Part 2 (1/2)

They had caught many fine fish and were satisfied, so thought to paddle homeward; but their younger brother plead with them to go out, far out, to the deeper seas and permit him to cast his hook. He said he wanted larger and better fish than any they had captured.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Spearing Fish.]

So they paddled to their outermost fis.h.i.+ng grounds--but this did not satisfy Maui--

”Farther out on the waters, O! my brothers, I seek the great fish of the sea.”

It was evidently easier to work for him than to argue with him--therefore far out in the sea they went. The home land disappeared from view; they could see only the outstretching waste of waters. Maui urged them out still farther. Then he drew his magic hook from under his malo or loin-cloth. The brothers wondered what he would do for bait. The New Zealand legend says that he struck his nose a mighty blow until the blood gushed forth. When this blood became clotted, he fastened it upon his hook and let it down into the deep sea.

Down it went to the very bottom and caught the under world. It was a mighty fish--but the brothers paddled with all their might and main and Maui pulled in the line. It was hard rowing against the power which held the hook down in the sea depths--but the brothers became enthusiastic over Maui's large fish, and were generous in their strenuous endeavors.

Every muscle was strained and every paddle held strongly against the sea that not an inch should be lost. There was no sudden leaping and darting to and fro, no ”give” to the line; no ”tremble” as when a great fish would shake itself in impotent wrath when held captive by a hook. It was simply a struggle of tense muscle against an immensely heavy dead weight. To the brothers there came slowly the feeling that Maui was in one of his strange moods and that something beyond their former experiences with their tricky brother was coming to pa.s.s.

At last one of the brothers glanced backward. With a scream of intense terror he dropped his paddle. The others also looked. Then each caught his paddle and with frantic exertion tried to force their canoe onward.

Deep down in the heavy waters they pushed their paddles. Out of the great seas the black, ragged head of a large island was rising like a fish--it seemed to be chasing them through the boiling surf. In a little while the water became shallow around them, and their canoe finally rested on a black beach.

Maui for some reason left his brothers, charging them not to attempt to cut up this great fish. But the unwise brothers thought they would fill the canoe with part of this strange thing which they had caught. They began to cut up the back and put huge slices into their canoe. But the great fish--the island--shook under the blows and with mighty earthquake shocks tossed the boat of the brothers, and their canoe was destroyed.

As they were struggling in the waters, the great fish devoured them. The island came up more and more from the waters--but the deep gashes made by Maui's brothers did not heal--they became the mountains and valleys stretching from sea to sea.

White of New Zealand says that Maui went down into the underworld to meet his great ancestress, who was one side dead and one side alive.

From the dead side he took the jaw bone, made a magic hook, and went fis.h.i.+ng. When he let the hook down into the sea, he called:

”Take my bait. O Depths!

Confused you are. O Depths!

And coming upward.”

Thus he pulled up Ao-tea-roa--one of the large islands of New Zealand.

On it were houses, with people around them. Fires were burning. Maui walked over the island, saw with wonder the strange men and the mysterious fire. He took fire in his hands and was burned. He leaped into the sea, dived deep, came up with the other large island on his shoulders. This island he set on fire and left it always burning. It is said that the name for New Zealand given to Captain Cook was Te ika o Maui, ”The fish of Maui.” Some New Zealand natives say that he fished up the island on which dwelt ”Great Hina of the Night,” who finally destroyed Maui while he was seeking immortality.

One legend says that Maui fished up apparently from New Zealand the large island of the Tongas. He used this chant:

”O Tonga-nui!

Why art Thou Sulkily biting, biting below?

Beneath the earth The power is felt, The foam is seen, Coming.

O thou loved grandchild Of Tangaroa-meha.”

This is an excellent poetical description of the great fish delaying the quick hard bite. Then the island comes to the surface and Maui, the beloved grandchild of the Polynesian G.o.d Ka.n.a.loa, is praised.

It was part of one of the legends that Maui changed himself into a bird and from the heavens let down a line with which he drew up land, but the line broke, leaving islands rather than a mainland. About two hundred lesser G.o.ds went to the new islands in a large canoe. The greater G.o.ds punished them by making them mortal.

Turner, in his book on Samoa, says there were three Mauis, all brothers.

They went out fis.h.i.+ng from Rarotonga. One of the brothers begged the ”G.o.ddess of the deep rocks” to let his hooks catch land. Then the island Manahiki was drawn up. A great wave washed two of the Mauis away. The other Maui found a great house in which eight hundred G.o.ds lived. Here he made his home until a chief from Rarotonga drove him away. He fled into the sky, but as he leaped he separated the land into two islands.

Other legends of Samoa say that Tangaroa, the great G.o.d, rolled stones from heaven. One became the island Savaii, the other became Upolu. A G.o.d is sometimes represented as pa.s.sing over the ocean with a bag of sand.

Wherever he dropped a little sand islands sprang up.

Payton, the earnest and honored missionary of the New Hebrides Islands, evidently did not know the name Mauitikitiki, so he spells the name of the fisherman Ma-ts.h.i.+-kts.h.i.+-ki, and gives the myth of the fis.h.i.+ng up of the various islands. The natives said that Maui left footprints on the coral reefs of each island where he stood straining and lifting in his endeavors to pull up each other island. He threw his line around a large island intending to draw it up and unite it with the one on which he stood, but his line broke. Then he became angry and divided into two parts the island on which he stood. This same Maui is recorded by Mr.