Tahiti Eclipse

Maui catching the sun

Maui is a key character of the Polynesian legends and cosmogony. He sometimes appears as a demi-god, a prophet or an ancestor. Stories narrating his extraordinary exploits are overspread nearly all the islands of the Polynesian triangle: New Zealand, Hawaii, Tahiti, Mangareva, Samoa and Tonga.

Maui attrapant le soleil avec un cheveu de Hina - (Copyright: Bobby Holcomb)

In Tahiti, the legend says that Maui caught the sun and forced him to slow down his race so that men and women can adequately feed themselves and complete their various works.

Upon creation of the world, the sun thought he received the bad part: since he considered he was the only one at work.
He looked with envy at people underneath on the ground, living quietly, and having rest… And as he was lazy, he decided to do the same!

“After all,” he told himself, “I am a god.”
“Men expect my coming and honour me, so I can do what I like!”

From now on, the sun rose up very late and rapidly crossed Tahiti’s sky to sink behind the island of Moorea, for a long, long night. And the earth was suffering badly.

There was not enough heat to warm up stones of ovens and not enough light to prepare meals.

Maui, a young warrior, saw the irritated lips of his bride, because she ate raw. When his sadness turned into anger, he decided to conquer the sun. He gathered the biggest creepers, the longest seaweed, and the strongest barks. When the pile was high as 5 men, he began to weave an extraordinary fishing net with creepers, seaweeds and barks. During the day he worked with the fast sun’s light, by night he worked underneath the starlight.

He had taken as main piece a long hair of his fiancée. The drowsy and hurried sun didn’t notice that the net was growing gradually.

As the trap was achieved, maui took advantage of the night. He threw the net on his shoulder and went up to the reef,  at the edge of the large hole through which the sun usually rose up from the sea. Then he waited.

Maui catching the Sun - (Copyright J. Boullaire)

After a long, long awake, he saw a light arose from the hole. The glow grew and coloured waves and clouds, it became more and more strong, more and more intense. The birds began to sing, and Maui knew that this light was the sun.

When the first rays were engaged in the hole, Maui threw his net, his huge net and covered the entire hole, trapping the sun. Realising he was prisoner, the latter struggled furiously, but the net held out. Twenty times he tried to escape into the sky. Twenty times he was pushed back. Twenty times he tried to return underground. Twenty times he was held back.

Then the sun began to warm up so intensely that the sea began to boil and the earth to crack, so strong that one to one, all links of the net burned. Seaweeds, creepers, pieces of bark … nothing withstood the immense flames… except the hair of the beautiful bride of Maui. The sun could jump, warm and swell; he was trapped by the neck and suffocated. It gradually lost its glare, and finally stopped, exhausted, defeated.

So Maui said:

- It’s me, Maui, I caught the sun.

And the sun was begging:

- Deliver me, Maui, I’m suffocating.

- NO! I won’t. You will remain tied forever because of the harm you did to my fiancee and my people. Their lips are burned by the raw saps and their eyes are full of night. You will remain a prisoner!

- Maui, if you do not set me free, I’ll die and if I die, neither you nor your people could ever live! Save me!

- Promise me first that our fishes and our vegetables will be cooked before the night!
- I promise!

Then Maui delivered the sun and the sun leaped into the sky.

Since that day the sun rises soon and sets late. It is so long in his race that we have time enough to cook fishes, vegetables and fruits and to eat three times a day before the night.

And sometimes when we watch the sunset, we can see, very quickly, a green thin net: it is the hair of the bride of Maui that was hanging there so that the sun never forgets his promise…

Source: HENRY Teuira – Tahiti to ancient times – Society Oceanists – Tahiti Heritage

Maui catching the sun-Illustration: Bobby Holcomb

According to Teuira Henry, and her reference book Tahiti in ancient times, solar or lunar eclipses were an expression of the anger of the god Raa-mau-riri who would then swallow the star.

« Solar or lunar eclipses were said to happen when the anger of the god Raa-mau-riri (his holiness who holds anger) made him swallow the sun. During eclipses, priests and the terrified population would head to the marae where they prayed, made offerings and begged the god to give the star back. A comet was a god warning about war and disease. A meteor was a bad spirit who roamed around». Teuira Henry, Tahiti aux temps anciens, Paris, pub ; S.O. N°1, 1993, p.234). Read the rest of this entry »