institutions and myths shows us that Rongo was here both the time-measurer and the patron deity of agriculture.
Rongo-nui is one of the lengthened forms of the name of the important being under discussion, and the name has been applied to a certain night of the moon, as noted above. This name should stand as O-Rongo-nui, the O carrying a possessive sense. It is worthy of note that the Maori husbandman planted his sweet potatoes during the Otane and Orongonui phases of the moon, thus showing that he recognized the powers of sun and moon in connection with the growth of crops. Ritual formulæ pertaining to crops were addressed principally to Rongo, and offerings of the first-fruits of such food-supplies were made to him. This identification of Rongo with the moon cost the writer many years' study, and, when concluded, I found that Fenton had arrived at the same conclusion long before. This is shown in a sentence in the above-mentioned work: "Several of the days are named after the old gods of the people, and the 27th day is called Orongonui, after an ancient name of the moon-god." Hence Fenton has the credit of solving that puzzle.
It will be noted that the lists of names of phases of the moon, as given by different persons or different tribes, do not agree. In some cases the names differ, in others the order in which they appear. In Fornander's work, The Polynesian Race, we find that, 4,000 miles from New Zealand, the Hawaiians call the 27th and 28th nights of the moon's age Kane and Lono (Maori Tane and Rongo), and that they are both la kapu (ra tapu), or sacred days. These two names of nights, as the Maori terms them, are also found in conjunction with each other in the lists of the Chatham Isles, Tahiti, and Mangaia. Of the latter the Rev. W. Gill wrote: "The 26th and 27th were fête-days, Rongo and Tane being patrons of their dances in time of peace."
In the well-known name of Rongo-marae-roa, or Rongo of the Vast Expanse, we have another form of the name. Marae-roa, Tahua-roa, Marae-nui-atea, Mahora-nui-atea, and Tahora-nui-atea are all names denoting the vast expanse of the ocean. With that ocean Rongo is ever connected, and this appears clearly in Hawaiian myth, wherein he is alluded to as "Great Rongo dwelling on the Waters." In Old-World mythologies we again meet with this close connection between the moon and water. Note the Maori myth of Hina-uri passing over the ocean during the dark stages of the moon, after which Tane-te-waiora restores her and returns her to this world as Hine-keha, once more young and beautiful. Yet another name, that of Rongo-mai, is connected with the moon, for the being of that name ascended to the moon. In an interesting communication from Huru-moana, of Pipiriki, occurs a remark concerning the twelve lunar months termed therein te tatau o Rongo-nui ngahuru ma rua, the tally of twelve of great Rongo.
We have seen that in Maori myth there are two personified forms of the moon, Rongo and Hina, or Sina, the one male and the other female. At Samoa Rongo is said to have been the son of Sina. In the New Hebrides we meet with the word sina as meaning "to shine." In the Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 20, page 172, we are told that Sina is a Hindu name for the
