“Passing Maori Memories ”
MAORI ASTRONOMY. [Recorded by “ J.H.S.” for the Times. ] Where was that legendary land of Hawaiki? Whence came the Maori? Was it from the Lost Atlantis? Was it from India or the isles of Greece? They have Fatima’s three-fingered god, Italy’s vowel sounds, India’s astronomical knowledge; but no man has yet traced them to their source. That they sailed their canoes for many thousands of miles over uncharted oceans is clear. A great knowledge of the stars is proven by their original names of so many. To select but a few; Matariki (the wanderer) is the star in the Pleiades which disappears annually. Pari a ran (the chaplet of leaves) certainly points to the rings of Saturn. Mars, so named because of its reddish light when seon through a telescope, is Matawhero (red face); Jupiter the giant planet, is Kopunui (the great paunch); Canopus, which does not appear to
accompany the other stars of the Zodiac, is aptly named Aotahi (the lonely one); Ra, their name for the sun, is as old as Nineveh. The poetic mythology of the Maori concerning the heavenly bodies is comparable only to that of ancient
Greece. Their story of Puangarua (the double flower), refers to Rigel the twin star in Orion, and is linked up with Gemini as Mahanga, the pair of twins
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Bibliographic details
Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7070, 1 February 1933, Page 6
Word Count
221“Passing Maori Memories” Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7070, 1 February 1933, Page 6
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