and by the Hawaiians "o-o") and the sharp spears, with which to pierce
either the earth or his enemy. These spears and spades were consecrated
to the work of preparing a ditch by which to draw off the water
protecting "the long eel."
The work of trench-making was accomplished with many incantations and
prayers. The ditch was named "The sacred digging," and was tabooed to
all other purposes except that of catching Tuna-roa.
Across this ditch Maui stretched a strong net, and then began a new
series of chants and ceremonies to bring down an abundance of rain. Soon
the flood came and the overflowing waters rushed down the sacred ditch.
The walls of the deep pool gave way and "the long eel" was carried down
the trench into the waiting net. Then there was commotion. Tuna-roa was
struggling for freedom.
Maui saw him and hastened to grasp his stone axe, "the severer."
Hurrying to the net, he struck Tuna-roa a terrible blow, and cut off the
head. With a few more blows, he cut the body in pieces. The head and
tail were carried out into the sea. The head became fish and the tail
became the great conger-eel. Other parts of the body became sea
monsters. But some parts which fell in fresh water became the common
eels. From the hairs of the head came certain vines and creepers among
the plants.
After the death of Tuna-roa the offspring of Maui were in no danger of
being killed and soon multiplied into a large family.
Another New Zealand legend related by White says that Maui built a
sliding place of logs, over which Tuna-roa must pass when coming from
the river.
Maui also made a screen behind which he could secrete himself while
watching for Tuna-roa.
He commanded Hina to come down to the river and wait on the bank to
attract Tuna-roa. Soon the long eel was seen in the water swimming near
to Hina. Hina went to a place back of the logs which Maui had laid down.
Tuna-roa came towards her, and began to slide down the skids.
Maui sprang out from his hiding place and killed Tuna-roa with his axe,
and cut him in pieces.
The tail became the conger-eel. Parts of his body became fresh-water
eels. Some of the blood fell upon birds and always after marked them
with red spots. Some of the blood was thrown into certain trees, making
this wood always red. The muscles became vines and creepers.
From this time the children of Maui caught and ate the eels of both salt
and fresh water. Eel traps were made, and Maui taught the people the
proper chants or incantations to use when catching eels.
This legend of Maui and the long eel was found by White in a number of
forms among the different tribes of New Zealand, but does not seem to
have had currency in many other island groups.
In Turner's "Samoa" a legend is related which was probably derived from
the Maui stories and yet differs in its romantic results. The Samoans
say that among their ancient ones dwelt a woman named Sina. Sina among
the Polynesians is the same as Hina--the "h" is softened into "s". She
captured a small eel and kept it as a pet. It grew large and strong and
finally attacked and bit her. She fled, but the eel followed her
everywhere. Her father came to her assistance and raised high mountains
between the eel and herself. But the eel passed over the barrier and
pursued her. Her mother raised a new series of mountains. But again the
eel surmounted the difficulties and attempted to seize Sina. She broke
away from him and ran on and on. Finally she wearily passed through a
village. The people asked her to stay and eat with them, but she said
they could only help her by delivering her from the pursuing eel. The
inhabitants of that village were afraid of the eel and refused to fight
for her. So she ran on to another place. Here the chief offered her a
drink of water and promised to kill the eel for her. He prepared awa, a
stupefying drink, and put poison in it. When the eel came along the
chief asked him to drink. He took the awa and prepared to follow Sina.
When he came to the place where she was the pains of death had already
seized him. While dying he begged her to bury his head by her home. This
she did, and in time a plant new to the islands sprang up. It became a
tree, and finally produced a cocoanut, whose two eyes could continually
look into the face of Sina.
Tuna, in the legends of Fiji, was a demon of the sea. He lived in a deep
sea cave, into which he sometimes shut himself behind closed doors of
coral. When he was hungry, he swam through the ocean shadows, always
watching the restless surface. When a canoe passed above him, he would
throw himself swiftly through the waters, upset the canoe, and seize
some of the boatmen and devour them. He was greatly feared by all the
fishermen of the Fijian coasts.
[Illustration: A Coconut Grove in Kona.]
