How Maui Got The Jaw Bone Of His Ancestor

Maui, after these things, returned to his brothers to tell them that he had found his parents, and to explain to them where they dwelt.

Shortly after Maui had thus returned to his brothers, he slew and carried off his first victim, who was the daughter of Maru-te-whare-aitu, afterwards, by enchantments, he destroyed the crops of Maru-te-whare-aitu, so that they all withered.

He then again paid a visit to his parents, and remained for some time with them, and whilst h was there he remarked that some of their people daily carried away a present of food for some person.

At length, surprised at this, he one day he asked them, “Who is that you are taking that present of food to”.

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The people who were going with it answered him, “It is for your ancestress, it is for Muri-ranga-whenua”.

He asked again, “Where does she dwell?”, “Yonder”.

Thereupon he says, “That will do, leave here the present of food, I will carry it to her myself”.

From that time the daily food presents of food for his ancestress were carried by Maui himself, but he never took and gave them to her that she might eat them, but he quietly laid them by on one side, and this he did for many days.

At last, Muri-ranga-whenua suspected that something wrong was going on, and the next time he came along the path carrying the present of food, the old chieftainess sniffed and sniffed until she thought she smelt something coming, and she was very much exasperated, and her stomach began to distend itself, that she might be ready to devour Maui as soon as he came there.

Then she turned to the southward, and smelt and sniffed, but not a scent of anything reached her.

Then she turned around from the south to the north, by the east, with her nose up in the air sniffing and smelling to every point as she slowly turned around.

But, she could not detect the slightest scent of a human being, and almost thought that she must have been mistaken, but she made one more trial, and sniffed the breeze towards the westward.

Ah, then the scent of a man came plainly to her, so she called aloud, “I know from the smell wafted here to me by the breeze that somebody is close to me”.

Maui murmured assent.

Thus the old woman knew that he was a descendant of hers, and her stomach immediately began to shrink, and contract itself again.

If the smell of Maui had not been carried to her by the western breeze, undoubtedly she would have eaten him up.

When the stomach of Muri-ranga-whenua had quietly shrunk down to its usual size, her voice was again heard saying,

“Art thou Maui?”. and he answered, “Even so”.

Then she asked him, “Wherefore hast thou served thine old ancestress in this deceitful way?”.

Maui answered, “I was anxious that thy jaw bone, by which great enchantments can be wrought, should be given to me”.

She answered, “Take it, it has been reserved for thee”.

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Maui took it, and having done so returned to the place where he and his brothers dwelt.

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/myths-and-legends-of-new-zealand-intro

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/children-of-heaven-and-earth-how-the-heavens-were-separated-from-the-earth

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/children-of-heaven-and-earth-part-2

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-this-series-began

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-origins-of-maui-how-he-came-home-part-1

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-maui-found-his-mothers-home

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-maui-caught-the-sun-part-1

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/one-result-of-maui-catching-the-sun

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