinds of trees where the rain could not reach them, so
that when fire was needed it might be brought into the world again by
rubbing together the fire sticks.
The Chatham Islanders give the following incantation, which they said
was used by Maui against the fierce flood of fire which was pursuing
him:
"To the roaring thunder;
To the great rain--the long rain;
To the drizzling rain--the small rain;
To the rain pattering on the leaves.
These are the storms--the storms
Cause them to fall;
To pour in torrents."
The legend of Savage Island places Maui in the role of fire-maker. He
has stolen fire in the under-world. His father tries to catch him, but
Maui sets fire to the bushes by the path until a great conflagration is
raging which pursues him to the upper-world.
Some legends make Maui the fire-teacher as well as the fire-finder. He
teaches men how to use hardwood sticks in the fine dry dust on the bark
of certain trees, or how to use the fine fibre of the palm tree to catch
sparks.
In Tahiti the fire god lived in the "Hale-a-o-a," or House of the
Banyan. Sometimes human sacrifices were placed upon the sacred branches
of this tree of the fire god.
In the Bowditch or Fakaofa Islands the goddess of fire when conquered
taught not only the method of making fire by friction but also what fish
were to be cooked and what were to be eaten raw.
Thus some of the myths of Maui, the mischievous, finding fire are told
by the side of the inrolling surf, while natives of many islands,
around their poi bowls, rest in the shade of the far-reaching boughs and
thick foliage of the banyan and other fire-producing trees.
VI.
MAUI THE SKILLFUL.
According to the New Zealand legends there were six Mauis--the Hawaiians
counted four. They were a band of brothers. The older five were known as
"the forgetful Mauis." The tricky and quick-witted youngest member of
the family was called Maui te atamai--"Maui the skillful."
He was curiously accounted for in the New Zealand under-world. When he
went down through the long cave to his ancestor's home to find fire, he
was soon talked about. "Perhaps this is the man about whom so much is
said in the upper-world." His ancestress from whom he obtained fire
recognized him as the man called "the deceitful Maui." Even his parents
told him once, "We know you are a tricky fellow--more so than any other
man." One of the New Zealand fire legends while recording his flight to
the under-world and his appearance as a bird, says: "The men tried to
spear him, and to catch him in nets. At last they cried out, 'Maybe you
are the man whose fame is great in the upper-world.' At once he leaped
to the ground and appeared in the form of a man."
He was not famous for inventions, but he was always ready to improve
upon anything which was already in existence. He could take the sun in
hand and make it do better work. He could tie the moon so that it had to
swim back around the island to the place in the ocean from which it
might rise again, and go slowly through the night.
His brothers invented a slender, straight and smooth spear with which to
kill birds. He saw the fluttering, struggling birds twist themselves off
the smooth point and escape. He made a good light bird spear and put
notches in it and kept most of the birds stuck. His brothers finally
examined his spear and learned the reason for its superiority. In the
same way they learned how to spear fish. They could strike and wound and
sometimes kill--but they could not with their smooth spears draw the
fish from the waters of the coral caves. But Maui the youngest made
barbs, so that the fish could not easily shake themselves loose. The
others soon made their spears like his.
The brothers were said to have invented baskets in which to trap eels,
but many eels escaped. Maui improved the basket by secretly making an
inside partition as well as a cover, and the eels were securely trapped.
It took the brothers a long time to learn the real difference between
their baskets and his. One of the family made a basket like his and
caught many eels. Then Maui became angry and chanted a curse over him
and bewildered him, then changed him into a dog.
The Manahiki Islanders have the legend that Maui made the moon, but
could not get good light from it. He tried experiments and found that
the sun was quite an improvement. The sun's example stimulated the moon
to shine brighter.
Once Maui became interested in tattooing and tried to make a dog look
better by placing dark lines around the mouth. The legends say that one
of the sacred birds saw the pattern and then marked the sky with the red
lines sometimes seen at sunrise and sunset. An Hawaiian legend says that
Maui tattooed his arm with a sacred name and thus that arm was strong
enough to hold the sun when he lassoed it. There is a New Zealand legend
in which Maui is made one of three gods who first created man and then
woman from one of the man's ribs.
The Hawaiians dwelling in Hilo have many stories of Maui. They say that
his home was on the northern bank of the Wailuku River. He had a strong
staff made from an ohia tree (the native apple tree). With this he
punched holes through the lava, making natural bridges and boiling
pools, and new channels for its sometimes obstructed waters, so that the
people could go up or down the river more easily. Near one of the
natural bridges is a figure of the moon carved in the rocks, referred by
some of the natives to Maui.
