THE ECLIPSE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume III, Issue 2, 28 February 1857, Page 14

THE ECLIPSE.

We wish to give our Maori friends some information respecting the eclipse which will take place on Thursday morning, the 26th of March. In times gone by, an eclipse was looked upon as an ill omen ; it was also said, j that some monster had devoured the sun. Many were the foolish stories told by the Maoris to account for this phenomenon. i There are persons among the pakehas who make it their business to study the apearances and motions of ihe sun, moon,

and stars. The sun's path- is traced, the path also of the moon is known* and the exact times of all her changes are predicted for years to come. A person acquainted with this science knows the places of all the stars, and would be able at any time to point to the spot where each may be found, even though hidden from his sight by clouJs. He i would not fail to tell the position of Jupiter, or of any of the fixed stars, at any lime ! when asked, either in. the day or in the! wight. Now, this eclipse of the sun which will j take place on the 26th of March, has been I known long ago by these persons we speak ' of, and nil particulars respecting it have been j recorded by them in their books. ( Let us now ask, What is it which will cause! Ijie disappearance of the sun on the 26ih off March? Listen. Yonder is the sun, at a' vast distance from us—that is, from the! earth; nearer to us is the moon, revolvingi round us in the space between us and the i sun. Sometimes.the moon is in a:!vance of i of the sun. Sometimes she is behind; the sun. It is the sun shining upon her! which makes her appear bright; her light is; not her own. When.she approaches the sun, j she grows small to our view, because her j bright side which faces the sun is partly turned [ from us; but when she is distant from the! sun, she appears large, because her bright! side is then turned fully towards us—that is,! the side facing the sun, and we say k is full] —the-moon is full. Thus, if ihe sun be in the west and the moon in the east, the moon will be full;- or, if ihe sun be far below the horizon and the moon high above it, the ! latter will be full. When, however, the moon approaches ihe sun, the nearer she gels, the smaller she becomes, until she disappears, and passes to the other side of the sun,—thai is, behind the sun ; when, having ; changed skies wkh the sun, we sav, the j moon has changed. Now, m passing ihe | sun, the moon sometimes goes above, some- j limes below, and sometimes right across it ! This last is what will occur on ihe 26th ofj March, at the next change of the moon, —| that is, the moon will pass almost directly across the face of the sun. The sun will be behind ihe moon, and will be partly hidden by it, so. that it will be nearly dark. The moon will touch ihe sun's disk at about 8 o'clock j in the morning; at 9 o'clock, the latter! will be hidden, all but a small piece at the top. and it will be nearly dark; at about 10! o'clock, the moon will have passed off ihe 1

sun's disk to the other side, it will then be new moon, and. the sua will give its full light as before* Perhaps what we hare said will not be clearly understood, we must therefore refer our friends to those pakehas who speak Maori to explain more fully- However, let lii> wait for this phenomenon of the 26th of March, and watch it carefully when it comes, directing, our thoughts to the God who made the sun and the moon, and appointed their courses; and who also made man, and endowed him with a capacity for searching out these His marvellous works, and praising him in them. Leave those who are ignorant to talk of ill omens, and of monsters devouiing the sun; we, who are better informed, will say, it is but the moon passing between us and the sun, which hiding the latter for about two hours, causes temporary darkness. Enough.