Once again. I have now abandoned, thrown overboard, all dates earlier than that at my assumed time for rongorongo (around 1842 A.D.), such dates which I have endeavoured to use for understanding the C text. They can be conveniently retrieved from the corresponding places in my documentation of the G text.
For perceiving the overall picture of the C text it is enough to use a single set of dates. Furthermore, the primary purpose of these dates is only to pinpoint star positions - a method which is easier for us to grasp and relate to than the pure right ascension figures. Perhaps the creator of the C text managed without such dates.
Reasonably we should read the C text from a nakshatra perspective. When for example the Lion was observed above in the night sky it meant the season was ruled by a Sun who was fiercly hot like a lion - not as when it at the same time of the year was seen in the sky in the north, where it was winter.
We have reached, in the C text, to the point where the G tablet had to be turned around from side b to side a:
| σ Andromedae (3.0), ι Ceti (3.3), ζ Tucanae (3.5), ρ Andromedae, π Tucanae (3.7) |
no star listed (4) |
ANKAA = α Phoenicis, κ Phoenicis (5.0)
ALPHARD (α Hydrae)
|
424 |
| March 21 |
22 (81) |
23 (*5 - 3 + 80 = 82) |
| no glyph |
 |
 |
| Ca1-1 |
Ca1-2 |
| koia |
ki te hoea |
| September 20 |
21 (*187 - 3 + 80 = 264) |
EQUINOX (265) |
| CHANG SHA (Long Sand-bank) = ζ Corvi (186.3) |
INTROMETIDA = ε Crucis (187.4), ACRUX = α Crucis (187.5) |
γ Com. Berenicis (188.0), σ Centauri (188.1), ALGORAB = δ Corvi (188.5), GACRUX = γ Crucis (188.7) |
| HYADUM II = δ¹ Tauri (64.2) |
Net-19
AIN (Eye) = ε Tauri, θ¹ Tauri, θ² Tauri (65.7) |
no star listed (66) |
| May 21 |
22 (142 = *65 - 3 + 80) |
23 |
 |
 |
 |
| Cb2-11 |
Cb2-12 (428) |
Cb2-13 |
| ka moe i roto |
te henua |
ihe manu ra |
| 20 (324 = *247 - 3 + 80) |
November 21 |
22 |
| Heart-5
σ Scorpii (247.0), HEJIAN = γ Herculis (247.2), ψ Ophiuchi (247.7) |
ρ Ophiuchi (248.1), KAJAM = ω Herculis (248.3), χ Ophiuchi (248.5), SHE LOW (Market Tower) = υ Ophiuchi, Tr. Austr. (248.7), ζ Tr. Austr. (248.8) |
Al Kalb-16 / Jyeshtha-18 / ANA-MUA-1 (Entrance pillar)
ANTARES = α Scorpii (249.1), MARFIK = λ Ophiuchi, φ Ophiuchi (249.5), ω Ophiuchi (249.8) |
Once upon a time the Sky Bull (Taurus) would have been where in the year the Sun returned from the southern hemisphere (at 0h). South of the equator it had been the opposite. When the Sun reached Antares it meant summer took over from the winter half of the year.
The structure of the Gregorian calendar which documented the position of 0h had this cardinal point not updated from where the Sun rose with Antares but from the point where the Sun rose with Aldebaran. Julius Caesar and Gregory XIII lived north of the equator.
Before identifying what stars ought to be close to the Full Moon it could have been conventient to find out the heliacal stars as counted from 0h and then to add half a year. Although in practice this was hardly a problem, because the night sky was observed regularly and the opposite may well have been the case. The C text could therefore have used signs which related both to the heliacal and to the nakshatra views.
In Cb2-13 we can see a bird without eye (sight). It could mean the Sun bird of fire was not present. This pregnant bird of ashes was blind. Which in a way agrees with reading nakshatra wise because when Antares was at the Full Moon the black cloth of night had risen in the east north of the equator, where November was a month in late autumn. Or reading the stars as in ancient times - when the Sun rose with Antares it was around autumn equinox.
Here Metoro said ihe manu ra. It was not a manu i te raá (a comet creature) but something else. The drawing could have been designed in order to illustrate a contrast with the time of the Ain (Eye) star at the opposite side of the year.
| Ihe A fish. Vanaga. 1. Mgv.: ihe, a fish. Mq.: ihe, id. Sa.: ise, id. Ma.: ihe, the garfish. 2. Ta.: ihe, a lance. Ha.: ihe, a spear. Churchill.
