Ancient planting chant James Cowan wrote in 1905 Of our summer visitors, the migrant shining cuckoo is particularly well known to the southern Maoris. It arrives in about October, and leaves our shores again for its winter quarters in northern Australia and New Guinea about the end of February. The Southland Natives call it "Te Manu-a-Maui" (Maui's Bird), because its notes when heard in the spring are a signal to begin the planting - Maui being the tutelary deity of the gardens and cultivations. Its song is construed as a command to the kumara-planters —         Ko-o-ia, koia, koia;         Tiria, tiria, tiria;         Whatiwhatia, whatiwhatia, bidding the people dig away, break up their mother earth and prepare the soil for the reception of the seed kumara. There is a very ancient planting-song called "Te Tewha-o-Maui" used on the occasion of kumara-planting in the Rotorua District, particularly on the island of Mokoia. It is rather curious to find that a portion of exactly the same song is heard in the extreme south, where the Murihiku Maoris (in Southland) put it into the mouth of the shining cuckoo. Legend says that it was from Maui that the Maori ancestors first heard the kumara-planting incantations. The demi-god transformed himself into a bird and sang this tewha as he sat perched on the handle of a digging ko. So this song is therefore of great antiquity. Cowan, J, Notes on some South Island Birds, and Maori Associations connected therewith. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 38, 1905 It is a puzzle as to why this chant was used by Southland Maori, since it was apparently too cold to grow kumara south of Christchurch. The Maui myth Elsdon Best wrote in 1924 In Les Polynesiens, vol. II, Lesson writes that Tikitiki, as Maui is called at some isles, went to the spirit world to ask Tangaroa for a gift of taro, a prized food product. The gift was refused, hence Maui-tiki tiki purloined a piece thereof and concealed it in his penis and so brought it back to this world, where it was cultivated, and flourished. Now the same story is told by the Maori of New Zealand as pertaining to Rongomaui, who ascended to the heavens in order to obtain the kumara or sweet potato from Whanui (the Star Vega). His request was not granted, hence he concealed a piece of tuber in his penis and brought it down to earth, where his wife Pani produced and fostered the 'sweet potato children' as the tubers are called in the tale. BEST, E, The Maui Myths, Maori Religion and Mythology Part 2. Elsdon Best also notes that Maui in Polynesian mythology is a personification of the life force. So the nutritious, life-giving and penis-shaped kumara is thus associated with Maui. Maori songs - Kiwi songs - Home Webpage put onto folksong.org.nz website Dec 2016, edited Sept 2018.