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Keith Smith


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 540
Location: Northern NSW, Australia
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I have checked out the James Stuart Archive and can only find two fleeting references, Mpatshana kaSodondo, Vol. 3, p. 301: 'At Isandlwana we were not ready to attack because that day the moon had waned. It was not customary to fight at such a time. We had no Sundays in Zululand; what we went by was the waning of the moon.'

Mpatshana, loc. cit. p. 325-6: 'Moon dying. Attack not to be that very day. It is a time of umnyama (1. Black ... 4. Angry, gloomy ... 6. Ill-omened); it brings umnyama. A young woman does not dance that day... Garden not reaped, hunting party not sent out. It is our equivalent of Sunday.'

Stuart footnote 93: Bryant, Dictionary, pp. 389-90, writes of umnyama, 'There are certain days which the Natives ... regarded as "dark, gloom" (mnyama) and on which they usually stayed at home, refraining from work, visiting etc.'. The 'death' or change of moon was, Bryant continues, an occasion for the observance of this custom.

Hope that clears things up a little.
KIS
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Dawn


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 610
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Guys, I'm trying to get my head around this, so just bear with me a bit. (I've had problems with the 'day of the dead moon' before.)

So if the New Moon was at 1.52pm on the 22 Jan, does that mean that the moon rose and set during the day? I know it does this sometimes.

Or can a New Moon occur when it is not visible, i.e.. when it is currently on the other side of the world? Do you have to see it to determine it is a New Moon? Or is it just timed from the last full moon?

What I'm trying to understand is, if the moon was not visible at night, because it had set early, then how were the Zulu's to know what phase exactly, it was in? We have a few references to the night time being dark as the was no moon viz Smith-Dorrien and the troops who spent the night on Black's Kopjie on the night of the 22nd.

I'm sorry, but I'm in that stupid question mode again. Wink
Dawn
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Mike McCabe
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I've simply miscopied Keith's very helpful original input.

Would this be GMT (or ZULU) time. In which case, is it also the time of the 'eclipse'.

We've been here before, and I think other websites trace international acceptance of Greenwich time to an 1880s date.

MC McC
Keith Smith


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 540
Location: Northern NSW, Australia
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The time I gave for the new moon was local (Pietermaritzburg) time. The eclipse was at its maximum at 2.29 p.m. PMB time, again according to the Natal Almanac.

Dawn

The moon waxes and wanes regardless of the time on Earth. Sometimes, especially when it is full, it can be seen during the day, as I am sure you have observed. The Zulu would not be aware of this sort of thing but they certainly recognised when there was no moon.
KIS
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Peter Quantrill
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David Rattray has sent me his view on the subject.
" The moon phase in question is not the new moon. It is the last quarter of the lunar cycle- i.e. before the new moon.
On this day the moon is invisible because it is hiding in the glare of the sun. The Zulus called it ' usuku olumnynmana' or the ' black day.' It was like a sabbath to them. No burial of the dead, no marriages etc and there are numerous Zulu accounts which tell us that they were to avoid fighting on this day.
It is of course significant that there were actions in the south ( Nyezane) on this same day as Isandlwana- and for that matter some minor activities in the north."
DEAD MOON - BIT OF PRECISION NEEDED?
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