Chapter VI: The Months (2)

For the Basuto a native gives the following list:--1, _phato_ = August, begins the year; 2, _loetse_, from _loetsa_, ‘to anoint wounds with fat, syringe the ear’, since the winter is broken and a little warmth comes; 3, _mphalane_, _mphalane ’a leshoma_, _leshoma_ a kind of bulb which at that time begins to sprout, perhaps from _liphalana_, to glitter, the sun glitters, does not warm, or because of the girl-circumcision, which is announced by means of the blowing of _liphalana_-flutes by the old women who perform the operation; 4, _pulungoana_, diminutive of _pulumo_, gnu, which at this time brings forth its young; 5, _tsitoe_, grasshopper, which is especially to be heard at this time; 6, _pherekong_, perhaps ‘interjoin sticks’; 7, _tlhakola_ = _hlakola_, to wipe off, _tlhakola molula_, to wipe off the _molula_: _molula_ is the stage at which the _mabele_ grain is still completely enveloped in the husk: now the grains shoot forth and the _molula_ disappear, _molula_ also means a kind of grass which is used in basket-work; 8, _tlhakubele_, from _thlaku_, grains: therefore:--the _mabele_ plant has grains; 9, _’mesa_, _’mesa tseleng_, kindling fire by the roadside, as is done by those who drive away the birds from the fields, either to warm themselves or to roast ears of corn; 10, _motseanong_, i. e. ‘bird-laugher’, since the grains are by now so firmly fixed in the ears that the birds cannot get them; 11, _phupjoane_, from _phupu_, ‘beginning to swell’, with reference to a kind of bulb; 12, _phuphu_, ‘bulging out’, i. e. bulbs and the stems of some hardy plants[765].

Of the Caffres we are told:--They count in the year only twelve months, and for these they have names: the result is frequent confusion and difference of opinion as to which month it really is. There is, for example, the month of the cuckoo, when this bird is first heard, the month of the erythusia, when this plant blossoms, the month of much dust, mid-winter. The names of the moons are more or less descriptive of the season, e. g. _newaba_, green, describes the first appearance of the vegetation; _furnfu_, September, cattle licking green grass; _zibandhlela_, October, footpaths being covered with grass; _hlolange_, January, time to look for first-fruits; _hlangula_, May, time of falling leaves[766]. Unfortunately the complete list is not given.

By the Baronga the months or moons are now almost completely forgotten, at least among the southern clans. The following statements come from the northern clans, where the names have been better preserved:--_nhlangula_, the month in which the flowers are swept from the trees, probably October, in which various trees blossom; _nwendjamhala_, the month in which the antelope _mhala_ brings forth its young (November?); _mawuwana_, when the _tihuhlu_ are plucked, because the people shout ‘_wuwana, wuwana_’ in their joy at having plenty of almonds to suck (December); _hukuri_ is said to be the month when the fruits of the _nkwakwa_ are ripe (December also?); _ndjati_ or _ndjata_, i. e. ‘I am coming’. It is the time of _nwebo_, when everyone in his fields is eating the new cobs of mealies, and if you call, a person will answer:--“I come directly! Have patience! I am busy”. This may be January or February. _Sunguti_ is also one of the summer months; _sibamesoko_, the moon which closes the paths, also called _dwebindlela_ or _sibandlela_ (February), is the time when the grass grows so high that it hides the paths; _nyenyana_, nywenywankulu are the months of the birds (_nyenyana_), when one spends the time in chasing them from the fields (March and April); _mudashini_, i. e. ‘What am I to eat?’ is so named because in the harvest month there are so many different kinds of food that you do not know which to choose (May or June); _khotubushika_, i. e. ‘when winter comes’, is probably June or July[767].

For the Herero the following list is given:--1 (January), month of rain; 2, lambing month; 3, first pools of water; 4, last pools of water; 5, lily month; 6, month of good luck; 7, rising of the water in the river beds; 8, month of fog; 9, Pleiades month: the Pleiades become visible and then _okuni_, spring, begins; 10, first month, and therefore the first month in the Herero reckoning (_sic!_ probably of the spring, cp. the following); 11, last moon namely the last month, of spring; 12, dry, hard moon[768]. Another list has:--1 (January), Vley water; 2, birth-time of springboks; 3, last Vley water; 4, last rain-showers; 5, cold days; 6, dry period; 7, dry trees; lambing season; 9, a lily begins to bud; 10, the milk-bushes become green; 11, the rain begins; 12, wet period[769].

In Loango the names of the months differ considerably according to the situation of the district and the influence of this upon the habits of life:--Month of expectation, month of the little rains, of drought, of the curse, of the great rains, of the water, of men, of women, of the harvest, of the vanishing water, of fish, of the rice, of trade, of mist, of salt, of sleep, of the huts, of the burning (of grass and brushwood), of mirth, of labour, of aid, between-month, cold month, wood month, bud month, besom-and-dirt month (great cleaning), and any other terms in popular use[770].

