Marakihau

Lore

Marakihau (Spirits) - Māori - Human-shaped beings with long tubular tongues capable of devouring people.

Marakihau are powerful supernatural beings that dwell in deep bodies of water, sea caves, or the open ocean. They are dreaded sea monsters that actively attack anything alive, able to overturn canoes and devour people. Their lairs are deep underwater pools, submerged caverns, or stretches of coastline marked by treacherous currents and dangerous waves. Most tales belong to the Mataatua iwi traditions around the Bay of Plenty.

In appearance, a Marakihau is a hybrid creature with a striking, menacing form—half human, half fish. From the waist up it resembles a stylized human figure; below the waist its body curves into a long tail tipped with a fish fin. Its most distinctive feature is a long, tubular, hollow tongue called a ngongo. Even stranger, the tongue ends in a cup-shaped tip. Early carvings depict triangular scales along the creature’s belly and on its head, underscoring its fully marine nature and limiting its time on land. In other words, if a Marakihau is ever stranded on shore it will die unless it can quickly return to the sea.

A Marakihau is a living symbol of the ocean’s danger, and anyone who knows the stories will go to great lengths to avoid it. If a lair’s location is known, no one dares paddle that way. Imagine the terror when the creature snatches a person with its tongue and drags them under—or worse, tries to swallow them whole. Such scenes are not for the faint-hearted.

Smart and devious, the Marakihau has the strategic mind needed for effective hunting and kidnapping. Its temperament is largely aggressive and malicious toward anyone who trespasses in its domain. It deliberately harms people, capsizing or smashing their canoes whenever it can.