Maui is said to have taught his brothers the different kinds of fish
nets and the use of the strong fibre of the olona, which was much better
than cocoanut threads.
The New Zealand stories relate the spear-throwing contests of Maui and
his brothers. As children, however, they were not allowed the use of
wooden spears. They took the stems of long, heavy reeds and threw them
at each other, but Maui's reeds were charmed into stronger and harder
fibre so that he broke his mother's house and made her recognize him as
one of her children. He had been taken away as soon as he was born by
the gods to whom he was related. When he found his way back home his
mother paid no attention to him. Thus by a spear thrust he won a home.
The brothers all made fish hooks, but Maui the youngest made two kinds
of hooks--one like his brothers' and one with a sharp barb. His
brothers' hooks were smooth so that it was difficult to keep the fish
from floundering and shaking themselves off, but they noticed that the
fish were held by Maui's hook better than by theirs. Maui was not
inclined to devote himself to hard work, and lived on his brothers as
much as possible--but when driven out by his wife or his mother he
would catch more fish than the other fishermen. They tried to examine
his hooks, but he always changed his hooks so that they could not see
any difference between his and theirs. At such times they called him the
mischievous one and tried to leave him behind while they went fishing.
They were, however, always ready to give him credit for his
improvements. They dealt generously with him when they learned what he
had really accomplished. When they caught him with his barbed hook they
forgot the past and called him "ke atamai"--the skillful.
The idea that fish hooks made from the jawbones of human beings were
better than others, seemed to have arisen at first from the angle formed
in the lower jawbone. Later these human fish hooks were considered
sacred and therefore possessed of magic powers. The greater sanctity and
power belonged to the bones which bore more especial relation to the
owner. Therefore Maui's "magic hook," with which he fished up islands,
was made from the jawbone of his ancestress Mahuika. It is also said
that in order to have powerful hooks for every-day fishing he killed two
of his children. Their right eyes he threw up into the sky to become
stars. One became the morning and the other the evening star.
The idea that the death of any members of the family must not stand in
the way of obtaining magical power, has prevailed throughout Polynesia.
From this angle in the jawbone Maui must have conceived the idea of
making a hook with a piece of bone or shell which should be fastened to
the large bone at a very sharp angle, thus making a kind of barb. Hooks
like this have been made for ages among the Polynesians.
Maui and his brothers went fishing for eels with bait strung on the
flexible rib of a cocoanut leaf. The stupid brothers did not fasten the
ends of the string. Therefore the eels easily slipped the bait off and
escaped. But Maui made the ends of his string fast, and captured many
eels.
The little things which others did not think about were the foundation
of Maui's fame. Upon these little things he built his courage to snare
the sun and seek fire for mankind.
In a New Zealand legend, quoted by Edward Tregear, Maui is called
Maui-maka-walu, or "Maui with eyes eight." This eight-eyed Maui would be
allied to the Hindoo deities who with their eight eyes face the four
quarters of the world--thus possessing both insight into the affairs of
men and foresight into the future.
Fornander, the Hawaiian ethnologist, says: "In Hawaiian mythology,
Kamapuaa, the demigod opponent of the goddess Pele, is described as
having eight eyes and eight feet; and in the legends Maka-walu,
'eight-eyed,' is a frequent epithet of gods and chiefs." He notes this
coincidence with the appearance of some of the principal Hindoo deities
as having some bearing upon the origin of the Polynesians. It may be
that a comparative study of the legends of other islands of the Pacific
by some student will open up other new and important facts.
In Tahiti, on the island Raiatea, a high priest or prophet lived in the
long, long ago. He was known as Maui the prophet of Tahiti. He was
probably not Maui the demigod. Nevertheless he was represented as
possessing very strange prophetical powers.
According to the historian Ellis, who previous to 1830 spent eight years
in the Society and Hawaiian Islands, this prophet Maui clearly
prophesied the coming of an outriggerless canoe from some foreign land.
An outrigger is a log which so balances a canoe that it can ride safely
through the treacherous surf.
The chiefs and prophets charged him with stating the impossible.
He took his wooden calabash and placed it in a pool of water as an
illustration of the way such a boat should float.
