Jawbone of Muri-ranga-whenua

A grandmother's jaw

In the Māori Māui traditions George Grey published in 1855, Māui learns that his grandmother Muri-ranga-whenua has been neglected, and goes to her. She is half dead and ready to devour whoever comes, but recognising her grandson, she lets him take her enchanted jawbone. The jawbone becomes the source of his power in the deeds that follow.

Beating the sun

The days are too short because the sun hurries across the sky. Māui and his brothers make ropes and set a noose at the pit from which the sun rises; when it is caught, Māui beats it with the jawbone until it is weakened and must travel slowly, and the days grow long.

Fishing up the land

Later, Māui makes a fishhook from the same jawbone, hides in his brothers' canoe, and, baiting the hook with blood from his own nose, hauls up an enormous fish: Te Ika-a-Māui, the North Island of Aotearoa, whose ridges and valleys are the marks of his brothers' knives as they cut into it before the gods were appeased.

Other islands, other hooks

Hawaiian tradition names Māui's hook Manaiakalani and tells the island-fishing story of the Hawaiian chain; the jawbone origin belongs to the Māori tellings.