A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
In this account the solid blue-stone sky originally rests on plants, confining people to a narrow space. Ru comes from Avaiki and plants strong wooden stakes at Rangimotia, called the centre of the island and world, to raise it enough for inhabitants to stand and walk. A short song attributed to Teka and dated 1794 in Gill’s text urges Ru to force the heavens upward. The narrative also makes him Maui’s father, while the neighbouring fire story identifies Buataranga as his wife.
Maui mocks the work, provoking Ru to throw him high into the air. The son becomes a bird to land safely, resumes an enlarged human form and throws his father with the sky to a much greater height. Ru’s head and shoulders become entangled among the stars. He cannot escape, dies, and his enormous bones gradually fall and shatter across Mangaia. Gill quotes an unnamed narrator who identifies a northern district associated with the fall and says it belongs to him. Gill’s separate examination identifies the pieces called Ru’s bones as pumice. That material observation concerns the objects named in the tradition; it does not turn the narrative’s ancestral body into an excavated biological specimen.
Origins & earliest records
William Wyatt Gill’s Myths and Songs from the South Pacific was published by Henry S. King in London in 1876. Its introductory remarks identify Tereavai and Sadaraka as major contributors, without assigning either every individual narrative.
Records & interpretation
Chapter IV, pp. 58–60, preserves this Mangaian account. Gill’s translation and missionary commentary mediate the witness; the following Manihiki narrative is a separately framed regional version.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, IV: The Exploits of Maui
pp. 58–60. Complete selected Mangaian fire, sky and sun sequence read; original-language expressions retained as printed where used.
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.
- Historical primary collected witnessGill’s 1876 collected Mangaian narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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