Maui and his three brothers were fishing
in the ocean when they noticed smoke on the
beach. How wonderful it would be to cook
fish or bananas with the fire. Quickly they
returned to shore.
When they returned to shore the fire was out
and they saw mud hens fly away.This happened
many times. Maui even stayed on the beach while
his brothers went fishing, but the mud hens knew
that there were only three fisherman in the canoe.
Then Maui used a big gourd and wrapped it in kapa.
This would trick the mud hens to think there were
four fisherman on the canoe.
Maui rushed to where the fire was burning.
He quickly caught the leader of the mud hens.
Maui told the mud hen leader that he must
tell him the secret of making fire. The bird
told him it came from a ti leaf, then a taro
stalk and lastly from green wood.
All of these didn't make fire. At last,
the leader of the mud hens told him hau
wood. Fire came from the hau wood! Maui
then burned a red mark on the mud hen's
forehead. This was to show that the mud
hen knew the secret of fire making but
kept it hidden.
