next page table of contents home

2. On Hawaii the ceremonial double of the king, Kahoali'i, swallowed the eye of a victim, and this happened in the pair of days after winter solstice. He did not swallow both eyes.

Ali'i = ariki, and given a common cosmology and language, shared by the people on Hawaii and the people on Easter Island, it is possible to compare with my suggestion of the glyph type ariki as meaning the end point of a distance in time counted from winter solstice:

ariki Ga1-5 Ga1-13
king d:o with head flat at the back and with 3 feathers in front d:o with face like toki (?)
defines distance from winter solstice (?) winter solstice (?) d:o with creative force ahead (?)
Gb8-30 Ga1-1 Ga1-2 Ga1-3
5
Ga1-4 Ga1-5 Ga1-6 Ga1-12 Ga1-13
Ga1-14 Ga1-15 Ga1-16

The 'eye' at left in Ga1-5 disappears during the season of renewal and it no longer is visible in Ga1-13, 8 glyphs later. Maybe we can understand 'the Rumia shell around Tagaroa' in Ga1-16 as a 'reincarnation' of the lost eye. It comes 11 days ('one more' than 10) beyond Ga1-5.

The kai gesture in the center of Ga1-6 can be explained as a sign of 'swallowing'. Moreover, the strange left part is the same entity as the vertical 'arm of swallowing', and it could be a variant of puo ('earth'), viz. 'mud'. The outline is somewhat like that of puo in Gb8-30 but it also suggests the outline of a rising fish:

puo Ga1-6
covered by earth 'mud' swallows old Sun (?)
early dawn before sunrise day 2 after winter solstice (?)

If we assume Ga1-6 represents day number 2 after winter solstice, then vaha mea in Ga1-4 will indicate the day of solstice, the opening of a new year. In Ga1-6 the swallowing part is at left (in the past). At right there is a ragi sign:

puo Ga1-6 ragi
covered by earth 'mud' swallowed old Sun (?) Moon behind a spear (?)
early dawn before sunrise day 2 after winter solstice (?) stars and Moon are shining in the 'night' (?)

In Eb7-29 there is also a ragi sign at right, 2 glyphs beyond vaha mea:

Eb7-23 Eb7-24 Eb7-25 Eb7-26
te hau tea - te takaure te henua  te veveke te henua
Eb7-27 Eb7-28 Eb7-29 (575) Eb7-30
te vaha tagata - te kihikihi hagahaga mai o te ragi te koka

If we count glyphs from Eb1-1 the ordinal number of Eb7-29 will be 575 - 326 (side a) = 249 or one less than 250, and 575 / 25 = 23 could be a reference to Eb7-23. 25 is a Saturn number.

Metoro said te takaure for the hanging 'fish' (giving birth?) at right in Eb7-23 (a day of Venus). It ought to depict the old Sun 'fish' because of te. Maybe the meaning is to connect the old 'victim' (ika) with the emergence of a starry night sky in Eb7-29 (a day of Mercury, the little one).

In Eb7-30 the left 'eye' has vanished and it is a 'Sun cockroach' (te koka) according to Metoro. Saturday at Eb7-25 has a takaure glyph which he named te veveke and 72 * 5 = 360. The meaning of veveke probably is 'to quicken' = to make alive (awake from a state of standstill):

Veve

Pau.: miserable. Ta.: veve, poor, needy, miserable. Churchill.

Veveke, to hurry up, hasten, quicken. Websters.

Hagahaga (left part of Eb7-29) is double haga, which therefore should mean the opposite of the 'bay of anchorage' (winter solstice) - i.e. the new Sun is setting sail.

Similarly, kihikihi (for the hanging maro sign at right in Eb7-28) should be the opposite of kihi, i.e. the opposite of sunset (Sun is rising again):

Kihi

Kihikihi, lichen; also: grey, greenish grey, ashen. Vanaga.

Kihikihi, lichen T, stone T. Churchill.

The Hawaiian day was divided in three general parts, like that of the early Greeks and Latins, - morning, noon, and afternoon - Kakahi-aka, breaking the shadows, scil. of night; Awakea, for Ao-akea, the plain full day; and Auina-la, the decline of the day. The lapse of the night, however, was noted by five stations, if I may say so, and four intervals of time, viz.: (1.) Kihi, at 6 P.M., or about sunset; (2.) Pili, between sunset and midnight; (3) Kau, indicating midnight; (4.) Pilipuka, between midnight and surise, or about 3 A.M.; (5.) Kihipuka, corresponding to sunrise, or about 6 A.M. ... (Fornander)