| As can be seen from the Hawaiian example the moon governs all human
activity: planting, fishing, birth omens and the rules of
tapu. Presumably the same general pattern was found over all
of Polynesia, including Easter Island. That the moon calendar in Mamari is meager with such information may be because everybody already knew all such details. For each month you were given a repetition and so sooner or later you knew the circus. From Barthel I have two slightly different versions of the names of the nights of the month on Easter Island. On next page I give a table showing these names. The sources (Englert and Métraux) do not agree, however, which night initiates a month. Métraux has Tireo while Englert has Ohiro. According to the Hawaiian calendar Englert is right. It is also easier to start the month with the first narrow rim seen than sometime in the murky new moon period. We ourselves have the same convention for the date of the birth of a baby; i.e. when he comes out and not when he is starting to kick around and making himself known. So I have chosen as a starting point the night Ohiro. And I have made a first attempt at grouping the nights into 8 periods as in Mamari.
|