Maui the Fisherman

Maui the Fisherman

(A Legend from Hawaii)

Oh, the great fishhook of Maui!

Manai-i-ka-lani (made fast to the heavens) its name;

An earth-twisted cord ties the hook.

Engulfed from the lofty Kauiki,

Its bait the red-billed alae,

The bird made sacred to Hina.

It sinks far down to Hawaii,

Struggling and painfully dying.

Caught is the land under the water,

Floated up, up to the surface.

But Hina hid a wing of the bird

And broke the land under the water.

Below was the bait snatched away

And eaten at once by the fishes,

The ulua of the deep, muddy places.

One of Maui's homes was near Kauiki, a place well known throughout the Hawaiian Islands because of its strategic importance. For many years it was the site of a fort around which fierce battles were fought by the natives of the island of Maui, repelling the invasions of their neighbours from Hawaii.

Haleakala (The House of the Sun), the mountain from which Maui the demi-god snared the sun, looks down ten thousand feet upon the Kauiki headland. Across the channel from Haleakala rises Mauna Kea (The White Mountain or The Snowcapped), which almost all the year round rears its white head in majesty among the clouds.

In the snowy breakers of the surf which washes the beach below these mountains are broken coral reefs-the fishing grounds of the Hawaiians. Here near Kauiki, according to some Hawaiian legends, Maui's mother Hina had her grass house and made and dried her kappa cloth. Even to the present day, it is one of the few places in the islands where the kapa is still pounded into sheets from the bark of the hibiscus and kindred trees.

Here, is a small bay partially reef-protected, over which year after year the moist clouds float and by day and by night crown the waters with rainbows-the legendary sign of the home of the deified ones. Here when the tide is out the natives wade and swim, as they have done for centuries, from coral block to coral block, shunning the deep resting places of their dread enemy, the shark, sometimes esteemed divine. Out on the edge of the outermost reef, they seek the shellfish which cling to the coral or spear the large fish which have been left in the beautiful little lakes of the reef. Coral land is a region of the seacoast abounding in miniature lakes and rugged valleys and steep mountains. Clear waters with every motion of the tide surge in and out through the sheltered caves and submarine tunnels, according to an ancient Hawaiian song:

Never quiet, never failing, never sleeping,

Never very noisy is the sea of the sacred caves.

Sea mosses of many hues are the forests which drape the hillsides of coral land and reflect the coloured rays of light which pierce the ceaselessly moving waves. Down in the beautiful little lakes, under overhanging coral cliffs, darting in and out through the fringes of seaweed, the purple mullet and royal redfish flash before the eyes of the fisherman. Sometimes the many-tinted, glorious fish of paradise reveal their beauties, and then again a school of black and gold citizens of the reef follow the tidal waves around projecting crags and through the hidden tunnels from lake to lake, while above the fisherman follows, spearing or snaring as best he can.

Maui’s brothers were better fishermen than he. They sought the deep sea beyond the reef and larger fish. They made hooks of bone or of mother-of-pearl, with a straight, sharp-pointed piece leaning backward at a sharp angle. This was usually a consecrated bit of bone or mother-of-pearl, and was supposed to have a peculiar power to hold fast any fish which had taken the bait.

These bones were usually taken from the body of someone who while living had been noted for great power or high rank. This sharp piece was tightly tied to the larger bone or shell, which formed the shank of the hook. The sacred barb of Maui's hook was a part of the magic bone he had secured from his ancestors in the underworld-the bone with which he struck the sun whole, lassoing him and compelling him to move more slowly through the heavens.

“Earth-twisted" fibers of vine, twisted while growing, was the cord used by Maui in tying the parts of his magic hook together.

Long and strong were the fish lines made from the olona fiber, holding the great fish caught from the depths of the ocean. The fibers of the olona vine were among the longest and strongest found in the Hawaiian islands.

Such a hook could easily be cast loose by the struggling fish if the least opportunity were given. Therefore it was absolutely necessary to keep the line taut and pull strongly and steadily, to land the fish in the canoe.

Maui did not use his magic hook for a long time. He seemed to understand that it would not answer ordinary needs. Possibly the idea of making the supernatural hook did not occur to him until he had exhausted his lower wit and magic upon his brothers.

