5 Although the picture in Ga3-18 probably constitutes a type of glyph of its own I have not earlier chosen to consider it as more than a pair of manu rere birds. But now I can assign a reasonable name to the type:
Heuheu is to join together, I think, a conjunction. The head form at left is different from the head form at right, and the male spring season could - as I interpret it - be changing into the female autumn (it is the same person, not a different person). Once a change of sex was accomplished by Atea, the Sky-goddess, as is retold below (in the continuation of the myth about Ta'aroa in The Rain God chapter): ... Ta'aroa sat in his heaven above the earth and conjured forth gods with his words. When he shook off his red and yellow feathers they drifted down and became trees. He created the first parents, Tumu-nui, Great Foundation, to be the husband, and Paparaharaha, Stratum Rock, to be the wife. He put the very essence of himself into their creation; yet when he commanded them to wed, each refused to go to the other. So Ta'aroa created other gods and Atea, Bright Expanse, the Sky-goddess, who dwelt in darkness in the confined sky Rumia. By Papa-tuoi, Thin Earth, Atea was the mother of children who became artisans for Rai-tupua-nui, Great-Sky-builder. They assisted him in erecting the ten heavens above the earth. In the highest of these dwelt the god Tane, so it was called the Sky-of-the-sacred-omens of Tane and Sky-of-the-water-of-life of Tane. The next highest heaven was called Hiro's Sky-of-prophets. Atea then became the wife of Rua-tupua-nui, Source of Great Growth, and they became the parents of all the celestial beings, first the shooting stars, then the Moon and the Sun, next the comets, then the multitude of stars and constellations, and finally the bright and dark nebulae. When this tremendous task had been accomplished Atea took a third husband, Fa'a-hotu, Make Fruitful. Then occurred a curious event. Whether Atea had wearied of bringing forth offspring we are not told, but certain it is that Atea and her husband Fa'a-hotu exchanged sexes. Then the [male] eyes of Atea glanced down at those of his wife Hotu and they begat Ru. It was this Ru who explored the whole earth and divided it into north, south, east, and west. A change of sex certainly cannot take place at any other place than at a cardinal point, i.e. at a 'neck' (tuliulu), an 'elbow' (tulilima), or a 'knee' (tulivae) - cfr the myth about Taetagaloa in Time Travel. Maybe heuheu glyphs should be located at midsummer. But neither 78 nor 142 are day numbers which immediately seem to associate to this time of the year:
However, 3-18 is only 4 days after a π-glyph, the possible meaning of which was discussed at Maro:
The heuheu type of glyph is rare, but there is one example drawn exactly like Ga3-18:
7 and 46 in the preceding 46th glyph in line Ha7 could allude to the last phase of 'land', the number of days from Spica to Antares:
I believe the empty hand raised up in front (at the end of a comparatively long and straight arm) probably constitutes a sign of its own which can be applied to manu rere glyphs equally well as to other figures depending on the circumstances, cfr Ga7-15. And I suggest it should be interpreted as the path of a luminary from the horizon in the east to zenith (tuliulu). *Ha7-47 would then be located at 'noon' which is in harmony with the following Monday glyph carrying a nighttime earth sign (henua with crosslines) in front. The day number at *Ha7-47 - if such can be used in the H text - is uncertain because this long text could have more than one glyph per day and in addition I am not certain that 47 is the proper ordinary number in the line (maybe it could be 46). The burnt area on the H tablet was described at Te Pito. In the parallel P and Q texts the heuheu glyphs have additional signs (adjuncts):
Pa7-14 has birds with eye holes but such is the norm in the P text, and it is an idiosynchrasy which we probably can ignore because it is no Sign. The male bird is placed at left and the female at right, and she has her wing in front transformed into a toki, similar to how in Ga2-1 tagata has toki in front:
However, the short neck of tagata toki points at the creation (?) of a new 'year' at winter solstice rather than at summer solstice. The Q version of heuheu exhibits a hole also 'midships' and the fusion between the birds seems to be stronger. A little waxing crescent at top right could indicate that the season of Moon lies in front. In Q we have a point of reference to work from, viz. day number 368 (cfr at 268):
We can therefore try to work out the day number at *Qa7-28:
Perhaps it is significant that day number 205 is the same as at Ga5-30, one more than for Ana-roto (see above). 72 * 8 = 576 = 24 * 24. Furthermore, 576 - 212 (= 53 * 4, cfr at Qb5-34) = 364. If we assume there are 2 glyphs per day also in P and H, then the Q equation will give the following results:
I have two versions of the day numbers in H because we can either count also the number of glyph spaces in the burnt area of the tablet or not. The creator of the text on the H tablet probably has played with the burnt area. For instance is 384 the next whole number beyond 13 * 29½ and 392 = 192 + 200. Either way *Ha7-48 will be located at the end of a sequence. Although the structure of Q evidently in general follows that of H and P (as far as the space on the tablet allows it) the message seems to be different. But we should not be surprised if different storytellers prefer to tell their story in different ways. In all fairness we should also try the Q equation on the G text:
(472 - 64) / 2 + 64 = 204 + 64 = 268. |
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