Metoro has an important role to play in the translation process. We cannot rely on all his identifications of what the glyphs mean, but by using his interpretations we have a way to ascertain that our own conclusions drawn from the glyphs are not totally wrong.

So far we have used his identifications in only two cases:

vero Eb4-2
pepe Ea7-13

In the case of vero we already knew the approximate meaning of the glyph type. Metoro delivered colour to our black-and-whíte deductions.

In the case of pepe we for the first time have used Metoro's interpretation to find out the possible meaning. But we cannot rely solely on his interpretation of Ea7-7, Ea7-11 and Ea7-13 to mean 'butterfly'. We must, for example, investigate what he said at other places with the same type of glyph:

Ca6-15 Eb7-20 Eb7-34 Eb7-25 Bb6-31 Eb7-30
kua aha te takaure te takaure te takaure te veveke mau veveke te koka

takaure = fly, horse-fly, veveke = quicken, koka = cockroach (?)

Metoro was consequent, although using different words. The common denominator is 'insect' = fast growth.

Insects were food for the poultry and chickens food for the people. If the insects multiplied, the chickens multiplied and then the people. The insect season apparently occurred just before the middle of summer. I think we can rely on Metoro's identification this time. (And we do not have to associate the insects with 'embodiment of numinous beings'.)

 

"... While the dog and the pig existed only in the traditions as the shadows of the past, the domestic fowl (moa) that were brought along achieved a position of supreme importance. As a matter of fact, they dominated the island's economy to the point that one is tempted to speak of a prevailing 'economy of fowl'!

Their influence, in its many ramifications, touched every aspect of life of the Easter Islanders, including the socioeconomic and the ideologic. As the only permanent livestock, they were an essential part of the islanders' subsistence ..." (Barthel 2)