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GD83
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hupee | This type of glyph is not very frequent and neither very distinct in character. Yet it was a sign which Metoro fairly consistently identified as hupee, which means mucus. | ||||||
A few preliminary remarks and imaginations: 1. I guess the basic meaning of 'mucus' could be the slimy mixture of land and sea squeezing up between your toes when treading on the muddy beach at low tide. This idea points to the cosmic border line between 'land' and 'sea', i.e. the nourishing place after the vai season has passed away - spring. The 'birth of new land' comes with 'high tide going away', when 'the primal embrace' is torn apart: ... Rangi and Papa existed in close and loving embrace until a spirit without origin forced them asunder. His name was Rangi-tokona, Sky-propper, and he corresponds with the Tui-tee-langi of Samoan myth. Rangi-tokona first politely requested Rangi and Papa to separate but they refused. Then he lifted Rangi higher and higher by means of magical incantations and propped him up on ten pillars which he placed one on top of the other so that they formed a single, long support. Then for the first time light shone in upon the earth ... A wordplay between hopu and hupe(e) is possible, and in Marquesan hopu means 'to embrace':
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