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The meaning of item 28 is apparently difficult to explain, because there are so many words:

26 ko te hakarava a hakanohonoho.
27 ko hanga nui a te papa tata ika.
28 ko tongariki a henga eha tunu kioe hakaputiti.ai
  ka haka punenenene henua mo opoopo o tau kioe
29 ko te rano a raraku.

Item 29 is easy, though, because we know this crater is where the moai statues were hewn out from the rock. The moai images (of the once true persons) are in a way rona figures.

26 Kane 27 Lono 28 Mauli 29 Muku

It doesn't help much to say aringa ora ('living faces'), they are not alive any more. There is no 'fire' in them, they are stone cold. Perhaps 29 Muku could refer also to the 4th quarter.

Barthel has raraku = 'to scratch (the earth)'. Possibly, I think, the dark 4th quarter (or the dark 29th night of the moon) was thought of as the time for regeneration (similar to Roto Iri Are, the station before Tama):

Rara

Mgv.: a branch of a tree. Ta.: rara, id. Mq.: rara, small branches. Sa.: lala, id. Ma.: rara, id. Churchill.

Fire is generated Polynesian fashion by 'plowing' (with a 'fireplow'). Hakaheu is to 'scratch the ground', and maro in *Ca14-23 (probably at winter solstice because the preceding honu has no legs) made Metoro say kua heheu:

*Ca14-19 *Ca14-20 *Ca14-21 *Ca14-22 *Ca14-23
te henua honu kau te mata te honu kua heheu

The 5th Tahitian star pillar was Ana-heu-heu-po.

Ra'a'u is a scratch on the skin and a word close in sound to both Raraku and Rakau. Maybe Rano Raraku is not ending the whole year but only the front side of the year (the northern coast of the island). Presumably the 4 'bacabs' are holding the sky roof up only during the time of 'ebb'. One little thread of evidence corroborating my idea is:

"In the traditions, Raraku plays an important role as the demonkiller who runs amuck (RM:238; ME:370)." (Barthel 2)

The one who 'runs amuck' should be Mercury, not holding a straight line forward at any time, and Mercury could be Phaeton driving the Sun chariot down into the sea (resulting in the time of 'flood'). In Polynesia it was the 'prow of the Sun canoe' which went down, I guess.

This Mayan picture has 3 passengers 'high on land' at the back (in the past), while in front (ahead) only 2 swimmers are visible, but these 2 maybe should be considered as doubles, because in the foreground, as if floating on the surface of the water, there are 4 objects (maybe meant to represent waves) looking like small canoes. Maybe these 4 'canoes' are the 'bacabs' of next year. To survive the 'flood' they must float on the water.

... Among the multitude of gods worshipped by these people [the Maya] were four whom they called by the name Bacab. These were, they say, four brothers placed by God when he created the world at its four corners to sustain the heavens lest they fall ...