Rona and the Moon
Rona is charged with the important task of making food ready for her family when they return from a fishing trip. As night falls, she uses the moon to light her way. But when the moon slides behind a cloud she becomes angry and a curse sprays from her mouth. The moon does not take her curse lightly …
Māori legend Man in the Moon:
According to Māori legend, a Ngaio tree can be seen on the moon:
The man in the moon becomes, in Māori legend, a woman, one Rona by name. This lady, it seems, once had occasion to go by night for water to a stream. In her hand she carried an empty calabash. Stumbling in the dark over stones and the roots of trees she hurt her shoeless feet and began to abuse the moon, then hidden behind clouds, hurling at it some such epithet as “You old tattooed face, there!” But the moon-goddess heard, and reaching down caught up the insulting Rona, calabash and all, into the sky. In vain the frightened woman clutched, as she rose, the tops of a ngaio-tree. The roots gave way, and Rona with her calabash and her tree are placed in the front of the moon for ever, an awful warning to all who are tempted to mock at divinities in their haste.
Polar Bear
Polar bear, polar bear,
Walking here, walking there,
How I wonder where you go,
As you wonder through the arctic snow.
