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

Overview

Tangaroa-tui-mata is glossed Tangaroa of the Tattooed Face in Gill’s Manihiki sequence. Ina-the-Blind directs Maui toward him as his grandfather and lord of fire, describing two approaches: one safe and one fatal to ordinary intruders. Maui chooses the dangerous route. Tangaroa raises a killing hand and then a foot, but his visitor mirrors each motion. Recognition of the youth as his own grandson interrupts the confrontation. No sea-monster anatomy is supplied by this encounter.

The fire keeper gives lighted sticks that Maui extinguishes. When he must make fresh fire, the boy disrupts the work and Tangaroa calls a tern to hold the lower stick. Maui obtains the knowledge but burns the bird near its eyes, causing it to abandon the god. He then persuades his grandfather to fly, wearing a glorious girdle identified as the rainbow. Maui pulls its end and brings him down fatally. The story continues beyond this death: the boy gathers the decomposed body’s bones in a coconut shell and revives him. When Manuahifare and Tongoifare visit, Tangaroa is alive but visibly injured and diminished, and complains about their son. Death and restoration, rather than permanent destruction, distinguish him from Mauike in Gill’s preceding Mangaian fire narrative.

Tattooed-face epithetGrandfather of youngest MauiFire-making knowledgeRainbow girdleKilled and restored
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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.

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Records & interpretation

Chapter IV, pp. 66–69, 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. 66–69; 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.

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