Page:Fairytales•Tregear•1891.pdf/100

certain that it must be morning, so she went and opened the door. In streamed the sunlight! With a cry of fear she ran out and pulled up a bunch of rushes, which disclosed a hole in the ground into which she dropped, and from below put the bunch of rushes up into its place again. Then Maui knew that his mother belonged to the people of the Underworld, and might not remain among mortals except in the hours of darkness; but he was very curious to see what the place to which his mother had gone was like, and he also wished to see his father. So he began the first of his enchantments and became smaller and smaller, bright soft feathers growing all over him until he was in the form of a dove, which flew here and there among his admiring brothers. Then he went to the bunch of rushes pulled it up and passed down to the Underworld, wherein he saw his mother sitting by the side of a man who he thought must be his father. Maui flew into a tree and, sitting just above his parents began to coo and to let berries fall upon them to attract their attention. Some of the people of that country wished to kill the dove, but Maui’s mother stood up and said “This is my clever little son that I was so cruel as to desert. He has come after me because he loves his mother and forgives her.