Roko--a mo-o or dragon god--in his journey among the islands, stopped at
a village by the sea and asked for a canoe and boatmen. The people said:
"We have nothing but a very old canoe out there by the water." He went
to it and found it in a very bad condition. He put it in the water, and
decided that he could use it. Then he asked two men to go with him and
paddle, but they refused because of fear, and explained this fear by
telling the story of the water demon, who continually sought the
destruction of this canoe, and also their own death. Roko encouraged
them to take him to wage battle with Tuna, telling them he would destroy
the monster. They paddled until they were directly over Tuna's cave.
Roko told them to go off to one side and wait and watch, saying: "I am
going down to see this Tuna. If you see red blood boil up through the
water, you may be sure that Tuna has been killed. If the blood is black,
then you will know that he has the victory and I am dead."
Roko leaped into the water and went down--down to the door of the cave.
The coral doors were closed. He grasped them in his strong hands and
tore them open, breaking them in pieces. Inside he found cave after cave
of coral, and broke his way through until at last he awoke Tuna. The
angry demon cried: "Who is that?" Roko answered: "It is I, Roko, alone.
Who are you?"
Tuna aroused himself and demanded Roko's business and who guided him to
that place. Roko replied: "No one has guided me. I go from place to
place, thinking that there is no one else in the world."
Tuna shook himself angrily. "Do you think I am nothing? This day is your
last."
Roko replied: "Perhaps so. If the sky falls, I shall die."
Tuna leaped upon Roko and bit him. Then came the mighty battle of the
coral caves. Roko broke Tuna into several pieces--and the red blood
poured in boiling bubbles upward through the clear ocean waters, and
the boatmen cried: "The blood is red--the blood is red--Tuna is dead by
the hand of Roko."
Roko lived for a time in Fiji, where his descendants still find their
home. The people use this chant to aid them in difficulties:
"My load is a red one.
It points in front to Kawa (Roko's home).
Behind, it points to Dolomo--(a village on another island)."
In the Hawaiian legends, Hina was Maui's mother rather than his wife,
and Kuna (Tuna) was a mo-o, a dragon or gigantic lizard possessing
miraculous powers.
Hina's home was in the large cave under the beautiful Rainbow Falls near
the city of Hilo. Above the falls the bed of the river is along the
channel of an ancient lava flow. Sometimes the water pours in a torrent
over the rugged lava, sometimes it passes through underground passages
as well as along the black river bed, and sometimes it thrusts itself
into boiling pools.
Maui lived on the northern side of the river, but a chief named
Kuna-moo--a dragon--lived in the boiling pools. He attacked Hina and
threw a dam across the river below Rainbow Falls, intending to drown
Hina in her cave. The great ledge of rock filled the river bed high up
the bank on the Hilo side of the river. Hina called on Maui for aid.
Maui came quickly and with mighty blows cut out a new channel for the
river--the path it follows to this day. The waters sank and Hina
remained unharmed in her cave.
The place where Kuna dwelt was called Wai-kuna--the Kuna water. The
river in which Hina and Kuna dwelt bears the name Wailuku--"the
destructive water." Maui went above Kuna's home and poured hot water
into the river. This part of the myth could easily have arisen from a
lava outburst on the side of the volcano above the river. The hot water
swept in a flood over Kuna's home. Kuna jumped from the boiling pools
over a series of small falls near his home into the river below. Here
the hot water again scalded him and in pain he leaped from the river to
the bank, where Maui killed him by beating him with a club. His body was
washed down the river over the falls under which Hina dwelt, into the
ocean.
The story of Kuna or Tuna is a legend with a foundation in the enmity
between two chiefs of the long ago, and also in a desire to explain the
origin of the family of eels and the invention of nets and traps.
[Illustration: Wailuku River--the Boiling Pots.]
VIII.
MAUI AND HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW.
The "Stories of Maui's Brother-in-Law," and of "Maui seeking
Immortality," are not found in Hawaiian mythology. We depend upon Sir
George Grey and John White for the New Zealand myths in which both of
these legends occur.
