-inch aperture in the middle where Maui
used to make his kite string fast.
Near this lake are the two windpots, Ipunui and Ipuiki, and a little
way below are three very distinct foot-prints, each fifteen inches
long, showing where Maui stood while flying his great kite.
MAUI'S FISH-HOOK.
Maui, the powerful young demi-god who dwelt with his mother, the
goddess Hina, in the great cave behind Rainbow Falls, had succeeded in
so many hazardous undertakings, and had the welfare of his people so
much at heart, that he resolved upon what was to be his greatest deed
of prowess and beneficence.
Now Maui had a magic fish-hook which he cleverly used while fishing
with his brothers. Maui was very sly and quick, but he was never a
good fisherman. He would sit in the canoe and drag his hook through
the water, catching no fish himself but snagging those his brothers
caught and laughing merrily at their bewildered expressions when they
pulled in their lines and found nothing.
They distrusted Maui, for he would never let them see his hook, yet
they knew it was shaped differently from theirs. It was more
complicated and had a double barb, while the common fish-hook had but
one. But his brothers could never catch him at his tricks.
At last they no longer allowed him to accompany them on their fishing
trips, as he took all the fish and honors, and they all knew--Maui
included--that he did not deserve them. So Maui would go alone to the
bay, but the hook remained idle in the bottom of his magic canoe
which, as related in the legend of Kuna, he drove from the shores of
the Island of Maui to the mouth of the Wailuku with two sweeps of his
paddle.
While drifting about Maui watched some of his people who were not
blessed with magic canoes, and considered the hard paddling required
to send them through the water.
One day as he sat in his canoe watching another pass by, evidently on
its way to a neighboring island, the demi-god wondered if it might not
make things easier to have all the islands joined together, so people
could travel to any part of the kingdom without the laborious canoe
voyages.
Calling a meeting of Hawaii's chiefs and strong men Maui informed them
of a plan to draw all the islands together. He told them he would need
their help in pulling the islands, but no matter how hard or how long
they pulled they must never look back to see how much was being
accomplished until the islands were firmly joined to
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