Some of the tribesmen of Upper Wellé give to the months names in keeping with what is done in them. Thus one month is named as that in which they sow _maroo_, the chief ingredient used in brewing native beer; another as the season when _maroo_ must be cut. Following this comes the ‘bad-water’ month, when the risk of fever is greatest; then the elephant month, when they catch elephants by burning grass, and the white-ant month, during which white ants are collected, and considered a great delicacy; and a second _maroo_ month, when a second crop is sown. The month next to this has no distinctive name, and is succeeded by the second _maroo_-harvest month, the hungry or water-month, when provisions are scarce; the second ant-gathering month; a late sowing month, and finally another with no particular title. Altogether 13, therefore[771]. For the Shilluk twelve months are enumerated without translation: ‘moon’ and ‘month’ are expressed by the same word[772]. The Akamba of British East Africa assert that they reckon eleven months to the year, _anzwa_:--1, _mwa_, planting month; 2, _wima_, time of the autumn rains; 3, _wiu_, month of sprouting; 4, _mveu_, 5, _onkonono_, both untranslated; 6, _thandatu_, commence reaping; 7, _moanza_, not translated; 8, _nyanya_, ‘friend’ (sic!); 9, _kenda_, ‘nine’; 10, _ekumi_, ‘ten’ (in 1907 this month began on August 10); 11, _mubiu_, season of grass-burning. They say that the month has 31 days and that they see the new moon on the 32nd; they assert that they do not include the first day on which the moon is seen[773]. The system has evidently already fallen into decay, so that too great importance must not be attached to its peculiarities. The Wa-Sania of British East Africa divide their twelve months into three periods of four: the names are not given[774]. The Wagogo months are:--1, _mosi_, ‘the first’, about December; 2, _mhiri_, ‘general’ (i. e. rains everywhere); 3, _mhalungulu_, ‘cessation’ (sc. first rains over); 4, _munye_, ‘possessing’, i. e. enjoying first-fruits; 5, _mwezi we litika_, month of plenty; 6, _mwezi we lisololela_, month of beginning reaping; 7, _mwezi we nhwanga_, threshing-month; 8, _mwezi we taga matoto_, month when the harvest is ended; 9, _mwezi we tutula_, month of forest-clearing; 10, _mwezi we ndawa mbereje_, month of digging up the stubbles; 11, _murisimuka_, budding; 12, _muchilanhungo_, ‘partial’ (sc. partial rains, not general)[775]. The Nandi begin with the last month of drought, about February:--1, _kiptamo_, ‘hot in the fields’; 2, _iwat-kut_, rain in showers; 3, _wake_, meaning unknown; 4, _ngei_, the heart pushed on one side by hunger; 5, _rob-tui_, black rain or black clouds; 6, _puret_, mist; 7, _epeso_, meaning unknown; 8, _kipsunde_, offering to God in the corn-fields; 9, _kipsunde oieng_, second offering to God; 10, _mulkul_, strong wind; 11, _mulkulik oieng_, second strong wind; 12, _ngotioto_, the _Brunsvigia Kirkii_ or pin-cushion plant[776].

The Masai divide their twelve months into four seasons, (I), _ol dumeril_, time of the scanty rain-fall:--1, _ol gissan_, in which the sheep and goats bring forth their young; 2, _ol adallo_, the heat of the sun; 3, _ol golua_ (_loo-’n-gushu_). (II), _en gokwa_, the Pleiades (_l’apaïtin te-’l-lengon_, the months of superfluity):--4, _le erat_ (_kuj-orok_), formed from _er rata_, ‘green valley’; the hitherto scanty rain has been sufficient to cover with fresh green the valleys and low-lying spots of the otherwise still yellow withered steppes; 5, _os somisso_ (_oäni-oingok_), ‘the dark’, ‘gloomy’: the sky is overcast, there is much rain, the days are dark and gloomy; 6, _ol nernerua_ (_loo-’n-gokwa_), formed from _nerneri_, ‘fat’. (III), _ol airodjerod_, the lesser after-rains:--7, _le logunja airodjerod_ (_kara-obo_), also called _oieni oinok_, ‘the tied-up bulls’: owing to the abundant fodder of the last months the bulls have become wild, and would be continually fighting each other in the meadows, for which reason they are separated; 8, _bolos airodjerod_ (_kiperu_), or also (but more rarely) _ol dat_; 9, _kudjorok_ (_l’iarat_), ‘cold’, cold weather distinguishes this month. (IV), _ol aimeii_, time of hunger, of drought:--10, _kiber_ (_pushuke_), uproar, quarrel. The pasture is thin, the milk scanty, and people try to steal from other persons’ cows: at last the milk is not sufficient to satisfy the necessary demands of hunger, and most of the warriors go off into the forest with some of the oxen to eat flesh. This lasts not only throughout this month but also during the next. 11, _ol dongosh_, ‘stretched’, since in this month too the milk is very scarce. The name seems to be derived from the word _en gushush_, ‘lack of food’. Only at the beginning of the 12th month, the _boshogge_ (_ol-oiborare_), do the people come back to the kraal. I have followed Merker, p. 156. Hollis, pp. 333 ff., gives in some cases other names, which unfortunately are not translated; they are here given in brackets. Nos. 4 and 9 have exchanged names. It is worthy of note that the month of the evening setting of the Pleiades (_gokwa_) is named from this constellation. A further variation is that according to Hollis the first month is _kara-obo_. The year therefore begins with the season of the after-rains.

