Mafatu Quotes

“Moana, the sea God, thunders on the reef. He is angry with us all because Mafatu is afraid!”

“Thunder in his ears. Water strangling him. Terror in his soul. The canoe slewed round into the trough. The boy flung himself forward, wound his arms about the mid-thwart. It was the end of a world.”

″‘See what a fine fisherman is my son! He will be a chief one of these days.’ Only Tavana Nui would be silent. His son had not gone.”

“Then the thought of killing a wild boar in single-handed combat struck him dumb with wonder. Why, he would never have dreamed such a thing in Hikueru! He was Mafatu, the Boy Who Was Afraid.”

“And the voice of the reef seemed pitched for his ears alone; it seemed to say: ‘You cheated me once, Mafatu, but someday, someday I will claim you!”

“And so it was that he shuddered when the mighty seas, gathering far out, hurled themselves at the barrier reef of Hikueru and the whole island quivered under the assault.”

“Perhaps that was the beginning of it. Mafatu, the boy who had been christened Stout Heart by his proud father, was afraid of the sea.”

“Mafatu wanted to cry out after him: ‘Wait, Kana! I’ll go! I’ll try-‘. But the words would not come. Kana had gone.”

“It was obvious to everyone that Mafatu was useless upon the sea. He would never earn his proper place in the tribe. Stout Heart- how bitter the name must taste upon his father’s lips!”

“Mafatu went out alone to face the thing he feared the most.”

“The palms, trooping to the edge of the beach, were motionless in the night air. All the world seemed to hold its breath as this boy climbed up out of the sea.”

“Were they not, like the chambered nautilus, only an iridescence dreamed by the sea?”

“Kana stopped one afternoon to watch Mafatu at work on his nets. Of all the youths of his own age, Kana alone had been friendly.”

“All around, as far as the eye could reach, were wastes of leaden water. The canoe was the moving center of a limitless circle of sea.”

“He knew in that instant what he must do: he must prove his courage to himself, and to the others, or he could no longer live in their midst.”

“He must face Moana, the Sea God- face him and conquer him. He must.”

“But beyond lurked a terrifying world of water and wind. Out there lay everything most to be feared. The boy’s hands tightened on his paddle. Behind him lay safety, security from the sea. What matter if they jeered? For a second he almost turned back.”

“Kivi’s flight moved in exact parallel. Once more it seemed as if his albatross were leading him onward, just as he had led the canoe out of the passage of Hikueru.”

“Then it all came crowding back upon him, and he scarcely dared to believe that there was earth, solid earth beneath him; that once more Moana, the Sea God, had been cheated.”