 His plan was to capture their leader, and coerce from him the secret of fire.The bird taught him that he should rub certain sticks together in order to produce fire, and this is how the secret of fire was brought to humanity.Before Māui's involvement in the matter, the Sun (Lā) notoriously traveled on irregular paths in the sky, coming and going unexpectedly at times, which made activities such as farming very difficult for man.