The Wadschagga of Kilimanjaro have likewise twelve months; ten are denoted by numerals; the counting begins at the fifth, and the months are divided into seasons. Nos. 5-8 fall in the season of the great rains, 9 and 10 in the dancing season. In the ninth the people say: ‘It is bright’; the rainy season passes away, and for this reason this month is regarded as the beginning of the year, sacrifices are offered up at the gates of the country, the chief ‘raises the field-stick’, i. e. gives permission for the beginning of the ploughing, after having previously ‘let the year open’ by offering a special sacrifice to the spirits for good fruit and harvest. The name of the following month, _iyana_, now means ‘a hundred’, but formerly it probably had the sense of ‘ten’. This, the 10th, month is followed by the first; the 1st and the 2nd months fall in the first warm season, the 3rd in the little rainy season. The three months of the great heat are not denoted by numerals. They are interpolated between the 3rd and the 5th months. The first of these is called _nsaa_: a month known as the fourth is then said to be missing, but our authority conjectures that _nsaa_ is perhaps a mutilated form of an old word for four; the month that follows _nsaa_ is called _muru_, which is left unexplained, and the next is _nsangwe_ or _nsango_. Then the 5th month comes again. The name _nsangwe_ is almost everywhere explained by the people as arising from _nsana-ngwi_, ‘to collect wood for burning’. The supplies of wood for the rainy season are collected. The position of this month immediately before the rainy season misleads them into thus explaining the similar sound. These last two months are clearly to be recognised as interpolations in the original scheme of ten months. But there still exists a name for a thirteenth month, which is of course necessary for the correcting of the lunar year, and which, as the old folks say, was formerly actually counted. But now they say:--“It is a sham month, since it has no companions, no comrades, and therefore it is superfluous. The year has only twelve months.” It is called _nkinyambwo_. The people say:--“The _nkinyambwo_ is no longer necessary, since the rainy season has now only three months, not four as in olden times.” The practice of beginning an enumeration of the months with the 5th month _kusanu_ arouses the suspicion that this may be the actual beginning of the year. To this the other names of this month also point: ‘on the boundary of the year’, or _maraya a kisie_, which can now only be translated as ‘the ender of the rain’. But as a matter of fact this month ushers in the rainy season. It has therefore been pushed from its former position in the course of the year after the rainy season to a position before the beginning of the period of greatest rains, and the practice of beginning the enumeration with _kusanu_ is now the sole reminder of a time when _kusanu_ really did introduce the new year at the beginning of the chief ploughing-season. But the first month _nsi_ must once have been one of the starting-points of the counting[777]. That the two months above-mentioned are interpolations does not seem to be correct: for the _nkinyambwo_ shews that the Wadschagga, like so many other peoples, have had thirteen months, one of which was omitted when necessary. The process seems clear from the statements given. When the thirteenth month (probably under Islamite influence) passed out of use, in the now strictly lunar year the months got out of place in reference to the seasons. If the fifth month _kusanu_ keeps the place in reference to the seasons to which its other names point, it falls in the ninth month of the author’s list, _kukendu_, which, according to natural conditions, is the beginning of the year. That only ten months are numbered and the others named affords independent evidence, and is in keeping with the system of counting in tens. That the two months in question are inserted between the third (or fourth) and the first points to a conventionalising of the system such as is anything but primitive. Here, as always, numbered months shew themselves to be a late phenomenon.

