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... Now every morning at
daybreak, Taranga used
to wake up before her
children and leave the
house, and vanish until
night. The older
brothers were used to
this, they knew that
their mother was there
at night but gone in the
morning, but little Maui
was not used to it and
he found it very
annoying. At first he
thought in the mornings,
'Well, perhaps she has
only gone to prepare
some food for us.' But
no, she really was gone,
she was far away.
In the evening, when her
children were all
singing and dancing in
the meeting house as
usual, she used to
return. And after the
dancing she called young
Maui to her sleeping
mat, and this happened
every night. And as soon
as the daylight came she
disappeared again.
One day Maui asked his
brothers to tell him
where their mother and
father lived. He said he
wanted to visit them.
They said they did not
know. 'How can we tell?'
they said. 'We don't
know whether they live
up there somewhere, or
down below, or over
there.' 'Well, never
mind,' said Maui, 'I'll
find them for myself.'
'Nonsense,' they said,
'how can you tell where
they are, you, the
youngest of all of us,
when we ourselves don't
know? After that first
night when you turned up
in the meeting house and
made yourself known to
us all, you know that
our mother slept here
every night, and as soon
as the sun rose she went
away, and she came back
at evening, and this is
how it always is. How
can we tell where she
goes?'
Now when Maui had this
conversation with his
brothers he had already
discovered something for
himself. During the
previous night, as his
mother and brothers were
all sleeping, he had
crept out and stolen his
mother's skirt, her
woven belt, and her
warm, feathered cloak,
and had hidden them.
Then he had taken
various garments and
stopped up all the
chinks around the
doorway of the house and
of its single wooden
window, so that the
first light of day would
not get in and Taranga
would not wake in time
to go. When that was
done he could not sleep.
He was afraid his mother
would wake up in the
dark and spoil the
trick. But Taranga did
sleep on.
When the first faint
light appeared at the
far end of the house,
Maui could see the legs
of all the other people
sleeping, and his mother
was sleeping too. Then
the sun came up, and
Taranga stirred, and
partly woke. 'What kind
of night is this,' she
wondered, 'that lasts so
long?' But because it
was dark in the house
she dozed off again. At
last she woke up
properly, and knew that
something was wrong. She
threw off the cloak that
covered her and jumped
up, with nothing on, and
went round looking for
her skirt and belt.
Little Maui pretended to
be fast asleep.
Taranga rushed to the
door, and the window
beside it, and pulled
out all the things that
Maui had used to stop
them up. When she saw
that the sun was already
in the sky she muttered
some angry things and
hurried out, holding in
front of her a piece of
old flax cloak that Maui
had used to stop up the
door. Away she ran,
crying and whimpering in
being so badly treated
by her children.
No sooner was she out of
the house than little
Maui was on his knees
behind the sliding door,
which she had closed
behind her as she left.
He was watching to see
which way she went. Not
far away he saw her stop
and pull up a clump of
rushes. There was a hole
under it, which she
dropped into. She pulled
the rushes into place
behind her, and was
gone. Maui slipped out
and ran as fast as he
was able to the clump of
rushes. He pulled it and
it came away, and he
felt a wind against his
face as he looked
through the hole.
Looking down, he saw
another world, with
trees and the ocean, and
fires burning, and men
and women walking about.
He put the rushes back,
and returned to the
house and woke his
brothers, who were still
fast asleep.
'Come on, come on! Wake
up!' he cried. 'Here we
are, tricked by our
mother again!' So they
all got up, and realized
from the height of the
sun that they had
overslept. That was the
day when Maui asked them
to tell him where his
parents lived. He did
not admit what he had
seen that morning. And
they said they did not
know, and he
would never know either.
'What does it matter to
you, anyway?' they said.
'Do we care about our
father or our mother?
Did she feed us and look
after us until we grew
up? Not a bit of it. She
went off every morning,
just like this. Our true
father, without any
doubt, is great Rangi
the Sky, whose offspring
provide us with trees
for our houses and birds
and fishes for us to
eat, and sweet potatoes
and fern root. And who
was it that sent those
other offspring down to
help us - Touarangi, the
rain that waters our
plants. Hau ma rotoroto,
the fine weather that
enables them to grow,
Hau whenua, the soft
winds that cool them,
and Hau ma ringiringi,
the mists that keep them
moist? Did not Rangi
give us all of these to
make our food grow, and
did not Papa make the
seeds sprout in the
earth? You know all
this.'
'I certaínly do know it
all,' said Maui. 'In
fact I know it far
better than you do. For
I was nursed and fed by
the sea-tangles, whereas
you four were nursed at
our mother's breast. It
could not have been
until after she weaned
you that you ate the
foods you speak of,
whereas I have never
tasted either her milk
or her cooking. Yet I
love her, because I once
lay in her womb. And
because I love her, I
want to find out where
she and our father live,
and go and see them.'
The other four were
astonished when they
heard their little
brother speak like this.
