Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/372

350 the harvest, after which preparation for the next crop begins again. At the same time the regular winds and calms are observed, the spring of grass, the conspicuous flowering of certain trees, the bursting into leaf of the few deciduous trees. When a certain grass, magoto, springs, the winter as it must be called is over; when the erythrina, rara, is in flower it is the cool season; magoto therefore and rara are names of seasons in native use, and answer roughly to summer and winter. The strange and exciting appearance of the wellknown annelid, the palolo, un, sets a wide mark on the seasons. The April moon coincides pretty well with the time of the magoto qaro, the fresh grass; clearing, uma, of gardens goes on, the trade wind is steady. This is followed by the magoto rango, the withered grass; both are months of cutting down trees in the gardens, vule taratara, and in the latter the stuff is burnt. In July the erythrina, rara, begins to flower, it is the nago rara, the face of winter; gardens are fenced, it is a moon of planting yams, vule vutvut. Planting continues into August, when the erythrina is in full flower, tur rara, the gaviga Malay apple flowering at the same time; the south-east wind gauna blows; the yams begin to shoot, and are stuck with reeds. In the next month the erythrina puts out its leaves, it is the end of it, kere rara; the yam vines run up the reeds and are trained, taur, upon them; the reeds are broken and bent over, ruqa, to let them run freely; the ground is kept clear of weeds; the tendrils curl, and the tubers are well formed. Then come the months of calm, when three moons are named from the un palolo, first the un rig, the little un, or the bitter, un gogona, when at the full moon a few of the annelids appear. It is now the tau matua, the season of maturity; yams can be eaten, and if the weather is favourable a second crop is planted. The un lava, great palolo, follows, when at the full moon for one night the annelid appears on the reefs in swarms; the whole population is on the beach taking up the un in every vessel and with every contrivance. This is the moon of the yam harvest; the vines are cut, goro,