Curious names of months, of a kind which we have hardly met with hitherto, are found in the comparatively highly civilised Hausa states (Kano, Sokoto), where the Arabic and Julian names for the months are also known. 1 (January), _wata-n-tshika-n-shekara_, or _tshiki_, ‘month of the filling of the belly’, since much food is eaten, especially at full moon, or _wata-n-wauwo_, month of the _wauwo_-game (with torches); 2, _wata-n-gani_, month of the _gani_-game; 3, _wata-n-takutika_, month of the _takutika_-game, or _wata-n-takalufu_; 4, _ware-ware-n-farin_; 5, _ware-ware-n-biu_; 6, _ware-ware-n-aku_. _Ware-ware_ is the name of a small bird which builds its nest in a hole in the ground; it is therefore doubtful to which element it belongs. And so it is with these three months, April, May, June, in which no games take place, so that it was not known where to place them; for this reason they are called the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd _ware-ware_. The word also denotes a person who talks now one way, now another, a doubtful person. 7, _wata-n-azumi-n-tsofafi_, month of the fast of the old people; 8, _wata-n-sha rua-n-tsofafi_, month of the old people’s water-drinking; 9, _wata-n-azumi_, month of fasting; 10, _wata-n-karama-n-salla_, month of the little _salla_ festival; 11, _wata-n-bawa-n-salloli_, month of the slaves, in this month all (but especially the slaves) have much work for the festival of the following month; 12, _wata-n-baba-n-salla_, month of the great _salla_ festival, or _wata-n-laiya_, month of the slaughtering of the lamb. The festivals, especially the _salla_ festivals, do not always take place in the months named after them: the time is determined by the priests in accordance with the position of the moon (_wata_ = ‘moon,’ ‘month’)[778]. This is an artificial system which was probably created with a leaning towards the Arabic months. In Edo too the familiar names of months are borrowed from the ceremonies that take place at different times[779].

Madagascar has a comparatively highly developed civilisation in which various influences cross. The Merina have the Arabic months. The history of the native calendar is said to be very complicated: Grandidier in a detailed discussion seeks to prove that the Malgassian year, which is commonly held to be a lunar year, is a solar or lunisolar one, and on the strength of certain resemblances in the names of the months derives the calendar from S. India. I give the principal data. Grandidier says that one reason for believing that the Malgassian calendar is a solar one is the fact that it is in reality agricultural. In 1638 Cauche says that the Malgassi divide their year into 4 seasons and 12 lunar months, with some intercalary days. The year is for them the time which elapses between two phases of the vegetation; for greater convenience they divide it into twelve lunar months, without caring much about the number of days composing these months, as is rightly said of the Antandroy by Vacher[780], who gives the following list, which is almost identical with that compiled by Grandidier himself in the south-east, at Iavibola, in 1866. The months have names and epithets: the latter are explained. 1, millet is cut; 2, winter begins; 3, the beans flower; 4, the tamarinds of the north are ripe; 5, the leaves fall; 6, tamarinds and beans are ripe; 7, the _Cythere_-tree flowers; 8, the bulls seek the shade of the _sakoa_; 9, the guinea-fowls sleep; 10, the rain rots the ropes (with which the calves are fastened); 11, the gourds flower; 12, the grains of the _fano_ are ripe. Rowlands[781] had already remarked that the Betsileo months depend more upon the time of the sowing and reaping of the rice and upon the flowering of certain plants than upon the phases of the moon, and that the agreement with the months of the Merina (i. e. the Arabic months) is only approximate. The same applies to the calendar of the Sakalava, the Bara, the Tanala, and the Sihanaka, which is identical with that of the Betsileo. What is here said about the calendars of the peoples of the south and the centre of the island is also true of the calendars of the northern and eastern peoples[782]. To me it seems as though we have here a series of months of the ordinary type, in which the months are named and at the same time fixed with reference to the seasons, although I do not presume to decide upon the complicated question of the Malgassian calendar. There remains one possibility, viz. that the ‘months’ are seasons with no relation to the moon, but this possibility does not seem to have been seriously considered by those who can make use of the sources, which are only to be got at with extreme difficulty.

Among the primitive peoples of the East Asiatic peninsula the seasons of the agricultural year are very much employed; in comparison with them the moon-month plays no important part. Moreover Indian and Islamite influences have penetrated deeply: the calendar in use arises from these. The facts are well illustrated by a notice from the Malay Peninsula. There are three ways of reckoning the months, (1) the Arabian, 29 and 30 days alternately, (2) the Persian, 30 days, and (3) that of Rum, 31 days; the first is the common method. Some few, with greater accuracy, calculate their year at 354 days 8 hours, intercalating every 3 years 24 hours, or one day, to make up the deficiency, and 33 days for the difference between the solar and the lunar years. But the majority of the lower classes estimate their year by the fruit seasons and by their crops of rice only. Many, however, obstinately adhere to the lunar month and plant their paddy at the annual return of the lunar month[783]. The Guru of Sumatra know a division of the year into twelve months of 30 days each; the months, with the exception of the last two, are denoted by numbers[784]. They are therefore calendar months, not moon-months, and are a foreign acquisition. Among the Kayan the month, or, as they say, the moon, plays a greater part than the year: of the latter hardly anyone knows properly how many moons it contains. Commonly they reckon 1 to 2 moons for the sowing, five for the time which the rice needs to ripen, 2 to 3 for the harvest, and three up to the next sowing. The different months have no special names among the Bahau[785]. The time-reckoning of Sumatra, Java, and Bali shews a prevailing foreign (Indian or Islamite) influence. It is to be noted that among many peoples the first ten months are numbered, while the last two have names. In Bali these two names are Sanskrit words[786].