When they recovered
themselves and were able
to keep their faces
straight, they glanced
at one another and
decided that they might
as well let him have his
way, and go to find
their parents.
Now Maui had already
performed some of his
magic for them on the
night when they first
set eyes on him, in the
meeting house. On that
occasion, in front of
all his relatives, he
had transformed himself
into all kinds of birds
that live in the forest.
None of the shapes he
assumed had pleased them
particularly then, but
now he turned himself
into a kereru, or wood
pigeon, and with this
they were delighted.
'Heavens!' they said.
'You do look handsome.
Much more beautiful than
the birds you showed us
last time.' What made
him look so splendid now
was that he was wearing
the belt and skirt he
had stolen from his
mother that morning. The
thing that looked so
white across the
pigeon's breast was his
mother's belt. He also
had the sheen of her
skirt, that was made of
burnished hair from the
tail of a dog, and it
was the fastening of her
belt that made the
beautiful feathers at
his throat. This is how
the wood pigeon got its
handsome looks.
Maui now perched on the
branch of a tree near
his brothers, and there,
just like a real kereru,
he sat quite still in
one place. He did not
hop from bough to bough
like other birds, but
sat there cooing to
himself. Which made his
brothers coin our
proverb, 'The stupid
pigeon sits on one bough
and does not hop from
place to place.' And
they went away, and left
him to change his shape
again.
Next morning Maui
prepared to set off in
search of his parents.
Before he left, he
astonished his older
brothers once again by
making quite a speech.
'Now you stay here,'
said little Maui, 'and
you'll be hearing
something of me after I
am gone. It is because I
love my parents so much
that I am going off to
look for them. Listen to
me, and say whether the
things I have been doing
are remarkable or not.
Changing into birds can
only be done by someone
who is skilled in magic,
yet here I am, younger
than all of you, and I
have turned myself into
all the birds of the
forest, and now I am
going to take the risk
of growing old and
losing my powers because
of the great length of
the journey to the place
where I am going.'
'That might be so,' said
his brothers, 'if you
were going on some
warlike expedition. But
in fact you are only
going to look for those
parents whom we all
love, and if you ever
find them we shall all
be happy. Our present
sadness will be a thing
of the past, and we
shall spend our lives
between this place and
theirs, paying them
happy visits. What is
there to be afraid of?'
Little Maui went on,
very serious. 'It is
certainly a very good
cause that leads me to
undertake this journey,
and when I reach the
place I am going to, if
I find everything
agreeable, then I shall
be pleased with it, and
if I find it
disagreeable, then I
shall be disgusted with
it.'
The brothers kept
straight faces, and
replied: 'What you say
is exceedingly true,
Maui. Depart then, on
your yourney, with your
great knowledge and your
skill in magic.' Then
their brother went a
little way into the
forest, and came back in
the shape of a pigeon
once more, with his
sheeny back and his
white breast and his
bright red eye. His
brothers were charmed,
and there was nothing
they could do but admire
him, as he flew away.
Away flew Maui in his
pigeon shape, with his
brothers admiring him as
he went. But as soon as
he was out of sight he
wheeled about, and flew
to the clump of rushes
that marked the place
where his mother
disappeared.
He came down, in his
noisy pigeon way, and
strutted about for a
moment. Then he lifted
the rushes. He flopped
into the hole and
replaced the clump
behind him, and was
gone. A few strokes of
his wings took him to
that other country, and
soon he saw some people
talking to one another
on the grass beneath
some trees. They were
manapau trees, a kind
that grows in that land
and nowhere else.
Maui flew down to the
tops of the trees and,
without being noticed by
any of the people,
perched on a branch that
enabled him to see them.
Almost at once he
recognized Taranga,
sitting on the grass
beside her husband, a
man who by his dress and
demeanor was plainly a
chief. 'Aha,' he cooed
to himself, 'there are
my father and my mother
just below me.' And soon
he knew that he was not
mistaken, for he heard
their names when other
members of the party
spoke to them. He
flopped down through the
leaves and perched on
the branch of a puriri
tree thad had some
berries on it. He turned
his head this way and
that, and tilted it on
its side. Then he pecked
off one of the berries
and gently dropped it,
and it hit his father's
forehead.
'Was that a bird, that
dropped that berry?' one
of the party asked. But
the father said No, it
was only a berry that
fell by chance.
So Maui picked some more
berries, and this time
he threw them down quite
hard, and they hit both
the father and the
mother and actually hurt
them a little. Then
everyone got up and
walked round peering
into the branches of the
tree. The pigeon cooed,
and everyone saw it.
Some went away and
gathered stones, and all
of them, chiefs and
common people alike,
began throwing stones up
into the branches. They
threw for a long time
without hitting the
pigeon once, but then a
stone that was thrown by
Maui's father struck
him. It was Maui, of
course, who decided that
it should, for unless he
had wished it, no stone
could have struck him.
It caught his left leg,
and down he fell,
fluttering through the
branches to the ground.
But when they ran to
pick the bird up, it had
turned into the shape of
a young man ...
(Maori Myths) |
