ll, pushing as he went up, until
the sky was in its proper place.

The Gilbert Islanders say the sky was pushed up by men with long poles.

The ancient New Zealanders understood incantations by which they could
draw up or discover. They found a land where the sky and the earth were
united. They prayed over their stone axe and cut the sky and land apart.
"Hau-hau-tu" was the name of the great stone axe by which the sinews of
the great heaven above were severed, and Langi (sky) was separated from
Papa (earth).

The New Zealand Maoris were accustomed to say that at first the sky
rested close upon the earth and therefore there was utter darkness for
ages. Then the six sons of heaven and earth, born during this period of
darkness, felt the need of light and discussed the necessity of
separating their parents--the sky from the earth--and decided to attempt
the work.

Rongo (Hawaiian god Lono) the "father of food plants," attempted to lift
the sky, but could not tear it from the earth. Then Tangaroa (Kanaloa),
the "father of fish and reptiles," failed. Haumia Tiki-tiki (Maui
Kiikii), the "father of wild food plants," could not raise the clouds.
Then Tu (Hawaiian Ku), the "father of fierce men," struggled in vain.
But Tane (Hawaiian Kane), the "father of giant forests," pushed and
lifted until he thrust the sky far up above him. Then they discovered
their descendants--the multitude of human beings who had been living on
the earth concealed and crushed by the clouds. Afterwards the last son,
Tawhiri (father of storms), was angry and waged war against his
brothers. He hid in the sheltered hollows of the great skies. There he
begot his vast brood of winds and storms with which he finally drove all
his brothers and their descendants into hiding places on land and sea.
The New Zealanders mention the names of the canoes in which their
ancestors fled from the old home Hawaiki.

Tu (father of fierce men) and his descendants, however, conquered wind
and storm and have ever since held supremacy.

The New Zealand legends also say that heaven and earth have never lost
their love for each other. "The warm sighs of earth ever ascend from the
wooded mountains and valleys, and men call them mists. The sky also lets
fall frequent tears which men term dew drops."

The Manihiki islanders say that Maui desired to separate the sky from
the earth. His father, Ru, was the supporter of the heavens. Maui
persuaded him to assist in lifting the b