Polynesia and the Pacific Islands
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The Origin of the Navigational Stars Pleiades and Altair
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A Woman in the Moon
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Origin of Pleiades (Cook Islands, Polynesia)
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Maui’s Fishhook in Polynesia: the Origin of Scorpio
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Tale of the Southern Cross (Crux)
01
The Origin of the Navigational Stars Pleiades and Altair (Polowat, Carolines)
As told by: navigation master, Mr. Manny Sikau
As translated by: Akira Goto
A long time ago, a man and his wife lived on Polowat. They had one daughter and one son. They named their daughter Mwarikar and their son, Mailap. Their parents divided some of their land between the two siblings when they became adults. The sister had five unmarried daughters and she no longer had her husband to support them. The coconut trees on her land produced an abundace of coconuts, but her brother's trees did not. Every time the brother wanted to drink coconut juice, he just got some from his sister’s coconut tree.
Mwarikar told her brother to stop taking coconuts from her trees, because she had her own daughters who needed to drinkfrom the coconuts and also becuase she did not have a husband to support them. Nevertheless, her brother continued to take the coconuts. Finally, she thought of wrapping coconut leaves around the trunks of her coconut trees as a sign to everyone, especially to her brother, to stop climbing up her trees. Her brother got very angry that his sister did not respect him as a man or as her brother. The brother told his parents that he was leaving Polowat and going to a place far away, but he would still be where he could see his parents.
But before the brother moved, his sister decided to leave Polowat, because she was ashamed of thinking of herself. She took her five daughters with her and went up into the sky. They became the six stars in the Pleiades, which can be seen easily with the naked eye. Word spread around the island that Mwarikar had left with her five daughters to live in the sky. When her brother Mailap heard the news, he got angry, because it seemed that his sister was trying to dominate the whole universe and the lands below. In order to outdo her, Mailap traveled to a new world and became the star Altair. Because Mailap was such a powerful male, Altair (Mailap) is known in traditional navigation as the chief star in the universe. It is said that Mailap controls everything in heaven and on earth. It also is said that when Mailap’s parents died, he took them up in the sky to stay with him. So, one star to the north of Altair is his father, and the one to the South of Altair is his mother.
The people on Polowat also continue to remember Mwarikar. There is a sign names after her. When people don't want anybody to climb their coconut trees, they wrap coconut leaves around the trunk of the coconut tree. When people see this sign, they don't climb that tree or take anything from it. Another remembrance relates to the Pleiades constellation, known in traditional navigation for its directional and monthly stars. It rains during the month of Mwarikar (July), and it is said that Mwarikar is still crying, because she feels sad about the cause of her family moving so far apart. Also, it is said that all six stars in the Pleiades constellation are women Mwarikar and her five daughters. In this tale, there are only six stars and not the seven stars that westerners call the “Seven Sisters”. The seventh star is often not visible, and the brightest star in the constellation is the mother.
02
A Woman on the Moon
As compiled by: Akira Goto
Pacific islanders commonly believe that the black pattern on the moon’s surface is a woman who lives on the moon. In Polynesia that woman is usually thought to be the goddess Hina.
Hina, a goddess of Hawai’i, was beating tapa (bark cloth), but she was tired of working. She packed her calabash and followed the rainbow path, to move up to the sun. However, she found that the sun was too hot, and although her husband resisted her departure, she climbed instead to the moon. She may still be seen on the moon with her calabash by her side (Westervelt 1910: 167-169).
Tahitians say that Hina accompanied her brother Ru as a canoe pilot on his voyage to Tahiti. On the moon she watches over travelers on Earth at night and also watches over cloth beaters for the gods. At the peninsula of Motu-tapu or Raiatea, she spreads out her tapa where a long stone represents the fallen breadfruit tree from which she uses bark. One night she stepped onto the moon and so it is called Hina-i-a’a-i-te-marama (Hina who stepped onto the moon). She stepped upon a banyan tree on the moon and broke a branch, which floated to Opoa and grew into a tree there (Beckwith 1948: 221).
New Zealand Maoris call the woman on the moon Rona. Rona was originally a woman of this world, but the moon snatched her up to punish her for insulting it. She was taking her gourd water-vessels to draw water from the spring. However, the moon became obscured, and she spoke offensively to it. (She went to the spring to take water. On the way to the spring, the moon became obscured, and she spoke offensively to it.). The moon whisked her away, and she can still be seen on it with her bundle of gourd vessels (Best 1922: 20).
The Caroline Islanders of Micronesia had a legend of two women who reside on the moon. One always slept with her knees folded, and the other woman always slept with her legs stretched out straight. You can see these women when you look up at the full moon: one woman is bending her legs and the other one has her legs extended out straight (told by master navigator Mr. Manny Sikau).
