wed the use of
wooden spears. They took the stems of long, heavy reeds and threw them
at each other, but Maui's reeds were charmed into stronger and harder
fibre so that he broke his mother's house and made her recognize him as
one of her children. He had been taken away as soon as he was born by
the gods to whom he was related. When he found his way back home his
mother paid no attention to him. Thus by a spear thrust he won a home.

The brothers all made fish hooks, but Maui the youngest made two kinds
of hooks--one like his brothers' and one with a sharp barb. His
brothers' hooks were smooth so that it was difficult to keep the fish
from floundering and shaking themselves off, but they noticed that the
fish were held by Maui's hook better than by theirs. Maui was not
inclined to devote himself to hard work, and lived on his brothers as
much as possible--but when driven out by his wife or his mother he
would catch more fish than the other fishermen. They tried to examine
his hooks, but he always changed his hooks so that they could not see
any difference between his and theirs. At such times they called him the
mischievous one and tried to leave him behind while they went fishing.
They were, however, always ready to give him credit for his
improvements. They dealt generously with him when they learned what he
had really accomplished. When they caught him with his barbed hook they
forgot the past and called him "ke atamai"--the skillful.

The idea that fish hooks made from the jawbones of human beings were
better than others, seemed to have arisen at first from the angle formed
in the lower jawbone. Later these human fish hooks were considered
sacred and therefore possessed of magic powers. The greater sanctity and
power belonged to the bones which bore more especial relation to the
owner. Therefore Maui's "magic hook," with which he fished up islands,
was made from the jawbone of his ancestress Mahuika. It is also said
that in order to have powerful hooks for every-day fishing he killed two
of his children. Their right eyes he threw up into the sky to become
stars. One became the morning and the other the evening star.

The idea that the death of any members of the family must not stand in
the way of obtaining magical power, has prevailed throughout Polynesia.

From this angle in the jawbone Maui must have conceived the idea of
making a hook with a piece of bone or shell which should be fastened to
the large bone a