Māori mythology
In Māori mythology, as in other Polynesian traditions, Māui is a culture hero and a trickster, famous for his exploits and cleverness. Māori names of Māui include Māui-tikitiki ("Māui the top-knot"), Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga ("Māui the top-knot of Taranga"), Māui-pōtiki ("Māui the last born"), and Māui te whare kino ("Māui the house of trouble").[citation needed]
Islands of New Zealand
Māui's older brothers always refused to let him come fishing with them. One night, he wove for himself a flax fishing line and enchanted it with a karakia to give it strength; to this he attached the magic fish-hook made from the jawbone that his grandmother Murirangawhenua had given him. Then he stowed away in the hull of his brothers' waka (canoe). The next morning, when the waka was too far from land to return, he emerged from his hiding place. His brothers would not lend him any bait, so he struck himself on the nose and baited the hook with his blood. He pulled up a giant fish which would become the North Island of New Zealand, known as Te Ika-a-Māui; the valleys and mountains of the island were made by his brothers chopping up the fish for themselves. In some traditions his waka became the South Island, known as Te Waka a Māui.[6] (Other traditions make the South Island the waka of Aoraki.)
Māui brings fire to the world
Māui wanted to know where fire came from, so one night he went among the villages of his people and put all the fires out. Māui's mother Taranga, who was their rangatira, said that someone would have to ask Mahuika, the goddess of fire, for more. So Māui (a grandson of Mahuika) offered to go and find her. Mahuika lived in a cave in a burning mountain at the end of the earth. She gave Māui one of her burning fingernails to relight the fires, but Māui extinguished fingernail after fingernail until Mahuika became angry and sent fire to pursue Māui, who survived only by calling upon Tāwhirimātea, the god of weather, to put it out with his rain. Mahuika threw her last nail at Māui, but it missed him and flew into some trees including the māhoe and the kaikōmako. Māui brought back dry sticks of these trees to his village and showed his people how to rub the sticks together and make fire.[7]
Māui slows the sun
In former days, the sun used to travel quickly across the sky, leaving not enough daylight time for working and eating. Māui proposed to catch the sun and slow it down. Armed with Murirangawhenua's magic jawbone and a large amount of rope, Māui and his brothers journeyed to the east and found the pit where the sun-god Tama-nui-te-rā slept during the night-time. There they tied the ropes into a noose around the pit and built a wall of clay to shelter behind. Tama-nui-te-rā was caught in the noose and Māui struck him with the jawbone until he surrendered and agreed to travel slowly across the sky.[8]
The death of Māui
Māui's last trick led to his death and involved Hine-nui-te-pō, the goddess of death and the underworld. In an attempt to make mankind immortal by reversing the natural birth process, he transformed into a worm and entered Hine-nui-te-pō's vagina, intending to leave through her mouth while she slept.[9] However, she was awoken by pīwakawaka (fantails) who had burst into laughter at the sight of Māui entering her vagina.[10] Angered, Hine-nui-te-pō crushed Māui to death with the obsidian teeth in her vagina.
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