Ropes...

………………………..........……of Maui


I know these as ‘fingers of God’, but today as I was standing photographing this dramatic display another motorist pulled in to photograph them and he informed me that they call them the ‘Ropes of Maui”

My search on the internet found the following -

“Ropes of Maui, originally taura a Maui – from the Maori tale of Maui Potiki restraining the sun with ropes to make the days longer.”

Then, following the link to Maui Potiki I found the following -

“Māui slows the Sun
In former days, the sun used to travel quickly across the sky, leaving not enough daylight time for working and eating. Māui proposed to catch the sun and slow it down. Armed with the jaw-bone of Murirangawhenua and a large amount of rope, which is in some tellings made from his sister Hina's hair, Māui and his brothers journeyed to the east and found the pit where the sun-god Tama-nui-te-rā slept during the night-time. There they tied the ropes into a noose around the pit and built a wall of clay to shelter behind. Tama-nui-te-rā was caught in the noose and Māui beat him severely with the jaw-bone until he surrendered and agreed to travel slowly across the sky”