5. At the end of the old year a new must be generated, a son formed in the sp(l)itting image of his father. But in between there must be a female, a receptacle which is capable of decreasing entropy, to rebuild a fresh 'baby'. A toa sign is formed like Y, a receptacle. Henua ora is also formed like a receptacle, and its use in the rongorongo system has made me rename it (half jokingly) 'the recycling station' to make it more understandable. I quote Ogotemmêli: "... In the upper part of the façade, as a pendant to the calabash on the right which represents the sun, it is a drawing of the moon, either full or as a crescent. This is a reminder, on the left-hand side, of the celestial regions. In the remaining space on the wall there are various ritual objects and animals in no particular order: the priest's forked staff, which is a symbol of both masculinity and femininity; the shaft itself, which is breast-high, is male, the female part is the fork in which the priest rests his forefinger, itself a symbol of the male ..." In one instance only is henua ora inverted (like toa in Gb5-5):
It should mean the opposite of entering the recycling station (to die), viz. to be born again. The head in Kb4-19 is separated from the rest of the body, like the skull of One Hunaphu. I conclude that one way the rima aueue glyph type was used, was to represent an exchange of body fluids. Keeping this in mind, it will presumably be more easy to understand such glyphs as Ga8-7, where the gaping tail of waning moon at right is connected to a flame of the sun extended lengthily into a sign of rima aueue:
Moon has her life (light) restored by bathing in the living water of Tane, and the women they shout aue: "... In a very high degree, then, a-u-e is represented by a common English interjection 'oh my!' in which oh = a, my = u, and e = !" (Churchill) |
