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.

Then the story goes on:

"The people drew back, frightened. They saw his glaring eyes, bright red, not like a pigeon's now but red, as if they had been painted with ochre, the sacred colour.

'No wonder he sat there so long,' said one of the party. 'If he had been a bird he would have flown off long ago. But it is not a bird, it is a man.'

'No, that is not a man,' said one of the others. 'There has never been anything like that seen in this place.' He moved a little closer. 'Just look at the shape of him.' he said. 'He is something to do with the gods. Nothing like this has been seen since Rangi and Papa were torn apart.'

Then Taranga came forward and had a look at Maui. 'I used to see someone who looked like this person every night when I went to visit my children,' she said, and Maui noticed how she seemed to regard her visits as something that happened long ago, whereas he himself had seen her that very morning.

'Listen,' said Taranga to the other people, in a strange voice that was not like her voice at home. 'Once I was walking by the beach, and the pains came on. I was alone, and there on the beach I gave birth prematurely to one of my children. I thought that no one would ever know, and I unwound my topknot and cut off some of my hair; and wrapped the little creature in it, and threw him into the sea. But later he was found there by his ancestor Tama nui ki te rangi.'

The people were hushed, and they gathered closer, as Taranga unfolded the rest of the story. But Maui could hear that she told it almost in the words that he had used himself. When the story was ended, Taranga stepped forward to Maui, who was now sitting up.'Where do you come from?' she asked him. 'From the west?'

'No.'

'From the north-east, then?'

'No.'

'From the south-east, then?'

'No.'

'From the south, then?'

'No.'

'Was it the wind which blows upon your cheek that brought you here?'

'Yes.'

'Then this is indeed my child,' Taranga cried. And she asked him: 'Are you Maui mua?'

'No.'

'Are you Maui roto?'

'No.'

'Are you Maui tikitiki a Taranga?'

He answered 'Yes,' and Taranga cried 'Aue!' and threw up her hands, and wailed again. 'This is indeed my child,' she cried. 'He was nursed by the waves and the sea-tangles, and became a human being after all. Welcome my child, welcome to this place!' And her eyes flashed as she spoke these words.

'Some day the very threshold of your great ancestress Hine nui te Po shall be crossed by you. And when that happens death shall be vanquished, and will have no power over man.'

Then she took him to Makea tutara, her husband, saying: 'This is my youngest child, whom I have brought here for you.'

'What is his name?' the old man asked.

'He is called Maui tikitiki a Taranga.'

'That is the name of a great warrior,' said Makea. 'It is the name of one who is marked out to perform many bold and marvellous feats. He will be the sort that has no regard for dangers.'

Then Makea took Maui's hand and made him sit before him. And he passed his aged hands gently over Maui's head and body, all the way down over his legs.

'This child has indeed an ill-formed, flattened head, but his body is strong, and his eyes are the red eyes of a fine warrior,' he said.

Then Maui was taken by his fatherto the tohi ceremony to be dedicated to the gods. Water was sprinkled over him with a branch of karamu leaves and incantations were said to make him sacred and protect him. But at the end of the ceremony Makea tutara felt a shudder go through him, which he knew was sent by the gods. He remembered that by mistake he had left out a part of one of the prayers. He knew that the gods were certain to punish this fault, and that in consequence of it Maui would have to die, he would not conquer death, and what Taranga had said would happen would not happen now, because of his mistake.

To hide his agitation he went away from the other people a little distance and chanted an invocation while he wept. For the old man foresaw then all that Maui would accomplish, to his own undoing. So great was Makea's grief that he would not go inside his home until it was evening.

Afterwards, Maui returned from that country to his brothers and told them that he had found out where their parents lived." (Antony Alpers, Maori Myths and Tribal Legends.)