TANE AND MAUI

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1935, Page 3

TANE AND MAUI

HEROES OF MAORI MYTH THE ORIGIN OF THE NORTH ISLAND. ADDRESS BY MR. ANDERSEN. Fascinating tales of Tanc and Maui, heroes of Maori mythology, told yesterday to the teachers’ summer school at New Plymouth by Mr. Johannes C. Andersen. The stories he said were not essentially Maori but were all Polynesian, each version varying slightly according as it was told by different tribes. It was natural that the native should know little of the beginnings of the universe but he clothed ideas with his own thoughts and gave rein to his imagination in the interpretation of nature. The first myth concerned Hine Nui Te Po, the great woman of night and the mother of death, began Mr. Andersen. Tane, god of creation, was born of an earth parent and a sky parent. He saw them together and despaired of ever finding a mate for himself. He went to his earth-mother, Rangi, and she advised him, but he could find only a personality, his mating with which resulted in the production of the totara tree. Another mating produced the t'oi-toi, and thus Tane created the vegetable world, but he was not satisfied, for none of the creations were like himself. He went to Rangi and said, “I want a being like myself.” Rangi directed him to where the earth joined the sea and told him to mould a being in his own likeness from the earth he found there. This he did, but again returned to his mother with the complaint that the model was lifeless and inert. From other ancestors he received the component parts of life which he added to his moulding. Thus was created the first woman whom Tane took for his wife. Their daughter was Hine Nui Te Po. When she had grown the mother whom Tane had created melted back into the earth. Knowing nothing of her origin Hine Nui Te Po took Tane as her husband, but she soon grew curious. When she requested information regarding her ancestry Tane just laughed at her. However, she persisted, and at last he told her. She was immediately filled with shame and, drooping her head, she fled to the underworlds. INTO WORLD OF DARKNESS. Tane waited but when she did not return to him he determined to follow her into the world of darkness, but the guardian of the gate of darkness advised him to go no further, as Hine Nui Te Po would not come back to him. However, he heard her voice and she told him that if he made any further creations she would take them into the underworld. It was at that time that she adopted the name of Hine Nui Te Po. At this stage the story split into two versions, one declaring that she would destroy his creations and the other saying that she would nurse and foster them. Realising that when people died Hine Nui Te Po took them into her clutches, Maui determined to destroy her. He learned that her home was in the west so he set out on his perilous adventure with the birds as his only companions. He found her sleeping, snoring with her mouth open and, as he must pass through her to kill her effectively, he dived into her mouth. A fantail was watching and when Maui was halfway down her throat the bird burst into laughter. Hine Nui Te Po awakened and, finding Maui in her mouth, she bit him in halves. How Maui fished the North Island of New Zealand from the sea was next related by Mr. Andersen. Maui was the mischief-maker of the family and when his brothers went fishing they refused to take him with them. However, on one occasion they paddled out to sea and found too late that Maui had hidden himself under the grating at the bottom of the canoe. They refused to give him a hook and bait but Maui, produced his own fish hook and a small quantity of flax fibre. He struck himself on the nose and allowed blood to drip on the fibre. He persuaded his brothers to paddle further and further out to sea until he felt a gigantic bite. He then pulled up the giant fish which became the North Island. Leaving the fish in the care of his brothers he flew home in the form of a bird, to bring back with him a tohunga for the purification of the fish. Before they reached the canoe, however, the brothers had commenced to cut the fish up and where it had been peaceful before, it now wriggled violently. Thus the North Island was contorted with hills and mountains, whereas, had the fish not been cut the island would have been perfectly flat. DIFFERENT VERSIONS. That was the common version of the myth, said Mr. Andersen, but the esoteric was quite different. When Maui was a long way out at sea one morning the mist rose and showed a new land. Another story was of Tauwhaki, god of lightning and junior son of the goddess of thunder. His father was Kaitangata whom his mother had married thinking he was a cannibal. She was very/ disappointed to find he was not. Her son Tauwhaki was a magnificent man and, just as Psyche did with Cupid or Diana with Endymion, a celestial being, Tangotango fell in love with him and visited him at nights. Before their child was born it was agreed that if it was a boy she should wash it and if it was a girl he should wash it. It was a girl and when, he was washing it one day he spoke disparagingly of it and Tangotango immediately took her daughter and fled to the upperworld. Tauwhaki determined to follow and was accompanied by his elder brother.

In the course of their quest they visited the Pongaturi, the people who could not live in the sun. They slept ashore each night and spent the day in the depths of the ocean. When the two adventurers arrived they hid under the. thatch of the hut until night fell. They boarded up every chink that let in light and waited for the dawn. The Pongaturi called out sometimes asking if it was dawn, but an old woman, who was in league with Tauwhaki, reassured them. When it was full day she called out, “It is daylight.” This was the signal for the two brothers who rushed to the windows and opened them, letting the sunshine in. The Pongaturi thus were shrivelled up in the light. Finally the brothers came to an old blind woman to whom Tauwhaki restored the use of her eyes. She showed them the roots to the upperworld and the elder brother seized one and climbed it. But the wind blew at him and he was thrown down and killed. Tauwhaki went up alone to the upperworld and disguised himself as an old man. He found men making a canoe and they made him bear sticks for them. When they had gone to the village he completed their canoe. He repeated this twice and on the third occasion they set a watch to discover him. When they saw him without his disguise he was welcomed and his wife and child restored to him.