Maui's sister Hina-uri married Ira-waru, who was willing to work with
his skillful brother-in-law. They hunted in the forests and speared
birds. They fished and farmed together. They passed through many
experiences similar to those Maui's own brothers had suffered before the
brother-in-law took their place as Maui's companion. They made spears
together--but Maui made notched barbs for his spear ends--and slipped
them off when Ira-waru came near. So for a long time the proceeds of
bird hunting fell to Maui. But after a time the brother-in-law learned
the secret as the brothers had before, and Maui was looked up to by his
fellow hunter as the skillful one. Sometimes Ira-waru was able to see
at once Maui's plan and adopt it. He discovered Maui's method of making
the punga or eel baskets for catching eels.
The two hunters went to the forest to find a certain creeping vine with
which to weave their eel snares. Ira-waru made a basket with a hole, by
which the eels could enter, but they could turn around and go out the
same way. So he very seldom caught an eel. But Maui made his basket with
a long funnel-shaped door, by which the eels could easily slide into the
snare but could scarcely escape. He made a door in the side which he
fastened tight until he wished to pour the eels out.
Ira-waru immediately made a basket like Maui. Then Maui became angry and
uttered incantations over Ira-waru. The man dropped on the ground and
became a dog. Maui returned home and met his sister, who charged him
with sorcery concerning her husband.
Maui did not deny the exercise of his power, but taught his sister a
chant and sent her out to the level country. There she uttered her chant
and a strange dog with long hair came to her, barking and leaping around
her. Then she knew what Maui had done. "Thus Ira-waru became the first
of the long-haired dogs whose flesh has been tabooed to women."
The Tahu and Hau tribes of New Zealand tell a different story. They say
that Maui went to visit Ira-waru. Together they set out on a journey.
After a time they rested by the wayside and became sleepy. Maui asked
Ira-waru to cleanse his head. This gave him the restful, soothing touch
which aided sleep. Then Maui proposed that Ira-waru sleep. Taking the
head in his hands, Maui put his brother-in-law to sleep. Then by
incantations he made the sleep very deep and prolonged. Meanwhile he
pulled the ears and arms and limbs until they were properly lengthened.
He drew out the under jaw until it had the form of a dog's mouth. He
stretched the end of the backbone into a tail, and then wakened Ira-waru
and drove him back when he tried to follow the path to the settlement.
Hina-uri went out and called her husband. He came to her, leaping and
barking. She decided that this was her husband, and in her agony
reproached Maui and wandered away.
The Rua-nui story-tellers of New Zealand say that Maui's anger was
aroused against Ira-waru because he ate all the bait when they went
fishing, and they could catch no fish after paddling out to the fishing
grounds. When they came to land, Maui told Ira-waru to lie down in the
sand as a roller over which to drag the canoe up the beach. When he was
lying helpless under the canoe, Maui changed him into a dog.
The Arawa legends make the cause of Maui's anger the success of
Ira-waru while fishing. Ira-waru had many fish while Maui had captured
but few. The story is told thus: "Ira-waru hooked a fish and in pulling
it in his line became entangled with that of Maui. Maui felt the jerking
and began to pull in his line. Soon they pulled their lines close up to
the canoe, one to the bow, the other to the stern, where each was
sitting. Maui said: 'Let me pull the lines to me, as the fish is on my
hook.' His brother-in-law said: 'Not so; the fish is on mine.' But Maui
said: 'Let me pull my line in.' Ira-waru did so and saw that the fish
was on his hook. Then he said: 'Untwist your lines and let mine go, that
I may pull the fish in.' Maui said: 'I will do so, but let me have
time.' He took the fish off Ira-waru's hook and saw that there was a
barb on the hook. He said to Ira-waru: 'Perhaps we ought to return to
land.' When they were dragging the canoe on shore, Maui said to
Ira-waru: 'Get between the canoe and outrigger and drag.' Ira-waru did
so and Maui leaped on the outrigger and weighed it heavily down and
crushed Ira-waru prostrate on the beach. Maui trod on him and pulled his
backbone long like a tail and changed him into a dog."
Maui is said to have tattooed the muzzle of the dog with a beautiful
pattern which the birds (kahui-zara, a flock of tern) used in marking
the sky. From this also came the red glow which sometimes flushes the
face of man.
