But that flippant and restless little bird, the fan-tail, was so tickled at the sight of the hero crawling down the monster's throat that it tittered and burst into laughter.

So the goblin awoke, and Maui died for man in vain.
Such are some of the sacred myths of the Maori.

They vary very greatly in different tribes and are loaded with masses of detail largely genealogical.

The religious myths form but one portion of an immense body of traditional lore, made up of songs and chants, genealogies, tribal histories, fables, fairy-tales and romantic stories.

Utterly ignorant as the Maoris were of any kind of writing or picture-drawing, the volume of their lore is amazing, and is an example of the power of the human memory when assiduously cultivated.