70 Hut ton Webster 



new moon, half moon, full moon and last quarter.^^ The 

 Andaman Islanders, possessing no extended enumeration, did 

 not count the moons in the year, but nevertheless had appropriate 

 words to designate the lunar phases.*" The Bontoc Igorot have 

 noted and named eight phases of the moon.'*^ The natives of 

 New Britain were close observers of the phases of the moon 

 (kalang) and had separate terms for them.*- A further develop- 

 ment may be traced in the Polynesian area where, as in Hawaii, 

 the Society Islands, and New Zealand, for every night in the 

 month there were distinct names derived from the various aspects 

 of the moon according to her age.*'^ Among the Nandi of British 

 East Africa, all the nights of the lunar month are likewise de- 

 scribed by the varying aspects of the moon.** The Bavili of 

 French Congo even appoint special individuals to observe the 



^"Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, London, 1897, 



P- 565. 



*" Man, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1883, xii. 337. 



^' Jenks, in Ethnological Survey Publications, Manila, 1905, i. 219. 



^ G. Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, London, 1910, p. 232. Cf. 

 Somerville, in Joiirnal of the Anthropological Institute, 1897, xxvi. 404 

 (Solomon islanders). 



^ The Maori, for instance, counted twenty-eight moon " nights," which 

 show how closely that luminary was observed: i. noni hope, the moon is 

 in the Reinga or underworld; 4. he oho ata,tht moon is visible; 5. ouenuku, 

 it begins to rise a little way; 6. maivcti, it rises still higher; 14. he atua, 

 full; 19. he ohika, the moon begins to wane; 24. tanagaroa a roto, it sinks 

 into the sea; 28. he mufu, it disappears (Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, lyj) . 

 To the Society Islanders the fifteenth day was oinarac, or the moon with a 

 round and full face; the thirtieth day, otcrieo, was the time when the 

 moon dies or is changed (Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 87 sq.). In the 

 Hervey Group several of the moon, nights were sacred to the gods. The 

 twenty-eighth day was called mauri — ghost ; the twenty-ninth, omutu — 

 ended; the thirtieth, otire avaiki — lost in the depths of Avaiki or Hades 

 (W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, London, 1876, p. 

 318). Among the Caroline Islands (Yap, Lamotrek, Ponape, Uleai) the 

 successive days of the moon are given names which indicate her age 

 (F. W. Christian, Caroline Islands, London, 1899, pp. 387 sq., 392-99). 



" Hollis, op. cit., 95 sq. 



70 



