THE MAORI AND THE STARS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 73, 23 September 1922, Page 17

THE MAORI AND THE STARS

"Tha Maori Division of Time," and "Astronomical Knowledge of the -Maori." By Elsdon Best. Wellington : The Dominion Museum. The Maori had no clocks, and yet he was able to observe time; ( he had no chronometer, ■ and yet he was a meat navigator. In'fact, "as Mr. Elsdon Best shows in the first of the monographs tinder _ notice "The Polynesian^ system of division of time was crude and incomplete,", although a division of time was evolved by the. Maoris, and it began with the evening rising of the Pleiades in May or June, the early winter; but in the case of the Far Worth and in the South Island and tJje Chathaius, it began with the helical rising of Puanga. (Bagel in Orion). This difference, Mr. Best thinks, is attributable to the arrival of different bands of migrants, and possibly from different parts of tho Pacific. Mr. Best deals in learned and exhaustive fashion with the Maori year,

month, and change of. tho moon, and includes interesting calendars, one beginning "Whiro: an unpleasant day The new moon appears," and ending "Mutu Wherraa: an exceedingly bad day. Tho moon has expired." He also provides similar calendars of the Tahituwia and Marquesana. Time, too, ■was taken by the Maori bom the stars and the birds. The cry of the riroriro is said to have called him to work in the third month in. connection with preparing his ground for crops; the cuckoo told him. in the spring that it was time to plant. But the Maori, as Mr. Best ascertained, had not evolved any true chronological system; "he was still groping his age-long way on the dim path of progress when era: forefathers appeared from the Great Ocean and arrested his march. .Never again will the Maori scan the heavens to note the appearance of the Pleiades; never more \yill his womenfolk greet the lordly 6tars with dance and song and tears; never again from hamlet ti> hamlet will resound the ringing cry, ITo Whanui E! Ko Whanui!' The second work to be noticed deals with the Maori's study of the heavens, "the light-giving' family," or Whanau Mamma. There was much that was legendary, and considerable superstition associated with Maori astronomy, but the knowledge pi the heavenly bodies was put to practical use in navigation and other purposes. The tobungas were the astronomers. They passed long hours in the night watching the stars, and they were also official meteorologists. They were consulted by farmer and seaman, and were held in reverence as prophets of the weather. Hymns were addressed to the stars; the appearance of some constellations was greeted with joy, others were received with lamentations. Many myths were woven around the stars, the moon, and the sun, and there were kinds of genealogical trees prepared of the stars. Certain of the planets were invoked in temporal affairs, even if they were not exactly worshipped. Comets and meteors or tho rainbow-were each regarded with respect by the Maoris, and omens and signs were drawn from them. There is a, very pretty story told by the Maoris of the origin of the rainbow, a subject that should lend itself to poetical or graphic treatment by the capable with equal advantage. True it was that the Maori mixed up his astronomy with astrology, but underlying it all was a fixed idea which is brought out yery clearly in the following paragraph from Mr. Best's conclusions:—"All genuine Polynesians seem to look upon the Isles of the Pacific as mere temporary abiding places, sojourning places to which they came from a far land. Even their thoughts turn to the homeland of the race in the far west; ever, as the body perishes, the freed spirit wings its way westward across the vast ooean spaces to the loved fatherland. And Taue the Eternal lays down the gleaming path by which the returning spirits pass over the rolling realm of Hinemoana to the far-off land of lrihia."