For the Polynesians many series of months are reported: some of these have 13, others 12 months. The Maoris of New Zealand count 13, and are distinguished from all others in only numbering, not naming, the first ten. According to H. Williams the months are counted from the beginning of the _kumara_-planting, and are only denoted by numbers; in the tenth month the harvest takes place, and also the feast of the dead, _ha-hunga_, which for this reason also serves as a designation of the year, but after that no further months are counted, up to the first[796]. This last statement must be regarded with suspicion, since other sources give not indeed numbers but names for the last three months and the points of reference. As an example of the nomenclature I give _marama-to-ke-ngahuru_, ‘the tenth month’. The eleventh has the same name with the addition of _hauhake kumare_, to dig up, harvest _kumara_; the twelfth and thirteenth are called respectively _ko-te-paengwawa_ and _ko-te-tahi-o-pipiri_, which names are unfortunately not translated. _Pipiri_ recurs as the name of a month in the Society Islands and Tahiti; there it is said that the name refers to a certain thriftiness or stinginess, perhaps in the supply of fruit[797]. But the numbering of the names of the New Zealand months is certainly a later phenomenon, since the cognate tribes everywhere have proper names, nor do the months on this account lose their connexion with the phenomena of Nature. Although they were not named from the latter, they were regulated by them. Each moon is distinguished by the rising of stars, the flowering of certain plants, the arrival of migratory birds, etc. I give a list of these points of reference, beginning at June: unfortunately the names of stars are not identified by our authority. 1, _puanga_, the great winter star, rises early in the morning, and also denotes the beginning of winter: _matariki_, _tapuapua_, _wakaahu te ra o tainu_ are also in the ascendant; 2, _wakaau_, _waakaahu nuku_, _w. rangi_, _w. papa_, _w. kerekere_, _kopu_, _tautoru_; 3, _taka-pou-poto_, _mangere_, _kaiwaka_, spring begins, the _karaka_ and _hou_ flower; 4, _taka-pou-tawahi_, it begins to be warm, cultivation commences, the _kowai_, _kotuku tuku_, and _rangiora_ trees flower, a rainy month; 5, _kumara_ is planted, the _tawera_ is ripe, the cuckoo, _koekoea_, arrives, the windy month, corresponding with our March, hence the name _te rakihi_, the noisy or windy period; 6, _te wakumu_, the _rewarewa_ flowers; 7, _nga tapuae_, the _rata_ flowers; 8, _uruao rangawhenua_, _rehu_ is the great summer star, the star _rangewhenua_, an ancestor, is said to rule the days, and _uruao_ the nights of this month, the _karaka_ flowers; 9, _rehua_, _ko ruruau_, the dry and scarce month; 10, _rehua_, _matiti_ (indicates the autumn), _ngahuru_, the harvest month for the _kumara_; 11, _te kahui-rua-mahu_, the days grow cold, the cuckoo leaves; 12, _kai