How Maui Made Dogs

Maui had a young sister named Hinauri, who was exceedingly beautiful, she married Irawaru.

One day Maui and his brother in law went down to the sea to fish,

Maui caught not a single fish with his hook, which had no barb to it, but as long as they went on fishing Maui observed that Irawaru continued catching plenty of fish, so he thought to himself, “Well, how is this?”. “How does that fellow catch so many whilst I cannot catch one?”.

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Just as he thought this, Irawaru had another bite, and he pulled his line in haste, but it had got entangled with that of Maui, and Maui, thinking he felt a fish pulling at his own line, drew it in quite delighted.

When he had hauled up a good deal of it, there were himself and his brother in law, pulling in their lines in different directions, one drawing the line towards the bow, the other towards the stem.

Maui, who was already provoked at his own ill-luck, and the good luck of his brother in law, now called out quite angrily, “Come, let go of my line, the fish is on my hook”.

But, Irawaru answered, “No, it is not, it is on mine”.

Maui again called out very angrily, “Come, let it go, I tell you it is on mine”.

Irawaru then slacked out his line, and let Maui pull in the fish, and as soon as he had hauled it into the canoe, Maui found that Irawaru was right, and the fish was on his hook.

When Irawaru saw this too, he called out, “Come now, let go my line and hook”.

Maui answered him, “Cannot you wait a minute, until I take the hook out of the fish”.

As soon as he got the hook out of the fishes mouth he looked at it, and saw that it was barbed.

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Maui, who was already exceedingly wrath with his brother in law, on observing this, thought he had no chance with his barbless hook of catching as many fish as his brother in law, so he said, “Don’t you think we had better go on shore now?”.

Irawaru answered, “Very well, let us return to the land again”.

So they paddled back towards the land, and when they reached it, and were going to haul the canoe up on to the beach, Maui said to his brother in law,”Do you get under the outrigger of the canoe, and lift it up with your back”.

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So Irawaru got under it, and as soon as he had done so, Maui jumped on it, and pressed the whole weight of the canoe down upon him, and almost killed Irawaru.

When he was on the point of death, Maui trampled on his body, and lengthened his backbone, and by his enchantments drew it out in the form of a tail, and he transformed Irawaru into a dog, and fed him with dung.

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As soon as he had done this, Maui went back to his place of abode, just as if nothing unusual had taken place, and his young sister, who was watching for the return of her husband.

As soon as she saw Maui coming she ran to him and asked him, “Maui, where is your brother in law?”.

Maui answered, “I left him at the canoe”.

His young sister said, “Why did you not both come home together?”.

Maui replied, “He desired me to tell you that he wanted you to go down to the beach to help him carry up the fish, you had better go therefore”.

“If you do not see him, just call out, and if he does not answer you, why then call out to him this way, “Mo-I, mo-I, mo-I,”.

Upon learning this, Hinauri hurried down to the beach as fast as she could, and not seeing her husband she went about calling out his name, but no answer was made to her.

She then called out as Maui had told her, “Mo-I, mo-I, mo-I”.

Then Irawaru, who was running about in the bushes near there , in the form of a dog, at once recognized the voice of Hinauri, and answered, “Ao, ao. Ao, ao”. howling like a dog, and he followed her back to the village, frisking along and wagging his tail with pleasure at seeing her.

From him sprang all dogs, so that he is regarded as their progenitor, and all Maories call their dogs to them with the words “Mo-, mo-I, mo-I”.

Hinauri, when she saw that her husband had been changed into a dog, was quite distracted with grief, and wept bitterly the whole way as she went back to the village,

As soon as ever she got into her house, she caught up an enchanted gridle which she had, and ran back to the sea with it, determined to destroy herself, by throwing herself into the ocean so that the dragons and monsters of the deep might devour her.

When she reached the sea shore, she sat down upon the rocks at the oceans very edge, and then threw herself into the sea, and the tide swept her from off the shore.

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

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-maui-got-the-jaw-bone-of-his-ancestor

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-maui-fished-up-the-north-island-of-new-zealand

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-maui-brought-fire-to-the-world

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

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