RONA, THE MOON MAIDEN

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9273, 27 June 1908, Page 2

RONA, THE MOON MAIDEN

A Logond of ths NgayaliL (By E.M.D.) British people are, perhaps, singularly unimaginative, and have been prone, throughout their story, to dwell rather on the practical than on the romantic aspect of Nature. We are glad to borrow a fairy folk lore from the Germans,, and our nurseries hail "with joy Hans Anderson's delightful stories, Grimm's " Fairy Tales," and "Legends of the Rhine." We can relate tales of war, of danger, of heroism, and of love, but we do not often make us© of Nature, as viewed in sea and sky, in forest and bird and tree and flower. Mrs Gatty's " Parables from Nature," Kingsley's "Water Babies," and the modern stories of Richard le Gallienne, are fine examples of attractive Nature studies, applied to romance, and satisfy and charm both young and old. It may be, however, that there is still room for wonder-tales and popular additions to nursery lore. The Maoris of New Zealand, full of natural intelligence and without books, fed the mind upon marvellous stories connected with those natural objects within the scope of their vision. We | have been satisfied with popular ideas J of the Man in the Moon, but I cannot recall any story of legend common to our nurseries, regarding that stately orb, which has been the familiar companion of every generation. The Maoris, on the contrary, possessed many legends, tales and myths, not only about the m<?oii, but also concerning all the beautiful and familiar features of the visible heavens. Maori stories are 'mingled with much that is grotesque and absolutely unreal ,yet many of their ideas are beautiful ■ and poetical, containing all the elements of a pure romance. The mind of the Maori is extremely susceptible to the beautiesf of Nature. The fleecy clouds sailing above him, the rustling of the forest boughs, the tracery of leaves against the summer sky, the deep shadows on the mountain side, the murmuring of brook and waterfall, the ripple upon the sand, stir the soul within him and whisper to him of myseries beyond his ken. He endeavoured to express his awe, his curiosity and his delight, in song and legend. j The story of the Moon Maiden, goddess of the Ngapuhi, crystallises some of these weird 1 imaginings, weaving them into a garland of poetic thoughts. It imagines an earthly maiden, bound by earthly ties and the chosen of an earthly lover, who yet attracts the love of Marama the Moon God. He, from his shining throne in the heavens, beholds the maiden and determines to make her the sharer of his high destiny. She, ignorant of the future, is content to wander in the forest glades with her earth lover and to linger with him by the fern-fringed fountains of her native vales, even with Ngaio the playmate and companion of her childhood days. All those who know and love the New Zealand forest are familiar with the ngaio tree, from which the lover of Rona derived his name. It is a species of laurel, and possesses a shining green leaf of which the beautiful veins can" be distinctly traced through the transparency against the light. There is nothing more delightful than to rest beneath the ngaio in the summer afternoon while the shadows lengthen and the green leaves tremble overhead, forming an exquisite tracery against the blue sky beyond. The ngaio is not a giant tree but rather a shrub, spreading and growing to a height of about • 30ft. It grows quickly,\ and seedlings transplanted soon become charming shrubs with lovely thick foliage and 'covered with small purple berries, which, falling, cover the ground with tiny plantlets. In about four years the ngaio, in a suitable soil, attains its full height, and the stage of decay begins. Each stage of its existence, however, exhibits new beauties, and it is in age that the spreading branches above show the most exquisite tracery while the grass beneath the tree, open to sun and air, forms a dry carpet, interrupted only by a few scattered twigs, leaves and berries. The little forest birds find a congenial haunt in the flickering light and shade, and hop on the dry stems, or chirp among the thick greenery regardless of the wayfarer resting on the thick sward below. A little brooklet nearby ripples over a stony j bed and sings the song of the waterfall as it trickles through its fernfringed channels ; perchance a brilliantj hued kingfisher perches on a boulder and watches for an unwary insect humming over a blossom of the sweetscented clematis, which droops over the spring. Such a scene was haunted by the maiden Rona, whose duty is was to carry water from the spring at her mother's bidding, and in such a scene she lingered with her lover, even when the sunlight had faded and the Moon had risen, casting long glances in rays of light, falling between the tall stems of the forest pines. The beards of the long white moss looked ghostly in the moonlight, and the cry of the owl or morepork startled the lovers. Yet they knew no real fear as they strayed in the beautiful forest glades. But Marama, the Man in the Moon, was jealous (the envious moon), and, when the maiden came alone to the spring, he snatched her from the earth, and bore her to the sky, heedless of the anguish of Ngaio, who arrived just in time to hear her parting cry, growing fainter and fainter as she ascended to the skies. There was a maiden now as well as a Man in the Moon. Rona in her hasty flight had grasped and carried with her the seeds of the ngaio tree, which, planted in her new sphere, rapidly grew and throve. She became reconciled to her Moon life and to the company of Marama, the Moon God, for whom she gathered twigs and leaves of the ngaio to feed his heavenly fires. He appointed her tasks to perform in which she learned to take delight. Her duties were to draw the curtains and spreed the canopy of night, to dispel the waists of the morning, and to sweep away the cobwebs of the dawn, to spread and arrange the fleecy covering of clouds with which the Moon God is wont to veil his face, and to light with fiery torch the lamps of night, touching each twinkling star to flickering flame. So delightful were the duties of Rona that she forgot for a time her early love,-, yet old memories were awakened as the ngaio grew and spread its shadows in the moony dells, and she, looking up through its exquisite green traceries, beheld the kindly face of Marama, who could deny her nothing. At her desire he consented to Teceive the earth lover into his paradise, and permitted Rona to seek him and convey him thither. In her company Ngaio spent many happy yeaTS, assisting her in her delightful tendance of the benevolent Moon God. The earth lover, however, was but human and could not be endowed with immortality. Like Tithonus of the Greeks, it was his fate, while growing old himself, to behold his beloved ever blossoming more fully into eternal youth, a gift bestowed upon her, and upon her alone, by the Moon God. Old in Ihe presence of eternal youth, Ngaio longed for death, and might have cried with Tithonus^ — The eteam 3?10at3 "up from jan dim fields about ilio homea Of happy men that liave the power to die; RelaaßO mo and restore mo to the ground'; Yoal hold me not for ever in thino Eastf Rona was torn with conflicting emo--1 fcions. Her loving^ spirit still olung to the earthborn Ngaio, yei; she realised the unfitness; of his fate — perpetual age doomed to ah immortality in the pres-