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| Manu 1. Bird; manu uru, bird figure (like the drawings or wooden figures once found in caves and houses); manu va'e e-há, four-legged bird (name given to the first sheep introduced to the island. 2. Insect. manupatia, wasp. 3. Bird's egg: mâmari manu. 4. Wild, untamed. 5. Song in which is expressed the desire to kill someone, or in which a crime is confessed: he-tapa i te manu (see tapa). Vanaga.
Bird; manu uru, kite; manu rikiriki, insect. P Pau.: manu, bird, insect, brute. Mgv.: manu, bird, beast. Mq., Ta.: manu, bird, insect. Manu nave, great abscess, bubo. Churchill.
Manu i te raá = comet. Barthel. Manu vae eha, 'birds with four legs'. Barthel 2. |
| Raa Sun; day; i te raá nei, today; raá îka, good day for fishing. Vanaga. 1. Sun. 2. Day. 3. Time. 4. Name of sub-tribe. Fischer. Te manu i te raá = comet. Barthel.
'... The substitution of the sun for the sail, both of which are called ra or raa in Polynesia, is a remarkable feature in Easter Island art ... ' Heyerdahl 3.
1. The sun; raa ea mai, raa puneki, sunrise; raa tini, raa toa, noon. P Mgv., Ta.: ra, the sun. Mq.: a, id. 2. Day, date; a raa nei a, to-day, now; raa i mua, day before. P Mgv., Ta.: ra, a day. Mq.: a, id. Churchill.
'... The chief thus makes his appearance at Lakeba from the sea, as a stranger to the land. Disembarking at the capital village of Tubou, he is led first to the chiefly house (vale levu) and next day to the central ceremonial ground (raaraa) of the island ...' (Islands of History) Ta.: toraaraa, to raise up. Churchill 2. |
| LA, s. Haw., sun, light, day. N. Zeal., ra, sun, day. Marqu., a, id. Sam., la, id.
Deriv.: Haw., lae, be light, clear, shining; lai, shining as the surface of the sea, calm, still; laelae and lailai, intens. Sam., lelei, something very good; lala, to shine; lalangi, to broil. Fiji., rai, to see, appear; rai-rai, a seer, a prophet. Teor., la, sun. Aru Islands, lara, id.; rarie, bright, shining. Amblaw., laei, sun, day.
Irish, la, lae, day.
Laghmani (Cabul), la'e, day.
Sanskr., laj, lanj, to appear, shine; râj, to shine. Ved., to govern; s. a king. If, as Benfey intimates, the Sanskrit verb bhrâj, to shine, to beam, is 'probably abhi-râj', an already Vedic contraction, then the Polynesian root-word al and lae will reappear in several of the West Aryan dialects. Lat., flagrare, flamma, flamen. Greek, φλεγω, φλοξ. A.-Sax., blac, blæcan, &c.
Probably the universal Polynesian lani, langi, rangi, ra'i, lanits (Malg.) designating the upper air, sky, heaven, and an epithet of chiefs, refers itself to the same original la, lai, lanj, referred to above, to which also be referred:
Welsh, glan, clean pure, bright, holy. Sax. clæne, clean, pure. Swed., ren, clean. pure; grann (?), fine, elegant.
It may be noted in connection with this word, either as a coincidence or as an instance of ancient connection, that in the old Chaldean the name of the sun and of the Supreme Deity was Ra, and that in Egypt the sun was also named Ra.
LA², s. Haw., Sam., Tong., ra. N. Zeal., the sail of a canoe; abbreviated from, or itself an older form of, the Fiji. laca, a sail, also the mats from which the sails were made. Sunda., Mal., layar, sail. Malg., laï, sail, tent, flag.
Sanskr., lâta (Pictet), a cloth; latâ (Benfey), a creeper, a plant; lak-taka, a rag. As mats and clothing in primitive times were made of bark or flexible plants, the connection between the Sanskrit latâ and Polynesian laca, la, becomes intelligible. Armen., lôtig, a mantle. Lat., lodix, a blanket. Irish, lothar, clothing. (Fornander) |
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