retold here by Amanda
Adapted from "The Sun That Traveled Too Fast" from Hawaii Legends by Mary Kawena Pukui

The Sun That Traveled Too Fast

Long ago, Maui lived with his brothers and his mother Hina. She would make clothes for them that were made out of tapa. Hina would complain that the boys were too rough and that she had to keep making more and more tapa for them.

Hina would complain that tapa wouldn't wash and that the boys were so rough. Every day when she laid her tapa out to dry, the sun already had gone down. Hina felt so discouraged. She thought that the sun couldn’t wait to go back to sleep once it wakes up. Then Hina began to cry.

At that moment, Maui had a plan, a plan to snare the sun. First, he had to count how many legs it has in order to make the rope to snare it. He began counting…one, two…three…when he got to eleven; he had to look away from the sun. He started to count again, but decided that the sun had fifteen legs.

He told his mother of his plan and at once, Hina said the sun had sixteen legs. Sadly, Maui had already gotten the rope he needed. So he went to his grandmother's house to get the last strand of rope.

It seemed that there was hill after hill after hill on his way to his grandmother's house. At last, he made it. His grandmother was under a wiliwili tree, stringing a lei.

His grandmother said that Maui had to wait until she was done stringing the lei. When she was finally done, she went into the house and came out with another strand of rope and a axe. His grandmother said that the axe was magic and that it might come in handy.

The next morning, Maui went and snared the sun, explaining that his mother's tapa had no chance to dry. The sun agreed to go slower because he didn't want to be chained to the wiliwili tree for the rest of his life.