Page:Maori Division of Time.djvu/17

Rh a time of extravagant rejoicing." Again he says: "The arrival of the new year was indicated by the appearance of Matariki, or the Pleiades, on the eastern horizon just after sunset—i.e., about the middle of December. Hence the idolatrous worship paid to this beautiful cluster of stars in many of the South Sea Islands. The Pleiades were worshipped at Danger Island, and at the Penrhyns down to the introduction of Christianity in 1857. In many islands extravagant joy is still manifested at the rising of this constellation out of the ocean." The expression "idolatrous worship," used above, is not a happy one, though it would probably naturally occur to a missionary. The feeling of natives towards the Pleiades and some other stars was a sentimental one connected with their ancestors; "idolatrous worship" does not meet the case. The change from the evening to the morning rising of the Pleiades, as a token of the new year, is interesting. Was that change caused by the different climatic conditions met with in New Zealand? Assuredly the Polynesian ancestors of the Maori came hither from the Society and Cook Groups.

In the third edition of Hawaiki the late Mr. S. Percy Smith wrote as follows: "The Polynesians date their new year from the rising of the Pleiades when it is seen as a morning star just before sunrise." Apparently this statement represents a lapsus calami, for both Fornander and Gill state plainly that the Polynesian year commenced with the rising of that group at sunset in December. It was in New Zealand that the year began with the cosmic rising of the Pleiades. For some unexplained reasons the natives of Mangaia Isle identified one form of their flying-kites with the Pleiades.

At page 86, vol. i, of the second edition of Ellis's Polynesian Researches occurs a table of Tahitian month-names that about corresponds with our own arrangement, the year beginning in December. The author says: "It is the method of computation adopted by the late Pomare and the royal family." He then goes on to say: "Another computation commenced the year at the month Apaapa, about the middle of May." In the list of month-names that he gives December is styled Te Tai, presumably for Te Tahi = The First. Ellis also tells us that the Tahitians divided the year into two seasons called "Pleiades above" and "Pleiades below." The first of these commenced when, in the evening, these stars appeared on or near the horizon. The latter commenced when, at sunset, the constellation was invisible, and continued until, at that hour, it appeared again above the horizon. If, as suggested above, there were two distinct methods of year-measurement in the eastern Pacific, then our Maori folk may have brought their system with them from those parts. Possibly the recognition ol two seasons, both marked by the Pleiades, led to the two modes of commencing the year.

Fornander states that the Polynesians divided the year into seasons, months, and days. He continues: "The commencement of the seasons was regulated by the rising of Makari'i [= Makali'i = Matariki], the Pleiades, at the time of the setting of the sun." The list of months given commences with that called Matariki, which is said to have commenced about the 20th December.