Idea: Part of this complex picture seems to show the Sun, perhaps at first somewhat astonishing as we are studying the Moon. But the Polynesians were aware of the fact that without Sun the Moon would not shine: "...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'..." (Makemson) |