luttonous and ate the best food. At
last Maui determined to punish his companion. By incantation he
lengthened the way until Ira-waru became faint and weary. Maui had
provided himself with a little food and therefore was enabled to endure
the long way. While Ira-waru slept Maui trod on his backbone and
lengthened it and changed the arms and limbs into the legs of a dog.
When Hina-uri saw the state of her husband she went into the thatched
house by which Ira-waru had so often stood watching the hollow log in
which she dried the fish and preserved the birds speared in the
mountains. She bound her girdle and hala-leaf apron around her and went
down to the sea to drown herself, that her body might be eaten by the
monsters of the sea. When she came to the shell-covered beach, she sat
down and sang her death song--

"I weep, I call to the steep billows of the sea
And to him, the great, the ocean god;
To monsters, all now hidden,
To come and bury me,
Who now am wrapped in mourning.
Let the waves wear their mourning, too,
And sleep as sleeps the dead."

--Ancient Maui Chant of New Zealand.

Then Hina-uri threw herself into the sea and was borne on the waves many
moons, at last drifting to shore, to be found by two fishermen. They
carried the body off to the fire and warmed it back to life. They
brushed off the sea moss and sea weeds and rubbed her until she awoke.

Soon they told their chief, Tini-rau, what a beautiful woman they had
found in the sea. He came and took her away to make her one of his
wives. But the other wives were jealous and drove Hina-uri away from the
chief's houses.

Another New Zealand legend says that Hina came to the sea and called for
a little fish to aid her in going away from the island. It tried to
carry her, but was too weak. Hina struck it with her open hand. It had
striped sides forever after. She tried a larger fish, but fell off
before they had gone far from shore. Her blow gave this fish its
beautiful blue spots. Another received black spots. Another she stamped
her foot upon, making it flat. At last a shark carried her far away. She
was very thirsty, and broke a cocoanut on the shark's head, making a
bump, which has been handed down for generations. The shark carried her
to the home of the two who rescued her and gave her new strength.

Meanwhile Rupe or Maui-mua, a brother of Hina-uri and Maui, grieved for
his sister. He sought for her throughout the land and then lau