Softly called Ngahue unto him his best-beloved friend, Te Turi, the
Stubborn One, and Te Turi's friends, Te Weri, the Centipede, and Te
Waerau, the Crab,[6] together with certain warriors, proved in many a
fight. He compelled also to his side a sufficiency of _tutua_[7] and,
being come to the beach, launched a great canoe. Then, having commended
themselves to the gods, they sailed whithersoever Atua[8] chose to lead
them.
Many days sailed they over the placid bosom of _moana_,[9] passing
fair islands whereon they were fain to rest, but for fear of club and
cooking-pot dared not land. So they kept on the course which Atua had
set, praying ever that they might come to the land which Ngahue had
seen in a vision what time the gods gave him light.
But all things have an end. Neither Ngahue, nor his friends, nor his
followers, nor the _tutua_ complained or murmured at the hardships
they underwent, or reviled the gods; wherefore the Six Great Brethren
had compassion upon them.
So the Great Six sat in council--Tumatauenga, god and father of men and
war; Haumiatikitiki, god of the food which springs of itself from the
earth; Rongomatane, god of the food which men prepare for themselves;
Tangaroa, god of fish and reptiles; Tawhiri-Ma-Tea, god of winds and
storms; Tane-Mahuta, god of forests and of the birds therein--all were
there.
Then spake Tumatauenga, saying, "Behold! I will send ahead of Ngahue
my youngest son, Mauitikitiki o Taranga; and I will give him the
jawbone of one of his ancestors, whereof he shall fashion a great hook,
wherewith he shall fish up a land out of _moana_ for Ngahue; and the
name thereof shall be Te Ika a Maui.[10] Behold! I have spoken."
Then spake in turn the rest of the Great Brethren, sons all of Rangi
and Papa,[11] promising good gifts to Ngahue and them with him. But
Maui, obedient to his father's word, went forth and fished diligently
in the sea until, lo! he drew up a land, which, by the might of the
Six Brethren, was covered in an instant with forests and plains and
mountains and valleys. And birds flew high and low and sang among the
trees, and rivers rushed through deep woods, and silver streams flashed
by quiet lawns, and the bays and straits abounded in fish, and the
earth with good things to eat. All was of the best for Ngahue and his
friends when they should arrive.
So Maui gave to Ngahue the new land, which was a land beautiful, a
land rich and abounding in all things good and needful; and he and his
friends, beholding this fair and gracious land and knowing it their
own, gave thanks to the Six Great Brethren and were filled with joy.
Then Ngahue, calling upon the gods, drave the great canoe into a
beautiful bay, and made fast to a tree which hung low over the water
and flung its red blossoms on the tide; whereafter the wanderers
stepped ashore and stood upon the land which Maui had fished up from
the sea, and which the Six Great Brethren had given them for their own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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