Maui

Maui was Tauranga's sixth child. According to some, he was born dead; according to others, since he was born premature, he was considered a bearer of ill luck. As a result, his mother tossed him into the water, wrapped in a strand of her top-knot hair. Ocean spirits discovered the infant, resurrected him, covered him in seaweed, and gave him to Rangi, the sky-father. Rangi transported him to the heavenly regions and nurtured him till puberty.

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Maui discovered his mother's hair one day and, upon recognizing it, decided to come down from his foster father's heavenly kingdom and look for her in the land of humans. However, he was often out of step in both his mother's, Tauranga's, and adoptive father's, Rangi's, worlds. Maui saw that the days on the earth are much too short to complete the task at hand.

He tied the sun in a rope and beat him mercilessly with a jaw-bone stick until he vowed to move slower in the future.

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Maui then dragged out a massive island that lay under the water in the shape of a fish, having his own blood as bait. Maui went in search of a priest to execute the necessary rites and prayers, leaving the fish in the care of his brothers. They did not stay for Maui's return and immediately started cutting up the fish, which began writhing in anguish and disintegrating into hills, cliffs, and valleys. If the siblings had done what Maui said, the island would've been a flat plain with easy transit.

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Origin: Mythology of Polynesia

Other name of the tale: The Legend of Maui