Bibliography
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Beckwith, Martha, 1970 Hawaiian Mythology. University of Hawa’i Press, Honolulu.
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Best, Eldson, 1924 Maori Religion and Mythology. Monographs of the Dominion Museum 5., Wellington.
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Westerveld, William D., 1910 Legeds of Maui, a Dem-God of Polyneisa, and his Mother Hina. Honolulu.
03
The Origin of the Pleiades
As compiled by: Akira Goto
The Pleiades were originally one star, but its brightness angered the god Tane, who ordered Aumea (Aldebaran) and Mere (Sirius) to pursue it. The frightened fugitive tried to escape and took refuge behind a stream. But Sirius drained away the water, and Tane renewed his pursuit. Finally Tane hurled Aldebaran against the exhausted star, who splintered into six shining fragments. This cluster of little stars is appropriately named Mata-riki or little eyes, and it is also called Tau-ono or the six.
This constellation is extremely important, because its appearance at sunset on the eastern horizon determines the beginning of Mangaia Island's new year, which is about the middle of December. The system that uses the rising of the Pleiades at sunset to mark the beginning of a year is also found in other places such as Tokelau, the Society Islands, and Hawai'i. In contrast, the rise of the Pleiades on a morning in June guides the start of the year on Rakahanga Island in the northern Cooks Islands. The system in which the rising of the Pleiades just before sunrise corresponds to the beginning of the year is also found in other places such as Futuna, Mangareva, Tuamotu, and New Zealand.
04
Maui’s Fishhook in Polynesia: the Origin of Scorpio
As compiled by: Akira Goto
Maui is a demigod or half god of Hawai’i. Hawaiians and Polynesians tell many different stories about the demigod Maui.
They say that Maui had three brothers. Their names are Maui-mua (Maui the first), Maui-waena (Maui the middle one) and Maui-iki-iki (Maui the little one). Maui's full name was Maui-akamai (Maui the clever one).
Maui's mother, Hina, mysteriously got pregnant by putting on a man's loincloth. She found out that the man's loincloth belonged to her husband Akalana. When Akalana heard this he said, “This child will be our Ali'I (=chief)”. Soon Maui-akamai was born. Maui was mischievous. He would always disobey his parents and played tricks on his brothers. The parents did not know what to do with him.
Finally Hina got so mad that she cut off some of her hair and wrapped Maui in it. She then set him adrift in the ocean. Maui floated out to sea. As Maui floated in the sea he drifted far away to the sacred lands of Kuaihelani where the great Akua, the gods Kane and Kanaloa, lived. Maui stayed there for some time, living with the gods and learning their ways. Maui then returned home.
Maui had received a sacred fishhook named Manai-a-Kalani a fishhook from the Heavens from his father Akalana. Maui and his brothers then set off in a canoe paddling into the deep ocean. Maui was trying to catch the giant ulua fish (a jackfish) named Pimoe. Maui reminded his brothers not to look at the giant Pimoe or it would die and turn into hard land.
Maui dropped his fishhook into the ocean, and Pimoe grabbed a hold of it. Struggling to keep a hold of the line, Maui's brothers turned around, and the line snapped. Pimoe died and turned into solid land. That is how Maui brought land from the bottom of the sea and that is why the islands were never united.
Maui pulled the great hook out from the land and threw it up into the sky, where it became the constellation known as Maui's fishhook. It still hangs there today, known to some as Scorpio.
05
A Tale of the Southern Cross (Crux)
As compiled by: Akira Goto
The navigators of the Caroline Islands, in Micronesia regard the Southern Cross as an important constellation for locating a southern direction. Traditional people did not perceive this constellation as a cross but rather as a diamond shaped triggerfish. The Southern Cross accounts for five of the 32 points of the star compass that are used to determine direction. The star points on the compass include the Southern Cross when it first rises; later in the night when the constellation is at a 45 degree angle to the horizon; when it stands straight up and indicates true south; when it is setting at a 45 degree angle; and, finally, when it sets. Of particular importance is when the triggerfish is in the upright position, because then it indicates true south.
Hawaiians identify a pig-stouted triggerfish (humuhumu nukunuku a pu’a) with the pig demigod, Kamapua’a, who assumed the form of a triggerfish when he journeyed by sea. Hawaiians think that the snout of the fish is pointed downward and the fin, upward. Others say that the Southern Cross is a “cross” hoku ke’a, or a batfish, one of the skates or rays with its fins outspread and its tail upward. These fish stole and hid the moon the mother of culture hero Maui. Maui rescued his mother Hina from the clutches of the batfish by waiting for the evil fish to go to sleep and close all of its eight before he cut all of them out of the demon’s head.