For Timor two lists of moon-months are given, the one from Bibiçuçu, the other from Samoro. The names are in some cases the same, they are not translated and perhaps cannot be explained, but they indicate the occupations of the months. 1, _funu_, _leet ali_, about October, _vater_, maize, is planted and mountain rice sown; 2, _fahi_, the fields are weeded; 3, _naru_, ‘the great month’, the maize flowers, heavy rain; 4, _fotan_, _tora_, the former word probably a corruption of the Malay _potong_, the cutting or harvest month: the maize is housed and a harvest sacrifice offered; 5, _madauk_, harvest of the mountain-rice; 6, _wani_, honey and wax are collected; 7, _uhi_, _uhi böot_, probably a corruption of _ubi_, sweet potato, these are now dug up and collected; 8, _madai böot_, _uhi kiik_, fogs and heavy rain; 9, _madai kiik_, _lakubutik_, little rain: during both these months little work can be done; 10, _lakubutik böot_, _madai_, still showers; 11, _lakubutik kiik_, _funu_, very hot, only in this month is gold sought for; 12, _leet_, _leet manuluk_, hot: the grass is burnt off and the ground prepared for maize-planting[787]. It is interesting to note how the names have departed from a common foundation: two names (_funu_, _madai_) denote different months. Note also the pairs of months in both lists.

The Kiwai Papuans, who are well acquainted with the stars, have a very interesting list of months, compiled from names of stars and, as it seems, of natural objects. Accurate information about this list has very kindly been personally communicated to me by Landtman[788]. The year is divided into two parts in accordance with the monsoons[789]. The time of the S. E. monsoon (_uro_) embraces the months:--1, _keke_ (Achernar, our April); 2, _utiamo_ (the Pleiades); 3, _sengerai_ (Orion); 4, _koidjugubo_ (Capella, Sirius, and Canopus together); 5, _wapi_; 6, _hopukoruho_; 7, _abu_; and 8, _tagai_ (Crux). In the transitional period comes 9, _karongo_ (Antares). The time of the N. W. monsoon (_hurama_) includes:--10, _naramu-dubu_ (Vega); 11, _nirira-dubu_ (Altair); 12, _goibaru_; 13, _korubutu_. Each month, in the language of the natives called ‘moon’, is connected with a definite constellation, as is shewn above, and it is to be presumed that this constellation is properly the one that is to sink down to the western horizon during the month in question. Perfect accuracy does not however prevail in this nomenclature, but several adaptations have been made. (This is natural and necessary, on account of the dislocation of the lunar months with regard to the solar year). Even in the matter of the succession of the months different statements were made, this no doubt being due to the fact that all the natives were not equally masters of the calendar. The statements fluctuate as to whether _karongo_ is the last month of the _uro_ or the first of the _hurama_. (The fluctuation is natural, since this month falls in the time of transition between the two). In any case this month, like _keke_, the first of the _uro_, comes to have a special meaning. It seems to be somewhat uncertain whether _koidjugubo_ exists as the name of a special month or whether the word only denotes a constellation related to the months _wapi_, _hopukoruho_, and _abu_. The time of the _koidjugubo_ is that in which the S. E. monsoon blows hardest. The corresponding middle month in _hurama_ is _goibaru_. _Baidamu_ (‘the Shark’), the Great Bear, is also related to a certain period during the S. E. monsoon, particularly to _hopukoruho_, in which according to certain statements the head sets, and to _abu_, in which the back fin and the tail set. The setting of each of the various parts of the body of the Shark in the west is accompanied by storms and rain, which arise in the period of the S. E. monsoon. When the Shark is no longer to be seen at evening, and after both its eyes have emerged in the east at morning, the period of the _tagai-karongo_ begins, in which the sea-turtles are caught, and the time of the N. W. monsoon is at hand. The turtles are caught more particularly during the time of their copulation, and this begins in _abu_, occasionally in _tagai_, reaches its height in _karongo_, and finishes in _naramu-dubu_. The planting of tubers also takes place in definite months. Unfortunately the meaning of the names that do not refer to constellations is not in all cases clear. _Wapi_ in one Torres Straits dialect is said to mean ‘fish’, and the name is said to refer to the fact that this time is especially favourable for fishing, since the fish are then particularly stupid and easy to catch with the fish-spear. _Hopukoruho_ is the name of an earth-wasp: colonies of these insects dig holes in the ground. (Do they appear in particularly great numbers in this month?). _Hopu_ means ‘earth’, and _koruho_ ‘to eat’. This month is held to be especially dangerous: men are exposed to sickness and death and are bitten by serpents, the canoes suffer shipwreck. It is also expressly stated that the name of the month refers to death and burial. The sense of _abu_ is quite uncertain. _Abu_ means ‘ford’ in a creek: the name may perhaps refer to the beginning of the transition to the period of the following monsoon. (Or does it refer to the fact that the fords at the end of the dry season are particularly easy to pass?). The sense of _goibaru_ is also quite uncertain, even, as it appears, among the natives. (No statement as to the meaning of _karubuti_ is given). _Karongo_, according to the meaning of the word, is said to refer to the transition from _hurama_ to _uro_. _Koidjugubo_ means ‘great constellation’.

