ASTRONOMY OF THE NATIVES. 171 
tionary during the whole period. I refrain from all 
comment on this singular tradition, which was 
almost universally received in the islands. 
Their ideas of the moon, which they called avae 
or marama , were as fabulous as those they enter¬ 
tained of the sun Some supposed the moon was 
the wife of the sun ; others, that it was a beautiful 
country in which the aoa grew. I am not aware 
that they rendered divine homage either to the 
sun or moon—theirs was a far less rational and 
innocent system than the worship of the host 
of heaven : they, however, supposed the moon to 
be subject to the influence of the spiritual beings 
with whom their mythology taught them to people 
the visible creation; and to the anger of those 
spirits, they were accustomed to attribute an 
eclipse. During an eclipse, the moon is said to 
be natua , bitten or pinched, as well as swallowed. 
The stars, which they call fetia or fetu , were 
by some considered as the children of the sun and 
moon; by others, the progeny of a principal star. 
They are, however, generally supposed to be inha¬ 
bited by spirits of the departed, or to be the spirits 
of human beings, several principal stars being 
designated by the names of distinguished men. 
The phenomenon called a shooting star, they sup¬ 
posed to be the flight of a spirit, and an omen of 
the birth of a great prince. Many of the constel¬ 
lations, and more of the single stars, have distinct 
names. Mars they call fetia ura , red star. The * 
morning star they call fetia ao , star of day; or 
horo poipoi , forerunner of morning, and the even¬ 
ing star Taurua o hiti ite a hiahi , twilight-rising 
Taurua. The Pleiades they call matarii , small 
eyes. The nebulee near the southern pole, called 
the Magellanic clouds, are denominated mahu > 
