The meaning of the Tane item (26) should be: making 'land' rise above 'water', I guess:
Te Hakarava is the slope from the Poike plateau down to the bay of Hanga Nui. Barthel translates hakanohonoho as 'to prepare a place to live for the many (?)' which 'may be explained by the large number of people who once lived in the hinterland of Hanga Nui'. The important aspect, though, ought instead to be to make clear what hakarava here means, viz. presumably to enlarge the land (to live on), to make 'land' rise from 'water'. Barthel does not help much in deciphering the true meanings of the place names. It was Te Ohiro who saved the land from sinking into the sea: ... Nga Tavake spoke to Te Ohiro: 'The land is sinking into the sea and we are lost!' But Te Ohiro warded off the danger with a magic chant ... The season of waxing light (possibly Te Ohiro) corresponds to 'ebb', the time when the 'sea' recedes. If Tane has number 26 - being the Sun and maybe the 'creator' of the first quarter of the year - then Rogo could be number 27. Hanga Nui 'is the most important landing site on the southeastern shore of Easter Island' and 'especially valued as an excellent place for catching fish'. Barthel translates te papa tata ika as 'the flat rock where the fishes are washed'. But tata can also mean e.g. appear, show up, strike:
The first day of April is the first day of the 2nd quarter of the year, and it is connected with a fish. Winter (the time of fishes) is about to end, and the Icelanders had their 'summer year' begining with April 14: ... the Icelanders reckoned in misseri, half-years, not in whole years, and the rune-staves divide the year into a summer and a winter half, beginning on April 14 and October 14 respectively ... I have compared April with Tangaroa Uri, cfr at vaha kai: ... Tangaroa Uri is the month October, corresponding to April north of the equator. April 1 is the date when we must be aware lest somebody fools us. Only by trickery can summer win over winter. As a little child there is no other way to succeed. The fishing taboo is over and it is now OK to lift the fishes up (reva) from the sea, haul them onto land. In French they have a saying 'donner une poisson' (give a fish [as a present to somebody]) which is said on April 1. The winter season is the season of Tagaroa and when he has been defeated by the summer season there is no longer any danger connected with handling fishes. The taboo is over. Thank you for that! Hakakio should mean make (haka) summer (kio). The 'land' has won, has returned, and Te Kioe Uri is another expression of this. The Black Rat symbolizes the land rising above the sea. It is 'ebb' again and the 'tidal flats' can be scavenged to fill the empty stomachs. Also fishes can be caught in the tidal pools ... |