The Ma-ui stories have flowed over into Melanesia, and there is a Fijian story given in Lorimer Fison’s Tales of Old Fiji, in which Ma-ui’s fishing is described. Ma-ui, in that story, is described as the greatest of the gods; he has brothers, and he has two sons with him. With his sons he fishes up the islands of Ata, Tonga, Haabai, Vavau, Niua, Samoa, and Fiji. Ma-ui’s sons depart from the Land of the Gods and seize upon the islands that their father had fished up. Then Disease and Death [[208]]come to the islands that the rebel gods, Ma-ui’s sons, have seized. Afterwards Ma-ui sent to them “some of the sacred fire of Bulotu.”
AU-KE-LE THE SEEKER
Given in the Fornander Collection, Vol. IV, Part I, of the Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, with the title He Moolelo no Aukelenuiaiku, the Legend of Aukelenuiaiku.
Like many another Polynesian hero, Au-ke-le (to cut down his name from the many-syllabled one which means Great Au-ke-le, son of Iku) was the youngest born of his family. Fornander thought that his story “has marked resemblances in several features to the Hebrew account of Joseph and his brethren, and is traced back to Cushite origin through wanderings and migrations”—an idea which is wholly fantastic. The story as I have retold it is very much condensed.
Au-ke-le’s grandmother is a mo-o—literally, a lizard. Dr. Nathaniel Emerson and Mr. William Hyde Rice translate “mo-o” by “dragon,” and I fancy that “mo-o” created a sufficiently vague conception to allow the fantastic and terrifying dragon to become its representative. On the other hand, “dragon” tends to bring in a conception that is not Polynesian. I have not rendered “mo-o” by either “lizard” or “dragon.” I prefer to let “mo-o” remain mysterious. Note what Mr. Westervelt says about the “mo-o” or “dragon” being a reminiscence of creatures of another environment.
The story of Au-ke-le is mythical: it is a story about the Polynesian gods. Au-ke-le and his brothers go from one land of the gods to another. The “Magic” that he carries in his calabash is a godling that his grandmother made over to him. There are many things in this story that are difficult to make intelligible in a retelling. It is difficult, for instance, to convey the impression that the maids whom the Queen sends to Au-ke-le, [[209]]and her brothers too, were reduced to abject terror by Au-ke-le’s disclosing their names. But to the Polynesians, as to other primitive peoples, names were not only private, and intensely private, but they were sacred. To know one’s name was to be possessed of some of one’s personality; magic could be worked against one through the possession of a name. Our names are public. But suppose that a really private name—a name that was given to us by our mother as a pet name—was called out in public: how upset we might be! Stevenson’s mother named him “Smootie” and “Baron Broadnose.” How startled R. L. S. might have been if a stranger in a strange land had addressed him by either name!
Later on Au-ke-le goes on the quest that was the Polynesian equivalent of the Quest of the Holy Grail; he goes in quest of the Water of Everlasting Life, the Water of Kane. The Polynesian thought that there was no blessing greater than that of a long life. There are many stories dealing with the Quest of the Water of Kane, and there is one poem that has been translated beautifully by Dr. Nathaniel Emerson. It is given in his Unwritten Literature of Hawaii.
A query, a question,
I put to you: