496 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Maui-tikitiki-a-Taranga = Maui (born in) the top-knot of Taranga,* 

 their mother being Tarauga, and their father Makea-tu-tara. 

 In the Maugaiau tale, although elsewhere Ina is called Maui's 

 sister, her parents are styled Vaitooringa and Ngaetua. In 

 Mangaia, Ina has two brothers — Eupe and Tangi-kuku ; both 

 Rupe and Tangi-kuku are pigeon names ; Tangi-kuku doubtless 

 meaning " cooing like a dove," hidai and kuknpa being the Maori 

 words for pigeon. Eupe is not a modern Maori word for pigeon ; 

 but the form of a pigeon assumed by Eupe sufficiently shows 

 that the pigeon was once known to them by that name, as it 

 still exists in the Samoan lupe, Tahitian nipe, and Tongan hipe — 

 all meaning "pigeon." The Maoris have lost the incident of 

 " the master-thief ;" they assign a different reason for Hina's 

 flight ; they make Hina a married woman, instead of a maiden, 

 and have no story of her adventures on her way to Motu-tapu. 

 The Mangaians apparently know nothing about Ina's connection 

 with Ira war u, or of his being changed into a dog ; nor about 

 her finding other wives of Tinirau on her arrival in the Sacred 

 Isle; nor of Eupe's visit to Eehua in heaven ; and they seem to 

 have missed the meaning of Eupe's name being " pigeon" by 

 giving him the form of a linnet, f 



There are references in other legends which partially clear 

 up, and partially darken the story. From far-off Nukuhiva, in 

 the Marquesas Islands, comes a tradition as to " The origin of 

 fire " — one of the most widely- spread of the many legends con- 

 cerning Maui. In this myth, the name of Maui's mother is 

 given as Kui ; and although this may not seem to be her proper 

 name, [Jmi in Maori being a term of address to any old woman, 

 and in Marquesan meaning "mother " generally,) yet that it was 

 an especial name of Maui's mother is proved by a Mangaian 

 story, that Kui gave to Tane her daughter Ina (Maui's sister), 

 " Ina who rivals the dawn ;" and again by another Mangaian 

 myth, that " the eldest of Kui-the-blind's attractive daughters 

 was named Ina ; that Marama (the moon), who from afar had 

 often admired her, became so enamoured of her charms that one 

 night he descended from his place in the heavens to fetch her 

 to be his wife." But this blind old woman very probably appears 



* Maui is the Prometheus who gained fire for men, in all the Pacific 

 legends except that of Samoa. Here the Maui nam(> is unknown, their 

 hero being Ti'i Ti'i, whose mother was Talunga. How completely the 

 comparative method vindicates itself, when we tiiul that Maui was called 

 Tikitiki-a-Taranga, because he was born in Taranga's top-knot— a name 

 incomprehensible in Samoa without our New Zealand story. 



t It is perhaps worthy of notice that Hina's house (as described in the 

 Mangaian story) is utterly unlike a Samoan house, which is a large circular 

 structure, like a bee-hive raised upon posts, open all round ; mats are let 

 down I'ound the outside or from internal partitions when privacy is required. 

 This is somewhat of evidence that if (as some think) the Mangaians came 

 from Samoa, this part of the story was new. 



