.."omaJ HAWAIIAN CALENDAR, 



moon was very small the night was Mauli, antl that in wliicli it (lisajjpered, IMnkii. 

 The month of thirty days is thus completed. 



From each mouth four periods were selected, iu which the nights were consecrated, 

 or tabu. The following are the names: Kaptiku, Kapuhua, Kapukaloa, and Kapn- 

 kane. The first consisted of three nights, commencing with Hilo and terminating 

 with Knlua; the second was a period of two nights, beginning with Mohalu and 

 ending with Akna; the two nights, from Olepau to Kaloaknhia; th(! fourth from 

 Kane to Mauli. 



It is mostly in reference to the sacred seasons that I have here introduced their 

 division of time. The mcthocl of reckoning by the moon led, of course, to many 

 iri'egularities. On a future page I may perhaps notice some of them. 



On another page lie makes the following' statement: * 



Those who took the moot care in measuring time measured it by means both of the 

 moon and tixed stai's. They divided the year into twelve months, and each month 

 into thirty days. They had a distinct name for eacli of the days of the month, as 

 has been shown on a former page, and commenced their numbering on the first day 

 that the new moon appeared in the west. This course made it necessary to drop a 

 day about ouce in two months, and thus reduce their year into twelve lunations 

 instead of three hundred and sixty days. This beiug about eleven days less than 

 the sidereal year, they discovered the discrepancy and corrected their reckoning by 

 tlie stars. In practice, therefore, the year varied, being sometimes twelve, sometimes 

 thirteen, lunar months. So, also, they sometimes numbered twenty-nine and some- 

 times thirty days in a month. 



Though their system was thus broken and imperfect, yet, as they could tell the 

 name of the day and the name of the month when any great event occurred, their 

 time can be reduced to ours by a reference to the i>hasn of the nmon at the time. 

 But when the change of the moon takes place about the middle of our calendar 

 month, then we are liable to a mistake of a whole mouth. We are liable to another 

 mistake of a day from the uncertainty of the day that the moon was discovered iu 

 the west. Having nothing to rely upon except merely their memories, they were 

 also liable to numerous mistakes from that source. 



Although it is evident from this language that the author did not 

 thoroughly understand the system, a careful examination will enable 

 students to get at the main points, and, by the aid of a later writer, to 

 gain a tolerably correct idea of the calendar. It is distinctly stated in 

 eacli extract, notwithstanding the apparent contradiction in the latter, 

 that the year consisted of twelve months and that there Aver« thirty 

 days (or nights) in each month. This, if there was no intercalation, 

 would give 360 days to the year. This is confirmed by the additional 

 statement that "in one year there were nine times forty nights," which 

 I am inclined to believe would have been more correctly given by say- 

 ing- "there were forty times nine nights in a year." 



It will be observed that in the second extract the author tries to 

 explain the relation of the lunations to the twelve divisions of the sidereal 

 year, arriving at the conclusion that "in practice" the years, and also 

 the months, varied in length. Yet he states distinctlj^ that those who 

 took most care in measuring time (probably the priests) "measured it 

 by means both of the moon and lixed stars;" and that at length having 

 discovered a discrepancy of eleven days in their reckoning, they corrected 



* P. 108. 



