Most of the words Metoro used at the glyphs in line Ca5 are known for us already, but his hakapegakaga mai at the remarkable Ca5-20 is worth considering:
Hakapeka is to cross and reasonably hakapekaga should be the 'place of crossing'. Peka means a cross, but also a dense thicket - which of course is hard to cross (hakapeka). The Mangarevan (an island not far from Easter Island) pepeka means 'thick' (as in thicket) - however, 'only said of a number of shoots or sprouts in a close bunch'. This strange idea reminds us of the 19th Hindu station Mula:
... Mūla / mūra, the 'root', is a Nakshatra, a lunar mansion woven around with tales: it is the sting of Scorpius, serving as Marduk's weapon in the 'Babylonian Genesis', and as Polynesian Maui's fishhook; with the Copts it is 'statio translationis Caniculae ... unde et Siôt vocatur', i.e. the Coptic table of lunar stations takes lambda upsilon Scorpii as the precise opposite of Sirius / Sothis, as we are informed by Athanasius Kircher, whereas Indian tables ascribe the role of exact opposition to Betelgeuse, ruled by 'Rudra-the-destroying-archer'. The elephant goad is used for making the enormous animal go forward in the right direction, and this could therefore be an image of how to make Sun advance again after having stopped at the solstice 'thicket'. If we count days from March 25, then Ca5-20 will be day 121. Besides the small difference regarding the leap days there is not much difference between the Gregorian and the Julian calendars. The 4 days' difference in the date of vernal equinox should therefore mean a corresponding 4 days difference between the first date of the calendar (January 5 instead of January 1). Counting from January 5 to July 24 results in 205 - 5 = 200 days. The Gregorian date July 24 ought to correspond to the Julian date July 20 (200). At July 20 Metoro said kua heu te huki, and these words could indeed refer to how to cross a thicket, viz. by first separating the shrubs to make a path:
This in turn could remind us of the idea of separating the main root (from the other in the bunch) by some sharp instrument: ... Sacred product of the people's agriculture, the installation kava is brought forth in Lau by a representative of the native owners (mataqali Taqalevu), who proceeds to separate the main root in no ordinary way but by the violent thrusts of a sharp implement (probably, in the old time, a spear). Thus killed, the root (child of the land) is then passed to young men (warriors) of royal descent who, under the direction of a priest of the land, prepare and serve the ruler's cup ... Metoro said te kava at Ca3-19, but now we ought to look also at Ca3-15 (4 days earlier):
"An ankusha, a sharpened goad with a pointed hook, was the main tool for managing an elephant. The ankusha first appeared in India in the 6th-5th century BC and has been used ever since, not only there, but wherever elephants served man." (Wikipedia) |