Therefore Rangitokona separated Rangi and Papa, he thrust the sky above. He thrust him with his pillars ten in number end to end; they reached up to the Fixed-place-of-the-Heavens. After this separation Rangi lamented for his wife: and his tears are the dew and the rain which ever fall on her ..."

The separation of heaven and earth begins with spring equinox. The ecliptic path of the Sun from then on forces him higher and higher away from the earth. The great 'eye-lid' is opening. Fornander was probably right, the Hawaiian pale (pare) has to do with the eye:

... Greek, φαρος, a large cloth, cloak, or mantle, shroud; παλλω, to sway, swing, poise, toss; παλμη, a shield; παλμος, a quivering motion, vibration, palpitation; πελτη, a small shield; πελεμιζω, shake, make to quiver, drive away ...

... And though these gentlemen refer βλεφαρον, the eyelid, and βλεφαρις, the eyelash, to the verb βλεπω, to see, look, I would, in view of the foregoing pale, παλλω, pello, and their derivatives, consider these words as composite rather than as derivatives of βλεπω, and formed from βλεπω or βλεμμα, and φαρος, originally perhaps βλεπ (or βλεω-) φαρος = the covering of the eye ...

The covering (pare) of the eye, the eye-lid, is similar to 'the cap of the sky', it can close and cause darkness. It is like a dark veil. Another image for the cap is hare paega:

... Ure set out and arrived in front of the house of Tuu Ko Ihu. Ure said to the king, 'I (come) to you for my very large and very beautiful skull, which you took away on the day when the banquet for the new house was held. Where is the skull now?' (whereupon) Tuu Ko Ihu replied, 'I don't know.'

When Tuu Ko Ihu came out and sat on the stone underneath which he had buried the skull, Ure Honu shot into the house like a lizard. He lifted up the one side of the house. Then Ure Honu let it fall down again; he had found nothing. Ure Honu called, 'Dig up the ground and continue to search!' The search went on. They dug up the ground, and came to where the king was. The king (was still) sitting on the stone. They lifted the king off to the side and let him fall. They lifted up the stone, and the skull looked (at them) from below. They took it, and a great clamour began because the skull had been found. Ure Honu went around and was very satisfied. He took it and left with his people. Ure Honu knew that it was the skull of the king (puoko ariki) ...

The Marquesan dialect has pae for pare. A hare paega has the shape of the sky dome and in front of it is a two-dimensional representation (like its shadow) in form of paega:

At the ancient site of Orongo a weeping god is depicted (cfr at hua poporo):

Also Posnansky (cfr at vai) was right. He was certain that the motive of the 'weeping eye' in South America was a way of showing how the eye of the sun god was quickly moving. Time is beginning when sky and earth separates, when the dark cloth of winter (the primal embrace) is forced away. With 'dawn' comes the 'cock crying out' (moa), and according to the Moriori fishermen his tears are caused by Sky lamenting for his lost wife (his winter maid far north). And these tears came after the separation was complete.

The hipu fists of pare should belong not in winter but rather in spring, which explains why the fist are in a low position. Sun has come closer by following his path from a beginning far away in the north. From spring equinox this path happily also goes upwards - otherwise he would burn the island when he reached it.

The myths say Sun's tears will come only after the full separation is accomplished, when the tears will impregnate the dry hot earth. The case is complicated, however.