Two of the main possible interpretations of what Metoro meant by toa have been given by Bishop Jaussen - 'sugar cane' (tôa) - and by Barthel who instead suggested the reading to'a (warrior).

1. Unavoidably any reflection upon the meaning of toa glyphs will involve also rau hei glyphs:

toa	rau hei

According to my classification scheme rau hei glyphs must have a head at the bottom end while toa cannot have any such. Barthel may have used the same criterion for distinguishing between his glyph types 65 and 66:

My rau hei glyph example, though, has a circumference without any break and it is therefore probably a picture of a real 'person' hanging head down like a fish in a tree.

My toa - and both 65 and 66 according to Barthel - has another sign where the feet should be, which I will call the Y-sign.

Such a sign breaks the circumference of the glyph, presumably transforming the real person (or other being) into a 'ghost'.