How Maui Slowed The Sun
Many years ago, the sun raced so fast across the sky that every day the earth was plunged into
darkness in no time at all. One evening Maui and his brothers could barely even see their
evening meal, a hangi (where hot stones are buried with food, and cooke d with the trapped
heat) – they were not too happy about this. So Maui announced the idea to his brothers that
he’d catch the sun and make it travel more slowly. Maui was a demi-god and had pulled off
amazing feats already, like catching the largest fish in the world (the North Island of New
Zealand). His brothers still laughed, however: the sun was huge and much too hot to catch.
But Maui had a trick up his sleeve – he had the magical jawbone of his ancestor,
Murirangawhenua. He convinced the others that it would allow him to catch the sun.
The next day, Maui asked his village to collect flax, and with it they plaited a pile of long ropes
that they could use to catch the sun. Maui chanted a karakia (prayer) over the ropes for
protection. That night, ropes and supplies in hand, Maui and his brothers set off on the long
journey under the cover of darkness, to the place where the sun rose. During the days, they
would hide under trees so that the sun wouldn’t see them coming. Along the way, they collected
water in calabashes.
Eventually they came to a deep, scorched pit in the earth where the sun was sleeping. Maui
instructed his brothers to soften the surrounding clay so that they could build clay huts, to
protect themselves from the sun’s fiery heat when it rose. They then arranged the ropes into a
noose around the pit and waited.
Soon morning came – the sun woke and started to rise. The heat was so great the brothers
screamed in fear and tried to run away, but Maui commanded them to stay. It was a matter of
staying to fight the sun or being killed by the sun’s fireballs as they tried to escape.
So the brothers pulled on the ropes and trapped the sun as it rose, which grew angry when it
realised what was happening.
Maui then pulled out the jawbone and, braving the heat, struck the sun powerfully. The sun
roared and thrashed in anger.
Maui commanded the sun to slow down – “No longer will you dictate the length of our days –
from now on you will travel slowly across the sky!”
After a long and violent fight, and a few more jawbone strikes, the sun finally gave up – and
agreed to slow down. The brothers let go of the ropes, and the tired sun drifted slowly to the sky.
From then on, Maui and his people had more than enough time to fish, work and gather food,
and the sun continued to travel slowly across the sky.