vey Island traditions say that the Moon (Marama) had often seen
Hina and admired her, and at last had come down and caught her up to
live with himself. The moonlight in its glory is called Ina-motea, "the
brightness of Ina."

The story as told on Atiu Island (one of the Society group) is that Hina
took her human husband with her to the moon, where they dwelt happily
for a time, but as he grew old she prepared a rainbow, down which he
descended to the earth to die, leaving Hina forevermore as "the woman in
the moon." The Savage Islanders worshiped the spirits of their
ancestors, saying that many of them went up to the land of Sina, the
always bright land in the skies. To the natives of Niue Island, Hina has
been the goddess ruling over all tapa making. They say that her home is
"Motu a Hina," "the island of Hina," the home of the dead in the skies.

The Samoans said that the Moon received Hina and a child, and also her
tapa board and mallet and material for the manufacture of tapa cloth.
Therefore, when the moon is shining in full splendor, they shade their
eyes and look for the goddess and the tools with which she fashions the
tapa clouds in the heavens.

The New Zealand legend says that the woman went after water in the
night. As she passed down the path to the spring the bright light of the
full moon made the way easy for her quick footsteps, but when she had
filled her calabash and started homeward, suddenly the bright light was
hidden by a passing cloud and she stumbled against a stone in the path
and fell to the ground, spilling the water she was carrying. Then she
became very angry and cursed the moon heartily. Then the moon became
angry and swiftly swept down upon her from the skies, grasping her and
lifting her up. In her terrible fight she caught a small tree with one
hand and her calabash with the other. But oh! the strong moon pulled her
up with the tree and the calabash and there in the full moon they can
all be traced when the nights are clear.

Pleasant or Nauru Island, in which a missionary from Central Union
Church, Honolulu, is laboring, tells the story of Gigu, a beautiful
young woman, who has many of the experiences of Hina. She opened the
eyes of the Mother of the Moon as Hina, in some of the Polynesian
legends, is represented to have opened the eyes of one of the great
goddesses, and in reward is married to Maraman, the Moon, with whom she
lives ever after, and in whose embrace she can always be