ried
to catch the land under the seas and pull it to the surface. Finally an
island appeared, but the people living on it were angry with Maui and
drove him away into the heavens.

As he leaped from the island it separated into two parts. Thus the
Samoans account for the origin of two of their islands and also for the
passing away of Maui from the earth.

The natives of New Zealand have many myths concerning the death of Maui.
Each tribe tells the story with such variations as would be expected
when the fact is noted that these tribes have preserved their
individuality through many generations. The substance of the myth,
however, is the same.

In Maui's last days he longed for the victory over death. His innate
love of life led him to face the possibility of escaping and
overcoming the relentless enemy of mankind and thus bestow the boon of
deathlessness upon his fellow-men. He had been successful over and over
again in his contests with both gods and men. When man was created, he
stood erect, but, according to an Hawaiian myth, had jointless arms and
limbs. A web of skin connected and fastened tightly the arms to the body
and the legs to each other. "Maui was angry at this motionless statue
and took him and broke his legs at ankle, knee and hip and then, tearing
them and the arms from the body, destroyed the web. Then he broke the
arms at the elbow and shoulder. Then man could move from place to place,
but he had neither fingers or toes." Here comes the most ancient
Polynesian statement of the theory of evolution: "Hunger impelled man to
seek his food in the mountains, where his toes were cut out by the
brambles in climbing, and his fingers were also formed by the sharp
splinters of the bamboo while searching with his arms for food in the
ground."

It was not strange that Maui should feel self-confident when considering
the struggle for immortality as a gift to be bestowed upon mankind. And
yet his father warned him that his time of failure would surely come.

White, who has collected many of the myths and legends of New Zealand,
states that after Maui had ill-treated Mahu-ika, his grandmother, the
goddess and guardian of fire in the under-world, his father and mother
tried to teach him to do differently. But he refused to listen. Then the
father said:

"You heard our instructions, but please yourself and persist for life or
death."

Maui replied: "What do I care? Do you think I shall cease? Rather I will
per