Kuna

Also known as: Kuna-mo-o / Kuna-moo / Moo-Kuna / Tuna / Tuna-roa · Role: the long eel · First appears: Chapter VII · Maui and Tuna · Part 1

In Chapter VII · Maui and Tuna · Part 1, the New Zealand legend calls Kuna Tuna-roa, “the long eel.” One day he struck Hina-a-te-lepo from the bank into the water and covered her with slime; the next day he overthrew and befouled her again. In some New Zealand accounts, Tuna-roa is instead a smooth-skinned chief who insults Hina-a-te-lepo, and Maui kills him with a stone axe after luring him across the stream. Another account says Tuna-roa devoured two of Maui’s children; Maui’s ditch then carried him into a net, where Maui killed him and cut his body into pieces. In a further telling, Maui kills Tuna-roa with his axe beside the logs.

In Chapter VII · Maui and Tuna · Part 3, the Fiji legend says Roko breaks through the coral caves and awakens Tuna, who leaps on him and bites him; Roko breaks Tuna into pieces. In the Hawaiian account at Rainbow Falls, Kuna-moo attacks Hina and dams the river to drown her in her cave. Maui floods Kuna’s home with hot water; scalded, Kuna leaps from the pools into the river and then to the bank, where Maui kills him with a club.

In Chapter XIII · Hina and the Wailuku River · Part 1, Kuna hurls a great stone into the gorge at night, blocking the river. In Part 2, Maui pierces the riverbank with his spear, exposing Kuna’s hiding place, then drives him from the pools with boiling water and burning stones. Kuna is forced over the falls, and Maui beats him to death. In the Hervey Islands version, Tuna loves Hina—called Ina there—and dies for her, giving his head to be buried; two coconut trees grow from it, their fruit marked with his eyes and mouth.