Currently I am reading 'The Naked Man', the 4th and last many-paged volume of Claude Lévi-Strauss' 'grammar of mythology'. Among his hundreds of cited myths from South and North America I happened to notice one which beutifully connects to 'the one who got away':

1 of 4 is a matter of which model to choose. It could be 1 of 5 in another model. The essential is that one survives:

"M645a. Cowlitz. 'The continuation of the adventure of Cougar and Wildcat'

The brothers stopped near a stream. Before he went hunting, Cougar lit a fire and told Wildcat to tend it carefully. The latter however started to play and forgot the fire, which went out.

Afraid of being beaten, he decided to go and steal some fire from the other side of the river, where some smoke was rising. He swam across and had no trouble in seizing one of the five burning logs, which belonged to an old woman. Then he came back. Wildcat's fur still bears the marks of the burns he suffered during this expedition.

When the old woman saw that one log was missing, she tried to ford the river and run after the thief. The water soon came up to her knees and, fearing that her underclothes would get wet, she abandoned the idea.

Cougar had a feeling that something dreadful had happened; he stopped hunting and rushed back.

Five naked giants, who had swum across the river, came in turn to avenge their grandmother. Each one had a different kind of game on his shoulder (in the following order: deer, brown bear, cougar, grizzly and human ...). By resorting to a ruse, the brothers got the better of the first four of their opponents. While Cougar, who had defied them, was struggling with them, Wildcat cut their Achilles tendons.

The last giant, however, who had not bothered to undress when crossing the river, was tougher. While wrestling, Cougar and he gradually rose up into the air and cut each other to shreds. Scraps of flesh fell to the ground, and Wildcat kept or discarded them, according to whether they were white or black, only the white pieces came from his brother, whom he would have to reconstitute at the end of the fight.

However, he gave him the wrong liver (or viscera ...). Cougar thought he would die. 'Oh, no,' Wildcat explained, 'it is better this way, for henceforth you will be a dangerous human being.' ..." (The Naked Man)

Lévi-Strauss does not comment (at least judging from the pages which I have so far read) the substance of the story, he is only juggling his 'grammar'.

We recognize 'the one who got away'. We also recognize the old woman (Nuahine kotekote), the one who owns the fire and is able to realight the new year fire.

ko te nuahine -  i mamau i te ahi

Nuahine. 1. Old woman. 2. Ko te Nuahine ká umu a ragi kotekote, ancient name of "the woman in the moon" inspired by the resemblance of its landscape with the likeness of a woman sitting, lighting the fire of her oven. Vanaga. Nuehine. Old woman. Churchill. "[Englert 1948, 165:] '... se selia nombrar Ko te Nuahine káumu à rangi kote kote que significa: La vieja que enciende el curanto en el cielo kotekote. Puedo haber sido una personificación de la luna porque las viejos decían, comentando este nombre, que no es una montaña que seve en la luna, sino una mujer anciana que está suntada [sentada?] al lado un gran curanto umu pae (de piedras en circulo)." (Barthel)

Maui stole fire from her (this time she was named Mahuika). She presumably is mentioned by Metoro also at Aa4-68, where the a fire beyond midsummer is needed:

The 'flood' which made the old woman turn around - fire is extinguished by water - probably is the Milky Way. Maybe once, a long time ago, the Milky Way was a natural mark in the night sky for dividing the year into halves.

Cougar being torn to pieces resembles the fate of Osiris. The entrails make us remember niu and the dangerous Entrail Snatcher, the ogre who caught people unawares, those who opened their mouths to laugh, snatched their entrails and converted them to spirits (now open at the other end).

The 5 giants are 'the five burning logs' which belong to the old woman. Probably they are the 5 fingers, that we learnt from the story about Mahuika. 5 fingers later gave way to 4 fingers (according to Posnansky). In the rongorongo texts we never see more than 3 fingers (in addition to a possibly depicted thumb). First there may have been 5 + 360 = 365, later 4 + 360 = 364. With the model 5 + 360 the number of seasons probably were 5 too (each having 73 days), with the model 4 + 360 the number of seasons becomes 4 (quarters). Instead of having to light 5 logs (one each 73rd night), the old woman now needed to light only 4 logs (one each 91st night).

Cutting the Achilles tendons of the 'giant logs' is equal to cutting the Achilles tendons of the 'giant legs'. What better way to make them stop moving? I guess we here have the correct interpreation of at least some of the vae glyphs, which mean 'stop walking', not 'begin walking':