ence of perpetual youth; she therefore sought the presence of the Moon God, and entreated him to release her lover. Marama was unable to restore him to youth, but granted to Rona the use of the Rainbow for his release. She therefore, strong in immortal strength, assisted him to mount the rainbow ladder, which formed a circlet, as on some misty nights around the moon. Ngaio, ready for his departure, oast many a lingering backward look of regret upon the radiant visage of his early love, ere, grasping the rainbow's quivering arc, he abandoned himself to bis descent, and, sliding swiftly downwards, vanished from her view, while her tears fell around him, like drops of dew. And thus the earthly lover returns to earth, and Rona dwells alone in the moon with Marama — immortality linked to immortality. » There she still performs her pleasing tasks, and spreads her, canopies of fleecy fclouds and lights her starry torches. There are moments, however, when, you may hear her sigh and the night wind bears a murmurous lament to earth, ac the thoughts and wishes of Rona return thither, and, lonely amid her splendour, she sighs for her earthborn love, and laments the fate, however splendid, which parted her from his faithful arms. You may easily find her if you look for her when* the moon is a completed circlet. You will then discern the face of Rona, bending \p. earnest contemplation, and searching through the endless ages for the long-lost face and form of Ngaio, in whose memory she heaps up leaves of the tree which, flourishing around her, bears his name and brings to her remembrances of summer wanderings in the grassy dells of a little island, set in the midst of a silver circlet of ever-washing eeas.