two tremendous gaps
or chasms in the side of the crater wall, through which in days gone by
the massive bowl poured forth its flowing lava. One of these was the
Koolau, or eastern gap, in which Maui probably planned to catch the sun.

Mt. Hale-a-ka-la of the Hawaiian Islands means House-of-the-sun. "La,"
or "Ra," is the name of the sun throughout parts of Polynesia. Ra was
the sun-god of ancient Egypt. Thus the antiquities of Polynesia and
Egypt touch each other, and today no man knows the full reason thereof.

The Hawaiian legend says Maui was taunted by a man who ridiculed the
idea that he could snare the sun, saying, "You will never catch the sun.
You are only an idle nobody."

Maui replied, "When I conquer my enemy and my desire is attained, I will
be your death."

After studying the path of the sun, Maui returned to his mother and told
her that he would go and cut off the legs of the sun so that he could
not run so fast.

His mother said: "Are you strong enough for this work?" He said, "Yes."
Then she gave him fifteen strands of well-twisted fiber and told him to
go to his grandmother, who lived in the great crater of Haleakala, for
the rest of the things in his conflict with the sun. She said: "You must
climb the mountain to the place where a large wiliwili tree is standing.
There you will find the place where the sun stops to eat cooked bananas
prepared by your grandmother. Stay there until a rooster crows three
times; then watch your grandmother go out to make a fire and put on
food. You had better take her bananas. She will look for them and find
you and ask who you are. Tell her you belong to Hina."

When she had taught him all these things, he went up the mountain to
Kaupo to the place Hina had directed. There was a large wiliwili tree.
Here he waited for the rooster to crow. The name of that rooster was
Kalauhele-moa. When the rooster had crowed three times, the grandmother
came out with a bunch of bananas to cook for the sun. She took off the
upper part of the bunch and laid it down. Maui immediately snatched it
away. In a moment she turned to pick it up, but could not find it. She
was angry and cried out: "Where are the bananas of the sun?" Then she
took off another part of the bunch, and Maui stole that. Thus he did
until all the bunch had been taken away. She was almost blind and could
not detect him by sight, so she sniffed all around her until she
detected the smell of a man. She asked: "Who are