For the Melanesians well developed series of months are given: the very instructive statement of Codrington will be found in the next chapter.[790] For the Carolines two lists of names are given, from Lamotrek and from Yap[791]; but they are of no use to us, since they only give twelve names without any explanation. But the list for the Mortlock Islands, a group included in the Carolines, is of great interest, since every month is named after a constellation and therefore is also regulated by it. The names are:--1, _yis_, Leo; 2, _soropuel_, Corvus; 3, _aramoi_, Arcturus; 4, _tumur_, Scorpio; 5, _mei-sik_, ν, ξ, ο Herculis; 6, _meilap_, Aquila; 7, _sota_, Equuleus; 8, _la_, Pegasus; 9, _ku_, Aries; 10, _mariher_, the Pleiades; 11, _un-allual_, _elluel_, Aldebaran and Orion; 12, _mau_, Sirius[792]. The same system, with names in some cases the same, is given for the southernmost group of the Carolines, the St. David’s Islands[793]. The months of the Fijians, beginning at February, are:--1, _sese-ni-ngasau lailai_; 2, _s.-n.-n.-levu_; 3, _vulai-mbotambota_; 4, _v.-kelikeli_; 5, _v.-were-were_; 6, _kawakatangare_; 7, _kawawaka-lailai_; 8, _k.-levu_; 9, _mbalolo-lailai_; 10, _m.-levu_; 11, _nunga-lailai_; 12, _n.-levu_[794]. The names are not explained, but from the glossary[795] we learn that _vula_ means ‘moon’ and ‘month’, _se-ni-ngasau_ ‘flower of the reed’, _mbota_ ‘to share out, distribute’, _keli_ ‘to dig’, _were_ ‘to till the ground’, _kawa_ ‘offspring, posterity’, _waka_ ‘root’, _nunga_ is the name of a fish, _mbalolo_ is the familiar palolo, which is a favourite delicacy all over Polynesia, _levu_ = ‘big’, _lailai_ = ‘little’. In so far as the meaning of the names is to be perceived, therefore, they relate to the business of agriculture and fishing. Here also we meet the already familiar phenomenon in which several months have the same name, and are distinguished by the addition of ‘big’ and ‘little’.

For the Polynesians many series of months are reported: some of these have 13, others 12 months. The Maoris of New Zealand count 13, and are distinguished from all others in only numbering, not naming, the first ten. According to H. Williams the months are counted from the beginning of the _kumara_-planting, and are only denoted by numbers; in the tenth month the harvest takes place, and also the feast of the dead, _ha-hunga_, which for this reason also serves as a designation of the year, but after that no further months are counted, up to the first[796]. This last statement must be regarded with suspicion, since other sources give not indeed numbers but names for the last three months and the points of reference. As an example of the nomenclature I give _marama-to-ke-ngahuru_, ‘the tenth month’. The eleventh has the same name with the addition of _hauhake kumare_, to dig up, harvest _kumara_; the twelfth and thirteenth are called respectively _ko-te-paengwawa_ and _ko-te-tahi-o-pipiri_, which names are unfortunately not translated. _Pipiri_ recurs as the name of a month in the Society Islands and Tahiti; there it is said that the name refers to a certain thriftiness or stinginess, perhaps in the supply of fruit[797]. But the numbering of the names of the New Zealand months is certainly a later phenomenon, since the cognate tribes everywhere have proper names, nor do the months on this account lose their connexion with the phenomena of Nature. Although they were not named from the latter, they were regulated by them. Each moon is distinguished by the rising of stars, the flowering of certain plants, the arrival of migratory birds, etc. I give a list of these points of reference, beginning at June: unfortunately the names of stars are not identified by our authority. 1, _puanga_, the great winter star, rises early in the morning, and also denotes the beginning of winter: _matariki_, _tapuapua_, _wakaahu te ra o tainu_ are also in the ascendant; 2, _wakaau_, _waakaahu nuku_, _w. rangi_, _w. papa_, _w. kerekere_, _kopu_, _tautoru_; 3, _taka-pou-poto_, _mangere_, _kaiwaka_, spring begins, the _karaka_ and _hou_ flower; 4, _taka-pou-tawahi_, it begins to be warm, cultivation commences, the _kowai_, _kotuku tuku_, and _rangiora_ trees flower, a rainy month; 5, _kumara_ is planted, the _tawera_ is ripe, the cuckoo, _koekoea_, arrives, the windy month, corresponding with our March, hence the name _te rakihi_, the noisy or windy period; 6, _te wakumu_, the _rewarewa_ flowers; 7, _nga tapuae_, the _rata_ flowers; 8, _uruao rangawhenua_, _rehu_ is the great summer star, the star _rangewhenua_, an ancestor, is said to rule the days, and _uruao_ the nights of this month, the _karaka_ flowers; 9, _rehua_, _ko ruruau_, the dry and scarce month; 10, _rehua_, _matiti_ (indicates the autumn), _ngahuru_, the harvest month for the _kumara_; 11, _te kahui-rua-mahu_, the days grow cold, the cuckoo leaves; 12, _kai waka_, _patu-tahi matariki_, the winter-star _koero_ is the chief star of this month; 13, _tahi ngungu_, the grumbling month, little food, bad weather, smoky houses, watery eyes, constant quarrels[798]. There are some descriptions of the months which also seem to be their names. Taylor’s statement that the twelfth month often passes unnoticed deserves attention.

