caves,
That was caught on the hook of the fisherman."

The god Kanaloa is sometimes known as a ruler of the under-world, whose
land was caught by Maui's hook and brought up in islands. Thus in the
legends the thought has been perpetuated that some one of the ancestors
of the Polynesians made voyages and discovered islands.

In the time of Umi, King of Hawaii, there is the following record of an
immense bone fish-hook, which was called the "fish-hook of Maui:"

"In the night of Muku (the last night of the month), a priest and his
servants took a man, killed him, and fastened his body to the hook,
which bore the name Manai-a-ka-lani, and dragged it to the heiau
(temple) as a 'fish,' and placed it on the altar."

This hook was kept until the time of Kamehameha I. From time to time he
tried to break it, and pulled until he perspired.

Peapea, a brother of Kaahumanu, took the hook and broke it. He was
afraid that Kamehameha would kill him. Kaahumanu, however, soothed the
King, and he passed the matter over. The broken bone was probably thrown
away.

III.

MAUI LIFTING THE SKY.

Maui's home was for a long time enveloped by darkness. The heavens had
fallen down, or, rather, had not been separated from the earth.
According to some legends, the skies pressed so closely and so heavily
upon the earth that when the plants began to grow, all the leaves were
necessarily flat. According to other legends, the plants had to push up
the clouds a little, and thus caused the leaves to flatten out into
larger surface, so that they could better drive the skies back and hold
them in place. Thus the leaves became flat at first, and have so
remained through all the days of mankind. The plants lifted the sky inch
by inch until men were able to crawl about between the heavens and the
earth, and thus pass from place to place and visit one another.

After a long time, according to the Hawaiian legends, a man, supposed to
be Maui, came to a woman and said: "Give me a drink from your gourd
calabash, and I will push the heavens higher." The woman handed the
gourd to him. When he had taken a deep draught, he braced himself
against the clouds and lifted them to the height of the trees. Again he
hoisted the sky and carried it to the tops of the mountains; then with
great exertion he thrust it upwards once more, and pressed it to the
place it now occupies. Nevertheless dark clouds many times hang low
along the eastern slope of Maui's