In order to better
understand what happened next, when
Hotu Matua arrived to Easter
Island, it may be convenient to
first make a detour to the land of
the Haida people (Haida
Gwaii):
"In
the morning of the
world, there was
nothing but water.
The Loon was
calling, and the old
man who at that time
bore the Raven's
name,
Nangkilstlas,
asked her why. 'The
gods are homeless',
the Loon replied.
'I'll see to it',
said the old man,
without moving from
the fire in his
house on the floor
of the sea. Then as
the old man
continued to lie by
his fire, the Raven
flew over the sea.
The clouds broke. He
flew upward, drove
his beak into the
sky and scrambled
over the rim to the
upper world. There
he discovered a
town, and in one of
the houses a woman
had just given birth.
The Raven stole the
skin and form of the
newborn child. Then
he began to cry for
solid food, but he
was offered only
mother's milk. That
night, he passed
through the town
stealing an eye from
each inhabitant.
Back in his foster
parents' house, he
roasted the eyes in
the coals and ate
them, laughing. Then
he returned to his
cradle, full and
warm. He had not
seen the old woman
watching him from
the corner - the one
who never slept and
who never moved
because she was
stone from the waist
down. Next morning,
amid the wailing
that engulfed the
town, she told what
she had seen. The
one-eyed people of
the sky dressed in
their dancing
clothes, paddled the
child out to
mid-heaven in their
canoe and pitched
him over the side.
He turned round and
round to the right
as he fell from the
sky back to the
water. Still in his
cradle, he floated
on the sea. Then he
bumped against
something solid.
'Your illustrious
grandfather asks you
in', said a voice.
The Raven saw
nothing. He heard
the same voice
again, and then
again, but still he
saw nothing but
water. Then he
peered through the
hole in his
marten-skin blanket.
Beside him was a
grebe. 'Your
illustrious
grandfather asks you
in', said the grebe
and dived. Level
with the waves
beside him, the
Raven discovered the
top of a housepole
made of stone. He
untied himself from
his cradle and
climbed down the
pole to the
lowermost figure.
Hala qaattsi
ttakkin-gha,
a voice said: 'Come
inside, my
grandson.' Behind
the fire, at the
rear of the house,
was an old man white
as a gull. 'I have
something to lend
you', said the old
man. 'I have
something to tell
you as well. Dii
hau dang iiji: I
am you.' Slender
bluegreen things
with wings were
moving between the
screens at the back
of the house.
Waa'asing dang iiji,
said the old man
again: 'That also is
you.'
The old man gave the
Raven two small
sticks, like
gambling sticks, one
black, one
multicoloured. He
gave him
instructions to bite
them apart in a
certain way and told
him to spit the
pieces at one
another on the
surface of the sea.
The Raven climbed
back up the pole,
where he promptly
did things
backwards, just to
see if something
interesting would
occur, and the
pieces bounced
apart. It may well
be some bits were
lost. But when he
gathered what he
could and tried
again - and this
time followed the
instructions he had
been given - the
pieces stuck and
rumpled and grew to
become the mainland
and Haida Gwaii."
(Robert
Bringhurst, A
Story as Sharp as a
Knife. The Classical
Haida Mythtellers
and Their World.) |
The
'morning of the world'
means, I think, 'at the
beginning of time'. It
was an empty time, with
nothing but water.
However, at the very
bottom - in a house on
the floor of the sea -
there was an old man who
had fire. His position
was at the housepole, a
pole of 'stones', i.e.
it was defined by the
fixed stars. I think his
position could have been
at Alnair in the Crane
(Grus) constellation, at
the opposite side of the
sky compared to Regulus:
Papa O Pea |
|
|
|
|
|
Ga4-5 (88) |
Ga4-6 |
Ga4-7 |
Ga4-8 |
Ga4-9 |
Al Jabhah-8 /
Maghā-10 |
λ Hydrae (153.2) |
Adhafera,
Tania Borealis,
Simiram (154.7) |
Algieba,
q Carinae
(155.5) |
Tania Australis
(156.0),
Ghost of Jupiter
(156.8) |
10h (152.2) |
AL JABHAH
(152.4),
Regulus
(152.7) |
Hora Iti 20
(232) |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
ºAug 16 (*148) |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 (232) |
'July 24 |
25 (206) |
26 |
27 (*128) |
28 |
"July 10 (*111) |
11 |
12 (193) |
13 |
14 |
ι Pegasi
(335.0),
Alnair
(335.1), μ
Piscis Austrini,
υ Piscis
Austrini
(335.3), Woo
(335.7), Baham,
τ Piscis
Austrini (335.8) |
ζ
Cephei (336.2),
λ Cephei
(336.3), -/270
Lac. (336.7), λ
Piscis Austrini
(336.8) |
ε Cephei
(337.2), 1/325
Lac. (337.3),
Ancha (337.4), α
Tucanae (337.9) |
Al Sa'ad al
Ahbiyah-23 /
Shatabisha-25 |
β/172 Lac.
(339.2), 4/1100
Lac. (339.4), π
Aquarii (339.5)
Castor
|
ρ Aquarii
(338.2), 2/365
Lac. (338.5),
SADACHBIA
(338.6) |
Tehetu'upú 19
(50)
|
20 (*336) |
21 |
22 |
23 |
ºFebr 15 (46) |
16 (*332) |
17 (413) |
18 |
19 (50) |
'January 23
(*308) |
24 (55) |
25 |
26 |
27 |
"January 9 |
10 (*295) |
11 |
12 |
13 (378) |
In rongorongo
times Alnair rose with the
Sun in Tehetu'upú 19 (50)
and was close to the Full
Moon in Hora Iti 20 (232).
Once Grus
and Piscis Austrinus had
been regarded as a
single constellation:
... The alternative title
for the stars of Grus,
Phoenicopterus, the
Flamingo, is now seldom, if
ever, used, nor can I find
any record of its inventor,
or date of its adoption as a
constellaton name.
Chilmead's Treatise
contains this referents to
it:
The Phoenicopter we
may call the Bittour (the
old English word for
Bittern) ...
The Spaniards call it
Flamengo: and it is
described with the wings
spread abroad, and as it
were striking with his bill
at the South Fish, in that
part where he boweth
himself. This asterism
consistith of 13 Starres: of
which, that of the second
magnitude in his head is
called, the Phoenicopters
Eye: and it hath two
other Stars also of the same
magnitude, one in his backe,
and the other in his left
wing. And those two which
are in the middle of his
necke, Paulus Merula in his
first booke of his
Cosmography, calleth his
Collar or Chaine.
The absence of our titles in
the foregoing description
would show that the
Bittern, or Flamingo,
was the popular English
figuring and title in the
early part of the 17th
century
...
...
Horapollo, the grammarian of
Alexandria, about A.D. 400,
tells us that the crane was
the symbol of a
star-observer in Egypt ...
The 'dead
fish' at the top of the
'nail' in the art work
named the Spirit of
Haida Gwaii could
represent the Southern
Fish. 'speared' by the
pointed beak of the
Crane:
|