"All geckos, excluding the Eublepharinae subfamily, have no eyelids and instead have a transparent membrane which they lick to clean. Many species will, in defense, expel a foul-smelling material and feces onto their aggressors. There are also many species that will drop their tails in defense, a process called autotomy.

Many species are well known for their specialized toe pads that enable them to climb smooth and vertical surfaces, and even cross indoor ceilings with ease (one hypothesis explains the ability in terms of the van der Waals force). These antics are well-known to people who live in warm regions of the world, where several species of geckos make their home inside human habitations. These species (for example the House Gecko) become part of the indoor menagerie and are often welcome guests, as they feed on insects, including mosquitoes. Unlike most lizards, geckos are usually nocturnal and are great climbers." (Wikipedia)

The ability to quickly travel in all dimensions with apparent ease is the common denominator for geckos and flying fishes. They can therefore represent the sons Moko respectively Maroro - if these months are located close to autumn equinox:

13 Moko	14 Maroro

Eb7-8	Eb7-9

13 Mac	14 Kankin

I.e., when Sun descends in atumn (or in the evening) he moves quickly from sky to earth and then down into the Underworld. One of the rare special comments Bishop Jaussen has given us relates to how moko goes down into the earth:

"A une certaine saison, on amassait des vivres, on faissait fête. On emmaillottait un corail, pierre de defunt lézard, on l'enterrait, tanu. Cette cérémonie était un point de départ pour beaucoup d'affaires, notamment de vacances pour le chant des tablettes ou de la prière, tanu i te tau moko o tana pure, enterrer la pierre sépulcrale du lézard de sa prière."

They buried (tanu) a wrapped piece of coral stone and it represented 'the dead lizard', te tau moko:


Aa8-45	Aa8-46	Aa8-47	Aa8-48	Aa8-49
ki te henua kua maga ia ki te henua	kua viri ia	ki te maitaki	tanu hia e te tau moko o tona pure	kua oho ia te maitaki

Aa8-50	Aa8-51	Aa8-52	Aa8-53	Aa8-54
te tanuga o te tau moko o tona pure	te hau tea	o te tagata kua mau ia - i tona mea	te maitaki	kua rere te manu - te hau tea - ma to maro

Tanu

To cover something in the ground with stones or soil; to bury a corpse; tanu kopú, to bury completely; this expression is mostly used figuratively: ka-tanu kopú te vânaga tuai era, ina ekó mana'u hakaou, forget those old stories, don't think of them again. Vanaga.

To bury, to plant, to sow seed, to inter, to implant, to conceal; tagata tanukai, farmer; tanuaga, burial; tanuaga papaku, funeral; tanuga, plantation; tanuhaga, funeral, tomb. P Pau.: tanu, to cultivate. Mgv.: tanu, to plant, to bury. Mq.: tanu, to plant, to sow. Ta.: tanu, to plant, to sow, to bury. Churchill.

Te tau moko can be translated as 'the lizard stone' but I believe it is a 'word yoke' where the other meaning is 'the season of the lizard':

Tau

Year (ta'u), he-hoa ite ta'u, to confess to a crime committed long ago, by publishing it in the form of a kohau motu mo rogorogo (rongorongo tablet). Vanaga.

1.To hang (tau), to perch (said of chickens on tree branches at night); rock on the coast, taller than others so that something can be deposited on it without fear of seeing washed it away by the waves; hakarere i ruga i te tau, to place something on such a rock; tau kupega, rope from which is hung the oval net used in ature fishing. 2. Pretty, lovely; ka-tau! how pretty! Vanaga.

1. Year, season, epoch, age. P Pau.: tau, a season, period. Mgv.: tau, a year, the season of breadfruit. Mq.: tau, year. Ta.: tau, season, time. 2. Fit, worthy, deserving, opportune; tae tau, impolite, ill-bred, unseemly; pei ra tau, system. PS Mgv.: tau, fit, suitable, proper. Sa.: tau, right, proper. To.: tau, becoming, fit, proper, agreeable. Fu.: tau, fit, proper. 3. To perch. P Pau.: tau, a perch for a bird. Mgv.: tau, to mount on a person's back. Mq.: tau, to perch, to rest on. Ta.: tau, to perch, to alight on. 4. To hang; hakatau, necklace; hakatautau, to append. P Pau.: fakatautau, to hang up. Mq.: tautau, id. Ta.: faatautau, id. 5. Anchor; kona tau, anchorage, port. P Mq.: katau, anchor. Ta.: tau, id. 6. To fight; hakatau, challenge, to defy, to incite; hakatautau, to rival. P Ma.: whakatatau, to quarrel. Churchill.

Pau.: fakatau, indolent. Ta.: faatau, id. Fakatautau, to delay, to defer. Ta.: haatautau, id. Churchill.

The Malay word for 'year' is taun or tahun. In all Polynesian dialects the primary sense is 'a season', 'a period of time'. In the Samoan group tau or tausanga, besides the primary sense of season, has the definite meaning of 'a period of six months', and conventionally that of 'a year', as on the island of Tonga. Here the word has the further sense of 'the produce of the year', and derivatively 'a year'. In the Society group it simply means 'season'. In the Hawaiian group, when not applied to the summer season, the word keeps its original sense of 'an indefinite period of time', 'a life-time, an age', and is never applied to the year: its duration may be more or less than a year, according to circumstances. So far our authority (Fornander, I, 124; cp. 119). It seems however to be questionable whether the original sense is not the concrete 'produce of the seasons', rather than the abstract 'period of time'. It is significant that on the Society Islands the bread-fruit season is called te tau, and the names of the other two seasons, te tau miti rahi and te tau poai, are formed by adding to this name. Nilsson.

When they wrapped (emmaillottait) the coral stone it presumably was meant to illustrate that 'the lizard stone' no longer could be seen, no longer was present. Then, by burying te tau moko the reason for its disappearance became clear - the lizard had gone down into a hole (just as Sun). This, I guess, was the basic meaning of the custom.

Possibly there was also an idea of the head of Sun being buried in the 'banana plantation', where Ure Honu later could find it with the help of a rat. Kiore is at left in Aa8-52.