Ancient Polynesia's

Knowledge Of The Stars

rE Polynesian of old knew astronomy.

He charted the sky and called the stars by name.

“The great pillars of the sky, Rumia, have become great twinkling stars in the heavens”, sings the ancient poet.

“Ana-Mua (Antares in Scorpio) is the entrance pillar to the dome of the sky; Ana-Muri (Aldebaran in Taurus) is the pillar of blackening; Ona-Roto (Spica in Virgo) is the pillar of perfect purity • • • All the heavenly bodies were to beautify the house of the sky, to pass before Ta’urua, the guiding star that rises in the evening”.

To the constellations that mark the procession of the seasons he gave poetic names—Orion was Te Uru-Meremere (the forest of parental yearnings); the Milky Way, Vai-Ora-a-Tane (the living water of Tane, the sun-god); Rua-o-Mere (Ca pricornus) was “The compass that stands on the southern side of the sky”.

A star cult was interwoven in the fab ric of old Polynesian religion. In that part of the temple near the Ava’s (“the receptacle of the god’s image” and called “the mostly holy part” of the Marae, rem iniscent of the holy of holies in the Jew ish temple), named the Pu-Marae, “were set planks six or seven feet high, upon which were free-hand engravings of vari ous designs. These planks were painted over with red ochre and were called Unu-Marae. They represented Ana-Mua, Ana-Roto, Ana-Muri, and all the other great stars of the heavens, which may indicate that they were substitutes gradu ally adopted for candles burning upon the altar”.—(“Ancient Tahiti”, Henry.) The fragments that have been rescued give us but a clue to the great body of learning taught in the Fare-Tara-Toa at Opoa in Ra’iatea, whither, in the olden days, about 600 years ago, came scholars from every corner of the Pacific to seek wisdom. —A.C.R.

Solomoni Naiduki, who did deputation work in Australia during 1939 for the Methodist Mission, returned to Fiji in December.

Miss E. Steel, of the Western Samoan Education Department, arrived in New Zealand from Apia on leave by the De cember mailboat.

Mr. D. Haig, manager of the Yorkshire Insurance Co., Rabaul, arrived in Sydney from New Guinea by airliner during the first week in January. During his absence, Mr. S. E. Costelloe is looking after Mr.

Haig’s business interests.