it was universal to name the month after the
god whose worship at that particular time was observed. Among a people
who had no fixed astronomical dates intercallation was easy, and the
names of the twelve moons kept uniform.

JANUARY.

1. This was called Utu va mua, _first yam digging_. And so named from
their then digging wild yams before the cultivated ones were ripe, and
also from early yam digging.

2. Others say that the origin of Utu va mua was in two brothers, the
one called Utuvamua and the other Utuvamuli, who, when there was war
in heaven, and their party beaten, fled to the earth and brought the
January storms with them.

3. A third account says that Utuvamua was the elder brother and
Utuvamuli the younger, and that during a great war on earth they
escaped to the heavens. That the hills are the heaps of slain covered
over by earth dug up from the valleys, and that when the two brothers
look down upon them their weeping and wailing and maddening
exasperation occasion the storm and the hurricane.

4. The month was also called Aitu tele, _great god_, from the
principal worship of the month. At another place it was named Tangaloa
tele, for a similar reason.

FEBRUARY.

1. This month was called Toe utu va, or _digging again_, and so named
from the yam crop.

2. The name is also explained as the further digging up of the winds
to raise storms.

3. Aitu iti, or _small gods_, is another name, from the worship of the
inferior household gods in that month.

MARCH.

1. Called Faaafu, or _withering_, from the withering of the yam vine
and other plants, which become coloured "like the shells."

2. Taafanua is another name of the month, which means, _roam_ or _walk
about the land_, being the name of a god worshipped in that month.

3. Called also Aitu iti, or small gods, from the household gods then
worshipped, and who were specially implored to bless the family for
the year "with strength to overcome in quarrels and in battle."

APRIL.

1. This month was called Lo, from the name of a small fish which comes
in plentiful shoals at that time.

2. Called also Fanonga, or _destruction_, the name of a god worshipped
at the eastern extremity of the group during that month.

MAY.

1. Called Aununu, or _stem crushed_, from the crushed or pulverised
state of the stem of the yam at that time. Others say it was so named
from multitudes of malicious demons supposed to be wandering about at
that tim