Part 7 (1/2)
In Tahiti the fire G.o.d 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 G.o.d.
In the Bowditch or Fakaofa Islands the G.o.ddess 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 part.i.tion 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 s.h.i.+ne 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 la.s.soed it. There is a New Zealand legend in which Maui is made one of three G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds 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 fis.h.i.+ng.
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 sanct.i.ty 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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 sh.e.l.l 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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 demiG.o.d opponent of the G.o.ddess Pele, is described as having eight eyes and eight feet; and in the legends Maka-walu, 'eight-eyed,' is a frequent epithet of G.o.ds and chiefs.” He notes this coincidence with the appearance of some of the princ.i.p.al 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 demiG.o.d. Nevertheless he was represented as possessing very strange prophetical powers.