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Rh of the kumara, and in April they are dug up. May, or the twelfth month, often passes unnoticed. The thirteenth month is distinguished by the Puanga star, the harbinger of the new year."

This writer falls into the usual error of making the lunar months correspond with ours, and was certainly in error in believing that each year contained thirteen lunar months. Mangere and Oetahi are star-names of which we have no explanation; Whakaau is for Whakaahu; Tautoru, the Belt of Orion; and Kopu is Venus. The dates given above for the flowering of trees, &c., are not correct for some other parts of these Isles.

Where we speak of the days of the month the Maori referred to the nights of the moon. When we so employ the term day we include the whole twenty-four hours, and the Maori used the term po (night) in a similar manner. A native of old would not ask as to how many days a person had been in performing a journey, but would ask how many nights he had been—"Po hia koe ki te ara?"

Thomson states that each month was divided into twenty-nine nights, and this may have been a local system, but certainly not universal—in fact, most of the lists collected contain thirty names.

The following list of names of nights of the moon was contributed by the late Metera Ao-marere, of Otaki, who had obtained it from Mita te Tai:—

The Huna or 10th night of the moon is spoken of as an elusive, rejected, or omitted night-name. Apparently, for some reason, it was sometimes omitted, possibly in order to regulate matters. The reckoning of thirty days for each lunar cycle would naturally demand some such rectification occasionally. A native informant remarked that it sometimes conceals itself, and in that case the Ari night succeeds No. 9, Tamatea-whakapau. Metera made a curious statement concerning the above list, as follows: "The 15th night is an Ohua, but in certain months it is the 16th night, and sometimes it is the 17th night that is, ere the condition of full moon is attained. If the moon does not become full until the 17th night, then the 15th, 16th, and 17th nights are all termed Ohua, and then the last three nights of the moon,