In MÃÂori mythology, as in other Polynesian traditions, MÃÂui is a culture hero, demigod and a trickster, famous for his exploits and cleverness. He possessed superhuman strength, and was capable of shapeshifting into animals such as birds and worms.
He was born premature and cast into the ocean by his mother, where the waves formed him into a living baby. He was discovered by his grandfather and later went to live with his siblings. One day he followed his mother to the underworld where he met his father, Makeatutara, who baptised MÃÂui incorrectly. As a punishment from the gods for this mishap, MÃÂui and all of humanity were doomed to die.
MÃÂui is credited with catching a giant fish using a fishhook taken from his grandmother's jaw-bone; the giant fish would become the North Island of New Zealand, known as . In some traditions, his canoe () became the South Island, known as .
His last trick, which led to his death, involved the goddess Hine-nui-te-pà Â. While attempting to win immortality for mankind, MÃÂui entered her vagina, intent on leaving through her mouth while she slept. However, he was crushed by her obsidian vaginal teeth.
In myth, MÃÂui constantly breaches tapu (ritual restrictions) and his name sounds like , meaning 'left-hand side', the side associated with tapu's opposite, noa.
MÃÂui was the son of Taranga and Makeatutara, guardian of the underworld. He was born prematurely and his mother, fearing he would return as (malevolent child spirits), threw him into the sea, wrapped in a tress of hair from her topknot () â hence MÃÂui's full name is . Ocean spirits found and wrapped the child in seaweed and jellyfish. MÃÂui's grandfather, Tama-nui-ki-te-Rangi, then found the child on the beach, covered by swarms of flies and gulls, and nourished him to adolescence.
When MÃÂui became old enough, he travelled to his family's home and found his four brothers, MÃÂui-taha, MÃÂui-roto, MÃÂui-pae, and MÃÂui-waho, and his sister, Hina. The brothers are at first wary of the newcomer.
Later at night MÃÂui came to his relatives while they were gathered in the marae, dancing and being merry. He crept in and sat down behind his brothers, and soon Taranga called the children and found a strange child, who at first she does not recognise and attempts to cast him from the house, but he proved to be her son. MÃÂui was thus taken in as one of the family. Some of the brothers were jealous, but the eldest addressed the others as follows:
After MÃÂui performed feats such as transforming himself into different kinds of birds, his brothers acknowledged his power and admired him. MÃÂui became frustrated that Taranga left before dawn each day and returned at night. He blocked the entrances and light sources to their house and stole her clothes to keep her there. When the sun rose, he discovered she would pull up a clump of tussock and descend through a tunnel to the underworld. MÃÂui followed her there in the form of a kererà «, finding his parents in a grove of manapau trees and dropped berries on their heads to get their attention. Taranga recognized him as her son and Makeatutara attempted to baptize him but rushed through the ritual, causing the gods to punish humanity with mortality.
In a rare version, a goddess named Rohe was MÃÂui's wife. He mistreated her in a cruel and unusual way. He wished for her to exchange faces with him because she was beautiful and he was not. When she objected, he recited an incantation over her as she slept. When she awoke and realised what had happened, she left the living world and travelled to the underworld where she became a goddess of death.
In some version, MÃÂui's married his sister Hina. Over a period of time where Hina visited a bathing pool, Te Tunaroa, the father of eels, molested her. As revenge, MÃÂui cut Te Tunaroa's body into bits, throwing them into different habitats where they became different kinds of fish; conger eels, freshwater eels, lampreys, and hagfish.
In former days, the sun used to travel quickly across the sky, leaving not enough daylight time for working and eating. MÃÂui proposed to catch the sun and slow it down. Armed with the jaw-bone of Murirangawhenua and a large amount of rope, which is in some tellings made from his sister Hina's hair, MÃÂui and his brothers journeyed to the east and found the pit where the sun-god Tama-nui-te-rÃÂ slept during the night-time. There they tied the ropes into a noose around the pit and built a wall of clay to shelter behind. Tama-nui-te-rÃÂ was caught in the noose and MÃÂui beat him severely with the jaw-bone until he surrendered and agreed to travel slowly across the sky.
MÃÂui's older brothers always refused to let him come fishing with them. One night, he wove for himself a flax fishing line and enchanted it with a to give it strength; to this he attached the magic fish-hook made from the jaw-bone that his grandmother Murirangawhenua had given him. Then he hid away in the hull of his brothers' waka. The next morning, when the waka was too far from land to return, he emerged from his hiding-place. His brothers would not lend him any bait, so he struck himself on the nose and baited the hook with his blood. MÃÂui hauled a great fish, known as HÃÂhau-whenua, up from the depths. Thus the North Island of New Zealand is known as Te Ika-a-MÃÂui (The Fish of MÃÂui).
