MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 October 1940, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

THE MAID IN THE MOON. (Recorded by J.H.S., o£ Palmerston North, for the “Times-Age.”) In all ancient legendary lore of the Maoris the Moon was the husband of all good women, who were in health or sickness according to the presence or the absence of the Marama Hua (full moon). Their “Man in the Moon” was cunningly hidden behind Rona, the Maid of the Moon, to avoid the jealousy of all his earthly wives. Rona’s presence is explained by a childish story of her having stumbled against a tree while the Moon’s light was hidden by a cloud. She cursed the Moon, who then caught her and the tree in his arms, and now shows them at regular intervals as a caution to all persons against such insults. Another child of their imagination is that Rangi, the God of the Sky, married, and his child, Marama the Moon, became the partner of Ra (the Sun). He ruled the skies and lighted the earth by day. Marama the Moon had charge of the nights. The Sun was said to travel too fast, so Maui, of historic fame, tied him to the moon to regulate the pace of both. It is a strange feature of the moon’s influence that fish or fish hanging in the moonlight, if eaten, cause a deadly sickness. The features of a sleepingperson if exposed to the Moon s rays, become distorted as in a paralytic stroke. This was well known to the Maoris, who used every precaution to avoid such danger. Medical men seem to discredit this, which may account for our want of knowledge on such an interesting subject.