Another Arawa version of the legend was that Maui and Ira-waru were
journeying together. Ira-waru was gluttonous and ate the best food. At
last Maui determined to punish his companion. By incantation he
lengthened the way until Ira-waru became faint and weary. Maui had
provided himself with a little food and therefore was enabled to endure
the long way. While Ira-waru slept Maui trod on his backbone and
lengthened it and changed the arms and limbs into the legs of a dog.
When Hina-uri saw the state of her husband she went into the thatched
house by which Ira-waru had so often stood watching the hollow log in
which she dried the fish and preserved the birds speared in the
mountains. She bound her girdle and hala-leaf apron around her and went
down to the sea to drown herself, that her body might be eaten by the
monsters of the sea. When she came to the shell-covered beach, she sat
down and sang her death song--
"I weep, I call to the steep billows of the sea
And to him, the great, the ocean god;
To monsters, all now hidden,
To come and bury me,
Who now am wrapped in mourning.
Let the waves wear their mourning, too,
And sleep as sleeps the dead."
--Ancient Maui Chant of New Zealand.
Then Hina-uri threw herself into the sea and was borne on the waves many
moons, at last drifting to shore, to be found by two fishermen. They
carried the body off to the fire and warmed it back to life. They
brushed off the sea moss and sea weeds and rubbed her until she awoke.
Soon they told their chief, Tini-rau, what a beautiful woman they had
found in the sea. He came and took her away to make her one of his
wives. But the other wives were jealous and drove Hina-uri away from the
chief's houses.
Another New Zealand legend says that Hina came to the sea and called for
a little fish to aid her in going away from the island. It tried to
carry her, but was too weak. Hina struck it with her open hand. It had
striped sides forever after. She tried a larger fish, but fell off
before they had gone far from shore. Her blow gave this fish its
beautiful blue spots. Another received black spots. Another she stamped
her foot upon, making it flat. At last a shark carried her far away. She
was very thirsty, and broke a cocoanut on the shark's head, making a
bump, which has been handed down for generations. The shark carried her
to the home of the two who rescued her and gave her new strength.
Meanwhile Rupe or Maui-mua, a brother of Hina-uri and Maui, grieved for
his sister. He sought for her throughout the land and then launched his
canoe upon the blue waters surrounding Ao-tea-roa (The Great White Land;
the ancient native New Zealand) and searched the coasts. He only
learned that his sister had, as the natives said, "leaped into the
waters and been carried away into the heavens."
[Illustration: "Outside Were Other Worlds."]
Rupe's heart filled with the desire to find and protect the frenzied
sister who had probably taken a canoe and floated away, out of the
horizon, seen from New Zealand coasts, into new horizons. During the
Viking age of the Pacific, when many chiefs sailed long distances,
visiting the most remote islands of Polynesia, they frequently spoke of
breaking through from the home land into new heavens--or of climbing up
the path of the sun on the waters into a new heaven. This was their
poetical way of passing from horizon to horizon. The horizon around
their particular island surrounded their complete world. Outside,
somewhere, were other worlds and other heavens. Rupe's voyage was an
idyll of the Pacific. It was one more story to be added to the prose
poems of consecrated travel. It was a brother feeling through the
mysteries of unknown lands for a sister, as dear to him as an Evangeline
has been to other men.
From the mist-land of the Polynesian race comes this story of the
trickery of Maui the learned, and the faithfulness of his older brother
Maui-mua or Rupe--one of the "five forgetful Mauis." Rupe hoisted
mat-sails over his canoe and thus made the winds serve him. He paddled
the canoe onward through the hours when calms rested on glassy waves.
Thus he passed out of sight of Ao-tea-roa, away from his brothers, and
out of the reach of all tricks and incantations of Maui, the
mischievous. He sailed until a new island rose out of the sea to greet
him. Here in a "new heaven" he found friends to care for him and prepare
him for his longer journey. His restless anxiety for his sister urged
him onward until days lengthened into months and months into years. He
passed from the horizons of newly-discovered islands, into the horizons
of circling skies around islands of which he had never heard before.
Sometimes he found relatives, but more frequently his welcome came from
those who could trace no historical touch in their genealogies.
