great mountain--Haleakala--and descend
in heavy rains upon the hill Kauwiki; but they dare not stay, lest Maui
the strong come and hurl them so far away that they cannot come back
again.

A man who had been watching the process of lifting the sky ridiculed
Maui for attempting such a difficult task. When the clouds rested on the
tops of the mountains, Maui turned to punish his critic. The man had
fled to the other side of the island. Maui rapidly pursued and finally
caught him on the sea coast, not many miles north of the town now known
as Lahaina. After a brief struggle the man was changed, according to the
story, into a great black rock, which can be seen by any traveler who
desires to localize the legends of Hawaii.

In Samoa Tiitii, the latter part of the full name of Mauikiikii, is used
as the name of the one who braced his feet against the rocks and pushed
the sky up. The foot-prints, some six feet long, are said to be shown
by the natives.

Another Samoan story is almost like the Hawaiian legend. The heavens had
fallen, people crawled, but the leaves pushed up a little; but the sky
was uneven. Men tried to walk, but hit their heads, and in this confined
space it was very hot. A woman rewarded a man who lifted the sky to its
proper place by giving him a drink of water from her cocoanut shell.

A number of small groups of islands in the Pacific have legends of their
skies being lifted, but they attribute the labor to the great eels and
serpents of the sea.

One of the Ellice group, Niu Island, says that as the serpent began to
lift the sky the people clapped their hands and shouted "Lift up!"
"High!" "Higher!" But the body of the serpent finally broke into pieces
which became islands, and the blood sprinkled its drops on the sky and
became stars.

One of the Samoan legends says that a plant called daiga, which had one
large umbrella-like leaf, pushed up the sky and gave it its shape.

The Vatupu, or Tracey Islanders, said at one time the sky and rocks were
united. Then steam or clouds of smoke rose from the rocks, and, pouring
out in volumes, forced the sky away from the earth. Man appeared in
these clouds of steam or smoke. Perspiration burst forth as this man
forced his way through the heated atmosphere. From this perspiration
woman was formed. Then were born three sons, two of whom pushed up the
sky. One, in the north, pushed as far as his arms would reach. The one
in the south was short and climbed a hi