Tangaroa

Tawhiri-matea's storm broke first over his brother Tane's forests, snapping the trees, then turned on Tangaroa and all his children. Tangaroa fled for the safety of the open ocean. Before the water closed over him, his descendants argued over where to hide. Punga's two sons, Ika-tere, father of the fish, and Tu-te-wehiwehi, father of the reptiles, could not agree, and each led his own people away. Ika-tere's group cried out to flee to the sea and rushed into the waves, becoming the creatures that still live there. Tu-te-wehiwehi's group called instead for the land and hid ashore among the forests and scrub, becoming the tuatara and every kind of lizard. Old prayers still name this parting the separation caused by Tawhiri-matea.

Tangaroa never forgave his brother Tane for sheltering the reptiles that had deserted him, and the two gods have waged war on each other ever since. Tane armed Tu-matauenga's people, mankind, against the sea: canoes cut from his trees, spears and hooks carved from the same wood, and nets woven from his forest's fibrous plants, all turned against Tangaroa's children. Tangaroa struck back in kind. He swamped canoes under his surges, drove floods over the land to drown houses and trees, and wore away the shores so that the forest's fallen giants washed down into his waters, where he could swallow the insects, the fledgling birds and the animals sheltering inside them. Tu, ancestor of mankind, stood against Tangaroa as well, in a contest both fought long and hard: Tu wove his own nets and cut down Tangaroa's offspring one after another.

Tangaroa's household killed Manu-hauturuki, the daughter of Rua-te-pupuke, and fixed her body to the gable of Hui-te-ananui, Tangaroa's own house, to serve as its tekoteko, a carved figure fixed to the roof. Rua went looking for his daughter and found her body fastened at the peak of the roof. He greeted her in silence, then searched the settlement for its people, but found only a caretaker, Hine-matiko-tai. She told him that Tangaroa and his whole household had gone out to gather food and would not return before evening. Rua resolved to avenge his daughter. On Hine's advice, he sealed every crack in the house through which light might enter, so that the sleeping household inside would stay asleep past sunrise. As he worked, he noted the fine carving and decoration on every wall, work he would soon put to his own use.

Rua kept the house dark until the sun had fully risen, then threw open the door. The daylight destroyed the sleeping horde inside, the sea folk known as the Ponaturi, and the house itself was destroyed by fire. A few of Tangaroa's people escaped in the confusion, among them the mullet and the flying fish, which is why those two are still found living in the sea and in fresh water today. Before the fire took the rest, Rua carried off some of the outer carved slabs of the house to keep as patterns for human carvers to copy. Those outer slabs had never carried the power of speech that the house's inner carvings possessed, and that is why carved wooden figures in this world stay silent.