The first ropes thus used were of flax, which burned and snapped in the sun's heat.

Then Maui twisted a cord of the tresses of his sister, Ina, and this stayed unconsumed.

It was Maui who went to fetch for man's use the fire which streamed from the finger-nails of the fire goddess, and who fished up the North Island of New Zealand, still called by the Maoris _Te Ika a Maui_, the fish of Maui.

He first taught tattooing and the art of catching fish with bait, and died in the endeavour to gain immortality for men.

Death would have been done away with had Maui successfully accomplished the feat of creeping through the body of a certain gigantic goddess.