Tregear. — Polynesian Folk-lore. 387 



fire drawn from the knees, from the navel, etc. ; of these the 

 worst kind is that taken from the feet or legs ; the sacred fire is 

 from the head. So Maui took this fire which had issued from 

 the toes of Mauike, and quenched it in some water. Then he 

 returned, and asked the old woman for more. She took the 

 cocoanut husk, and this time drew fire from her knees ; this she 

 gave to Maui, who took it away and extinguished it, as he had 

 done with the other fire she had given him. Maui went back, 

 and asked again. The fire-deity said : ' You fatiguiug child, you 

 wicked boy, what have you done with the fire ?' ' I have fallen 

 into the water, and hurt myself,' said Maui. Maui then received 

 fire from her back ; this he put out. Then she gave him the 

 cocoanut husk ignited with fire from her navel ; this also he 

 extinguished. The goddess then became violently angry, and 

 put on a most terrifying and awful aspect, a lurid and unearthly 

 spectral form. But Maui was undaunted, and said : ' I know 

 all the secrets of witchcraft, and care nothing for your magical 

 powers ;' then he took a sharp stone, and with it he cut off her 

 head. Maui then returned to his parents, and told them what 

 he had done. They were very angry, and lamented the death of 

 their great relative. Maui then took the fire he had obtained : 

 he did not at first understand its properties, but tried to kindle 

 stones, water, etc. ; at last he tried trees, and kindled the, fan 

 (Hibiscus), the vevai (cotton-wood), the keika, aukea, etc., and 

 all trees, except the kakn tree, on which Maui had rested when 

 he took the bird's shape." 



These are the principal legends I have been able to procure 

 on the subject of the origin of fire, or the art of procuring it. 

 These traditions share in a general groundwork, and in the most 

 important points of interest. The scene is laid in Hawaiki, and 

 the path downward shows that this Hawaiki is no earthly 

 locality, but the dim under-world of shadowy myth. There 

 is, however, one very important difference between the New 

 Zealand legends and those of the other islands: in the New 

 Zealand story, fire is already in the dwellings of men; it is 

 only when that fire becomes extinguished by accident (or, as 

 in Maui's case, wilfully,) that it becomes necessary for one to 

 proceed into the bowels of the earth in order to procure a new 

 supply ; and Maui's gift to man is not of fire whereby food may 

 be cooked, but of the knowledge concerning the ignition of wood 

 by friction. It would seem consistent, not only with the legend 

 but with common-sense, that in the primitive days of the human 

 race fire was already to be seen in the dwellings of men, ages 

 before the art of procuring fire by friction of wood or by per- 

 cussion of flint had been discovered. In very many parts of 

 the world fire is to be found, not only during violent outbreaks 

 of pent-up energy, as in volcanic eruptions, but issuing from 

 rifts and fissures in the ground, and burning with steady and 



