A Guide to MythologyClarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
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A Guide to Mythology
Clarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
Mythology -- Juvenile literature
Once when his relations were all dancing in the great House of Assembly
they found out who he was. For little Maui, the infant, crept into the
house, and went and sat behind one of his brothers, and hid himself, so
when their mother counted her children that they might stand up ready
for the dance, she said: “One, that’s Maui-taha; two, that’s Maui-roto;
three, that’s Maui-pae; four, that’s Maui-waho”; and then she saw
another, and cried out: “Hollo, where did this fifth come from?” Then
little Maui, the infant, answered: “Ah, I’m your child, too.” Then the
mother counted them all over again, and said: “Oh, no, there ought to be
only four of you; now for the first time I’ve seen you.” Then little Maui
and his mother stood for a long time disputing about this in the very
middle of the ranks of all the dancers.
At last she got angry, and cried out: “Come, you, be off now, out of
the house at once; you are no child of mine, you belong to some one
else.” Then little Maui spoke out quite boldly, and said: “Very well,
I’d better be off, then, for I suppose, as you say it, I must be the
child of some other person; but indeed I did think I was your child when
I said so, because I knew I was born by the side of the sea, and was
thrown by you into the foam of the surf, after you had wrapped me up in
a long tress of your hair, which you cut off for the purpose; then the
seaweed formed and fashioned me, as, caught in its long tangles, the
ever-heaving surges of the sea rolled me, folded as I was in them, from
side to side; at length the breezes and squalls which blew from the ocean
drifted me on shore again, and the soft jelly-fish of the long, sandy
beaches rolled themselves round me to protect me; then again myriads of
flies buzzed about me, and flocks of birds collected round me to tear
me to pieces, but at that moment appeared there also my great ancestor,
Tama-nui-ki-te-Rangi, and he saw the flies and birds collected in
clusters and flocks above the jelly-fish, and behold, within there lay
a human being; then he caught me up and carried me to his house, and he
hung me up in the roof that I might feel the warm smoke and the heat of
the fire, so I was saved alive by the kindness of that old man. At last
I grew, and then I heard of the fame of the dancing of this great House
of Assembly. It was that which brought me here. But ever since I can
remember I have heard the names of these your first-born children, as
you have been calling them over until this very night, when I again heard
you repeating them. In proof of this I will now recite your names to
you, my brothers. You are Maui-taha, and you are Maui-roto, and you are
Maui-pae, and you are Maui-waho, and as for me, I’m little Maui-the-baby,
and here I am sitting before you.”
When his mother, Taranga, heard all this, she cried out: “You dear little
child, you are indeed my last-born, therefore I now tell you your name
shall be Maui-tiki-tiki-o-Taranga,” and he was called by that name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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