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Origin of Death.
Maui, the demi-god, and Hine-nui-te-Po, Goddess of Hades or the under world, strove together as to whether death should be allowed to assail mankind. Maui held that man should but die as the moon dies—that is, that when his strength and faculties waned he should return to youth and vigour by bathing in the life-giving waters of Tane. But Hine said, “Not so. Let life be short for man and death eternal, that he may be wailed over and lamented.” And Maui heard that Hine was slaying mankind by means of her dread arts, and as she slew men (through the wizards of old) this was the invocation heard:—
Ka kukuti
Ka kukuti nga puapua o Hine-nui-te-Po
Ka whai toremi.
Then the thought came to Maui that he would gain eternal life for man. He would descend to the realm of Hine and endeavour to wrest from her this great prize for man; for so should his name go ringing down the ages. He would enter the body of the dread goddess and obtain her ngakau. So should man retain life and know not death.
The word “ngakau” means the entrails, but also is used for the seat of affection and of pain. Thought proceeds from the ngakau. To the old-time Maori the emotions were seated in the ngakau, or ate (liver), or puku (stomach), and to a certain extent in the manawa (heart), as observed in the expression manawa wera, seared, or, rather, inflamed, heart, used to denote anger or indignation. Some authorities state that it was the manawa (heart) of Hine which Maui strove to possess himself of. Manawa is the material heart, or the breath. The
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manawa (heart) is the origin and seat of all knowledge, power, intellectuality. It imparts strength or vigour to the emotions and thinking-power of man. It is the origin of strength, physical and mental. The eight pu manawa of man are what we should term eight talents. As old Tamarau of Tuhoe watched a man dispose of three large glasses of beer in quick succession he said, “Ko te manawa o te pakeha, he pia”—i.e., “Beer is the source of the white man's strength (or vigour). Manawa is also used in another sense. In speaking of a child recently dead a man said, “The manawa ora has departed, the ahua (semblance) alone remains.” Here, I take it, the manawa ora means the breath of life. Again, when the notorious Makurata case occurred at Galatea the kuia said to one who vainly tried to save her from the Pu Taewa and Christianity, “You are my manawa ora.” Here the term really meant “salvation” or “hope”–that is, the one who gave her strength.
Anyhow, Maui failed in his greatest and final task, and was slain by the remorseless Goddess of Hades. Hence death came into the world. This also was the origin of wailing and lamentation for the dead.
The origin of treachery was the slaying of Tutunui by Kau-niho-haha (or Kae), for an account of which see Grey's “Polynesian Mythology.”
The origin of cursing was Rona. When she went to obtain water at night she cursed the moon for not showing more light, hence she and her sister were taken by the moon, where you may still see them.