MAUI AND THE ALAE BIRDS.
Maui, the eldest son of the goddess Hina, lived with his mother and two brothers in the cave behind Rainbow Falls, in the Wailuku River Gorge, a short distance mauka of what is today the town of Hilo. Often the brothers would go fishing in the harbor.
At this time the Hawaiians knew nothing about fire. All their food was eaten raw. Occasionally Maui had found in his various wanderings some bits of cooked banana and pondered over their delicious flavor. He could not understand what had been done to them until one day he came upon a group of little alae birds cooking bananas over a fire.
He was so amazed at the scene that the birds had plenty of time to put out their fire and take wing before he could bring himself to action. This only aroused his ambitious nature and he vowed he would learn the secret of fire.
In the days that followed he devised many cunning schemes to trap one of the alae birds, but they, too, were cunning and carefully refrained from building any fire when Maui was near. Once or twice while he was out fishing he had seen white puffs of smoke among the trees and knew the birds were preparing a feast, but he could never reach the place in time to catch any of them.
One day he thought of a clever trick and took his brothers into his confidence. They fixed up a kalabash covered with tapa to resemble a man and placed it in the middle of Maui's canoe. Then the two brothers took their seats at either end of the canoe and paddled out into the harbor while Maui ran back and concealed himself in the woods.
Soon the alae birds came circling overhead and Maui heard them say, "At last we can make our fire and have a good feast. Maui and his two brothers are out for a day's fishing."
Quivering with excitement, Maui crouched in his hiding-place and waited. Soon he heard the birds talking quite near him and, peeping out, saw them pushing fresh bananas into a blazing fire. Rushing into their midst he caught one of the birds.
"Tell me how you make fire or you shall never go free!" he demanded.
At first the bird was sullen and refused to answer, but at Maui's rough treatment resorted to trickery and replied, "Rub two taro stalks together and you shall have fire."