5. The myths can help us to understand the concept of a 'joint' in time, possibly also delivering some of the technical vocabulary needed for precision.

The Hawaiian myth about Ulu and Mokuola is telling about the succession between father and son, but behind the curtain we can identify 'father' and sun.

Mokuola is the name of the little son who needs nourishment.

... Then summoning her little boy, she bade him gather the breadfruit and bananas, and, reserving the largest and best for the gods, roasted the remainder in the hot coals, telling him that in the future this should be his food. With the first mouthful, health returned to the body of the child, and from that time he grew in strength and stature until he attained to the fulness of perfect manhood. He became a mighty warrior in those days, and was known throughout all the island, so that when he died, his name, Mokuola, was given to the islet in the bay of Hilo where his bones were buried; by which name it is called even to the present time ...

Mokuola is equal to motu-ora, the living island. At new year a canoe is sent afloat on the ocean, maybe named Te Oraora Miro (The Living Wood). Motu (island) means 'cut off'.' The head ('breadfruit', kuru) of the father (koro) is cut off and buried in order to secure a new generation.

Another myth which gives clues for understanding the 'break in time' is that about Kui (who drowns) and Fakataka, who swims on to deliver a little baby on the reef:

... There is a couple residing in one place named Kui and Fakataka. After the couple stay together for a while Fakataka is pregnant. So they go away because they wish to go to another place - they go. The canoe goes and goes, the wind roars, the sea churns, the canoe sinks. Kui expires while Fakataka swims. Fakataka swims and swims, reaching another land. She goes there and stays on the upraised reef in the freshwater pools on the reef, and there delivers her child, a boy child. She gives him the name Taetagaloa.

When the baby is born a golden plover flies over and alights upon the reef. (Kua fanau lā te pepe kae lele mai te tuli oi tū mai i te papa). And so the woman thus names various parts of the child beginning with the name 'the plover' (tuli): neck (tuliulu), elbow (tulilima), knee (tulivae). They go inland at the land. The child nursed and tended grows up, is able to go and play. Each day he now goes off a bit further away, moving some distance away from the house, and then returns to their house. So it goes on and the child is fully grown and goes to play far away from the place where they live ...

The curious naming of the parts of the child is now understood: it relates to the different 'joints' separating the 'limbs' of the golden sun boy, who eventually is growing up to a tall tagata: