Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/352

 292 furrows found on the stem of the taro, banana, and sugar-cane leaf are pointed out as caused by Maui's rubbing them for fire.

This success, as may be imagined, won Maui not a little distinction. About this time Maui began to heed the complaints of Hina, that the Sun went through the heavens so fast, and the days were so short, that her sheets of tapa were not dried properly.

Maui was always good to his mother, and he resolved to take this matter in hand and see what he could do about it. So Maui go into his canoe and sailed far out, till he had reached the horizon, and found the place where the Sun came up from beneath the ocean. The moment the Sun rose, Maui seized him, and broke off some of the rays which stood out from his body, as do the sharp spines from the body of the sea-urchin. Blood poured from the wounds thus made, so that the Sun has looked red ever since. The Sun, also, was so weakened by Maui's rough handling, that he was obliged to slow down his pace, and as a result, the day has since then been considerably lengthened, to the great accommodation of the human race generally, and of Hina, the tapa-maker, in particular. These adventures made Maui unpopular with the gods; his continual successes also turned his head and made him haughty, so that he got to putting on airs, and swaggering about with a spear in his hand, hunting for adventures, after the fashion of a Knight-errant. At this time a certain chief of the district offered violence to Hina, and as the good woman resisted, he turned a portion of the Wailuku stream into her cave to drown her out. The water rose higher and higher, until it had reached her chin and was about to cover her nose. At this moment Maui appeared, spear in hand, and thrusting it into the bottom of the cave succeeded in making a passage through which the water was drained away, thus saving his mother's life. The hole is still pointed out by which Maui discharged the water from Hina's cave. After this Maui became more than ever a braggart, and forsaking his honest calling as a fisherman, lived an aimless life, wandering about, ready to sponge on