Notes on the Polynesian Calendar. 



THE Polynesians divided the years into seasons, months and days. The seasons, 

 or kail, of the year were generally two: the rainy or winter season, and the dry 

 or summer season, varying according to the particular situation of the group, 

 either north or south of the equator. The commencement of the seasons, however, were 

 regulated bv the rising of the Pleiades, or Makalii. at the setting of the sun. Thus in the 

 Society group the year was divided in Makarii-i-ria, — Pleiades above the horizon, — and 

 Makarii-i-raro, Pleiades below: the first from November to May, the latter from May to 

 November. In the Hawaiian group the year was divided into two seasons, Iiooilo, the 

 rainy season, from about the 20th of November to 20th of May, and kaii, the dry season 

 from 20th May to 20th November. In the Samoan, tail or faiisanga meant originally a 

 period of six months, and afterwards was employed to express the full year of twelve 

 months as in the Tonga group. There are traces, also, on the Society group of the year 

 having been divided into three seasons or tan, like the Egyptians, Arabs and Greeks, 

 thoueh the arransrement of the months within each season seems to me to have been arbi- 

 trary and probably local. 



In regard to the divisions of the year by months, the Polynesians counted by 

 twelve and thirteen months, the former obtaining in the Tonga, Samoan and Hawaiian 

 groups, the latter in the Marquesan and Society groups. Each month consisted of thirty 

 days. It is known that the Hawaiians, who counted twelve months of thirty days each, 

 intercalated five days at the end of the month Welehu, about the 20th December, which 

 were tabu days, dedicated to the festival of Lono, after which the new year began with the 

 first day of the month Makalii, which day was properly called Maka-hiki (equivalent to 

 "commencement'') and afterwards became the conventional term for a year in the Hawa- 

 iian, Marquesan and Society groups. There is evidence that the Marquesans at one time 

 counted the year by the lunar months and called it a piiiii, a circle, a round, a revolution, 

 but how they managed either this or the year of thirteen months to correspond with the 

 divisions by seasons or the solar year I am not informed. Tab. Tccri sometimes dropped. 



That a comijutation by lunar months preceded the other is evident from the var- 

 ious names of different days in the month, but both computations were evidently far older 

 than the arrival of the Polynesians in the Pacific. 



To this may be added that the Polynesians counted time alst) In- tiie nights — po. 

 Tomorrow was a-po-f^o ( Haw. ) lit. the night's night. Yesterday was po-i-iiclii-iici. the 

 past night. Po-akalii. po-aliia. etc., the first, the second day. Po was the generic tcnii 

 for day and ao or daylight was but the complement of the full po. Po-a-ao, night and day, 

 etc. This method of reckoning by nights ascends to the hoariest antiquity. The un- 

 broken Aryans counted by nights, and the custom prevailed late into historic times 

 among the Hindus, the Iranians, the Greeks, the Saxons, and the Scandinavians. 

 (Pictet v. 2, ]). 58S. ) The Babylonians believed that the world iiad been created at the 

 autumnal equinox. — ( Lenormant, I, p. 451.) 



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