We need a time-oriented perspective when trying to guess what Metoro may have meant with his words:
At Saad Al Thabib 15 there are 80 days remaining to the end of the manzil calendar. According to Allen Saad Al Thabih (The Lucky One of the Slaughterers) was the 20th manzil, not the 22nd as in my list, and "... manifestly referring to the sacrifice celebrated by the heathen Arabs at the heliacal rising of Capricorn." Counting with 21h as the position of Capricornus its right ascension day number will be 21h / 24h * 365¼ = 320 which corresponds to day 400 in the Gregorian calendar (= February 4) = manzil day number 264 (Al Baldaah 7). And the 21st manzil was Al Sa'd al Bula', the Good Fortune of the Swallower, a name which recalls the custom of swallowing the eye of a sacrificed victim on Hawaii in their Makahiki ceremonies ... in the ceremonial course of the coming year, the king is symbolically transposed toward the Lono pole of Hawaiian divinity ... It need only be noticed that the renewal of kingship at the climax of the Makahiki coincides with the rebirth of nature. For in the ideal ritual calendar, the kali'i battle follows the autumnal appearance of the Pleiades, by thirty-three days - thus precisely, in the late eighteenth century, 21 December, the winter solstice. The king returns to power with the sun. Whereas, over the next two days, Lono plays the part of the sacrifice. The Makahiki effigy is dismantled and hidden away in a rite watched over by the king's 'living god', Kahoali'i or 'The-Companion-of-the-King', the one who is also known as 'Death-is-Near' (Koke-na-make). Close kinsman of the king as his ceremonial double, Kahoali'i swallows the eye of the victim in ceremonies of human sacrifice ... December 21 (355) + 80 = 435 = 365 + 70 is March 10 in a leap year. Saad Balaa 13 (299) is March 10 and in a leap year Saad Balaa 13 may have been day 300 in the manzil calendar. ... 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 ... Between Ca12-25 and Ca12-26, between the 1st and the 2nd of The Three Saads, I suggest there has to be a break in time. 12 * 25 = 300 indicates this break could be where Sun is ending - seen from the stars in the nakshatra night of February 25 (to be read as 12-25 rather than as 2-25). Here Metoro said te niu tutuu.
"bristle ... stiff hair. XIII. ME. brüstel, bristel, brestel, pointing to OE. *brystel, corr. to OS. *brustil, (M)Du. borstel, deriv. of the base repr. by OE. byrst bristle (surviving in ME. brüst, Sc. birse), OS. brusta, OHG. burst (in MHG., G. borste), ON. burst, bursti, and outside Germ. by L. fastīgium, top, summit, Skr. bhrshtís spike, top." (The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology) The Coconut Tree was 'bristling', which at first does not seem to make much sense. However, at a cardinal point there is a 'spike' (tara) and the Swedish word borste (obviously derived from the German Borste) means not 'to bristle' but a 'broom':
... When it was evident that the years lay ready to burst into life, everyone took hold of them, so that once more would start forth - once again - another (period of) fifty-two years. Then (the two cycles) might proceed to reach one hundred and four years. It was called 'One Age' when twice they had made the round, when twice the times of binding the years had come together. Behold what was done when the years were bound - when was reached the time when they were to draw the new fire, when now its count was accomplished. First they put out fires everywhere in the country round. And the statues, hewn in either wood or stone, kept in each man's home and regarded as gods, were all cast into the water. Also (were) these (cast away) - the pestles and the (three) hearth stones (upon which the cooking pots rested); and everywhere there was much sweeping - there was sweeping very clear. Rubbish was thrown out; none lay in any of the houses ... One of the meanings of tutu is to sweep. But tutu also means to light a (new) fire. In thge Mangarevan dialect tutu means to stand upright, which should make us remember the first station of the dream soul, viz. o te motu.ko nga kope ririva tutuu [not tutu] vai a te taanga. ... The dream soul of Hau Maka countinued her journey and, thanks to her mana, reached another land. She descended on one of the small islets (off) the coast. The dream soul of Hau Maka looked around and said: 'These are his three young men.' She named the three islets 'the handsome youths of Te Taanga, who are standing in the water'.
Te Taanga was an earlier ruler than Hau Maka, similar to 'One Age' whose statues etc had been 'cast into the water'. Twice 52 (= twice 364 / 7) = 104 and An Nathra 12 is manzil day 104, when the Gregorian calendar has reached day 104 + 136 = 240 (August 28). At Ca12-26 - where we should count 122 * 6 = 732 = 2 * 366 (i.e. another kind of 'One Age') - a kind of new cycle was probably beginning with Saad Balaa 1. February 26 resembles December 26 (360). Maybe the 3 islets outside the southwest corner of Easter Island corresponded to the old 'hearth stones'. There are 3 niu glyphs in the last week of line Ca12. We must also take notice of kupega mentioned at Ca12-22 (where 12 * 22 = 264), because one of the meanings of tutuu is a 'circle of fishing nets arranged in the shape of a funnels or baskets' (possibly related to the constellation Te Huki).
When Metoro said te vae paupau (Ca12-24) it could have been a word play on te vai pau = the end of 'water'. Legs are for walking on land and double pau means 'not finished' = plenty left. When the explorers reached the island proper they named their 'landing' place Hanga Te Pau. This place could be at the end of February or perhaps at the end of Saad Balaa. The explorers reached land after 35 days on sea. February 26 (57) - 35 = January 22:
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