(M269) The Society Islanders in the South Pacific divided the year into two seasons, which they determined by observation of the Pleiades. “The first they called _Matarii i nia_, Pleiades above. It commenced when, in the evening, these stars appeared on or near the horizon; and the half year, during which, immediately after sunset, they were seen above the horizon, was called _Matarii i nia_. The other season commenced when, at sunset, the stars were invisible, and continued until at that hour they appeared again above the horizon. This season was called _Matarii i raro_, Pleiades below.”(1018) In the Hervey Islands of the South Pacific it is said that the constellation was originally a single star, which was shattered into six fragments by the god Tane. “This cluster of little stars is appropriately named Mata-riki or _little-eyes_, on account of their brightness. It is also designated Tau-ono, or _the-six_, on account of the apparent number of the fragments; the presence of the seventh star not having been detected by the unassisted native eye.”(1019) Among these islanders the arrival of the new year was indicated by the appearance of the constellation on the eastern horizon just after sunset, that is, about the middle of December. “Hence the idolatrous worship paid to this beautiful cluster of stars in many of the South Sea Islands. The Pleiades were worshipped at Danger Island, and at the Penrhyns, down to the introduction of Christianity in 1857. In many islands extravagant joy is still manifested at the rising of this constellation out of the ocean.”(1020) For example, in Manahiki or Humphrey’s Island, South Pacific, “when the constellation Pleiades was seen there was unusual joy all over the month, and expressed by singing, dancing, and blowing-shell trumpets.”(1021) So the Maoris of New Zealand, another Polynesian people of the South Pacific, divided the year into moons and determined the first moon by the rising of the Pleiades, which they called _Matariki_.(1022) Indeed throughout Polynesia the rising of the Pleiades (variously known as Matariki, Mataliki, Matalii, Makalii, etc.) seems to have marked the beginning of the year.(1023)