Page:Maori Division of Time.djvu/43

Rh which Tahu is the personified form. The words tuhoehoe, tumahoehoe, and tumarohoehoe mean "high, vertical," of the sun. It is not clear to the writer why the term should be applied to autumn, as in Ngahuru tuhoehoe.

The word ngahuru means "ten," hence it is employed to denote the tenth month, and is also used in the wider sense of "autumn." The Ngahuru is the crop-lifting season, when food was plentiful, hence it was called the Ngahuru-kai-paenga, Ngahuru-kai-paeke, and Ngahuru-tikotiko-iere. Whaturua and takurua-waipu are terms for midwinter. Matahi o Kongo is a name applied to autumn, or perhaps early winter, the eleventh month. An old saying of the Awa folk is, "When Poutu-terangi is seen it is the ngahuru ma tahi" ("When Altair is seen it is the eleventh month").

The season-names of Orongonui and Maruaroa are decidedly puzzling. The last of these appears in various recitals as a name for the second month of the Maori year, in others as denoting the third month. Mr. S. Percy Smith noted the Maruaroa as the winter solstice; Hamiora Pio gave it as the second month, and stated that the sun changes in that month. "Te Maruaroa, ko te marama tuarua, ka taka te ra." So that it should presumably be June–July. But apparently there are two Maruaroa seasons or periods, one pertaining to winter, the other to summer. In one of the recitals of Moihi, given in 1865, he remarks: "During the Matahi o te tau [first month of the year] the sun moves at the time of the Maruaroa to the head of the ancestor [i.e., the heavens]. On arriving at his shoulders he turns and retires to the other extremity. Now, that is the Maruaroa of the winter. The Maruaroa at the shoulders [i.e., when the sun is high in the heavens] is called the Maruaroa of the Orongonui. These are the tokens of winter and summer." Evidently the name is applied to a summer and winter period when the sun changes its course; thus the two Maruaroa denote the solstices. A line in an old song runs, "Te ra roa o te Maruaroa o te Orongonui" ("The long days of the Maruaroa of the Orongonui"). Herein the term Orongonui clearly applies to summer.

A member of the Awa Tribe of the Bay of Plenty stated that Maruaroa is the latter part of June, when the sun turns (te takanga o te ra). In ten nights the sun seeks his other wife, Hine-raumati, the Summer Maid, whose task is the fostering of the food products of the land. This is the winter solstice. Mr. White gives two brief notes concerning the expression; one is, "Te Maruaroa, ko Poaka ka kitea" ("During the Maruaroa Rigel is seen"). The other is, "Ko Aotahi te upoko o nga whetu; hei te Maruaroa te kite ai i te ata" ("Canopus is the principal star; it is seen in the morning during the Maruaroa").

As to the Orongonui season, we have several distinct statements in old recitals that it represents summer, and yet we meet with some contradictory evidence. Perchance there were two Orongonui periods also. In an old recital we note the following: "Ko tana manu he koekoea, te manu tena o te Matahi o te tau o te Orongonui; ko te Orongonui he raumati" ("That bird was a cuckoo.