waka_, _patu-tahi matariki_, the winter-star _koero_ is the chief star of this month; 13, _tahi ngungu_, the grumbling month, little food, bad weather, smoky houses, watery eyes, constant quarrels[798]. There are some descriptions of the months which also seem to be their names. Taylor’s statement that the twelfth month often passes unnoticed deserves attention. Of Tonga it is noted that the names of the months are scarcely known to any except those who work on the plantations: the order of their succession is not quite clear. The months are often grouped in pairs, _mooa_ meaning the first, _mooi_ the second. 1, _liha-mooa_, 2, _l.-mooi_, _liha_ means ‘nit’, but is not connected by the author with the name of the month; 3, _vy-mooa_, 4, _vy-mooi_, _vy_ = ‘watery’, ‘rainy’; 5, _hilinga gele-gele_: _hilinga_ is said to be a corruption of _hilianga_, ‘end, termination’, _gele-gele_ = ‘dig’, because in this month they cease digging the ground for planting yams; 6, _tanoo manga_, _tanoo_ = ‘to overwhelm, to bury’, _manga_ = anything open, diverging, fork-shaped; 7, _oolooenga_; 8, _hilinga mea_, ‘the end of things’, the month in which the principal agricultural work of the season is finished; 9, _fucca afoo moooi_, _moooi_ = ‘to live, recover’; 10, _fucca afoo mote_, _mote_ = ‘to die, wither’; 11, _oolooagi mote_, _oolooagi_ = ‘the first’; 12, _fooa fenike anga_; 13, _mahina tow_, _mahina_ = ‘moon’, _tow_ = the end of anything[799]. On the Society Islands the people were not unanimous as to the beginning of the year, nor as to the names of the months, each island having a computation peculiar to itself. The series of months adopted by King Pomare and the reigning family was:--1, _avarehu_, the new moon that appears about the summer (viz. our winter) solstice at Tahiti; 2, _faaahu_, the season of plenty; 3, _pipiri_; 4, _taaoa_, the season of scarcity begins; 5, _aununu_; 6, _apaapa_; 7, _paroro mua_; 8, _paroro muri_; 9, _muriaha_; 10, _hiaia_; 11, _tema_, the season of scarcity ends; 12, _te-eri_, the young bread-fruit begins to flower; 13, _te-tai_, the bread-fruit is nearly ripe. Another computation commenced the year at the month _apaapa_, about the middle of May, and gave different names to several of the months[800]. Another older list gives the following series from Tahiti:--1, _o-porori-o-mua_, March, the first hunger or scarcity; 2, _o-porori-o-muri_, ‘the last scarcity’, which agrees to some extent with the facts, since the bread-fruit is scarcest just when it is ripening, as at that time it is used for _mahei_, sour dough; 3, _mureha_; 4, _uhi-eya_, has certainly a reference to catching fish with a hook; 5, _hurri-ama_; 6, _tauwa_; 7, _hurri-erre-erre_; 8, _o-te-ari_, probably so called from the young cocoa-nuts, which just then are very numerous; 9, _o-te-tai_, contains an allusion to the sea; 10, _wa-rehu_; 11, _wä-ahau_, refers to the cloth made from the mulberry bark; 12, _pipirri_, refers to a