“It is impossible to fit the native succession of moons into a solar year, months have their names from what is done and what happens when the moon appears and while it lasts; the same moon has different names. If all the names of moons in use in one language were set in order the periods of time would overlap, and the native year would be artificially made up of 20 or 30 months. The moons and seasons of Mota in the Banks’ Islands may serve as an example. The garden work of the year is the principal guide to the arrangement, the succession of 1, clearing garden ground, _uma_, 2, cutting down the trees, _tara_, 3, turning over and piling up the stuff, _rakasag_, 4, burning it, _sing_, 5, digging the holes for yams, _nur_, and planting, _riv_. Then follows the care of the yam plants till the harvest, after which preparation for the next crop begins again. At the same time the regular winds and calms are observed, the spring of grass, the conspicuous flowering of certain trees, the bursting into leaf of the few deciduous trees. When a certain grass, _magoto_, springs, the winter, as it must be called, is over; when the erythrina, _rara_, is in flower, it is the cool season; _magoto_, therefore, and _rara_ are names of seasons in native use, and answer roughly to summer and winter. The strange and exciting appearance of the palolo, _un_, sets a wide mark on the seasons. The April moon coincides pretty well with the time of the _magoto qaro_, the fresh grass; clearing, _uma_, of gardens goes on, the trade wind is steady. This is followed by the _magoto rango_, the withered grass; both are months of cutting down trees in the gardens, _vule taratara_, and in the latter the stuff is burnt. In July the erythrina, _rara_, begins to flower; this is _nago rara_, the face of winter; gardens are fenced, it is a moon of planting yams, _vule vutvut_. Planting continues into August, when the erythrina is in full flower, _tur rara_, the _gaviga_, Malay apple, flowering at the same time; the S. E. wind, _gauna_, blows, the yams begin to shoot and are stuck with reeds. In the next month the erythrina puts out its leaves, it is the end of it, _kere rara_; the yam vines run up the reeds and are trained, _taur_, upon them; the reeds are broken and bent over, _ruqa_, to let them run freely; the ground is kept clear of weeds; the tendrils curl, and the tubers are well formed. Then come the months of calm, when three moons are named from the _un_, palolo: first the _un rig_, the little _un_, or the bitter, _un gogona_, when at the full moon a few of the annelids appear. It is now the _tau matua_, the season of maturity; yams can be taken up and eaten, and if the weather is favourable, a second crop is planted. The _un lava_, the great palolo, follows, when at the full moon for one night the annelids appear on the reefs in swarms; the whole population is on the beach, taking up the _un_ in every vessel and with every contrivance.