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GD48
tao

This type of glyph shows the hull of a canoe seen from above (or from below).

When Metoro said tao, however, it was to convey another meaning. He never said vaka (canoe) at this type of glyph.

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A few preliminary remarks and imaginations:

1. The idea of a canoe is closely connected with that of a cradle, which in turn is not far away from the coffin. In a wooden box you leave this world and in a similar container returns incarnated again.

Pahu

Drum. Pahu-rutu-roa = Long-beating-drum. Barthel. M. Pahū. Tree gong. Starzecka.

Pahu uma, coffin; in modern usage, any sort of jar. Pahupahu = To dig a hole. Vanaga. A trough, barrel, cask, cradle, drum, chest, box; pahu nui, a kettle; pahu oka, a drawer; pahu papaku, coffin; pahu rikiriki, sheath; pahu viriviri, hogshead. Pahupahu, box. Churchill.

A trough, barrel, cask, cradle, drum, chest, box; pahu nui, a kettle; pahu oka, a drawer; pahu papaku, coffin; pahu rikiriki, sheath; pahu viriviri, hogshead; pahupahu, box. P Mgv., Ta.: pahu, a drum. Mq.: pahu, a drum, a large cylindrical container. (To.: bahu, a hollow tree set in water as a filter.) Sa.: pusa, a box. To.: buha, id. Fu.: pusa, id. Niue: puha, id. Pau.: puha, id. Pahuahi, lantern, beacon. Paukumi, closet, cupboard. Pahupopo, a mould; pahupopokai, cupboard for food. Pahure: 1. To sweep everything away. 2. To wound, to lacerate, scar, bruise, lesion, sore; pahurehure, to wound, to scratch; hakapahure, to wound. T Pau.: pahure, to be skinned; pahore, to peel off, to scale. Mgv.: pahore, to cut off, to chop, to slice. Ta.: pahore, to flay, to skin. Churchill 2.

The Polynesian sense of wordplay may have lead to pahi, the Tahitian word for double-canoe: