In my previous post I wrote about the beautiful Maori legend which explains why rain falls on earth, and in this post I will continue writing about Maori legends.

Mythical Monsters

Along with various gods Maori acknowledged additional various forces. Some of them were associated with different Maori tribes and territories, others were family keepers and held the guarding responsibilities (kaitiaki), warning about dangers. Most of the Maori tribes had things identified with mythical monsters, such as timber or sailing heap of grass. These things were untouchable and were avoided. According to Maori beliefs many monsters lived at the deep of rivers and lakes, some of them were considered good and some evil.
The spirits (wairua) could also be good or evil. The died person who wasn’t buried properly, and hence didn’t join his ancestors became a wandering spirit tormenting his living descendants until the proper ceremonies are performed. The spirits of miscarried babies were also considered troubled and evil.

The Creation of the World

Ancient Maori philosophers devoted a great deal of thought to the beginning of the world, and expressed their beliefs in songs. One of these songs tells about the time before the creation, the time of Nothingness - Te Kore, after which came the time of possible existence - Te Korekore, and the came the time of deep darkness - Te Po. Finally the darkness was defeated and the world of light was created - Te Aomarama. Maori sang this song long before first Europeans set foot on New Zealand. This song is among origins to Maori concept - trinity of the Universe: The Sky (Te Rangi), The Light (Te Ao-marama), and the deep darkness, the world of the dead (Te Po).

Maori mythology tells about ancestors Ranginui and Papatuanuku, or in short Rangi and Papa, concluded in a close embrace. When their children were born, the parents kept them between themselves, letting only rays of light to reach their children.
Myth tells how the sons tried to break free. After a few unsuccessful attempts, one of the sons named Tane put his feed on Rangi and his stretched arms on Papa. Pushing with all his power, being upside down, and with help of his brothers he succeeded to separate their parents. Rangi became the sky and Papa became the earth: Mother Earth and Father Sky. The grief of the separated parents is reflected in the falling rain and mist rising from the earth.
Finding themselves in a world of light (Te Aomarama), the brothers started to fight for power. Tane became god of the forests, Tangaroa became god of the seas, Rongo - god of the agriculture, and Whiro, the evil brother, became lord of the dark side. Tawhirimatea remained with his father Rangi and became god of winds and storms.
The brothers were immortal. Papa showed Tane how to make female form from red earth, then Tane breathed life into this earth-formed-maid, and mated with her. Their child was Hine-ata-uira, maid-of-the-flashing-dawn (alias Hine-tītama), and Tāne took her to wife.

The tradition of totemism is remained until nowadays in the culture of primitive African tribes, and native tribes of Australia and Polynesia.  Maori, which represent Polynesian people, use Ta Moko with profound meaning. Like the certificate of identity it tells about the person’s family tree, a social status, and occupation. This way one could literally read the person by tattoos engraved on his body. In addition the ornament of a tattoo reflects the philosophy of life: integrity of life’s spirit, the deep bonds between relatives, and rebirth of the ancestors spirits.
Experienced Maori, when meeting another person will first read his tattoos trying to find common roots with himself.  In present days Ta Moko lost its original importance and meaning, but even now you can meet people in New Zealand and even Europe who have tattoos, which tell something about them.
Aggressive Maori during whole centuries solved conflicts by means of bats and swords made of stone or wood. The prisoners were killed and eaten. Maori believed that when they eat their enemies, they receive their spirit and life energy. So it is not surprising that their whole bodies were covered with tattoos. Ta Moko different from the common tattoo in the way it applied: in Ta Moko, first a skin was cut in spiral cuts using a bone chisel with very sharp edge, which were later filled with ink. The color ink is made of plants and caterpillar’s body (the caterpillars that were used for this, were intentionally infected with fungus and died as a result).
Dark and black ink was used in facial tattoos, and were made from kauri trees. The whole process was extremely painful, and it was forbidden to eat solid foods afterwards, in order to prevent infection. So Maori used a reed tube to deliver water and liquid food straight into the gullet. During the whole ceremony flute music and chant poems were performed to help ease the pain.

In my next article I will tell about the meanings of different Maori tattos. My second article is titled Ta Moko Explained in details

Hongi is a traditional Maori greeting, which literally means “to share breath”. Hongi is done by pressing one’s nose to the other person when they meet each other. It is believed that when the two noses meet, people exchange their breath and the visitor becomes one of the local people (tangata whenua).

