28 
MYTHOLOGY. 
go; we shall be drowned ; but he persisted in pulling, and 
at last the earth came up. The hook caught the Maihi, the 
facing board of Hine-nui-te-po’s house, and drew it up with 
the land. This was Ranga whenua, that is 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. 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 is Rongo rongo (the north head of Port Nicholson); 
the lower jaw is Te Rimurapa (south head of ditto). The 
head of this land fish of Maui lies at Turakirae (a mountain on 
the coast near Wairarapa) ; the tail is the spirits’ flying place 
(Cape Maria van Dieman); the belly is Taupo and Tongariro. 
One tradition states, that Maui’s brothers immediately they 
saw the fish, took their tuatini’s (an instrument bordered with 
a row of shark’s teeth, the ancient Maori knife) and began 
crimping the fish. This accounts for the hills and vallies 
and all the irregularities of the islands’ surface. A similar 
tradition prevails in the Tonga isles ; but there Tangaloa is 
the fisherman. With some variations, this myth is known from 
one end of the island to the other. It appears only to apply 
to the north island, which indeed has a remarkable resemblance 
to a fish in shape; and the perfect knowledge which the 
natives had of its form, is an evident proof that they had fre¬ 
quently circumnavigated it in former times, and, in fact, had 
lived more peaceably and had more friendly intercourse with 
each other than they have now. It is not improbable that the 
* According to the Nga-puhi tradition:—Te pirita o te rangi te waka, tu- 
whawakia o te rangi, te mata o te matau nga kawae o muriranga-whenua, i 
toua haeretanga i te moana, kai ponu tona hoa kua motokia tona ihu muri ilio 
ka puta mai he toto ka raca atu nga hoa o Maui kia Tukua te ika, ka moa atu 
kei hea hoki ta Maui i hoe ai i te wai ? 
Taupiri, an isolated mountain, is said by some to have been the first land 
which was seen. 
