LESSON XXIX.
MAUI THE HERO.
(New Zealand.)
In New Zealand and in almost every other island of the Pacific Ocean, the hero of all others to engage the attention of story-tellers and their circles of listeners is Maui. He is sometimes very great, his strength and power overshadowing the gods; sometimes he is very little as to his position in the estimation of the simple people who talk of him, but he is always clever and bright; sharpest and merriest when he is regarded as almost a man like ourselves.
Maui’s mother was one day counting her sons: she counted Maui the first, Maui the second, Maui the third, and Maui the fourth. “That is all,” she said; “they are all here.” “No,” said a gentle voice coming from beyond the brothers, “No, you have not counted me. I am Maui the baby.” “What,” said the mother, “you are no son of mine. I never saw you before.” “Oh yes,” said Maui the baby, “you have forgotten. A long time ago when I was born I was such a poor miserable little thing that you were ashamed to own me, so you threw me into the sea. But I did not die; the sea-gods made a cradle for me in the trough of
