Ma'Toa's Silver Haired Wife

Dja’Ma’Nota’s dreams grew restless, troubled by a song that echoed through the waters and down into the deep black where his kingdom lay. The song pierced his ears and he tossed and turned, boiling the seas and driving fierce storms. Finally he could sleep no more.

Opening his eyes and waking for the first time since Esh-Lo-Ha’mong with a great hunger in his belly and curious to find the melody that now haunted him; Dja’Ma’Nota swam from the dark depths of his kingdom to the light of the world. The brightness of the sun and the dryness of the air cracked his skin and burned his eyes and he was angry, but the song became louder and Dja’Ma’ Nota would not rest until he found where it came from.
              He swam and swam and swam some more, and storms spewed forth from his wake. They crashed over many islands and made the skies as black as night. He swam so far chasing the melody that his anger slowly faded and he became tired. Stopping to rest by a great island he realized that the song was coming from the sheltered cove.

Dja’Ma’Nota slid through the water calming the waves and drawing a cloak of fog to hide him so that he could see who sang the melody.
              Digging Uah’a clams in the shallows was a beautiful woman with long silver hair; clear glass beads and fine gems decorated her perfect body. He voice touched something within Dja’Ma’Nota and he decided he must have her.

“Beauty, my beauty!” he cried. “Come with me to my kingdom in the deep black and be my queen. You shall be my greatest treasure and bear me many sons!”

“I cannot!” the woman said, dropping the Uah’a clams.

“I am Ma’Toa’s wife and mother to his thirty daughters. My place is here with my family and the earth and the air, for I am a child of Po-Gen’shoa and not the sea.” She said and ran away. Dja’Ma’Nota watched her disappear through the trees.

Dja’Ma’Nota became angry again and swore to himself that he would claim Ma’Toa’s silver haired wife and drag her to his kingdom in the deep depths. He summoned a great storm that surrounded the island and beat the land with harsh winds and cold rains. Crawling up the hills he followed the smell of a hearth fire and under the cover of the blackness of his storm he spied through the windows of Ma’Toa’s Ko-Uah.

Ma’Toa’s thirty daughters braided each other’s silver hair and sang songs to calm the storm and themselves while Ma’Toa’s beautiful wife cleaned the empty cooking pot. Ma’Toa stoked the hearth fire for the night and bade his family to rest.

Dja’Ma’Nota waited until the family slept and he could hear the snoring of Ma’Toa. Eager from his hunger he slipped through the window and swallowed up each daughter in one gulp until only Ma’Toa and his silver haired wife were left. In his greed to possess the daughter of Po-Gen’shoa, Dja’Ma’Nota threw the daughter of Po-Gen’shoa over his back and dove into the sea.

The daughter of Po-Gen’shoa cried many tears and tore at her glass beads and gems in her sorrow as Dja’Ma’Nota carried her away, leaving a sparkling trail behind her.

Upon arriving at his kingdom in the deep black Dja’Ma’Nota placed the daughter of Po-Gen’shoa in a cage of eel bones where her silver hair glowed like a lantern, the only light in the darkness.

“Your children are gone, swallowed by the storm and your husband will never find you. Now you have no children and you shall be my prize!” he cried. Ma’Toa’s silver haired wife wailed at the news and fell to her knees.

Exhausted from his journey Dja’Ma’Nota curled around his prize and fell asleep, but he would not be so lucky. The light from Ma’Toa’s wife’s silver hair pierced through his eye lids and her sobs troubled Dja’Ma’Nota’s slumber. He tossed and he turned for many nights and gnashed his teeth in his restlessness.

Seeing that one of Dja’Ma’Nota’s long teeth had come loose, Ma’Toa’s wife wrapped the strands of her silver hair around the tooth and slowly pulled it free. Gathering her courage and her rage she stabbed the tooth through Dja’Ma’Nota’s eye in revenge for the death of her thirty daughters.

Dja’Ma’Nota screamed and thrashed, smashing the eel bone cage and killing Po-Gen’shoa silver haired daughter. The light faded from Ma’Toa’s wife until only her silver hair glowed in the darkness and with his single eye turned away from her pale form, Dja’Ma’Nota was able to fall back asleep, exhausted from his struggle.

Meanwhile, Ma’Toa had woken to find his Ko-Uah empty and the heath fire low. He called out for his wife and daughters but no one answered. He stepped out into the night and saw the trail of glass beads and gems that his silver haired wife and torn loose. He came to the cove and gathered his eel hooks and spear and sailed after the trail his wife had left in the waters.
              For many days and nights Ma’Toa did not sleep for his anger and his loss drove him like the fiercest currents. Finally the trail disappeared, but there was a single glimmer deep beneath the water. Drawing a great breath he dove into the waves and swam deeper and deeper into the deep black until he could see his wife laying in the coils of Dja’Ma’Nota.

Enraged, Ma’Toa stabbed Dja’Ma’Nota through the base of the skull with his spear and slit Dja’Ma’Nota’s belly before he could wake. From the belly of Dja’Ma’Nota spilled the bare skulls of Ma’Toa’s thirty daughters with their silver hair still clinging to the gone like seaweed. It was then that Ma’Toa realized his beautiful wife was dead and with his heart heavy with sorrow Ma’Toa gathered his daughter’s skulls and his wife’s body and he returned to his Ko-Uah.
              The song of Ma’Toa’s mourning filled the empty sky until it reached Po-Gen’shoa’s ears. The father drove his flying Uah’a shell ship across the sky leaving a cut through the blue in his rush to see the body of his beautiful daughter and the silver haired skulls of his thirty granddaughters. His heart broke at the loss and he hung the skulls from his belt by their silver hair and clasped his beautiful daughter in his arms.

“Please, please Po-Gen'shoa! Bring my silver haired wife and daughters back to me, back to life for your magic is great and your songs are powerful!” Ma’Toa cried.
              “Alas, I cannot bring their souls back from death Ma’Toa, for it is forbidden.” Po-Gen’shoa replied.

“Please Po-Gen’shoa! I cannot live in this world without my family!” Ma’Toa begged.

Po-Gen’shoa’s heart was moved by the loss and his daughter’s husband’s pleas. “I shall cast my thirty granddaughter’s skulls into the night sky so that they may watch over the earth and guide you through the dark.” He told his grieving Sha-son.

“What of my beautiful silver haired wife? What of your daughter? I cannot live without her in my life and she could never live without her thirty daughters!” Ma’Toa cried.
              “I shall place her funeral boat on the waters of the sky so that her path may carry her between the night sky and the day. That way she may watch over both you and her daughters.” Po-Gen’shoa told his Sha-son and climbed into his Uah’a shell sailing into the sky. With his departure the day grew dim and finally night fell as Ma’Toa could no longer see him, leaving Ma’Toa alone on his island.

Raising his eyes to the dark, empty sky he was startled to see small sparkling lights glow to life. As he gazed upon the stars he realized they were his thirty daughters, each dancing through the sky. His heart swelled with joy and sadness and he cast his eyes back to the ocean, in remembrance of his beautiful wife.

There, on the farthest horizon of the sea a silver sliver rose and swelled. He gasped as the sliver became a shell and finally his beautiful wife. She turned her face to watch her husband with a smile on her lips.

Po-Gen’shoa’s daughter casts her gaze between her daughters and her husband, waxing and waning as she smiles on both. Sailing on her funeral boat she passes through both day; visiting her father and night; dancing with her daughters. Always she sails across the torn sky so that her husband Ma’Toa will not be separated from her; for his love for her persuaded Po-Gen’shoa to create the stars and the moon.