Then with the floating bowl before him he uttered the second prophecy,
that boats without line to tie the sails to the masts, or the masts to
the ships, should also come to Tahiti.
[Illustration: Hawaiian Bathing Pool.]
When English ships under Captain Wallis and Captain Cook, in the latter
part of the eighteenth century, visited these islands, the natives cried
out, "O the canoes of Maui--the outriggerless canoes."
Passenger steamships, and the men-of-war from the great nations, have
taught the Tahitians that boats without sails and masts can cross the
great ocean, and again they have recurred to the words of the prophet
Maui, and have exclaimed, "O the boats without sails and masts." This
rather remarkable prophecy could easily have occurred to Maui as he saw
a wooden calabash floating over rough waters.
Maui's improvement upon nature's plan in regard to certain birds is also
given in the legends as a proof of his supernatural powers.
White relates the story as follows: "Maui requested some birds to go and
fetch water for him. The first one would not obey, so he threw it into
the water. He requested another bird to go--and it refused, so he threw
it into the fire, and its feathers were burnt. But the next bird obeyed,
but could not carry the water, and he rewarded it by making the feathers
of the fore part of its head white. Then he asked another bird to go,
and it filled its ears with water and brought it to Maui, who drank, and
then pulled the bird's legs and made them long in payment for its act of
kindness."
Diffenbach says: "Maui, the Adam of New Zealand, left the cat's cradle
to the New Zealanders as an inheritance." The name "Whai" was given to
the game. It exhibited the various steps of creation according to Maori
mythology. Every change in the cradle shows some act in creation. Its
various stages were called "houses." Diffenbach says again: "In this
game of Maui they are great proficients. It is a game like that called
cat's cradle in Europe. It is intimately connected with their ancient
traditions and in the different figures which the cord is made to assume
whilst held on both hands, the outline of their different varieties of
houses, canoes or figures of men and women are imagined to be
represented." One writer connects this game with witchcraft, and says it
was brought from the under-world. Some parts of the puzzle show the
adventures of Maui, especially his attempt to win immortality for men.
In New Zealand it was said Maui found a large, fine-grained stone block,
broke it in pieces, and from the fragments learned how to fashion stone
implements.
White also tells the New Zealand legend of Maui and the winds.
"Maui caught and held all the winds save the west wind. He put each wind
into a cave, so that it might not blow. He sought in vain for the west
wind, but could not find from whence it came. If he had found the cave
in which it stayed he would have closed the entrance to that cave with
rocks. When the west wind blows lightly it is because Maui has got near
to it, and has nearly caught it, and it has gone into its home, the
cave, to escape him. When the winds of the south, east, and north blow
furiously it is because the rocks have been removed by the stupid people
who could not learn the lessons taught by Maui. At other times Maui
allows these winds to blow in hurricanes to punish that people, and also
that he may ride on these furious winds in search of the west wind."
In the Hawaiian legends Maui is represented as greatly interested in
making and flying kites. His favorite place for the sport was by the
boiling pools of the Wailuku river near Hilo. He had the winds under his
control and would call for them to push his kites in the direction he
wished. His incantation calling up the winds is given in this Maui
proverb--
"Strong wind come,
Soft wind come."
White in his "Ancient History of the Maoris," relates some of Maui's
experiences with the people whom he found on the islands brought up from
the under-world. On one island he found a sand house with eight hundred
gods living in it. Apparently Maui discovered islands with inhabitants,
and was reported to have fished them up out of the depths of the ocean.
Fishing was sailing over the ocean until distant lands were drawn near
or "fished up."
Maui walked over the islands and found men living on them and fires
burning near their homes. He evidently did not know much about fire, for
he took it in his hands. He was badly burned and rushed into the sea.
Down he dived under the cooling waters and came up with one of the New
Zealand islands on his shoulders. But his hands were still burning, so
wherever he held the island it was set on fire.
These fires are still burning in the secret recesses of the volcanoes,
and sometimes burst out in flowing lava. Then Maui paid attention to the
people whom he had fished up. He tried to teach them, but they did not
learn as he thought they should. He quickly became angry and said, "It
is a waste of light for the sun to shine on such stupid people." So he
tried to hold his hands between them and the sun, but the rays of the
sun were too many and too strong; therefore, he could not shut them out.
Then he tried the moon and managed to make it dark a part of the time
each month. In this way he made a little trouble for the stupid people.
