The moon was _the timekeeper of the year_. The year was divided into twelve lunar months, and each month was known by a name in common use all over the group. To this there were some local exceptions, and a month named after the god, who on that month was specially worshipped. It is said that of old it was universal to name the month after the god whose worship at that particular time was observed. Among a people who had no fixed astronomical dates intercallation was easy, and the names of the twelve moons kept uniform. JANUARY. 1. This was called Utu va mua, _first yam digging_. And so named from their then digging wild yams before the cultivated ones were ripe, and also from early yam digging. 2. Others say that the origin of Utu va mua was in two brothers, the one called Utuvamua and the other Utuvamuli, who, when there was war in heaven, and their party beaten, fled to the earth and brought the January storms with them. 3. A third account says that Utuvamua was the elder brother and Utuvamuli the younger, and that during a great war on earth they escaped to the heavens. That the hills are the heaps of slain covered over by earth dug up from the valleys, and that when the two brothers look down upon them their weeping and wailing and maddening exasperation occasion the storm and the hurricane. 4. The month was also called Aitu tele, _great god_, from the principal worship of the month. At another place it was named Tangaloa tele, for a similar reason. FEBRUARY. 1. This month was called Toe utu va, or _digging again_, and so named from the yam crop. 2. The name is also explained as the further digging up of the winds to raise storms. 3. Aitu iti, or _small gods_, is another name, from the worship of the inferior household gods in that month. MARCH. 1. Called Faaafu, or _withering_, from the withering of the yam vine and other plants, which become coloured "like the shells." 2. Taafanua is another name of the month, which means, _roam_ or _walk about the land_, being the name of a god worshipped in that month. 3. Called also Aitu iti, or small gods, from the household gods then worshipped, and who were specially implored to bless the family for the year "with strength to overcome in quarrels and in battle." APRIL. 1. This month was called Lo, from the name of a small fish which comes in plentiful shoals at that time. 2. Called also Fanonga, or _destruction_, the name of a god worshipped at the eastern extremity of the group during that month. MAY. 1. Called Aununu, or _stem crushed_, from the crushed or pulverised state of the stem of the yam at that time. Others say it was so named from multitudes of malicious demons supposed to be wandering about at that time. Even the fish of the sea were supposed to be possessed and unusually savage in this month. May is often an unhealthy month, being the time of transition from the wet season to the dry, and hence the _crushing_ sickness and superstitious vagaries.