Moonlight In
p. 17 · Read in the full issue
Tahiti
From Our Own Correspondent.
Papeete, Dec. 12.
ONE of the very few survivals of an cient Polynesian lore at Tahiti is the calendar of the nights of the moon.
Even this is disregarded, and generally unknown, except among fishermen. To the latter it is most valuable, because it embodies the results of centuries of ob servation in regard to the run of fish.
Each night has a picturesque name— from the first, tireo (the breaking forth) to the thirtieth, motu, ua motu te tau (severed, the period is ended); the tides, prevailing winds, and the habits of the several species of fish being indicated for every night.
The calendars vary somewhat in dif ferent islands and in different parts of the same island. But they all agree in listing the second, third and fourth nights after the full moon as the nights when ghosts are roaming about.
Belief in ghosts is well nigh universal in the Islands, and is not confined to Polynesians. Europeans long resident in Polynesia appear to absorb the prevail ing superstitions. The apparition most frequently reported is that of the famous Tua-tau.
“In a precipitous valley of Puna’auia is an ancestral Marae belonging to the Vai-tua-mata’i-upo’s Tahiti family, and it was dedicated to a deified family hero named Tua-tau. In the same valley is a cave where Tua-tau is said to appear in visible form, sometimes in ancient war rior’s garb and holding a long wooden spear”. (Henry.) The writer suspects that many of the ghosts reported are not disembodied spirits.
It is well attested that the great wiz ard of Ra’iatea, Tupua, had a company of ghosts who appeared and vanished, at his command, on the occasion of certain nocturnal ceremonies; but were very much of this world when the hour of feasting arrived.
More than once, on the prescribed nights of the moon, the writer has gone to dismal and spooky places in quest of reputed ghosts. Always he has been dis appointed. Some flickering shadows— such as incite nervous dogs to bark and howl on moonlight nights—and nothing else.
An earnest desire to make the ac quaintance of the famous Tua-tau has led him to the valley of Puna’auia. In variably Tua-tau has been absent on one of his visits to the subterranean Elysium, beneath the volcano of Kilauea, Hawaii, “where he and the shades of the royal families of the islands are believed by many Tahitians and Hawaiians, to meet and dwell together”. (Henry—“ Ancient Tahiti”.) In ancient times, people who saw things which were not there, were reputed to be uruhia e te aitu—i.e., inspired by some being of the supernatural world.
Civilisation has provided potent exhilar ants which perform the same office.
Wherefore we often wonder if some of our modern see-ers of visions are not uruhia e mania a potu.
Note: Mania a potu is perfectly good Tahitian. Mania-calm as the sea; no wind stirring, serene; unruffled, as ap plied to the mind. A-of. Po-tu —Night established. In medical dictionaries, how ever, Mania a potu signifies delirium tre mens, or the delirium caused by too much rum—a frequent and widespread ailment in these islands.