MYTHOLOGY. 
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tliers called out, Maui let go ; lie replied,* wliat did I 
come for but to catcb fish ? I won*t let go ; so lie con- 
tinued pulling in bis bne, and a*gain tbe canoe beeled over ; 
his brothers impatiently repeated the command, Maui let 
go, we shall be drowned ; but he persisted in pulling, and 
at last the earth came up. The hook caught the Maihi, or 
facing board of Hine-nui-te-po*s house, f and drew it up 
with the land : this was Ranga whenua, the fish of Maui. 
He boastingly asked his brothers the name of his fish : they 
could not tell ; again and again did he ask them, they 
were dumb with amazement ; he told them it was Haha 
whenua, that is, the searching for land. The moment the 
land came up their canoe grounded, and the hills appeared. J 
The canoe, it is said, still remains on the top of Hikurangi, 
a lofty mountain at Waiapu, near the East Cape ; some say 
it is further south, at Ahuriri. The salt water eye of the 
fish is Wanganui-a-te-ra, Port Nicholson • the fresh water 
eye is Wairarapa; the upper jaw Rongo rongo, the north 
head of Port Nicholson ; the lower jaw Te Rimurapa, the 
south head of the same ; the head of this fish of Maui lies 
at Turakirae, a mountain on the coast near Wai-ra-rapa; the 
tail is the spirits* flying place, Cape Maria van Dieman ; the 
belly is Taupo and Tongariro, and the back the east coast. 
One tradition states, that Maufis brothers, immediately 
they saw the fish, took their tuatini, an instrument bordered 
with a row of shark’s teeth, the ancient Maori knife, and 
began crimping it, which accounts for the hills and valleys 
* Ka mau ta Maui ki tona ringa ringa e lcore e taia te ruru. What Maui 
has got in his hand he cannot throw away ; which has passed into a proverb. 
f The Nga-puhi tradition states that it was Tonganui’s house, and that Maui 
used the following spell to bring it up : — 
What dost thou intend, Tonganui, 
That thou art sullenly biting below there ? 
The power of Rangiwhenua’s jawbone is seen on thee; 
Thou art coming ; thou art conquered ; 
Thou art coming ; appear, appear, 
Shake thyself, grandson of Tangaroa the little. 
t Taupiri, an isolated mountain, is said by some to have been the first land 
which was seen. 
K 
