The key word of
item 14 is (n)goio, a word we have not met before:
4
Okahu a uka ui hetuu. |
0 |
14
hatu
ngoio a taotao ika. |
10 |
24
ko ehu ko mahatua a piki rangi a hakakihikihi mahina |
20 |
Let us begin, however, with the more familiar. Ika (fish
or 'fish') at the end apparently is there in order to determine
more precisely the quality of taotao in this instance.
Īka
1. Fish. 2. In some cases, animal in
general: īka ariga koreh[v?]a, animal with the
face of a koreva fish (name given to horses when
they arrived on the island, because of the resemblance
of their heads with that of a koreva). 3. Victim
(wounded or killed), enemy who must be killed, person
cursed by a timo and destined to die; īka
reirei, vanquished enemy, who is kicked (rei).
4. Corpse of man fallen in war. Vanaga.
1. Fish, animal; ika rere,
flying fish; ivi ika, fishbone; mata ika,
pearl. P Pau., Mgv., Mq.: ika, fish. Ta.: ia,
id. 2. Prey, victim, sacrifice; ika ke avai mo,
abuse; hakarere ki te ika, to avenge. T Mgv.:
ikaiara, to quarrel; ikatamamea, to be angry
because another has handled one's property. Mq.: ika,
enemy, what causes horror. Ma.: ika, the first
person killed in a fight. Mangaia: ika, a victim
for sacrifice. 3? matamata ika, snow. Ikahi,
to fish with a line, to angle. Mq.: ikahi, id.
Ikakato, to go fishing. Ikakohau, to fish
with a line, to angle. Ikapotu, cape, end of a
voyage, destination; ikapotu hakarere, to abut,
to adjoin; topa te ikapotu, id.; tehe oho te
ikapotu, id.; mei nei tehe i oho mai ai inei te
ikapotu, as far as, to. Ikapuhi, to fish with
a torch. Mq.: ikapuhi, id. Churchill. |
Both ika and tao are labels for glyph types:
|
|
ika
|
tao
|
'rising
fish' |
'hot bun' |
Item 14 is 'halfway' to Rano Raraku and also the 1st item beyond
the 'bad day' (kino) for the Sun king, when I imagine his
'beastly apparel' was magically 'strangled' (here) by kaikai
strings, stopped in his fierce growing ('kai') because
his 'fire' would otherwise consume the whole island.
1
ko apina iti.ko rapa kura.he oho mai he |
12 |
12
vai poko aa raa mata turu |
13 ko
te hereke a kino ariki |
14
hatu
ngoio a taotao ika. |
15 |
28
ko tongariki
a henga eha tunu kioe hakaputiti.ai |
ka
haka punenenene henua mo opoopo o |
29 ko
te rano a raraku. |
The Inuit peoples, who live practically alongside the
Polynesians (because the ocean is no obstacle but an easy route
for travellers, as Heyerdahl has taught us), had quite similar
views regarding how Sun should be afraid of string games. The
following are relevant excerpts from Arctic Sky:
... string
games could be resumed after it was clear that the Sun
had managed to leave the horizon and was rapidly gaining
in altitude: 'Before the sun starts to leave the horizon
... when it shows only on the horizon, ... then string
games were no longer allowed as they might lacerate the
sun. Once the sun had started to go higher and could be
seen in its entirety, string games could be resumed, if
one so wished. So the restriction on playing string
games was only applicable during the period between the
sun's return and its rising fully above the horizon ...
... I knew
of two men who lived in another settlement on the
Noatak river. They did not believe in the spirit of
the string figures, but said they originated from two
stars, agguk, which are visible only when the sun
has returned after the winter night. One of these men
was inside a dance-house when a flood of mist poured in
... His two companions rapidly made and unmade the
figure 'Two Labrets', an action intended to drive away
the spirit of the string figures, uttering the usual
formula ... but the mist kept pouring in ...
...
Again, in a diary entry dated 18 December 1913 Jenness
notes the same Alak telling him that 'they never
played cat's cradles while two stars called agruk
were visible, just before the long days of summer...
They played other games then, like whizzer [a noise
maker] ...
...
Alak's comments indicate that, for the Noatak
area at least, the appearance of Aagjuuk, rather
than the Sun, signalled the end of the string-game
season. And the opinion ... that string figures came
from, and are therefore related to, Aagjuuk may
have given rise to the prohibition against playing them
after the solstice appearance of these stars. It is also
possible that the string game mentioned by Alak -
'Two Labrets' - rapidly made and unmade in an attempt to
drive off the 'string figure spirit', was intended to
symbolize Aagjuuk's two stars and so confound the
constellation with its own likeness or spirit.
...
Etalook refers to the 'aagruuk' as 'labrets'
(the circular lower-lip ornaments of some Western Arctic
Eskimo groups, certainly evoke an astral image if we
recall that early Inuit gaphic representations of
stars were usually circular ...) giving them, it seems,
an alternate name, ayaqhaagnailak, 'they prohibit
the playing of string games': They are the ones that
discourage playing a string game... That's what they're
called, ayaqhaagnailak, those two stars... When
the two stars come out where is no daylight, people are
advised not to play a string game then, but with hii,
hii, hii... toy noisemakers of wood or bone and
braided sinew... |
We should notice that the skin of Sun can be lacerated by
kaikai strings, which idea might explain hereke (in
item 13) -
translated as
'festering wound, cracked skin' by Barthel. Possibly the women
on Easter Island had to sing the right songs together with the
proper kaikai games at midsummer. Among the Inuit
Sun was female and Moon male, which probably explains why men
could play with string games.
12 indicates the cycle of Spring Sun, the 'beast'. Then comes
woman, man, and the gods:
In this version of cosmos a woman is at top center and the
turtle at the base is oriented horizontally. Instead of 3
'costumes' for Sun (spring, autumn, winter - in high summer he
is decapitated) Moon has 7 'attires'. Her necklace forms a double 'zero':
|
|
puo |
vaha kai |
I
suggest the 'rising fish' in item 14 is Moon at the time of her 'birth',
i.e. when she has stopped the voracious spring 'beast' and taken charge of the
threatening situation (by using her invisible strings).
In the picture above she is born at left, where the woman is
standing, reaches her full moon phase at center (at winter
solstice), and during the season of the beast (spring) she
generates offspring. The multiple heads of the serpent
illustrates the season of plenty.
The double-oval necklace is a sign which is carried from the
woman at left and up to the time when Sun is reborn at the
beginning of spring. The world mountain in the background is
encircled by clouds.
|