Hine-takurua

Winter Maid, a representation or personification of winter. Her realm is the ocean, and her task is to conserve fish. She is a wife of the sun Rā, with whom she lives that half of the year. At the time called the takanga o te rā (changing of the sun, i.e. the winter solstice), in the month o-toru, he abandons his winter wife on the ocean, and returns to the Summer Maid, Hine-raumati, on land. During that time Hine-takurua abides with her father Tangaroa-akiuakiu and produces fish.

Of the children of the Sun and Hine-takurua, the first-born is the sea-gull, a female (Hine-karoro). Hine-tara is another sea bird (tara, the tern).

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