46 HAWAIIANGROUP. 



10. Makalii, idols carried around the island; demanding taxes. 



11. Kaelo (January), offerings for the dead ; catch boneta. 



12. Kaulau, fishing boneta. 



Farming was carried on at all seasons of the year. 



It is not a little singular that two islands so closely in the vicinity 

 of each other as Hawaii and Maui, both speaking the same language, 

 should have had their monthly calendar varying nearly two months. 



With regard to the days, they commenced numbering them on the 

 first day the new moon is seen in the west. 



This made it necessary for them to correct their reckoning every 

 two or three months, and reduce their year to twelve lunations in- 

 stead of three hundred and sixty-five days. The difference between 

 the sidereal and lunar year, they are said to have discovered, and to 

 have corrected their reckoning by the stars, for which reason in prac- 

 tice their years varied, some containing twelve and others thirteen 

 lunations. 



They likewise applied corrections to their months, giving them 

 twenty-nine and thirty days. Although this caused many breaks in 

 their system, yet their chronologists could always tell the name of the 

 day and month on which any great event had occurred ; and it is easy 

 to reduce their time to ours, except when the change of the moon 

 takes place about the middle of our calendar months, when there is a 

 liability to a mistake of a whole month. Another error is apt to 

 occur in tlie uncertainty of the day when the moon is discovered in 

 the west. It may readily be conceived that their own method did 

 not tend to much accuracy, as they had to rely entirely upon their 

 memories. 



Eclipses were thought to be an attack on the sun and moon, by the 

 gods, and presaged a war or some other disaster.* 



They thought that much of their success depended on working in 

 unison with the heavenly bodies ; yet, as I before said, they had not 

 the slightest notion of the most simple astronomical calculation. 



The first little book published that contained some of the true prin- 

 ciples of astronomy, awakened their surprise very much; and the 

 almanac published afterwards by the mission, predicting the phases 

 of the moon, eclipses, tides, &c., excited in them great interest, and 

 as was natural, raised the missionaries very much in their estimation. 



* In Appendix III. will be found an account of their heathen gods, and the ceremonies 

 attendant on the consecration of their heiaus. 