There are other hints in the legends concerning Maui's desire to be
revenged upon any one who incurred his displeasure. It was said that
Maui for a time lived in the heavens above the earth. Here he had a
foster brother Maru. The two were cultivating the fields. Maru sent a
snowstorm over Maui's field. (It would seem as if this might be a
Polynesian memory of a cold land where their ancestors knew the cold
winter, or a lesson learned from the snow-caps of high mountains.) At
any rate, the snow blighted Maui's crops. Maui retaliated by praying for
rain to destroy Maru's fields. But Maru managed to save a part of his
crops. Other legends make Maui the aggressor. At the last, however, Maui
became very angry. The foster parents tried to soothe the two men by
saying, "Live in peace with each other and do not destroy each other's
food." But Maui was implacable and lay in wait for his foster brother,
who was in the habit of carrying fruit and grass as an offering to the
gods of a temple situated on the summit of a hill. Here Maui killed Maru
and then went away to the earth.
This legend is told by three or four different tribes of New Zealand and
is very similar to the Hebrew story of Cain and Abel. At this late day
it is difficult to say definitely whether or not it owes its origin to
the early touch of Christianity upon New Zealand when white men first
began to live with the natives. It is somewhat similar to stories found
in the Tonga Islands and also in the Hawaiian group, where a son of the
first gods, or rather of the first men, kills a brother. In each case
there is the shadow of the Biblical idea. It seems safe to infer that
such legends are not entirely drawn from contact with Christian
civilization. The natives claim that these stories are very ancient, and
that their fathers knew them before the white men sailed on the
Pacific.
VII.
MAUI AND TUNA.
When Maui returned from the voyages in which he discovered or "fished
up" from the ocean depths new islands, he gave deep thought to the
things he had found. As the islands appeared to come out of the water he
saw they were inhabited. There were houses and stages for drying and
preserving food. He was greeted by barking dogs. Fires were burning,
food cooking and people working. He evidently had gone so far away from
home that a strange people was found. The legend which speaks of the
death of his brothers, "eaten" by the great fish drawn up from the floor
of the sea, may very easily mean that the new people killed and ate the
brothers.
Maui apparently learned some new lessons, for on his return he quickly
established a home of his own, and determined to live after the fashion
of the families in the new islands.
Maui sought Hina-a-te-lepo, "daughter of the swamp," and secured her as
his wife. The New Zealand tribes tell legends which vary in different
localities about this woman Hina. She sometimes bore the name
Rau-kura--"The red plume."
She cared for his thatched house as any other Polynesian woman was in
the habit of doing. She attempted the hurried task of cooking his food
before he snared the sun and gave her sufficient daylight for her
labors.
They lived near the bank of a river from which Hina was in the habit of
bringing water for the household needs.
One day she went down to the stream with her calabash. She was entwined
with wreaths of leaves and flowers, as was the custom among Polynesian
women. While she was standing on the bank, Tuna-roa, "the long eel," saw
her. He swam up to the bank and suddenly struck her and knocked her into
the water and covered her with slime from the blow given by his tail.
Hina escaped and returned to her home, saying nothing to Maui about the
trouble. But the next day, while getting water, she was again overthrown
and befouled by the slime of Tuna-roa.
Then Hina became angry and reported the trouble to Maui.
Maui decided to punish the long eel and started out to find his hiding
place. Some of the New Zealand legends as collected by White, state
that Tuna-roa was a very smooth skinned chief, who lived on the opposite
bank of the stream, and, seeing Hina, had insulted her.
When Maui saw this chief, he caught two pieces of wood over which he was
accustomed to slide his canoe into the sea. These he carried to the
stream and laid them from bank to bank as a bridge over which he might
entice Tuna-roa to cross.
Maui took his stone axe, Ma-Tori-Tori, "the severer," and concealed
himself near the bank of the river.
When "the long eel" had crossed the stream, Maui rushed out and killed
him with a mighty blow of the stone axe, cutting the head from the body.
Other legends say that Maui found Tuna-roa living as an eel in a deep
water hole, in a swamp on the sea-coast of Tata-a, part of the island
Ao-tea-roa. Other stories located Tuna-roa in the river near Maui's
home.
Maui saw that he could not get at his enemy without letting off the
water which protected him.
Therefore into the forest went Maui, and with sacred ceremonies,
selected trees from the wood of which he prepared tools and weapons.
Meanwhile, in addition to the insult given to Hina, Tuna-roa had caught
and devoured two of Maui's children, which made Maui more determined to
kill him.