Te Pei In Barthel 2 the pe'i fish has been compared with the Maori word pei, 'to drive out, banish'. It is a 'tasty fish' caught in 'deep waters'. Possibly it has been driven there from a higher position, because the time is high summer - from a top position a quick dive to the lowest. What has happened can be imagined as a pei-âmo ride. Pei = 'Grooves, still visible on the steep slopes of some hills, anciently used as toboggans. People used to slide down them seated on banana-tree barks. This pastime, very popular, was called pei-âmo.' Sun has matured into a grown man and been initiated into the mysteries of life. He has been reborn in the process and now moves on by following the moon. The connection with Rano Kau is evident and Te Pei is the natural development following after Te Poko Uri ('the dark abyss') - while Nga Kope Ririva is a 'zero', an interlude.
The 5 'fire' (spring sun) stations (months) in the past (cfr Ga8-23) presumably are Te Piringa Aniva, Te Kioe Uri, Te Manavai, Te Poko Uri, and Te Pu Mahore. The glyph type haú usually indicates where a season ends. Therefore the 4 glyphs following each measure (8 * 29.5 = 236 etc) apparently belong to respectively redmarked 'measure' glyph above in the table. 248 * 2 = 496 (= 16 * 31) probably is the highest such 'measure'. Gb1-22 (with 22 probably alluding to π) does not belong to the group of 6 * 4 = 24 glyphs connected with Te Pei. The extraordinary Gb1-21 is the last glyph. The group of 4 glyphs beginning with Ga8-24 straddles the border between side a and side b. 8 * 24 = 192, a number equal to the number of glyphs in the K text (which covers only the 'dark', uri, side). 228 = 8 * 28½, is possibly indicating the border line between those 28 nights when moon is being illuminated by sun and the following dark 29th night. With 8 * 29 = 232 a 'new moon time' has arrived and the 'head' has gone. The empty 'eye socket' (where the sun disc should have been) is illustrated like a navel in the following Gb1-3, as if in expectation of the new sun child to arrive. The bird with undulating wings in Gb1-4 stands at position 13 * 18 = 234. Together with the following tagata it marks the end of the old season. At bottom right (in Gb1-5) there is a sign like an apex, the sun maximum is arriving. The turnover is illustrated in Gb1-6--7 (from 6, sun, to 7, moon). 236 = 472 / 2, i.e. Gb1-6 is the last of the sun glyphs. The head of the sun comes off (hore) and it becomes dark.
In sun 'measure' the same message is told in Gb1-10 (with ordinal number 8 * 30 = 240 instead of 8 * 29.5 = 236). The head is still there at left but at right it has gone. In Gb1-13 spring sun (the 'eater') is inverted, with vae at left - he has gone down. The following glyph (244 = 8 * 30½) initiates the new sun season. Hua poporo lies ahead, the 'fruits' of the conjunction between spring sun and earth. Not until 8 * 31 (day 248) is 'noon' assuredly reached (according to the longest measure, based on 31). It ends with the exceptional Gb1-21 (at 252 = 7 * 36). |