Of Tonga it is noted that the names of the months are scarcely known to any except those who work on the plantations: the order of their succession is not quite clear. The months are often grouped in pairs, _mooa_ meaning the first, _mooi_ the second. 1, _liha-mooa_, 2, _l.-mooi_, _liha_ means ‘nit’, but is not connected by the author with the name of the month; 3, _vy-mooa_, 4, _vy-mooi_, _vy_ = ‘watery’, ‘rainy’; 5, _hilinga gele-gele_: _hilinga_ is said to be a corruption of _hilianga_, ‘end, termination’, _gele-gele_ = ‘dig’, because in this month they cease digging the ground for planting yams; 6, _tanoo manga_, _tanoo_ = ‘to overwhelm, to bury’, _manga_ = anything open, diverging, fork-shaped; 7, _oolooenga_; 8, _hilinga mea_, ‘the end of things’, the month in which the principal agricultural work of the season is finished; 9, _fucca afoo moooi_, _moooi_ = ‘to live, recover’; 10, _fucca afoo mote_, _mote_ = ‘to die, wither’; 11, _oolooagi mote_, _oolooagi_ = ‘the first’; 12, _fooa fenike anga_; 13, _mahina tow_, _mahina_ = ‘moon’, _tow_ = the end of anything[799]. On the Society Islands the people were not unanimous as to the beginning of the year, nor as to the names of the months, each island having a computation peculiar to itself. The series of months adopted by King Pomare and the reigning family was:--1, _avarehu_, the new moon that appears about the summer (viz. our winter) solstice at Tahiti; 2, _faaahu_, the season of plenty; 3, _pipiri_; 4, _taaoa_, the season of scarcity begins; 5, _aununu_; 6, _apaapa_; 7, _paroro mua_; 8, _paroro muri_; 9, _muriaha_; 10, _hiaia_; 11, _tema_, the season of scarcity ends; 12, _te-eri_, the young bread-fruit begins to flower; 13, _te-tai_, the bread-fruit is nearly ripe. Another computation commenced the year at the month _apaapa_, about the middle of May, and gave different names to several of the months[800]. Another older list gives the following series from Tahiti:--1, _o-porori-o-mua_, March, the first hunger or scarcity; 2, _o-porori-o-muri_, ‘the last scarcity’, which agrees to some extent with the facts, since the bread-fruit is scarcest just when it is ripening, as at that time it is used for _mahei_, sour dough; 3, _mureha_; 4, _uhi-eya_, has certainly a reference to catching fish with a hook; 5, _hurri-ama_; 6, _tauwa_; 7, _hurri-erre-erre_; 8, _o-te-ari_, probably so called from the young cocoa-nuts, which just then are very numerous; 9, _o-te-tai_, contains an allusion to the sea; 10, _wa-rehu_; 11, _wä-ahau_, refers to the cloth made from the mulberry bark; 12, _pipirri_, refers to a certain thriftiness or stinginess, perhaps in the supply of fruit; 13, _e-u-nunu_[801]. For the Marquesas Islands (Futuhiwa) I know only a bare enumeration of 13 names of months[802].

