6. We know that when Moon is invisible because she has Sun behind her back it means she is bathing in his rays in order to be rejuvenated. ... When the new moon appeared women assembled and bewailed those who had died since the last one, uttering the following lament: 'Alas! O moon! Thou has returned to life, but our departed beloved ones have not. Thou has bathed in the waiora a Tane, and had thy life renewed, but there is no fount to restore life to our departed ones. Alas ... Moon disappears, carries Sun on her back, in her 29th night, a night of Mercury:
Positioned in the middle of the year, just beyond Midsummer, the Mercury 'garment' of Sun functions quite similar to the 'garment' of Moon when she disappears in her night number 29. Sun has been 'swallowed as if by earth' and is no longer visible, and the much needed rain has come. Earth is revitalized. Mercury is the planet which is closest to Sun and it is very had too see him because of that. Only when Sun is just below the horizon is it possible. |