The Secret of Fire-Making

retold here by Joshua

Adapted from "The Secret of Fire-Making" from Pikoi by Mary Kawena Pukui

In ancient Hawaii, the Hawaiians never knew of fire until it was discovered that lava roasted the bananas. The fruit was so good! But how to make the fire? That was the question.
One day Maui was out fishing with his brothers and he saw smoke on the shore. He alerted his brothers and they paddled back to shore before the owner of the fire put it out. As Maui was running to where the fire was, his brothers went to get more fruit for the fire.

When Maui returned empty handed, his brothers asked what had happened. Maui told them that there were only ashes and mud hens when he went to check for the fire, and that he had also discovered that the bananas that they had buried on shore were devoured and all that was left was the peelings.

The next day, the same thing had happened, Maui and his brothers went fishing and paddled back to shore when they saw the pillar of smoke, dark against the sky. Once again, all that they found were the mud hens. This happened over and over during the next couple of days, when finally, Maui developed a plan. He would stay back to watch the suspicious hens. So that is what the brothers did. They went fishing without Maui.

While Maui hid in the tall grass, he heard voices. They were discussing the fire. The mud hens had realized that today, there were only three brothers. The hens were smart, and knew that Maui had stayed to watch them, so they decided to do it another day.

The next day, the brothers took a gourd and covered it in kapa. This was the substitute for Maui. It was a good disguise. Early in the morning, the brothers set out to fish with the gourd. Maui, hiding in the bushes, saw the mud hens rubbing things, but in the morning fog, he could not see properly. He had to get closer.

As he crept through the brush, a rock rolled out from his position. The hens scattered. In their careless hurry, Maui captured a hen, and demanded to know the secret of fire. She lied to him, and told him to rub the ti sticks together. He could see laughter in her eyes and threatened to kill her if he did not get a strait answer. The mud hen told him that he needed to rub the dry hau sticks together and he would have fire.

When Maui rubbed the sticks, he got nothing. He was about to kill the hen when she told him that she had not lied, he just needed to rub harder. So that is what Maui did. And what did he see? It was a spark, setting the sticks on fire. With the fire, he burnt the mud hen’s forehead, to mark that they had known the secret, but never told. Maui went home and told everyone in the ahupua‘a what he had discovered, and the Hawaiians had fire for the rest of their lives.