3. With Moon governing not only the tides but also time in general, it is not strange to count time in doublemonths. Waxing and waning should occur twice also in the 'her longer day', the month (her ordinary day being 24 hours and 50 minutes). Such must be inferred from the theory of correspondences. Maybe, therefore, hupee can occur in 2 different locations in a calendar for the year - or in any type of calendar for that matter. A diurnal pattern is in harmony with the for us now civilized people foreign view of 2 'years' in a year, a 'summer year' and a 'winter year'. But each year evidently has one 'ebb' period and one period of 'high tide' (or in agricultural terms one season 'in leaf' and one 'in straw'). A semidiurnal pattern would be more appropriate for people living by the sea and Moon is needed whenever time is to be counted. At the number of the beast, on the front side of the Tahua tablet, the 'deluge' will from our new perspective not necessarily be a description of an 'inundation' in the sky (the region of 'earth' sinking down into 'water' due to the undulation of the sky dome), nor a reflection of old stories about how the Nile - or some other great river - regularly is flowing over its banks, nor of memories of monsoon rains in some ancient homeland (cfr at maitaki):
Quite possibly the origin lies much earlier, when man like the baboons of South Africa learned the value of keeping in touch with time in order to find food on the exposed tidal flats. The connection between tides and Moon was in Polynesia evidently encoded by her 'face' (a reflection of where the sun is) and when / where Moon is to be seen in the sky. Sun and earth are the determining factors. Together they define the moon. But seen from the other direction Moon rules over Sun and also what happens down on Earth, which of course is a more practical and commonsense view. An example is offered by the Hawaiian Moon calendar (cfr at marama) where the tides are of central importance, for instance: ... On the evening of Hilo there is a low tide until morning. On this night the women fished by hand (in the pools left by the receding sea) and the men went torch fishing. It was a calm night, no tide until morning. It was a warm night without puffs of wind; on the river-banks people caught goby fish by hand and shrimps in hand-nets in the warm water. Thus passed the famous night of Hilo. During the day, the sea rose washing up on the sand, and returned to its old bed, and the water was rough ... We should here notice, though, that in the night of Hilo the water was warm, which does not agree with how Bishop Jaussen explained hupee, viz. as 'rhume, air froide'. Also 'mucus from the nose' and 'night-dew' give associations to a chilly environment. |