For Samoa there is more information. I give von Bülow’s list:--1 (Oct.-Nov.), _palolo_ or _taumafa mua_, ‘there is for the first time abundance for all’: bananas, bread-fruit, and taro are ripe, the month provides much fish; 2, _toe taumafa_, ‘there is once more abundance’, the harvest is still not ended; 3, _utuvamua_, ‘it is uninterrupted’, new crops of other fruit have not yet appeared; 4, _toe utuva_, ‘still uninterrupted’; 5, _faaafu_, ‘the leaves of the yam plant get dry’, i. e. the root is ripe; 6, _lo_, ‘the staff for the harvest of the bread-fruit’, sc. ‘is brought into play’; 7, _aununu_, ‘the making of the arrowroot into starch’, the root is now ripe; 8, _oloumanu_, ‘the cage of the birds’ (is prepared), in which to tame the wild pigeons caught in nets, after some of their wing-feathers have been removed; 9, _palolo-mua_, the first _palolo_ fishing: the appearance of the palolo formerly took place in various months, since there are still islands in which palolo is found in the last quarter of every month; 10, _toe palolo_ or _palolomoli_, ‘repeated last palolo fishing’, from the fishing at the end of the year in October or the end of September, according to the island; 11, _mulifa_, ‘the banana-pole’ (is hewn down), i. e. the bananas are ripe; 12, _lotuaga_, ‘the _lo_ is laid to rest’, i. e. the bread-fruit harvest is over[803]. All the lists agree in giving only twelve months: the seasons are two in number. For the Bowditch Island a list of twelve names is given without explanation; the names are in a great measure the same as the Samoan. The author adds:--It seems as though _vainoa_, month no. 9, is the leapmonth, but there was no name for the eleventh month, corresponding to our March[804].

For the Sandwich Islands abundant material exists, more particularly in the work of the native writer, Malo. I give the list commonly found in other authors also[805], together with the explanations which Malo has obtained from old Hawaiians well versed in the calendar, in the first place those of O. K. Kapule of Kaluaha, Molokai, and secondly, in the case of some months, those of Kaunamoa, of whose dwelling-place we are told nothing more than that he was a Hawaiian. 1, _ikuwa_ (January), so named from the frequent occurrence of thunder-storms, _wa-wa_, ‘to reverberate, to stun the ear’: the noisy month, clamor of ocean, thunder, storm; 2, _hina-ia-eleele_, from the frequent over-casting and darkening (_eleele_) of the heavens; 3, _welo_, because the rays of the sun then begin to shoot forth (_welo_) more vigorously: the leaves are torn to shreds by the _enuhe_, a kind of worm; 4, _makalii_ (the Pleiades); 5, _ka-elo_, so named because the sweet potatoes burst out of the hill, or overflowed the basket; 6, _kau-lua_, from the coupling together of two canoes (_kau-lua_): the two stars called _kau-lua_ then rose in the east; 7, _nana_, from the fact that a canoe then floated (_nana_, _lana_) quietly on the calm sea: the young birds then stir and rustle about (_nana-na_) in their nests and coverts; 8, _ikiiki_, the hot month (_ikiki_ or _ikiiki_, ‘hot and stuffy’): ‘hot and sticky’, from being shut up indoors, by weather; 9, _kaa-ona_, because then the sand-banks begin to shift in the ocean, _ona_ is said to be another word for _one_, ‘sand’: (dry) sugar-canes, flower-stalks, etc., which have been put away in the top of the house, have now become very dry; 10, _hili-na-ehu_, from the mists that floated up from the sea; 11, _hili-na-ma_, because it was necessary to keep the canoes well lashed (_hili_); 12, _welehu_, so named from the abundance of ashes (_lehu_) that were to be found in the fire-places at this time. Malo gives six other lists, two for Hawaii, one each for Molakai, Oahu, Kauai, and Maui. The differences in the order of the months already mentioned are sometimes great, and some new names occur. The former circumstance is doubtless to be explained by the fact that under European influence the native months early passed out of use and were forgotten, and the right order has not been certainly retained in the memory. Some of these explanations are obvious improvisations, in some cases one of the two explanations manifestly shews itself to be the correct one. This proves that the names of the months are so old that the original meaning has been lost. The forgetting of the native months is also responsible for the insufficiency of the information for other islands. Malayan philology might perhaps be able to go farther, if it took up the matter. But where the meaning is clear, it everywhere has reference to the seasons, their occupations and climatic conditions, and to the stars; the Polynesian names of months are in no way different from those of all other primitive or barbaric peoples.

The conclusion to be drawn from our investigation of the names and series of the months is therefore the following. In order that the month may be distinguished from others it is named after an occupation or natural phase which takes place while the month lasts, being described commonly by means of the addition ‘moon of the --’, but not seldom simply by the name of the natural phase or the occupation respectively. Any natural phase or occupation can originally give its name to a month, and hence arises an indefinite number of such terms. When any period of the year is without important natural phases and occupations, the months in this period are not named. At first, therefore, the names of the months are of an occasional, incidental character: the orientation of them follows from the general acquaintance with the phases and occupations of the natural year. As the result of a gradual selection in the daily usage of the names a less unstable, and in the end quite fixed, series of months is formed, which on account of the length of the natural year must comprise 12 to 13 months. The result is a difficulty which formerly was not felt, owing to the fluctuating character of the names of months, for the natural phases and the moons are pushed out of their mutual relationship, and this naturally leads to the question how many months the year includes, i. e. to the necessity of the intercalation. For the moon-month, which begins with the new moon, is a natural unity, which cannot be broken up.