Maui Fighting the Sun
You have heard how Maui cheated his ancestress Mahuika, and nearly perished in the flames. Listen now to the song of his great strength and braveness, that you may know…
From: Unknown To: 1907 C.E.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Te Tohunga: The Ancient Legends and Traditions of the Maoris by Wilhelm Dittmer.
You have heard how Maui cheated his ancestress Mahuika, and nearly perished in the flames. Listen now to the song of his great strength and braveness, that you may know how he once fought and conquered Te Ra, the Sun, himself.
These are my words:
They were the days when our ancestors were still living at Tawhiti-nui, the Great Distance.
The days were short, and Te Ra, the Sun, wandered through the heavens and through the Lower World; but the days became shorter and shorter, and faster and faster wandered the Sun through the heavens.
Ah, the nights grew longer and longer, and in the long nights grew the longing for longer days in the heart of Maui, and out of the longing was born his great cunning plan to fight the Sun and to compel him to create longer days.
Ah, listen how he persuades his brothers in Tawhiti-nui to aid him in his work! Frightened were his brothers at first, but, when he showed them his art of making sacred ropes out of the long hair of women, and of forming the ropes into nooses, then the hearts of the brothers lost their fear, and they began to burn with eagerness for the fight.
Yes, Maui taught his brothers the art of making ropes, and from him descended his wisdom to my people.
At last, my listener, all ropes and nooses were ready, and the brothers burdened themselves with them, and they together started on their distant journey.
Maui took his sacred fish-hook, Muri-Rangi-whenua, the End of Heaven and Land, and showed his brothers the way. They wandered by night, and, as soon as the sacred red broke forth at Mahiku-rangi, they hid themselves under the rocks, that Te Ra might not see them. And again they wandered forth by night till they had wandered many, many nights; and they at last reached the cliffs of the caves out of which Te Ra ascended in the mornings.
Ha, here they looked for shelter, and Maui warned his brothers not to expose themselves to the arrows of the Sun, that they might not be killed in the battle.
Ah, Maui, the hero, he spoke to his brothers till all fear had left their hearts, and the desire filled them to fall upon their enemy; and then Maui showed them how they could catch Te Ra in their ropes; and he showed them how to hold the ropes tight, tight, and tight, so that the Sun would be powerless and he could kill him with his sacred weapon.
Ha, let the eyes of your mind perceive how Te Ra ascends out of the Lower World see how he slowly appears in the precipice; see, oh see, how he entangles himself in the strong ropes-how the brothers throw the nooses Look, ah, the Sun is caught!
Ha, the brothers hold; they hold tight. Oh, see Maui! Maui springs forward with his sacred weapon Te Ra cries! Ah, Maui beats him; look, he bleeds! ha, again he beats the Sun; again again Te Ra cries wildly! ah, ah Maui has broken his wing O Maui, the hero!
Ha, that is a terrible battle! Oh, see the eyes on Maui's fish-hook flashing light see the carvings; ha, see the adornment of sacred dog's-hair Ah, his weapon is superbly beautiful! Ha, did you see the arrows of the Sun? Do you see the flashing of his arrows? Ha, Maui, the brave! Now, the Sun cries! friend, she trembles! she tears she pulls! Her blood is covering the whole East of the heaven! Ha, Maui-Maui my ancestor! Ha, oh ha, Te Ra has torn himself free!
Ha, beaten by his enemies, bleeding from terrible wounds, with broken wings, with cries of pain he goes his way slowly slowly.
Oh, Maui! Can you hear Te Ra wailing? Ah, he cries! What is he crying? Ah, he cries: "Ah, why has man wounded me so terribly? ah man, do you know that you have wounded Tama-nui-ki- te-Ra? Why would you kill Tama-nui-ki-te-Ra?"
Ah, my listener
That was the first time that the great name of the Sun was made known in Hawaiki Tama-nui-ki-te Ra!
When Maui heard that great name, his heart glowed in pride, for he knew then that he had fought the greatest battle a hero can fight, that he had conquered the Great Son of the Heaven.
From that time the Sun went slowly over the heavens, so that the days became long again and full of happiness for the people at Hawaiki.
Go, my friend, and remember the words of the old man who is your friend!
Dittmer, Wilhelm. Te Tohunga: The Ancient Legends and Traditions of the Maoris. George Routledge & Sons, 1907.
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