Mahuika is a

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

fire deity. Generally, Mahuika is female and wife of the god

Auahitūroa Auahitūroa is a male Māori deity, personification of comets, and the origin of fire. His consort is Mahuika Mahuika is a Māori fire deity. Generally, Mahuika is female and wife of the god Auahitūroa. Myths In some versions, she is the yo ...

Myths

In some versions, she is the younger sister of

Hine-nui-te-pō Hine-nui-te-pō ("Great woman of night") in Māori legends, is a goddess of night and she receives the spirits of humans when they die. She is the daughter of Tāne Mahuta / Tāne Tuturi and Hine-ahuone. It is believed among Māori that the col ...

, goddess of death. It was from her that Māui (in some versions he is her grandson) obtained the secret of making

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

. She married Auahitūroa and together they had five children, named for the five fingers on the human hand, called collectively

Ngā Mānawa Ngā Mānawa, in a tradition of the Ngāti Awa, a Māori tribe of the eastern Bay of Plenty in New Zealand's North Island, was the collective name for the Fire Children, the five sons of Mahuika and Auahitūroa. The names of the Fire Children ar ...

. The symbolism of this connection between toropuku (fingers) and fire is revealed in the stories where Māui obtains fire from Mahuika by tricking her into giving him her fingernails one by one. She is also said to have played a role in the formation of

Rangitoto Island Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The wide island is a symmetrical shield volcano cone, reaching a height of . Rangitoto is the youngest and largest of the approximately 50 volcanoes of the Au ...

, asking Ruaumoko, god of earthquakes and eruptions, to destroy a couple that had cursed her. In some parts of New Zealand, Mahuika is a male deity. This is also the case in some parts of tropical Polynesia; for instance, in the

Tuamotu archipelago The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (french: Îles Tuamotu, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extendin ...

and the

Marquesas The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in t ...

, Mahu-ika is the fire god who lives in the underworld in addition to being the grandfather of Maui. Maui wrestled him in order to win the secret of making fire. In other parts of Polynesia, similar deities are known as Mafui'e, Mafuike, Mahui'e or Mahuike.

References

* E. Best, ''Maori Religion and Mythology, Part 2'' (Dominion Museum Bulletin No.11. Museum of New Zealand: Wellington, 1982), 244–245. * R.D. Craig, ''Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology'' (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989), 148. * J.F. Stimson, ''Legends of Maui and Tahaki'' (Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum Press, 1934), 17–23. Polynesian goddesses Fire goddesses Māori goddesses {{deity-stub