with my hook.” The others answered him, “You have no hook.” But he showed them his beautiful hook, adorned with mother-of-pearl which flashed in the sun, and it also had tufts of hair from the tail of a dog; altogether it was a most fascinating hook. Maui hurled the hook far from the canoe, and the line flew out in great circles till it was pulled straight down to the bottom of the ocean. There the hook caught fast in the carved gable of a house, the dwelling of an old sea-god. Maui pulled mightily, hauling on his line with a strain of a god-like strength. Bubbling and gurgling, amid rushings of foam and spouting water, up came the solid land, the great island, the North Island of New Zealand.
The canoe with Maui and his brothers lay aground. Maui said to his brothers, “Do not touch any part of this fish (island) to devour it until I bring some wise priest to make it common and fit fo food by offering up prayers and sacrifices.” Maui went to seek for a priest, but his brothers were greedy and disobedient, so they did not wait for the coming of the holy man to offer up sacrificial rites and purify them; they began to eat food and to cut up their great fish. The gods were angry with them for their impiety; the fish began to jump about and
