4. There are 177 (Ga7-7) - 71 (Ga3-11) = 106 = 2 * 53 days to consider, a distance which happens to be equal to the distance beyond Hanga Te Pau (as I interpret it) to the end of the back side of the tablet:
If 'fire' expires with day number 366 (at Hanga Te Pau), then we can understand why the explorers had to return there later on: "... Again they went on and reached Hanga Hoonu. They saw it, looked around, and gave the name 'Hanga Hoonu A Hau Maka'. On the same day, when they had reached the Bay of Turtles, they made camp and rested. They all saw the fish that were there, that were present in large numbers - Ah! Then they all went into the water, moved toward the shore, and threw the fish (with their hands) onto the dry land. There were great numbers (? ka-mea-ro) of fish. There were tutuhi, paparava, and tahe mata pukupuku. Those were the three kinds of fish. After they had thrown the fish on the beach, Ira said, 'Make a fire and prepare the fish!' When he saw that there was no fire, Ira said, 'One of you go and bring the fire from Hanga Te Pau!' One of the young men went to the fire, took the fire and provisions (from the boat), turned around, and went back to Hanga Hoonu. When he arrived there, he sat down. They prepared the fish in the fire on the flat rocks, cooked them, and ate until they were completely satisfied. Then they gave the name 'The rock, where (the fish) were prepared in the fire with makoi (fruit of Thespesia populnea?) belongs to Ira' (Te Papa Tunu Makoi A Ira). They remained in Hanga Hoonu for five days ..." (Manuscript E according to Barthel)
The end of side b has twice 53 black nights without light, I think, and the end of side a also has - in a way - 53 days without light:
For some reason 53 appears in several places, e.g. 472 - 4 * 53 = 260, 366 = 2 * 53 + 260, and 5 * 53 = 265:
Much remains obscure, but we can imagine that at Ga3-11 a new 'fire' is fetched from Old Saturn at the floor of the sea and 'planted' on the rock bottom of the earth (papa) - like the tail end of the arrow standing still in the Temple of the Cross at Palenque:
160 + 135 = 295 glyphs (my guess for the distance from Hanga Hoonu to Hanga Te Pau) should represent 10 synodic months. Counting with a year as 365 days the distance is shorter going back in time from Hanga Hoonu to Hanga Te Pau, only 70 days. But then those 2 * 53 glyphs beyond Gb5-12 will be superfluous. The 'canoe sign' at the top of the vertical line in Ga3-11 possibly is to be read out as haga, and together with the 'turtle' in Ga3-12 it can then be Hanga Hoonu:
53 (beyond Ga7-7) + 35 (number 53 reversed, up to autumn equinox) = 88 was the number we could derive from 22 wains with 4 wheels. The door out 'from the cave' to a new year was very heavy, but the grieveous weight of dry wood which Polyphemus brought in from the outside was, we can guess, even heavier. 26 such wains was possibly its weight. 48 * 4 = 192. ... He bore a grievous weight of dry wood, which he cast down with a din inside the cave, so that in fear all fled to hide. Lifting a huge doorstone, such as two and twenty good four-wheeled wains could not have raised from the ground, he set this against the mouth of the cave, sat down, milked his ewes and goats, and beneath each placed her young, after which he kindled a fire and spied his guests. Two were eaten that night for dinner, two the next morning for breakfast, and two the following night. (Six gone.) ... The weight of the doorstone was even greater than 22 * 4 = 88, and if we add 1 its 'weight' will be 89, i.e. equal to the number of days from summer solstice to autumn equinox south of the equator. North of the equator we should instead add 6 (in order to reach the necessary 94 days). These 6 days could be alluded to by those 3 * 2 'men' (tagata) who were eaten by the ogre, but they could, of course, also be thought of as corresponding to the first 3 double-months of the year (spring). In the story of how Kuukuu (probably Spring Sun) was defeated by 'the turtle' 6 men were changed into 6 stone heaps: ... They put the injured Kuukuu on a stretcher and carried him inland. They prepared a soft bed for him in the cave and let him rest there. They stayed there, rested, and lamented the severely injured Kuukuu. Kuukuu said, 'Promise me, my friends, that you will not abandon me!' They all replied, 'We could never abandon you!' They stayed there twenty-seven days in Oromanga. Everytime Kuukuu asked, 'Where are you, friends?' they immediately replied in one voice, 'Here we are!' They all sat down and thought. They had an idea and Ira spoke, 'Hey, you! Bring the round stones (from the shore) and pile them into six heaps of stones!' One of the youths said to Ira, 'Why do we want heaps of stone?' Ira replied, 'So that we can all ask the stones to do something.' They took (the material) for the stone heaps (pipi horeko) and piled up six heaps of stone at the outer edge of the cave. Then they all said to the stone heaps, 'Whenever he calls, whenever he calls for us, let your voices rush (to him) instead of the six (of us) (i.e., the six stone heaps are supposed to be substitutes for the youths). They all drew back to profit (from the deception) (? ki honui) and listened. A short while later, Kuukuu called. As soon as he had asked, 'Where are you?' the voices of the stone heaps replied, 'Here we are!' All (the youths) said, 'Hey, you! That was well done!' ... |
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