Maui

Also known as: Maui Ki-i-k-i'i / Maui Kiikii / Maui te atamai / Maui the skillful / Maui-Tiki-Tiki / Maui-ki-i-ki-i / Mauikiikii / Ti'i-ti'i / Ti'iti'i / Tiitii / Tiki / Tiki-tiki · Role: a Polynesian demigod · First appears: Chapter I · Maui's Home · Part 1

In the Hawaiian family chant, Maui Kiikii was born to Akalana and Hina. In the Hervey Islands version, Maui was the child of Ru and Bua-taranga. In the New Zealand version, he was born prematurely; his mother, the New Zealand mother of Maui, cast him into the sea, and the god of the seas cared for him and warmed him in his house. When Maui was old enough, his mother recognized him and took him into the family. In that version he found the path to the under-world, returned to the upper world, and lived again with his brothers. In the Hervey Islands version, a sister hid him under dry sticks during hide-and-seek, where he shrank until he could not be found.

In Chapter II, Maui fished up land in several tellings. In the New Zealand version, his brothers refused to let him join them, so he secretly boarded their canoe and used his own blood as bait; his brothers’ cuts in the rising island became mountains and valleys. There he made a magic hook from his great ancestress’s jawbone and fished up Ao-tea-roa. In a Hawaiian telling, his hook raised land from the sea, but a brother’s backward glance broke the line. In Chapter III, the Hawaiian version says a woman gave him a drink before he lifted the heavens; at Manihiki he and Ru raised and smoothed the sky, while in the Hervey Islands version Ru threw him high and Maui returned unharmed as a bird. In Chapter IV, Maui snared the sun and struck him until he agreed to move more slowly. The New Zealand version says Muri gave him the magic bone for that contest; in the Hervey Islands and Society Islands versions, he also made the sun promise to travel more slowly.

In Chapter V, the fire stories vary by island. In the Hawaiian telling, after Hina wanted fish, Maui followed the birds and learned from the old Alae how to make fire by rubbing sticks. In the Society Islands version, Mahuika taught him about fire-making woods and gave him coals; in the Samoan story, Maui as Ti’iti’i confronted Mahuika after the fire was put out and accepted instruction in finding fire. In the Hervey Islands version, he won the fire secret from the god of fire in a tossing contest. In the New Zealand version, Maui put out his people’s fires, and his mother sent him to Mahuika; after he repeatedly extinguished her gifts, her last burning nail released fire everywhere, and Maui called down rain.