A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Gill’s Manihiki sequence begins in Rarotonga with Manuahifare and Tongoifare, their sons Maui the First, Second and Third, and daughter Inaika. The youngest boy’s unexplained disappearance and return during hide-and-seek foreshadow his powers. He discovers his father’s passage through the house pillar into Avaiki and follows. His grandmother Inaporari, Ina-the-Blind, has four trees assigned to the children. Once he identifies himself, his previously bare tree becomes leafy and fruitful. The story restores her eyesight through its fruit, and she then guides him toward the fire keeper Tangaroa-tui-mata. This belongs to the collected narrative rather than to an effective treatment for blindness.

Maui repeatedly extinguishes gifts of fire, observes its production and abuses the tern assisting his grandfather, an episode explaining the bird’s black eye markings. He next flies upward and encourages Tangaroa to imitate him. Pulling the older god’s rainbow girdle makes him fall to his death. Before his parents visit, Maui reconstitutes him from his bones inside a coconut shell, but Tangaroa remains scarred and weak and tells them what happened. Maui escapes their intended rebuke and later takes his siblings to view Avaiki. In the following sun account his sister Inaika’s hair makes the cord strong enough to compel Ra to lengthen the day. He raises and smooths the sky cooperatively with Ru, rather than killing Ru as in the preceding Mangaian account.

The final exploit follows fisherman Iku’s report of a submerged island. The three brothers sail north; the two elders catch fish, while the youngest draws up Manihiki. Their canoe breaks, both older brothers drown and the younger survives with a foot on the rising coral. He opens a canoe passage. Iku returns angrily and attacks; Maui’s stamps break the island and produce the separation from Rakahanga before he ascends to the heavens. Gill’s later visit report records a king showing a footprint and hook-place, and explains the Scorpion constellation’s tail as Maui’s hook in the local account. These are narrated and identified places, not independent proof of supernatural island formation.

Secret pillar passageRevives killed grandfatherSister’s hair sun cordCooperative sky raisingIsland lifting and separation
01

Origins & earliest records

Gill prints this sequence under The Wisdom of Manihiki within Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, London, Henry S. King, 1876. He distinguishes it from the preceding Mangaian narrative and reports a July 1871 visit to Rakahanga.

02

Records & interpretation

Chapter IV, pp. 63–76, supplies the selected narrative. Gill’s attributed comparison and visit report are different forms of evidence from the narrated transformations; no modern community-wide consensus is inferred.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, IV: The Wisdom of Manihiki

    William Wyatt Gill, collector and translator · 1876

    pp. 63–76; complete regional sequence 63–76, including return, island conflict and collector’s visit, read.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical collected primary witnessGill’s distinct Manihiki narrative sequenceResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

FT·593 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