232 PLANTS OP NEW ZEALAND 



after running along one of the external faces, enters by a pore 

 near the apex. 



The Kaikomako in Maori Lore. 



The story concerning the origin of fire is one of the best 

 known Maori legends. There are several variants of it. 

 Maui, the famous hero and demigod, one evening maliciously 

 extinguished all the household fires, so that, when morning 

 came, it was impossible for his mother to cook the daily meal. 

 This the hero had foreseen, and it gave him the required 

 excuse to go to the bowels of the earth, where dwelt the dread 

 goddess of fire, Mahuika. He thus hoped to discover whence 

 came fire. He reached the abode of the goddess by a 

 subterranean path, and begged from her a spark to rekindle 

 the terrestrial hearths. On receiving this daring request, the 

 goddess pulled out one of her finger-nails, and with it there 

 leaped forth a stream of fire. Maui carried off the flame with 

 him, but, wishing to learn more of its origin, put it out before 

 he had gone far. He returned to the cavern of the goddess, 

 and told her that he had accidentally lost the fire. She drew 

 out a second finger-nail, and Maui carried off the fire and 

 extinguished it as before. The same trick was repeated by 

 Maui, until Mahuika had pulled out all her nails except that 

 on one of her big toes. By this time, however, the goddess 

 recognized that she was being tricked. So, when Maui 

 returned for the twentieth nail, she tore it out and violently 

 dashed it on the ground. Immediately her dwelling was filled 

 with flames. Maui escaped to the upper world, but was chased 

 by the goddess with conflagration. With great presence of 

 mind, he turned himself into a bird, but even then he was 

 likely to have perished, for a pool of water into which he 

 plunged, was boiling hot. Indeed, he would undoubtedly have 

 been burned, had he not called to his assistance the gods of 

 the wind and rain and hail. These quenched the fires, and 

 Mahuika, appalled by the terrors of the tempest, fled shrieking 

 to the underworld. As she went, however, Maui saw her 



