Kanae

Kanae (the grey mullet) is represented as a companion of the Ponaturi in some versions of the Māori story of Tawhaki. When the Ponaturi came up out of the water to their house named Manawa-Tane, Kanae came with them. Tawhaki and Karihi killed all the Ponaturi, in revenge for the death of Hema, but the mullet escaped by leaping again and again until it got back to the sea.

Sources:

• R.D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989), 99;
• G. Grey, Polynesian Mythology (Taplinger Press: New York, 1855), 40.
• G. Grey, Polynesian Mythology, Illustrated edition, reprinted 1976. (Whitcombe and Tombs: Christchurch, 1956), 51.
• E.R. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay), 1891, 122.