mangaian nights of the moon

In the Rev. W. Gill's Myths and Songs from the South Pacific we find a list of names of the nights of the lunar month as employed by the natives of Mangaia, in the Cook Group. At a glance one recognises the Maori names it contains, only three of them being unknown to us. Dialectic peculiarities ensure slight changes; the h and wh of Maori are unknown, but v is used. Nos. 3, 4, and 15 are the new forms; they appear to replace Oue, Okoro, and Maure. The Mangaia list follows:

No. 10

1.	Iro. Maori Whiro.
2.	Oata. Maori Hoata.
3.	Amiama.
4.	Amiama-akaoti (whakaoti).
5.	Tamatea.
6.	Tamatea-akaoti.
7.	Korekore.
8.	Korekore-akaoti.
9.	Ovari. cf. Maori Ari.
10.	Una. Maori Huna.
11.	Ma'aru. Maori Mawharu.
12.	Ua. Maori Hua.
13.	Atua.
14.	Otu. Maori Hotu.
15.	Marangi.
16.	Oturu.
17.	Rakau.
18.	Rakau-roto.
19.	Rakau-akaoti.
20.	Korekore.
21.	Korekore-roto.
22.	Korekore-akaoti.
23.	Tangaroa.
24.	Tangaroa-roto.
25.	Tangaroa-akaoti.
26.	Otane.
27.	Rongonui.
28.	Mauri.
29.	Omutu.
30.	Otire, Otireo, or Otire-o-Avaiki.

A certain amount of displacement is noticed in the above list, and the two series of Korekore nights is a new feature. The Rev. W. Gill writes: “At Rarotonga the thirteenth is Maitu instead of Atua; otherwise this account of the changes of the moon is equally good for Rarotonga. Allowing for the difference of dialects it is the same in the Tahitian Islands.” In his Jottings from the Pacific he remarks: “Polynesians invariably counted by nights, not by days. The reason assigned for this practice is that one day is like another, whereas each night gives a different phase of the moon, with a distinct name…. Something perhaps may be put down to their habit, when voyaging, of steering by the stars.” To put it briefly, they measured time by the moon because its changes are so apparent, as other peoples of a similar culture stage did.

In the above list Ari, the eleventh night of the moon in most Maori lists, appears as Ovari. The O is merely a prefix. It is a curious and interesting fact that in these two words, Ari and vari, we have two rice names of Oriental lands. The Maori planted his crops during the Ari phase of the moon. The Maori equivalent for Ceres is Pani, who page 41 produced crops in water; and pandi, padi, and pari are grain names connected with the vari of Polynesia and the ari of New Zealand.