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The Maori Race

The Moon

The Moon.

Many of the legends of the Maori refer to the moon. This may well be expected, as a heavenly object of such beauty and mystery would naturally engage the attention of all observant persons, while the strange influences to be recognised by every student of the material world would centre in the weird and wondrous “Queen of Night.”

The moon's waxing and waning is associated in the native mind with illness. After 14 nights she is seized with disease and becomes steadily more and more weakened until she is nearly consumed. Then she goes to bathe in “The Waters of Life” (Te Wai-Ora-a-Tane: “The living waters of Tane”) and this gives her strength until she resumes all her former brightness.

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Perhaps the best known of all Maori legends is that of “the woman in the moon.” One bright moonlight night a woman named Rona, having to cook food for her family, had no water wherewith to wet the mats of the oven, so she took a calabash and went down to the stream. As she walked along the narrow path the moon suddenly disappeared behind a cloud and the woman kicked her foot against a root, and hurt herself. She cursed the moon for withdrawing its light, and the moon was much displeased, so it came down to the earth and seizing Rona tried to carry her off. Rona caught hold of a tree to prevent herself being spirited away, but the moon tore up the tree by the roots and carried off the woman, the tree, and the gourd up to the lunar lands. On a clear night one can see Rona, her tree and her calabash up in the moon. There are several variants of the story. The spring to which Rona was going to draw water when she cursed the moon is shown at the base of the Otakanini Pa at Kaipara. This is a good instance of the localisation of an immeasurably old legend.

In a lament composed by Papahia, a great North Island chief, a phrase occurs relating to death in these curious words. “The intelligent one (i.e. the spirit) is being drawn up to Rona” (Ka hutia te tohunga ki runga ki a Rona). A curious superstitious belief was known among the Maoris to the effect that the moon is the real husband of all women. This infers that the moon is a god, not a goddess. “The marriage of men and women,” said an old page 405 Maori sage, “is temporary and of no moment; the moon is the real husband.” Proverbs say, “When the moon dies many women are affected thereby,” and, “Because of the death of the moon women are ill” allusions probably to periodicity, and these are less of mythological than of physiological origin.

A singular story relating to the moon is told of a mighty chief named Rongomai of ancient days. He decided to start for a long excursion through the country; with his brother and a select company of warriors he set out. They were met by a hostile force headed by the demigod Maea, and the whole of Rongomai's party was killed, with the exception of the leader and his brother who were reserved for the fate of being roasted alive in a food-oven. When Rongomai was about to be thrown in he recited a powerful spell which had the effect of raising him in the air and taking him up to the moon. Rongomai became the Lord of the Moon, and ordered a large oven to be prepared in the lunar regions. In the confusion caused by Rongomai's ascension, his brother escaped, and getting safely back to his tribe roused his people, and with a vast war-party set out to chastise Maea and his men. The avengers discovered their foes in a long narrow valley between two mountains, and utterly defeated the captors of their chief. Maea was taken, and almost all his followers slain. The eyes of Maea were gouged out and an oven was prepared in which it was intended that he should be cooked, but Rongomai was not page 406 satisfied with an earthly revenge, so caught the body up to the heavens and cast it into the vast lunar oven he had prepared.

In the realm of pure mythology it is related that Heaven (Rangi) took a wife and begot the moon and then took another wife and begot the sun. These two were thrown up into the skies as “the eyes of Heaven.” Before that time all was darkness and with these “Eyes” came the first germ of life. Another legend states that the sun and moon were grand-children of Heaven and the stars were born to give light to Marama, the moon, on her marriage with the sun. It is also stated that the hero-god Maui had difficulty in making the sun travel at a reasonable pace so he tied a line from the sun to the moon, and the sun has now to drag the moon along after him as a check on his impetuosity.

The full of the moon was the auspicious time to plant seeds if a plenteous crop was to result. When the crescent moon was seen “lying on her back” it was supposed to presage bad weather. If it was standing upright or “leaning” it denoted fine weather.