It is said that Maui was not a very good fisherman. Sometimes his end of the canoe contained fish which his brothers had thought were on their hooks until they were landed in the canoe.

Many times they laughed at him for his poor success, and he retaliated with his mischievous tricks.

E!” he would cry when one of his brothers began to pull in, while the other brothers swiftly paddled the canoe forward. ”E!" See, we both have caught a great fish at the same moment. Be careful now! Your line is loose. Look out! Look out!"

All this time he would be pulling his own line in as rapidly as possible. Onward rushed the canoe, each fisherman shouting to encourage the others. Soon the lines by the tricky manipulation of Maui would be crossed. Then, as the great fish was brought near the side of the boat, Maui, the little, the mischievous one, would slip his hook toward the head of the fish and flip it over into the canoe, causing his brother's line to slacken for a moment. Then his mournful cry rang out:”Oh, my brother, your fish is gone. Why did you not pull more steadily? It was a fine fish and now it is down deep in the waters." Then Maui held up his splendid catch (from his brother's hook) and received somewhat suspicious congratulations. But what could they do? Maui was the smart one of the family.

Their father and mother were both members of the household of the gods. The father was ”the supporter of the heavens" and the mother was ”the guardian of the way to the invisible world"; but pitifully small and very few were the gifts bestowed upon their children. Maui's brothers knew nothing beyond the average home life of the ordinary Hawaiian, and Maui alone was endowed with the power to work miracles Nevertheless, the student of Polynesian legends learns that Maui is more widely known than almost all the demi-gods of all nations as a discoverer of benefits for his fellows, and these physical rather than spiritual.

After many fishing excursions, Maui’s brothers seemed to have wit enough to understand his tricks, and thenceforth they refused to take him in their canoe when they paddled out to the deep-sea fishing grounds. Then those who depended upon Maui to supply their daily needs murmured against his poor success. His mother scolded him and his brothers ridiculed him.

The ex-Queen Liliuokalani, in a translation of what is called “the family chant," says that Maui's mother sent him to his father for a hook with which to supply his need.

Go hence to your father,

‘Tis there you find line and hook.

This is the hook, "Made Fast to the Heavens";

Manaia-ka-lani" ‘tis called.

When the hook catches land

It brings the old seas together.

Bring hither the large alae,

The bird of Hina.

When Maui had obtained his hook, he tried to go fishing with his brothers. He leaped on the end of their canoe as they pushed out into deep water. They were angry and cried out:”This boat is too small for another Maui!” They threw him off and made him swim back to the beach.

When they returned from their day's work, they brought back only a shark. Maui told them if he had been with them, better fish would have been upon their hooks-the ulua, for instance, or possibly the pimoe, the king of fish. At last, they let him go far out, outside the harbour of Kipahula to a place opposite Ka-iwi-o-Pele (The Bone of Pele), a peculiar piece of lava lying near the beach at Hana on the eastern side of the island of Maui. There they fished, but only sharks were caught. The brothers ridiculed Maui, saying: "Where are the ulua, and where is pimoe?"

Then Maui threw his magic hook into the sea, baited with one of the alae birds, sacred to his mother and Hina. He used the incantation: "When I let go my hook with divine power, then I get the great ulua."

The bottom of the sea began to move. Great waves arose, trying to carry the canoe away. The fish pulled the canoe two days, drawing the line to its fullest extent. When the slack began to come in the line, because of the tired fish, Maui called for the brothers to pull hard against the coming fish. Soon land rose out of the water. Maui told them not to look back or the fish would be lost. One brother did look back. The line slacked, snapped, and broke, and the land lay behind them in islands.

Maui evidently had no scruples against using anything which would help him carry out his schemes. He indiscriminately robbed his friends and the gods alike.

Down in the deep sea sank the hook with its struggling bait, until it was seized by ”the land under the water.” But Hina the mother saw the struggle of her sacred bird and hastened to the rescue. She caught a wing of the bird, but could not pull the alae from the sacred hook. The wing was torn off. Then the fish gathered around the bait and tore it in pieces. If the bait could have been kept entire, then the land would have come up in a continent rather than as an island. Then the Hawaiian group would have been unbroken. But the bait broke-and the islands came as fragments from the underworld.

Hawaiian islands

Source:

Myths and Legends of Hawaii

W.D.Westervelt

1987

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