1. The few examples where Metoro said ariga erua do not allow us to draw any immediate conclusions regarding the difference between the two major variants, one of which has its heads en face and the other where the heads are turned towards each other:

ariga erua

Ariga means face, not head. The expression 'double face' could be a way to formulate the Janus idea - one face is looking back in time (as if it was an old person) and one face is looking forward (as if it was a young person).

"For only the very young saw life ahead, and only the very old saw life behind, those between were so busy with life they saw nothing." (Ray Bradbury)

However, there is not one example of an ariga erua glyph where the left 'person' is looking towards left and the right 'person' is looking towards right. Metoro was right - they show two faces - either by looking each other in the face, or by showing them for us, the faces are never oriented away from each other.

If the Janus concept is relevant for the ariga erua glyph type it must be transformed into the Polynesian frame of mind. In Polynesia the young generation is always looking back for advice, for examples, and strength to the old generations. If they were to look ahead they would see nothing, the future is unknown.