There are lots of mermaid stories in the Pacific Ocean and Oceania,
But a lot of times these are really gaza goddesses and they have lower parties of crocodiles and fishes and snakes and lizards.
And these are stories from Hawaii and New Zealand and Australia.
In Hawaii these mermaid goddesses,
They are called as moe and these are shape-shifting deities.
They can change their appearance,
They can look humans,
They can change themselves to be lizards,
Tiny lizards like geckos or different ocean animals.
Or they can be these giant lizard ladies.
According to the myths the moe live in ocean,
They live in fresh waters,
In lagoons and in fountains and springs.
So moe is really an umbrella term for the Hawaiian mermaids.
There are Hawaiian legends that people are descendants of the moe and there is a saying that every woman has a moe inside them.
Like universal mermaid myths it was also believed that moes could be dangerous to men sometimes.
They could lure men and drown them.
So a lot of the moes were connected to snakes as well.
There was this respect and fear for the snakes energy.
There's a record from 1838 that in a funeral of a Hawaiian chief in the island of Maui people saw a dragon goddess called Mokohinia.
If we think more realistically what these people might have seen,
Perhaps it was a giant lizard or did they saw a lady who was half dragon.
One of the most famous moes in Hawaiian folklore was a mermaid goddess called Hina and Hina's home was in the Rainbow Falls.
It's a very popular destination in Hawaii.
One day a giant lizard god Mookuna created a massive storm which was threatening Hina's home.
A giant stone fall into Wailuku River.
It dammed the river and then the water level was rising to dangerous heights and it was threatening Hina's home.
Now some of you might have seen Disney's Moana.
Hina's son was Maui who is like the national folk tale hero in Hawaiian mythology.
Maui chased Mookuna with his canoe and he tried to kill him with his spear and Maui he called the fire goddess Pele to pour lava into the river.
The hot lava started to flow into the river,
The water started to boil and Mookuna died.
And according to the legend Maui's canoe is still today in the Wailuku River.
There is another myth about Hina in New Zealand which really shows how these stories of the voyagers spread in the Pacific Ocean.
Hina was a beautiful woman who lived in the coast of New Zealand and one day she saw this beautiful swimmer,
He was called Tuna.
The couple fell in love and they only agreed to meet at night and Tuna said that she should not try to find out about his past and where he lived.
This is a very common storyline in lots of fairy tales.
Hina was upset the relationship was rather limited because they only could meet at night and Maui,
The god of fishermen,
Saw that she was unhappy and Maui knew the true identity of Tuna,
That he was a merman.
The next night that they met Tuna said to Hina that he was afraid something bad was going to happen and then he made her promise if he were to die she should cut off his head and plant that into the ground and the fruit of this tree would resemble his face and his matted hair.
When Tuna was heading back to the ocean Maui appeared from his hiding place and killed him and then Hina kept her promise and planted her husband's head and that was the origin of the coconut tree.
What was Maui's motive to kill Tuna?
I think in this version he was in love with Hina.
I think in this version Hina is not his mother but somebody who he is in love with,
So the jealousy was the motive to kill Tuna.
And these different variations of Tuna,
Hina and Maui,
They appear in Hawaii and Tahiti and New Zealand and each of these folktales give the story their unique spin.
There are versions where Hina is the goddess of the moon and Tuna is the god of eels and in Samoan languages Tuna means an eel.
And there are some stories where Hina is this beautiful goddess of the moon and Tuna is actually her pet eel,
Not her husband.
And there are stories where Maui is Hina's son and other stories where Hina became tired with Tuna and took Maui as her lover.
So the myth has many different variations.
