Mahuika- Polynesian GodDeity"Goddess of Fire"

The Fire in Her Fingernails

Mahuika is the Māori goddess of fire, the divine ancestress who held the sacred flame within her own body. In the genealogical traditions that structure Māori cosmology, she is the grandmother of Māui, an ancient figure dwelling in the underworld. Fire was not free for the taking in the early world. It belonged to Mahuika, stored in her fingernails and toenails. Ten fingers, ten toes. Twenty nails of fire.

The Trickster's Visit

According to Māori tradition, Māui extinguished every fire in his mother Taranga's village, putting out every hearth and every ember, so that when his people woke in the cold morning with no fire to cook their food, he would have a reason to seek the source.

Taranga told him: fire came from his ancestress Mahuika, who lived in the underworld. Māui set out at once. When he found Mahuika, she was sitting in her dwelling, the glow of her fingernails illuminating the darkness around her. He presented himself as her grandchild, reciting his whakapapa to establish the kinship between them. Mahuika was pleased. She had not seen this descendant before, and the visit delighted her. When Māui asked for fire, she pulled out one of her fingernails. It came free with a sharp crack and burst into flame in her hand. She gave it to him.

Nineteen Nails

As Māui returned toward the upper world, he deliberately extinguished the flame, dousing it in a stream. Then he went back to Mahuika and asked for another, claiming he had accidentally dropped the first one in water. Mahuika frowned but gave him a second burning fingernail.

Again Māui extinguished it. Again he returned with an excuse. A third nail. A fourth. Each time Mahuika's suspicion grew, and each time Māui's lies became more elaborate. She pulled nail after nail from her fingers until all ten fingernails were gone. Then Māui began on her toenails. Nail after nail, excuse after excuse, the fire goddess's patience thinning with each visit.

When Mahuika pulled her last remaining toenail, the nineteenth nail, she understood. Rage overtook her. She hurled the flame at Māui. It struck the ground and ignited a conflagration that raced across the landscape, pursuing the fleeing trickster with walls of flame. Māui ran. He called upon the rain gods, Tāwhirimātea's children Ua-roa and Ua-whatu, to send storms. The clouds gathered, the sky darkened, and rain fell in torrents. Fire and water fought across the world. Forests burned. Rivers boiled. At last the rain prevailed, but not before vast stretches of the world had been scorched.

Fire Hidden in the Trees

The last embers of Mahuika's fire, driven by the rain into hiding, took refuge in certain trees: the kaikōmako, the māhoe, and other species whose wood holds fire within its grain. These trees absorbed her flame into their substance, preserving it where the rain could not reach.

Fire can be made by rubbing sticks of these particular woods together. The fire is not created through friction but released, freed from its hiding place in the wood where it fled during the battle between rain and flame. The hika method of fire-making connects every hearth fire ever lit back to Mahuika's fingernails.