"WoHLERS. — Mythology and Traditions of the Maori. 11 



now recognised him, cried over him, and then kept him by her with her other 

 children. 



Maui had now found his mother and brothers, but he had not yet seen his 

 father. At night, when they were all in bed, and all was dark, he heard that 

 his father was in the house, and that his mother was telling him of himself, 

 their castaway son, who had come home alive. Next morning, when it was 

 daylight, his father was gone. He asked his brothers where their father was, 

 but they could not tell him ; they seemed to be so used to his mysterious 

 absence that they felt no curiosity about it. When he asked his mother, she 

 did not answer him. This made him curious, and he resolved to find out the 

 mystery. Next night he kept awake, but pretended to be asleep. By and 

 by he heard, in the dark, that his father was in the house again, that he 

 untied his maro (that piece of cloth which savages wear round their loins), 

 folded it up, put it aside, and then went to bed. When all were asleep, 

 Maui got softly up, took his father's maro, and hid it. In the morning, just 

 before daybreak, his father got up and felt for his maro, but could not find it. 

 While he was thus delayed by seeking, daylight appeared, and then he hastily 

 moved a post of the house, and disappeared below it. Maui waited till all were 

 up and out of the house, then he moved the post, as he had seen his father do, 

 and discovered a subterranean passage below. He put the post in its place 

 again, and said nothing about it. 



That day he was going with his brothers to the woods to spear pigeons. He 

 asked his m.other for some oil, which he took with him ; he also took some 

 charcoal. When they came to the bush, then he anointed his limbs with oil, to 

 make them pliable. Then he drew his feet into the shape of pigeons' feet, and 

 stroked his arms into wings; his lips he drew into the shape of a pigeon-beak, and 

 so on till his whole body resembled that of a pigeon. Then he tied the maro of hia 

 father round his neck and let it hang over his chest, and then finished off with the 

 charcoal to imitate the shades of the colours of a pigeon. Now he could fly up 

 the trees, and the pigeons were not afraid of him, and he could catch as many 

 as he wished. When they came home, Maui had a large bundle of sound 

 pigeons, while his brothers had only two or three each, much lacerated by spear 

 wounds. Next night he heard his mother telling his father about him, that he 

 was such a good boy ; had brought home such a load of pigeons, and not at all 

 lacerated by spear wounds. 



Another day Maui thought he would explore the subterranean passage 

 through which he had seen his father disappear. So he moved the post and 

 went in. As he went along the passage widened, and then he came to an open 

 place, in the distance of which he saw men at work in the field. Now he made 

 himself again into the shape of a pigeon, took, in his flight, two or three circles 



