... the first month of the Moriori year, was named Rongo (Lono). On the first of the new year the Moriori launched a small canoe to Rongo, although they built and used only rude craft for their fishing excursions. The canoe was manned by twelve figures symbolizing the personifications of the twelve months. Sometimes twenty-four figures were placed in the canoe, and Skinner interprets the additional twelve as representing the female counterparts of the months. As an old Maori once remarked. 'Everything has its female counterpart ...

Hata. 1. Table, bureau. P Pau.: afata, a chest, box. Mgv.: avata, a box, case, trunk, coffin. Mq.: fata, hata, a piece of wood with several branches serving as a rack, space, to ramify, to branch; fataá, hataá, stage, step, shelf. Ta.: fata, scaffold, altar. 2. Hakahata, to disjoint; hakahatahata, to loosen, to stretch. P Pau.: vata, an interval, interstice. Mgv.: kohata, the space between two boards, to be badly joined; akakohata, to leave a space between two bodies badly joined; hakahata, to be large, broad, wide, spacious, far off. Mq.: hatahata, fatafata, having chinks, not tightly closed, disjointed. Ta.: fatafata, open. 3. Hatahata, calm, loose, prolix, vast. Mgv.: hatahara, broad, wide, spacious, at one's ease. Ta.: fatafata, free from care. Mq.: hatahata, empty, open. 4. Hatahata, tube, pipe, funnel. Churchill. Sa.: fata, a raised house in which to store yams, a shelf, a handbarrow, a bier, a litter, an altar, to carry on a litter; fatāmanu, a scaffold. To.: fata, a loft, a bier, a handbarrow, to carry on a bier; fataki, a platform. Fu.: fata, a barrow, a loft; fatataki, two sticks or canes attached to each other at each side of a house post to serve as a shelf. Niuē: fata, a cage, a handbarrow, a shelf, a stage, (sometimes) the upper story of a house. Uvea: fata, a barrow, a bier. Fotuna: fata, a stage. Ta.: fata, an altar, a scaffold, a piece of wood put up to hang baskets of food on; afata, a chest, a box, a coop, a raft, a scaffold. Pau.: fata, a heap; afata, a box, a chest. Ma.: whata, a platform or raised storehouse for food, an altar, to elevate, to support. Moriori: whata, a raft. Mq.: fata, hata, hataá, shelves. Rapanui: hata, a table. Ha.: haka, a ladder, an artificial henroost; alahaka, a ladder. Mg.: ata, a shelf; atamoa, a ladder; atarau, an altar. Mgv.: avata, a coffer, a box. Vi.: vata, a loft, a shelf; tāvata, a bier. The Samoan fata is a pair of light timbers pointed at the ends and tied across the center posts of the house, one in front, the other behind the line of posts; rolls of mats and bales of sennit may be laid across these timbers; baskets or reserved victuals may be hung on the ends. The litter and the barrow are two light poles with small slats lashed across at intervals. The Marquesan fata is a stout stem of a sapling with the stumps of several branches, a hat tree in shape, though found among a barehead folk. These illustrations are sufficient to show what is the common element in all these fata identifications, light cross-pieces spaced at intervals. With this for a primal signifaction it is easy to see how a ladder, a raft, a henroost, an altar come under the same stem for designation. Perhaps Samoan fatafata the breast obtains the name by reason of the ribs; it would be convincing were it not that the plumpness of most Samoans leaves the ribs a matter of anatomical inference. Churchill 2. ... Teke said to Oti, 'Go and take the hauhau tree, the paper mulberry tree, rushes, tavari plants, uku koko grass, riku ferns, ngaoho plants, the toromiro tree, hiki kioe plants (Cyperus vegetus), the sandalwood tree, harahara plants, pua nakonako plants, nehenehe ferns, hua taru grass, poporo plants, bottle gourds (ipu ngutu), kohe plants, kavakava atua ferns, fragrant tuere heu grass, tureme grass (Diochelachne sciurea), matie grass, and the two kinds of cockroaches makere and hata.' ... The division into quarters of a 28-series can be applied to the main phases of the moon during the visible period as was as to a (reflex of the old world?) sidereal month. The separate subgroup (29 makere - 30 hata) consists of the names of two types of cockroaches, but in related eastern Polynesian languages these names can also be explained on a different level. MAO. makere, among others, 'to die', and whata, among others, 'to be laid to rest on a platform', deserve special attention. The theme hinted at is one of death and burial. In our scheme they occur at just that time when the moon 'has died'! This lends further support to the lunar thesis. Barthel 2.

*31.0 = *72.4 - *41.4

*32.0 = *73.4 - *41.4

ε Leporis (76.0), CURSA (Foot-stool) = β Eridani (76.4), λ Eridani (76.7)

*35.0 = *76.4 - *41.4

... On the twenty-fifth day [raa] of the first month ('Vaitu Nui'), Ira and Makoi set sail. (i te rua te angahuru marima raa o te vaitu nui.i oho.mai ai a ira.ko Makoi) ... (E:17)

... Ira left [for Hiva, for Maori, i ōho ai a Ira.ki hiva.ki maori] on the twenty-fifth day of the month of October ('Tangaroa Uri') ... (E:86)