5. Metoro as a rule said kiore - henua at this glyph combination. All over the world sun was imagined as a 'climber' - as a small furry red mammal, mostly a cat. Personally I prefer the red panda:
"Its Western name is taken from a Himalayan language, possibly Nepali, but its meaning is now being worked on. One theory is that 'panda' is an anglicisation of poonya, which means 'eater of bamboo' ..." (Internet. Wikipedia) But there was only one species of mammal on Easter Island, viz. the rat (kiore). 'Black rat' (kiore uri) was the name for one of the kuhane stations (Te Kioe Uri), a fact which indicates sun was nicknamed kiore; the end of the 4th quarter is the darkest time of the year:
The rat was sometimes pronounced kiore, sometimes kio'e (which latter often became simply kioe). It is no coincidence that Te Kioe Uri was the 5th station of the kuhane, because 5 is a symbol for 'fire' (another nickname for the sun). |
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