Mahuika is the **Maori goddess of fire** in Polynesian mythology. **Grandmother of the trickster-hero Maui** — **she keeps the sacred flame in her fingernails and toenails**. When Maui tricked her into giving him fire and tried to destroy the last spark, she threw it into the trees — **embedding fire in the trees from which humans now strike it through friction**. **One of the foundational fire-origin myths of Polynesia.**
Featured throughout Maori oral tradition and Pacific mythology.
Mahuika reduces to nine — the number of Maori fire-goddess.