Bent henua appear in Eb3-13 and Eb3-15 (an identical pair of glyphs):
Possibly these bent henua are alluding to the myth about Tagaroa (sitting lonely in the shell Rumia in the dark beginning, shouting without anybody responding to his call). The body of Tagaroa was like the dome of the sky, boat-shaped like a hare paega, like one of the empty halves of a bivalve mollusc. The bent henua could depict the shape of Tagaroa. The argument is obviously very weak, yet Metoro gives some strength to it by way of his words at Eb3-15:
This is the only time he used the word tuo in his readings for Bishop Jaussen. It means 'to cry out loudly', 'to cry with a loud voice', or 'to speak long without an answer', exactly what the lonely Tagaroa did. Indeed quite remarkable to have a special word for that! It might be a coincidence of course. But Metoro also said tino, a word meaning 'body', 'tree trunk', 'keel of a boat' etc. I.e., kua tuo te tino ought to mean 'the body (possibly of Tagaroa) was crying out without anybody responding'. |
