Māori mythology Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern fantastic tales relating to the origins of what was the observable world for the pr ...

, Manaia was a chief of the mythological land

Hawaiki In Polynesian mythology, (also rendered as in Cook Islands Māori, in Samoan, in Tahitian, in Hawaiian) is the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in many Māori stories. ...

. After his wife's brother

Ngātoro-i-rangi In Māori tradition, Ngātoro-i-rangi (Ngātoro) is the name of a tohunga (priest) prominent during the settling of New Zealand ( Aotearoa) by the Māori people, who came from the traditional homeland Hawaiki on the '' Arawa'' canoe. He is the an ...

had migrated to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, Manaia's wife, Kuiwai, sent their daughter Haungaroa and four other girls to tell Ngatoro that Manaia had cursed him. Ngātoro-i-rangi performed rituals to ward off the curse, cursed Manaia in return, and set out for Hawaiki with a force of 140 warriors to take vengeance on Manaia. Manaia's

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

s were confident that they would win easily and therefore prepared large ovens for the bodies of Ngātoro-i-rangi's warriors. Ngātoro-i-rangi's men bloodied themselves and pretended to be dead, thus laying an ambush. In their over-confidence, Manaia's men advanced recklessly and all Manaia's men and priests were killed; only Manaia himself survived. Ngātoro-i-rangi and his crew returned to New Zealand. Manaia gathered an army and set sail to New Zealand to attack them. Ngātoro-i-rangi and his wife, however, performed

magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

al incantations, as a result of which

Tāwhirimātea In Māori mythology, Tāwhirimātea (or Tāwhiri) is the god of weather, including thunder and lightning, wind, clouds and storms. He is a son of Papatūānuku (earth mother) and Ranginui ( sky father). Tawhirimatea is the second oldest of 7 child ...

, the

god In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...

and

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmos ...

s, sent a great storm that destroyed Manaia's canoes and killed Manaia himself.

References

*R.D. Craig, ''Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology'' (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989), 154. *E.R. Tregear, ''Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary'' (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay 1891), 203–204. Māori mythology Polynesian navigators {{Maori-myth-stub