trees into wood pulp
and then into strips of thin, soft wood-paper, which bore the name of
"Tapa cloth." This cloth Hina prepared for the clothing of Maui and his
brothers. Tapa cloth was often treated to a coat of cocoa-nut, or
candle-nut oil, making it somewhat waterproof and also more durable.

Here Maui lived on edible roots and fruits and raw fish, knowing little
about cooked food, for the art of fire making was not yet known. In
later years Maui was supposed to live on the eastern end of the island
Maui, and also in another home on the large island Hawaii, on which he
discovered how to make fire by rubbing dry sticks together. Maui was the
Polynesian Mercury. As a little fellow he was endowed with peculiar
powers, permitting him to become invisible or to change his human form
into that of an animal. He was ready to take anything from any one by
craft or force. Nevertheless, like the thefts of Mercury, his pranks
usually benefited mankind.

It is a little curious that around the different homes of Maui, there is
so little record of temples and priests and altars. He lived too far
back for priestly customs. His story is the rude, mythical survival of
the days when of church and civil government there was none and worship
of the gods was practically unknown, but every man was a law unto
himself, and also to the other man, and quick retaliation followed any
injury received.

II.

MAUI THE FISHERMAN

"Oh the great fish hook of Maui!
Manai-i-ka-lani 'Made fast to the heavens'--its name;
An earth-twisted cord ties the hook.
Engulfed from the lofty Kauiki.
Its bait the red billed Alae,
The bird made sacred to Hina.
It sinks far down to Hawaii,
Struggling and painfully dying.
Caught is the land under the water,
Floated up, up to the surface,
But Hina hid a wing of the bird
And broke the land under the water.
Below, was the bait snatched away
And eaten at once by the fishes,
The Ulua of the deep muddy places."

--Chant of Kualii, about A. D. 1700.

One of Maui's homes was near Kauiki, a place well known throughout the
Hawaiian Islands because of its strategic importance. For many years it
was the site of a fort around which fierce battles were fought by the
natives of the island Maui, repelling the invasions of their neighbors
from Hawaii.

[Illustration: Leaping to Swim to Coral Reefs.]

Haleakala (the House of the Sun), the mountain from which Maui the
demi-god sn