Mango-roa

The biggest tribe of the sky is Te Mango-roa (The Long Shark), the Milky Way. All this tribe travel together, they do not scatter. The fathers, mothers, elder and younger brothers, grandchildren (male and female), children, old men and cousins, all keep together. Their great task is to lighten the morning hours, such is the Māori sign of the coming dawn, those people in the sky. When one end of the Mango-roa swings to the eastern sea and the other end to the western, it is the sign that dawn approaches. See also Ika-roa.

References

Source

  • Best, Eldson. (1899). "Notes on Maori Mythology." Journal of the Polynesian Society 8:93-121, pp. 109-110.

This article incorporates text from Notes on Maori Mythology (1899) by Elsdon Best, which is in the public domain.