126 
MYTHOLOGY. 
used for the manufacture of eel baskets. Ware-ware made 
an opening at the end for the fish to enter by, but as he used 
no precaution to hinder them from going out again, they 
only eat the bait and went away, but Maui Mohio made a tohi, 
or door, to the entrance of his basket, thus hindering the 
fish from escaping ; so that whilst his elder brother had no 
fish, his basket was filled. On their return home Maui Mohio 
privately removed his tohi , lest his contrivance should be 
known ; so when his disappointed brothers saw his success, 
they inquired the cause, and examining his basket, found 
to their surprise that it was just the same as their own. 
Afterwards the elder brothers made some spears for birds ; 
all their points were smooth; but Maui added a barb to his; 
when they went to the woods to spear birds, they wounded, 
but could not secure them, as they slipped off the smooth 
point : Maui secured all his, as the barb of his spear held 
them firm ; but when they returned home, he privately 
removed it, and put on the smooth point again, that they 
might not discover his invention. 
Afterwards the elder brothers made some fish-hooks ; Maui 
did the same, but his were all barbed, whilst theirs were 
smooth ; they went to sea ; his brothers caught fish, but they 
escaped, Maui secured all his ; his brothers called out to him, 
let us see your hooks ; he held up one that was unbarbed 
like their own ; they returned home, but without fish ; Maui 
the cunning alone had any. His brethren were very angry, 
and turned him out of their canoe; they told him and Irawaru, 
his brother-in-law, to go to sea in a canoe by themselves. 
Maui gave the baits to him to put on the hooks, but, like 
a greedy dog, he eat them all up ; this made him very 
angry, and when they landed he bid his brother-in-law 
go on before and lie down, as a skid ;* Irawaru did so, 
and Maui dragged the canoe over his back, and, behold it 
was broken ; he pulled it out to lengthen it, and form a tail, 
* The custom of putting captives to death by using them as skids, and 
dragging heavy canoes over their prostrate bodies, is still common in some of 
the Polynesian isles, and seems from this allusion to have been once practised 
in New Zealand. — (See Cruise of the Fawn.) 
