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He
manu tara.erua kauatu te huru.i too mai ai
Erua
means 2, and therefore the number of birds maybe should be 2 + 15 * 20
= 302?
Or, perhaps erua instead could be connected with the
following kauatu, because
Katahi te kauatu marima po
means 'fifteen days', according to Vanaga.
Here katahi evidently stands for
'a single sequence of'. And
kauatu resembles kauati:
| Kauati
Pau.: to make fire. Mgv.: kounati,
the plowed stick in fire-making. Ta.: auati, auai, stick
used in fire-making. Mq.: koukati, koukani, the plowed
stick. Viti: kaunita, to rub fire. Ma.: kauati, a
fire-making stick. Churchill. |
Maybe
katahi te kauatu marima po literally means a
15-day long sequence of making fire in the dark?
I
cannot find any word marima, which probably means we
should read it as ma rima. Therefore we will have ma
rima po = with (an additional) 5 days. I.e., 10 must be
somewhere in katahi te kauatu.
A grammatical exampel from Harawira: "65 - ono tekau ma rima" illustrates how in
the Maori dialect tekau stands for 10. Apparently, then, on Easter
Island 20 was erua kauatu:
|
he
manu tara.erua kauatu |
|
sooty terns - 20 |
To which should be added 'torches' (huru), or 'lights', and
the final comment i too mai ai:
| Huru
Custom, tradition,
behaviour, manners, situation,
circumstances; poki huru hare, child who
stays inside (to keep a fair complexion); te huru
o te tagata rivariva, a fine person's behaviour;
pehé te huru o Hiva? what is the situation on
the mainland? Huruhuru, plumage,
feathers (the short feathers, not the tail
feathers), fleece of sheep. Vanaga.
Samoa: sulu, a torch; to
light by a torch; sulusulu, to carry a torch;
susulu, to shine (used of the heavenly bodies
and of fire). Futuna: susulu, the brightness
of the moon. Tonga: huluaki, huluia,
huluhulu, to light, to enlighten;
fakahuhulu, to shine; iuhulu, a torch or
flambeau, to light with a torch. Niuē:
hulu, a
torch; huhulu,
to shine (as the moon). Maori: huru,
the glow of the sun before rising, the glow of fire.
Churchill 2. |
|
Too
1. To adopt, to take, to acquire, to
admit, to accept, to gather, to dispose, to seize,
to pull up, to extirpate, stripped, to withdraw, to
intercept, to frustrate, to touch, to employ, to
serve; tae too,
to renounce. Mq.:
too, to take, to receive, to accept, to
adopt, to seize, to pull up. 2.
Raa too,
noon. 3. Numeral prefix. P Mgv.:
toko, id.
Mq.: toko,
too, id.
Ta.: too,
id. Samoa and Futuna use
to'a and
toka,
Tonga and Niuē use
toko, and the remainder of Polynesia uses the
latter form. Tooa: kai tooa, intact,
entire, whole; paea tooa, to deprive.
Churchill. |
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