The Maui Myth

Te Ao Hou, November 1964, Page 43

The Maui Myth A short extract, literally translated from an early manuscript, will illustrate the nature of these stories. The incident described is the last exploit of Maui, his unsuccessful attempt to pass through the body of the Goddess of the Underworld. Maui's father said to him, ‘My son, I know that you are a bold fellow, and that you have achieved many things. But I fear that there is one who will defeat you.’ ‘And who might that be?’ said Maui. ‘Your ancestress, the Goddess of the Underworld.’ ‘Is her strength that of the sun?’ asked Maui. ‘I trapped him, and beat him and sent him on his way. Is he greater than the sea, which is greater than the land? Yet I dragged land from it. Now then let me seek life or death.’ The father replied, ‘You are right, my last born, and the strength of my old age. Go then, seek your ancestress, who lives at the edge of the sky.’ ‘What does she look like? asked Maui. ‘The red glow of the western sky emanates from her,’ said the father. ‘Her body is that of a human being, but her eyes are greenstone, her hair is sea-kelp, and her mouth is that of a barracouta.’ Maui took with him the smallest birds of the forest and set off towards the west. They found the Goddess of the Underworld lying asleep, with her legs apart, and they could see sharp flints of greenstone and obsidian set between her thighs. Maui said to his companions, ‘When I enter the body of this old woman, don't laugh. But wait until I reappear again from her mouth. Then you may laugh all you like.’ ‘You will be killed,’ was all the birds could say. ‘If you laugh too soon I will be killed,’ said Maui. ‘But if I can pass right through her body I shall live, and she will be the one to die.’ He prepared himself, winding the cord of his battle-club firmly round his waist, and casting aside his garment. Behold his skin, mottled like that of a mackerel with the black pigment of the many toothed tattooing-chisel! As Maui began his task the cheeks of the watching birds puckered with suppressed mirth. His head and shoulders had disappeared when the fantail could hold back no longer, and burst into laughter. The old woman awoke, opened her eyes, closed her legs, and cut Maui completely in two. Now Maui was the first man to die, and because he failed in his self-appointed task, all men are mortal. And the Goddess retains her position at the entrance to the spirit-world.