Here and there, apparently, he found traces of a woman whose description
answered that of his sister Hina-uri. At last he looked through the
heavens upon a new world, and saw his sister in great trouble.
According to some legends the jealous wives of the great chief,
Tini-rau, attack Hina, who was known among them as Hina-te-ngaru-moana,
"Hina, the daughter of the ocean." Tini-rau and Hina lived away from the
village of the chief until their little boy was born. When they needed
food, the chief said, "Let us go to my settlement and we shall have food
provided."
But Hina chanted:
"Let it down, let it down,
Descend, oh! descend--"
and sufficient food fell before them. After a time their frail clothing
wore out, and the cold chilled them, then Hina again uttered the
incantation and clothing was provided for their need.
But the jealous wives, two in number, finally heard where Hina and the
chief were living, and started to see them.
Tini-rau said to Hina, "Here come my other wives--be careful how you act
before them."
She replied, "If they come in anger it will be evil."
She armed herself with an obsidian or volcanic-glass knife, and waited
their coming.
They tried to throw enchantments around her to kill her. Then one of
them made a blow at her with a weapon, but she turned it aside and
killed her enemy with the obsidian knife.
Then the other wife made an attack, and again the obsidian knife brought
death. She ripped open the stomachs of the jealous ones and showed the
chief fish lines and sinkers and other property which they had eaten in
the past and which Tini-rau had never been able to trace.
Another legend says that the two women came to kill Hina when they heard
of the birth of her boy. For a time she was greatly terrified. Then she
saw that they were coming from different directions. She attacked the
nearest one with a stone and killed her. The body burst open, and was
seen to be full of green stone. Then she killed the second wife in the
same way, and found more green stones. "Thus, according to the legends,
originated the greenstone" from which the choicest and most valuable
stone tools have since been made. For a time the chief and Hina lived
happily together. Then he began to neglect her and abuse her, until she
cried aloud for her brother--
"O Rupe! come down.
Take me and my child."
Rupe assumed the form of a bird and flew down to this world in which he
had found his sister. He chanted as he came down--
"It is Rupe, yes Rupe,
The elder brother;
And I am here."
He folded the mother and her boy under his wings and flew away with
them. Sir George Gray relates a legend in which Maui-mua or Rupe is
recorded as having carried his sister and her child to one of the new
lands, found in his long voyage, where dwelt an aged relative, of chief
rank, with his retainers.
Some legends say that Tini-rau tried to catch Rupe, who was compelled
to drop the child in order to escape with the mother. Tini-rau caught
the child and carefully cared for him until he grew to be a strong young
lad.
Then he wanted to find his mother and bring her back to his father. How
this was done, how Rupe took his sister back to the old chief, and how
civil wars arose are not all these told in the legends of the Maoris.
Thus the tricks of Maui the mischievous brought trouble for a time, but
were finally overshadowed by happy homes in neighboring lands for his
suffering sister and her descendants.
IX.
MAUI'S KITE FLYING.
Maui the demi-god was sometimes the Hercules of Polynesia. His exploits
were fully as marvelous as those of the hero of classic mythology. He
snared the sun. He pulled up islands from the ocean depths. He lifted
the sky into its present position and smoothed its arched surface with
his stone adze. These stories belong to all Polynesia.
There are numerous less important local myths, some of them peculiar to
New Zealand, some to the Society Islands and some to the Hawaiian group.
One of the old native Hawaiians says that in the long, long ago the
birds were flying around the homes of the ancient people. The flutter of
their wings could be heard and the leaves and branches moved when the
motion of the wings ceased and the wanderers through the air found
resting places. Then came sweet music from the trees and the people
marvelled. Only one of all mankind could see the winged warblers. Maui,
the demi-god, had clear vision. The swift-flying wings covered with red
or gold he saw. The throats tinted many colors and reflecting the
sunlight with diamond sparks of varied hues he watched while they
trembled with the melody of sweet bird songs. All others heard but did
not see. They were blind and yet had open vision.
Sometimes the iiwi (a small red bird) fluttered in the air and uttered
its shrill, happy song, and Maui saw and heard. But the bird at that
time was without color in the eyes of the ancient people and only the
clear voice was heard, while no speck of bird life flecked the clear sky
overhead.