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Forest Lore of the Maori

Seasons

Seasons

Ever the Maori closely observed plant life and the stars on high in order to foretell the nature of the coming season, as to whether it would be a plentiful one or the reverse. A bountiful, prolific season is termed a tau kai, tau horahora, tau hau, etc., cultivated crops, wild products of the forest, and birds, all are plentiful during a tau kai. A lean or poor season for food supplies is a tau hiroki, tau maro, tau kutao, etc. The blossoming of trees was specially scanned for signs, and it is noticeable that certain forest trees blossom most profusely about every third or fourth year.

In the Matatua district I was told that certain months were marked by the blossoming or seeding of certain trees, among them being the puahou (Nothopanax arboreum), kowhai (Sophora spp.), rewa (Knightia excelsa), kahika (Podocarpus dacrydioides), and tawhiwhi, a red blossomed Metrosideros. Many other plants helped to denote seasons, the time for annual tasks, etc., by their flowering, fruits, etc., and by the dying down and fresh growth of raupo, etc. As the Maori put it, Poananga (clematis) and Tahumate (represents the puahou, (see above) are the offspring of Rehua (Antares) and Puanga (Rigel), the latter being their mother, and the task of the two plants is to make known the warmth of summer. The abode of Rehua is at Tupua-o-terangi and Tawhito-o-te-rangi, two great mountains that stand in the old homeland far, far away. It was Ruaumoko, the author of earthquakes, who caused the above twain to be born when he shook the great earth; Puahou (Tahumate) is the more important of the twain, and was born in July; those children are yet suckling in that month.

When trees commence to blossom on their lower branches first, then a tau ruru, a warm and bountiful season will follow, but if they blossom at the top first then a tau matao, a cold, unproductive season follows. Before man gains any knowledge of what a succeeding page 34season will be, the birds know all about it, and so, if a fruitful season is to follow, we see them flying upward in flocks, then swooping down with extended, motionless wings; then, after gambolling about on high for some time, they will alight.

Our friend the Maori has, or had, very peculiar views anent the causes of fruitful seasons. In No. 24 of the Addenda, we have a few cogitations of an old octogenarian of Te Teko, the man who revealed to me the mysteries of black magic, and what I may term the antidotes therefor. Quoth Pio of Awa: "Now you must know that the power that shakes within the earth is Ruaimokoroa: Wainui, who represents the waters of earth, is shaking her breasts, and so we have Ruaimokoroa. Even so he ever acts, when he shakes the earth the season changes; should a season be free of earthquakes then a lean season will follow; should earthquakes occur frequently then all things will do well during the ensuing season, food products and all other things will flourish, likewise mankind.

"The Maori would note the aspect of the commencement of the season, and if rain and fine weather continued to alternate, month after month, then a tau whenunu [unfavourable season] would follow; but if there was little rain then a good season followed, favourable for growing food products, a plentiful season, land, food-plants, and man all prospered.

"When the longer nights come then food-suppliers are plentiful, the name of the lunar month is the Matahi, called May by Europeans; the second month is the Maruaroa, when the sun changes in its course. The third month is Otoru, sometimes termed Upokopapa, Torou-kai-tangata, and Tahu-tahu-ahi [to denote the kindling of many fires]; these names are connected with cold and frost. When the fourth month arrives then the warmth of spring is first felt, and the tasks of that season are commenced; in the fifth month the crop work is in hand, and so right on to the seventh. The eighth month is called the waru puahaaha, and the ninth is the period when the crops begin to furnish a partial food-supply; then food becomes plentiful in the tenth month, hence the name of Tikotiko-iere is applied to that period.

"A certain ancestor seen darting above at night is named Tumata kokiri [meteors], in appearance it resembles a star and it flies through space, when it makes known the conditions of the sun, moon, seasons, and the winds that blow. Should it dart downward then that is a token of a windy season, if in a more horizontal manner through space, then a fair season, a prolific one ensues, bountiful supplies of food will be gathered for future use. That ancestor is a page 35supernatural object, and the things that fly through space are of the same nature as stars."

Now Takapari is the name of a hinau tree that stands at Te Ruakuri on the Purenga block, and bears signs concerning the approaching season; if it bears fruit then a fruitful season follows, if not then a lean season follows. There are also two birds, owls, at Te Purenga, both of which are albinos, they are named Kahu and Kau; they are supernormal creatures, and if a person of those parts goes bird-snaring at that place, and those two owls appear to him, then it is known that a plentiful season is toward; should they not appear then a lean season follows.