Māui

How to recognise Māui

1. The great fish-hookHis key attribute is a simple curved hook of pale bone or shell, much like a hei matau on a plaited cord; in Māori accounts it is made from the jawbone of his grandmother Murirangawhenua.
2. ManaiakalaniIn Hawaiian tellings the hook has its own name, Manaiakalani, and is baited with the wing of Hina's ʻalae bird.
3. Young, lean buildHe is a strong young man on the verge of manhood, with an ordinary athletic frame, not a giant and not a comic strongman.
4. Open-sea canoeIn the fishing scene he sits in a canoe with his brothers paddling behind him, while a dark shape of land rises in the wake as the line pulls taut.
5. Sun ropesIn a separate scene he lassoes the sun from the summit of Haleakalā; Hawaiian tellings use coconut-fibre ropes, one made from his sister's hair, while Māori tellings use flax.
6. TopknotDark hair, sometimes in a topknot, echoes his Māori name tikitiki, 'topknot', since his mother Taranga wrapped him in a lock of her own, though it does not identify him on its own.
7. Changing shapesHe can take the form of birds and worms, and in Māori tellings a wood pigeon or a lizard.

Names and titles

• Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga'Māui formed in the topknot of Taranga': his Māori name from the story of his birth, wrapped in his mother's topknot
• Land PullerMāui-fusi-fonua, the Tongan name for the deified ancestor who raised lands from the sea
• Māui of a Thousand TricksA Tuamotuan nickname for the hero of many clever exploits
• Snarer of the SunIn Hawaiʻi he ropes the sun at Haleakalā so days grow long
• The Fish of MāuiTe Ika-a-Māui, the Māori name of the North Island, from the great fish he hauled up