So it is that the winds and storms make war to this day upon men, wrecking their canoes, tearing down their houses and fences and ruining all their handiwork.
Not only does man hold out against these attacks, but, in revenge for the cowardly desertion of Tu by his weaker brethren, men, his people, prey upon the fish and upon the plants that give food whether wild or cultivated.
Space will scarcely permit even a reference to other Maori myths--to the tale, for instance, of the great flood which came in answer to the prayers of two faithful priests as punishment for the unbelief, the discords and the wickedness of mankind; then all were drowned save a little handful of men and women who floated about on a raft for eight moons and so reached Hawaiki.

Of the creation of man suffice it to say that he was made by Tiki, who formed him out of red clay, or, as some say, out of clay reddened by his own blood.

Woman's origin was more ethereal and poetic; her sire was a noonday sunbeam, her mother a sylvan echo.

Many are the legends of the hero, Maui.

He lassooed the sun with ropes and beat him till he had to go slower, and so the day grew longer.