A Purakau: The Great Eel

Once there was only one great Eel and he lived in the waters of the land above the world. He was high in the sky living near Rangi, Sky Father. For aeons of time there was no rain in this land and the great Eel would look down at the land of Papatūānuku, the land of man and see not only the ngahere and the mountains but also the seas and rivers. He longed to be swimming in those cooling waters in the land of man. Magically, he came down from the sky and lived in a river which flowed beside the home of Maui and his wife Hine-a-te-repo. Unbeknown to them, when Hine went to the river to draw wai or wash, great Eel swished around her, splashing her and causing her to fall into the river and he pushed her under. When Hine went home and told Maui about her adventure he then realised that the great Eel was living in their river and that next time Hine-a-te-repo went to the awa and the same thing happened, she was to tell him. Next day while Hine-a-te-repo was at the river with her two children, who were to help her carry the wai home, great Eel splashed and swirled around them all, causing the children to fall down. He ate them. In great distress Hine-a-te-repo went home to tell Maui who then took his spear and shouted that he would catch that Eel and kill it! Maui’s first attempt at killing the great Eel did not work as the eel was quicker than Maui and managed to hide in a deep place in the awa. “Hah!” Thought Maui “I will use my magic to kill the Eel,” so he dug a huge hole beside the river, then he said a very tapu karakia to make the rains come until eventually there was a flood. The flood carried the great Eel to the hole. Maui then said another magical karakia to dry up the waters and there at the bottom of the hole lay the great Eel. Maui jumped in to the hole and chopped off the Eel’s head and threw it into the sea. He then chopped off its tail and threw that into the river. Finally he threw the middle part of the Eel far into the ngahere. That is how tuna (eel) came to the land of men. We have the conger eel in the sea, the tuna in the rivers and the vines in the ngahere. They all came from that one great Eel of long ago.