When it emerged from the water, MÃÂui left to find a tohunga to perform the appropriate ceremonies and prayers, leaving his brothers in charge. They, however, did not wait for MÃÂui to return but began to cut up the fish, which writhed in agony, causing it to break up into mountains, cliffs and valleys. If the brothers had listened to MÃÂui, the island would have been a level plain, and people would have been able to travel with ease on its surface.
In Northern MÃÂori traditions of New Zealand, MÃÂui's waka became the South Island, with Banks Peninsula marking the place supporting his foot as he pulled up that extremely heavy fish. Besides the official name of Te Waipounamu, another MÃÂori name for the South Island is Te Waka-a-MÃÂui, the canoe (waka) of MÃÂui. MÃÂui sailed on a waka called Mahaanui, which he left on top of a mountain in the foothills behind what is now Ashburton after pulling up the North Island. That mountain now bears said waka's name, and the coastline between Banks Peninsula and the Waitaki River is called Te Tai o Mahaanui ("the sea of Mahaanui").
A KÃÂi Tahu variation tells of MÃÂui threw a giant to the ocean and then buried him beneath a mountain at Banks Peninsula. The next winter, the giant remained still underneath the mountain, but stirred during summer, which caused the land to split and form Akaroa Harbour. MÃÂui would continue to pile earth on top of the giant, and the giant would continue to stir every summer, creating a lake and Pigeon Bay in the process, until finally the giant could not move anymore.
Southern iwi oral traditions however highly dispute MÃÂui's catch of North Island: the South Island is known instead as Te Waka o Aoraki and predates MÃÂui's expeditionâ MÃÂui was told to have landed in Mahitahi (now Bruce Bay) following instructions of previous navigators before sailing around the island and going northward, and was surprised to find presence of fires started by "wild men of the woods" in the North Island. In south Westland, KÃÂti MÃÂhaki ki Makaawhio's Te Tauraka Waka a MÃÂui Marae is named in honour of the tradition stating that MÃÂui landed his canoe in Mahitahi.
MÃÂui wanted to know where fire came from, so one night he went among the villages of his people and put all the fires out. Taranga, as the village , said that someone would have to ask Mahuika, the goddess of fire, for more. MÃÂui visited her cave in a burning mountain at the end of the Earth, where she gave MÃÂui one of her burning fingernails to relight the fires. MÃÂui extinguished fingernail after fingernail until Mahuika became angry and sent fire to pursue MÃÂui.
MÃÂui transformed himself into a hawk to escape, but to no avail, for Mahuika set both land and sea on fire. MÃÂui prayed to TÃÂwhirimÃÂtea, god of weather, and Whaitiri-matakataka, goddess of thunder, who answered by pouring rain to extinguish the fire. Mahuika threw her last nail at MÃÂui, but it missed him and flew into groves of mÃÂhoe and kaikà Âmako tress. MÃÂui brought back dry sticks of these trees to his village and showed his people how to rub the sticks together and make fire.
MÃÂui went fishing with Irawaru, the husband of his sister Hina. During the expedition, he became annoyed with Irawaru; versions differ as to the cause. In some, MÃÂui was jealous of Irawaru's success at fishing; in others, they disagreed when their fishing-lines became entangled; in still others, MÃÂui was angry at Irawaru's refusal to give him a cloak, or disgusted at Irawaru's greedy nature. Whatever the provocation, when MÃÂui and Irawaru returned to shore, MÃÂui stretched out Irawaru's limbs and transformed him into the first dog. When Hina asked MÃÂui if he had seen her husband, MÃÂui told her to call "Moi! Moi!", whereupon Irawaru, in dog form, came running. Hina, in grief, threw herself into the ocean never to be seen again.
MÃÂui, confident after his early achievements, decided to pursue immortality for humankind by confronting Hine-nui-te-pà Â, goddess of the night. His father warned him he would fail due to flaws in his baptismal ceremony. MÃÂui, undaunted, set out westward, with his companions, to the home of Hine-nui-te-pà Â. Depending on the version, his companions are a group of birdsâÂÂthe tomtit, robin, grey warbler and fantailâÂÂor his brothers. He finds Hine-nui-te-pà  asleep with her legs apart, and he and his companions see sharp flints of obsidian and greenstone between her thighs. Turning into a worm or lizard, MÃÂui tells his companion to not laugh as he climbed into Hine-nui-te-pà Â, until he emerged from her mouth. Once MÃÂui's head and arms disappeared into the goddess, the fantail bird began to laugh, awakening Hine-nui-te-pà Â. The goddess claps her legs together and cut MÃÂui in two, making him the first to die and all humans left mortal.
MÃÂui is also featured in a number of children's books by Peter Gossage including: