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4 The demi-god who fished up islands

MAUI, THE SUPERMAN WHO FISHED UP ISLANDS AND performed many remarkable tasks, is known to Pacific islanders of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. Maui is one of the most lovable of all characters in

Polynesian mythology because of his genial, mischievous nature. Often called “Maui-of-a-thousand-tricks,” he well deserves this nickname.

Some stories say that Maui was still-born of a human mother, then cast into the sea, from which he emerged alive. He certainly was a supernatural child with godlike powers. In Hawaiian mythology he appears in relation to a specific place, such as Waianae on Oahu, at a cave above Hilo on the Wailuku River, and at Kahakuloa and Kauiki on the island of Maui.

He is said to have secured fire for mankind and lengthened the daylight hours by snaring the sun, which pleaded for life with the promise it would go slower across the sky in the future. Maui is also credited with pushing up the sky, but his most notable habit was that of fishing up islands from the sea bottom. The place where his sacred fishhook caught is known on some Pacific islands.

The 19th-century recorders of Hawaiian myths seem to have regarded the Maui stories as too childish to write down, so many of the tales of superman Maui are lost forever.