signs

home

3. The occurrence of 'fingers' instead of a 'fruit' in some variants of hoea indicates the 'fruit' should be imagined as a closed fist, the meaning of which is connected with how Polynesians count (by raising one finger at a time from the clenched fist).

At rima the 'fingers' in kai position have been contrasted with fingers oriented outwards, and the fingers have been compared to the flow to and from the sun:


Ha5-52	kai

...What is nourishing the sun? Whatever it is mother nature has her rules: What you take you must - sooner or later - return, or in the words of Ogotemmêli: 'The rays drink up the little waters of the earth, the shallow pools, making them rise, and then descend again in rain.' Then, leaving aside the question of water, he summed up his argument: 'To draw up and then return what one had drawn - that is the life of the world' ...

If we reverse the 'eating gesture' it ought to mean the process when sun returns what he has taken. The top parts in Ga2-25--26 exemplify 'reversed eating gestures':


Ga2-25	Ga2-26

The glyphs can therefore be labelled 'fire generators', and their appearance around new year, when a new 'fire' (sun, year) is to be alighted, appears to be appropriate ...