Polynesian Mythology · The Legend of Māui (4/4)

Upon learning this, Hinauri hurried down to the beach as fast as she could, and not seeing her husband, she went about calling out his name, but no answer was made to her; she then called out as Māui had told her, “Mo-i, mo-i, mo-i, mo-i.”

Then Irawaru, who was running about in the bushes near there, in the form of a dog, at once recognised the voice of Hinauri, and answered, “Ao! ao! ao! ao-ao-o!” howling like a dog, and he followed her back to the village, frisking along and wagging his tail with pleasure at seeing her; and from him sprang all dogs, so that he is regarded as their progenitor, and all New Zealanders still call their dogs to them by the words, “Mo-i, mo-i, mo-i.”

Hinauri, when she saw that her husband had been changed into a dog, was quite distracted with grief, and wept bitterly the whole way as she went back to the village, and as soon as ever she got into her house she caught up an enchanted girdle which she had, and ran back to the sea with it, determined to destroy herself by throwing herself into the ocean, so that the dragons and monsters of the deep might devour her; when she reached the seashore, she sat down upon the rocks at the ocean’s very edge, and as she sat there she first lamented aloud her cruel fate, and repeated an incantation, and then threw herself into the sea, and the tide swept her off from the shore.

Māui now felt it necessary to leave the village where Irawaru had lived, so he returned to his parents, and when he had been with them for some time his father said to him one day, “Oh my son, I have heard from your mother and others that you are very valiant, and that you have succeeded in all feats that you have undertaken in your own country, whether they were small or great; but now that you have arrived in your father’s country, you will, perhaps, at last be overcome.”

Then Māui asked him, “What do you mean? what things are there that I can be vanquished by?”

And his father answered him, “By your great ancestress, by Hinenuitepō, who if you look, you may see flashing, and as it were opening and shutting there, where the horizon meets the sky.”

And Māui replied, “Lay aside such idle thoughts, and let us both fearlessly seek whether men are to die or live forever.”

And his father said, “My child, there had been an ill omen for us; when I was baptizing you, I omitted a portion of the fitting prayers, and that I know will be the cause of your perishing.”

Then Māui asked his father, “What is my ancestress Hinenuitepō like?” and he answered,

“What you see yonder shining so brightly red are her eyes, and her teeth are as sharp and hard as pieces of volcanic glass; her body is like that of a man; and as for the pupils of her eyes, they are jade (pounamu); and her hair is like the tangles of long seaweed, and her mouth is like that of a barracuda.”

Then his son answered him, “Do you think her strength is as great as that of Tamanuiterā, who consumes man, and the earth, and the very waters, by the fierceness of his heat? Was not the world formerly saved alive by the speed with which he travelled? If he had then, in the days of his full strength and power, gone as slowly as he does now, not a remnant of mankind would have been left living upon the earth, nor, indeed, would anything else have survived. But I laid hold of Tamanuiterā, and now he goes slowly, for I smote him again and again, so that he is now feeble, and long in travelling his course, and he now gives but very little heat, having been weakened by the blows of my enchanted weapon; I then, too, split him open in many places, and from the wounds so made, many rays now issue forth, and spread in all directions. So, also, I found the sea much larger than the earth; but by the power of the last born of your children, part of the earth was drawn up again, and dry land came forth.”

And his father answered him, “That is all very true, O my last born and the strength of my old age; well, then, be bold, go and visit your ancestress who flashes so fiercely there, where the edge of the horizon meets the sky.”

Hardly was this conversation concluded with his father, when the young hero went forth to look for companions to accompany him upon this enterprise; and so there came to him for companions the small robin, and the large robin, and the thrush, and the yellowhammer, and every kind of little bird, and the water-wagtail, and these all assembled together, and they all started with Māui in the evening, and arrived at the dwelling of Hinenuitepō, and found her fast asleep.

Then Māui addressed them all, and said, “My little friends, now if you see me creep into this old chieftainess, do not laugh at what you see. Nay, nay, do not, I pray you; but when I have got altogether inside her, and just as I am coming out of her mouth, then you may shout with laughter if you please.”

And his little friends, who were frightened at what they saw, replied, “O sir, you will certainly be killed.”

And he answered them, “If you burst out laughing at me as soon as I get inside her, you will wake her up, and she will certainly kill me at once; but if you do not laugh until I am quite inside her, and am on the point of coming out of her mouth, I shall live, and Hinenuitepō will die.”

And his little friends answered, “Go on then, brave sir, but pray take good care of yourself.”

Then the young hero started off, and twisted the strings of his weapon tightly round his wrist, and went into the house and stripped off his clothes, and the skin on his hips looked mottled and beautiful as that of a mackerel, from the tattoo marks cut on it with the chisel of Uetonga; and he entered the old chieftainess.

The little birds now screwed up their tiny cheeks, trying to suppress their laughter. At last the little Tīwakawaka could no longer keep it in, and laughed out loud, with its merry, cheerful note; this woke the old woman up; she opened her eyes, started up, and killed Māui.

Thus died this Māui we have spoken of; but before he died he had children, and sons were born to him; some of his descendants yet live in Hawaiki, some in Aotearoa (or in these islands); the greater part of his descendants remained in Hawaiki, but a few of them came here to Aotearoa. According to the traditions of the Māori,7 this was the cause of the introduction of death into the world (Hinenuitepō being the goddess of death: if Māui had passed safely through her, then no more human beings would have died, but death itself would have been destroyed), and we express it by saying, “The water-wagtail laughing at Māui-tikitiki-o-Taranga made Hinenuitepō squeeze him to death.” And we have this proverb, “Men make heirs, but death carries them off.”

Thus end the deeds of the son of Makeatutara and of Taranga, and the deeds of the sons of Ranginui and of Papatūānuku. This is the narrative about the generations of the ancestors of the inhabitants of New Zealand, and therefore we, the people of that country, preserve closely these traditions of old times, as a thing to be taught to the generations that come after us; so we repeat them in our prayers, and whenever we relate the deeds of the ancestors from whom each family is descended, and upon other similar occasions.