Tkegear.— Myths of Observation. 585 



after him, close behind him ; so he changed himself into a 

 fleet-winged eagle, and flew with rapid flight, but the fire 

 pursued and almost caught him as he flew. Then the eagle 

 dashed down into a pool of water; but when he got into the 

 water he found that almost boiling. The forests just then 

 caught fire, so that he could not alight anywhere, and the 

 earth and the sea both caught fire too, and Maui was very- 

 near perishing in the flames. Then he called on his ancestors 

 Tawhiri-ma-tea and Whaitiri-matakataka to send down an 

 abundant supply of water, and he cried aloud, ' Oh, let water 

 be given to me to quench this fire that pursues after me,' and 

 lo, there appeared squalls and gales, and Tawhiri-ma-tea sent 

 heavy lasting rain, and the fire was quenched ; and before 

 Mahuika could reach her place of shelter she almost perished 

 in the rain, and her shrieks and screams became as loud as 

 those of Maui had been when he was pursued by the fire : 

 thus Maui ended this proceeding. So was extinguished the 

 fire of Mahuika, the goddess of fire." : Here we have plainly 

 the story of the earth being swept by fire and the forests 

 consumed, followed by a deluge of water which extin- 

 guished the flames. This is the North Island legend ; but 

 the South Island priests of the Ngaitahu say, when speak- 

 ing of the deluge, that at the same time was " the fire of 

 destruction."! Colenso gathered, half a century ago, informa- 

 tion from old chiefs, one of whom (from the East Coast, North 

 Island) said, " Anciently the land was burnt up by the fire of 

 Tamatea," when all things perished. Another, a chief of the 

 Ngatiporou, of the East Cape, said that " all the moas perished 

 in the fire of Tamatea." J Now, as we know that the moa (if 

 by " moa " is meant the Dinornis, which I doubt) did not perish 

 by fire, the inference is that this " fire of Tamatea " was 

 probably a legend brought with them from afar, and localized. 

 I have just recovered an interesting legend not yet published. 

 It is as follows: "The descendants of Tarangata were the 

 parents of Fire. He conceived the idea that he was destined 

 to become the conqueror of the world. He protruded his 

 tongue to lick up Water, thinking he could consume it all. 

 Then came forth the great Wave to do battle with him. The 

 one shot forth his tongue, the other did the same on his part. 

 Aha ! The name of the battle was Kaukau-a-wai. Then, 

 then indeed was the power of Water exhibited. Aha ! This 

 was the defeat of Fire. It flew ; it retreated ; it was conquered 



* Grey's " Polynesian Mythology," p. 30, ed. 1885. 



t ^Yhite's "Ancient History of the Maori," vol. i., p. 181. 



J See Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xii., p. 81. The Tamatea mentioned is, 

 however, almost certainly not the Tamatea of the tribe Ngatikahungunu, 

 hut probably the ancient deity mentioned by T Wohlers in Trans., vol. vii., 

 p. 6. 



