ecrated weapons,
following Kuna down from falls to falls until he came to the place where
Hina dwelt. Then, feeling that there was little use in flight, Kuna
battled with Maui. His struggles were of no avail. He was forced over
the falls into the stream below. Hina and her women encouraged Maui by
their chants and strengthened him by the most powerful incantations with
which they were acquainted. Great was their joy when they beheld Kuna's
ponderous body hurled over the falls. Eagerly they watched the dragon as
the swift waters swept him against the dam with which he had hoped to
destroy Hina; and when the whirling waves caught him and dashed him
through the new channel made by Maui's magic club, they rejoiced and
sang the praise of the mighty warrior who had saved them. Maui had
rushed along the bank of the river with tremendous strides overtaking
the dragon as he was rolled over and over among the small waterfalls
near the mouth of the river. Here Maui again attacked Kuna, at last
beating the life out of his body. "Moo-Kuna" was the name given by the
Hawaiians to the dragon. "Moo" means anything in lizard shape, but Kuna
was unlike any lizard known in the Hawaiian Islands. Moo Kuna is the
name sometimes given to a long black stone lying like an island in the
waters between the small falls of the river. As one who calls attention
to this legendary black stone says: "As if he were not dead enough
already, every big freshet in the stream beats him and pounds him and
drowns him over and over as he would have drowned Hina." A New Zealand
legend relates a conflict of incantations, somewhat like the filling in
of the Wailuku river by Kuna, and the cleaving of a new channel by Maui
with the different use of means. In New Zealand the river is closed by
the use of powerful incantations and charms and reopened by the use of
those more powerful.

In the Hervey Islands, Tuna, the god of eels, loved Ina (Hina) and
finally died for her, giving his head to be buried. From this head
sprang two cocoanut trees, bearing fruit marked with Tuna's eyes and
mouth.

In Samoa the battle was between an owl and a serpent. The owl conquered
by calling in the aid of a friend.

This story of Hina apparently goes far back in the traditions of
Polynesians, even to their ancient home in Hawaiki, from which it was
taken by one branch of the family to New Zealand and by another to the
Hawaiian Islands and other groups in the Pacific Ocean. The dragon