Guardian of the Dead (23 page)

‘You've got to know the very basics. Or nothing will make any sense. Ready?'

I tried to ignore the dank sensation of muddy grass against my butt, and nodded.

‘Right, then,' he said. ‘After a long time, T
ne makes a woman out of earth, and brings her to life. She is beautiful, and he takes her to wife. Their daughter is the first woman born, Hine-titama, the girl who brings the dawn. Innocent, she does not know her father is her father. He takes her to wife also, and they have many children. T
ne is the God of birds, of forests, and now the creator of man, and this is the beginning of humankind.

‘But this incest is wrong, and one day Hine-titama discovers she is daughter-wife to her husband-father. She flees from him, to live in the underworld, and when he tries to fetch her home, he cannot. She has grown strong and fierce in the darkness. She is no longer the dawn maiden, but Hine-nui-te-p
, the woman of the night. She tells her father-husband that he must care for their children in life. She, in turn, will wait to receive them when death enters the world, and protect them, in death, from all evil.

‘T
ne grieves, but he must accept her words.'

‘This story is so sexist,' Iris said abruptly. She was working her thumbs into her palms in slow circles, no longer so enthralled by Mark's voice.

I nodded at her. ‘You get that in a lot of origin myths. The Greeks go crazy for it.'

Mark blinked. ‘You think it's sexist? I always thought the bit where she told him to go away was empowering.'

I snorted. ‘Sure. After the incest he initiated and lied about, she gets to hide underground and be the goddess of dead people, and he gets to be the god of the living.'

His eyebrows drew down. ‘Well, regardless of modern readings of ancient mores,' – Iris sniffed – ‘that's our story: the origin of humankind. The children of T
ne and Hine-titama have children of their own, and those children spread and have children of their own. They are human, but immortal; they do not know death from age. And from their descendants, many years later, M
ui is born.

‘He is the youngest son, born premature, and, wrapped in his mother's hair, he is tossed into the sea. But he lives. Protected by the ocean guardians and befriended by birds, he finds his way home. He makes his mother acknowledge him and finds his father by following his mother on her nightly visits. When people complain that the days go too quickly, he makes his brothers catch the sun in a net, and he beats it so that it goes slower across the sky. He takes the flaming fingernails of his ancestress, provoking her into sending the secret of fire back into the world. He goes fishing with the sacred jawbone of his grandmother and hauls up a giant fish. His brothers, who are envious of his strength and power, disregard his warnings and beat the fish in his absence, making hills and valleys of flesh. It becomes Te Ika a M
ui, the North Island of New Zealand. M
ui's boat, Te Waka a M
ui, becomes the South Island. He is a trickster and a hero, feared and loved, almost a god himself. He's unbeatable.'

Mark fell silent for a moment, then returned to storyteller mode. ‘But finally, M
ui hears that the immortality enjoyed by the descendants of T
ne and Hine-titama will one day end, unless one brave man can prevent it. And surely, that man is he, who tamed the sun, and dragged land from the sea.

‘Accompanied by the small birds, who are always his friends and allies, he goes into the underworld, to the cave of Hine-nui-te-p
, who was once in ages past the maiden of the dawn, and who now guards the dead while she sleeps. She is enormous in her slumber, sitting against the wall with her giant legs splayed. M
ui can see sharp teeth of greenstone and obsidian at the junction of her thighs. He knows that to conquer death for all time, he must make a reversal of birth.