The beginning of this ceremony is believed to be in one of Maori legends, in which gods made a woman from earth, and god Tane (in translation from Maori Tane means Male) breathed life into her through the nostrils. She then sneezed and came to life. Her name was Hineahuone, which means “earth formed woman”.
After the visitor is greeted, and for the remainder of his stay, he is obliged to share in all the responsibilities of the hosts.
What a beautiful and tender greeting! It says a lot about the whole Maori nation.

This is the second post about Maui - the most important figure in Maori mythology.
My first post is titled King of New Zealand’s Mythology

Maui remained with his parents in the underground world, and soon began to notice strange things that aroused his curiosity and pushed him towards his next feat. It turned out that most of the food in the underground world was given to Grandmother. Once Maui went to visit her, and while being there traded from Grandmother magic Jaw in exchange for food. Grandmother felt that her grandchild isn’t a usual mortal and decided that Maui will need this magic Jaw in his future feats. Without her magic Jaw Grandmother couldn’t eat so much and this is how the underworld was freed from its burden.
Years went by and Maui grew up to be a man. He married a woman from upper world, lived and worked in the village together with his brothers. But in the upper world too, his sharp mind wouldn’t let him to live a normal life.

Slowing the Sun down

People in the upper world suffered from short days – the sun was going to quickly through the skies and people couldn’t do all their chores in the short time of daylight. But no one could even think that this could be changed. Together with his brothers Maui noosed the Sun and began hitting it with the magic Jaw he got from his Grandmother. Finally Sun begged him to stop, and since then, weakened, Sun slowly moves in the sky making the day much longer.

Harnessing the Fire

Once Maui started thinking about fire; He thought where did it come from and how can he make it when needed. He discovered that only his mother new the source of fire, but she didn’t tell anyone. So Maui decided to destroy all the fires, leaving his mother no choice but to create a new fire. She decided to send a messenger to Mahuika, the goddess of fire who lived in the underground world. Maui volunteered to be that messenger, and quickly reached the house of the goddess. She was glad to meet Maui of whom she heard great stories, and agreed to give him the source of fire – one of her fingernails. But Maui wanted to discover the very secret of fire, and he came back again and again and eventually took all Mahuika’s fingernails. Mahuika became furious, fire has raged in her house. Maui transformed himself into a falcon and fled, but fire still left marks on his feathers (and since then all falcons have some brown feathers as if they were burned). The fire that resulted from Mahuika’s rage was going wild everywhere – in the air, water, and on the land. It seemed as if the fire would soon consume the whole world. Then Maui began to pray to his ancestors, gods of rain, and they extinguished the fire by pouring great amounts of rain. Only a few sparks were left in bark of trees. This eventually benefited people as they learned to extract fire by rubbing wood. Since then people can make fire whenever they want to.

Attempt at Immortality

Years went by, and Maui grew old. He was still cheerful, but in his hare appeared a few silver strings and his sons reached adulthood. To relieve him from the shame of his sons’ tricks, Maui has thrown both of them to the sky – one became the Morning Star and the other became the Evening Star. Maui’s older brother asked Maui to do the same for him and became the Polar Star and since then Maui’s sons and brother give light and joy to people on earth.

Sun moved slowly through the sky reminding Maui of the feat from his youth. Maui lived on the land that he brought from ocean depths; in the evenings he ate food cooked on the fire that he brought from Mahuika. His friend and relatives never forgot about his feats and waited for new ones. Being an old man Maui conceived the greatest feat of all – he decided to defeat the goddess of death, Hine-nui-te-po so that people would become immortal. Maui jumped into her throat to cut it from inside, so that only his tattooed legs were hanging outside. The sight of his legs making odd moves caused wagtail to laugh loudly (this wagtail was one of the birds that Maui called to help him in his feat). Hine woke up and closed his teeth on Maui bringing him to his death. The whole day and night sad birds were quiet grieving Maui. But eventually they forgot about him because life is too short to spend on grief, and death is like a deep sleep that comes down on everyone when they get tired.

This beautiful story was told during ages from father to son and reached our time. I hope you liked it.

Rotorua Maori Hangi and Concert