Kotikoti. To tear; kokoti, to cut, to chop, to hew, to cleave, to assassinate, to amputate, to scar, to notch, to carve, to use a knife, to cut off, to lop, to gash, to mow, to saw; kokotiga kore, indivisible; kokotihaga, cutting, gash furrow. P Pau.: koti, to chop. Mgv.: kotikoti, to cut, to cut into bands or slices; kokoti, to cut, to saw; akakotikoti, a ray, a streak, a stripe, to make bars. Mq.: koti, oti, to cut, to divide. Ta.: oóti, to cut, to carve; otióti, to cut fine. Churchill.

Pau.: Koti, to gush, to spout. Ta.: oti, to rebound, to fall back. Kotika, cape, headland. Ta.: otiá, boundary, limit. Churchill.

Motu

1. To cut; to snap off: motu-á te hau, the fishing line snapped off; to engrave, to inscribe letters or pictures in stone or in wood, like the motu mo rogorogo, inscriptions for recitation in lines called kohau. 2. Islet; some names of islets: Motu Motiro Hiva, Sala y Gómez; and around the island: Motu Nui, Motu Iti, Motu Kaokao, Motu Tapu, Motu Marotiri, Motu Kau, Motu Tavake, Motu Tautara, Motu Ko Hepa Ko Maihori, Motu Hava. Motu rau uri, southeast wind. Motu takarua, west wind. Vanaga.

To break, to cut with a knife, to sever, to rupture; rent, reef, shoal, rock; motu poto, to cut short; aretare motu, an oratory; motu kivakiva, an uncovered shoal; motumotu, to cut up; tae motumotu, e ko motumotu, indissoluble. P Pau.: motu, island; komutu, to break. Mgv.: motu, an island, a rock, to cut, to be broken. Mq.: motu, island, land, to break, to cut up, to take to pieces. Ta.: motu, a low island, to be broken, cut up. Motuava (motu - ava 1), a hollowed rock. Motuhaua, archipelago. Motupiri (motu - piri), archipelago. Motuputuputu (motu - putuputu), archipelago. Moturauri, south wind T. Moturogorogo, to write T. Churchill.

H Moku 1. To be cut, severed, amputated, broken in two, as a rope; broken loose, as a stream after heavy rains, or as a bound person; to punctuate. Moku ka pawa, dawn has broken. Kai moku ka noho 'ana, relations separated by the sea. Ho'o moku, to cut and divide; a cutting, division, separation. 2. District, island, islet, section, forest, grove, clump, severed portion, fragment, cut, laceration, scene in a play. Cfr. mokupuni, momoku. Moku lehua, lehua forest. Ho'o moku, to place one over a moku, district. 3. Ship, schooner, vessel, boat, said to be so called because the first European ships suggested islands. 4. A stage of pounded poi (such poi sticks together as a mass and can be separated cleanly - moku - from the pounding board). Wehewehe.

27º S is outside the tropical belt of the Sun and longitude 109º W is late compared to Greenwich. But looking up towards the fixed stars it was easy to find Antares in Scorpio as a star of guidance:

When the double-canoe of Hotu Matua reached Easter Island, the explorers had to explain to their king what 'land' he had arrived to:

... The canoes of Ava Rei Pua and of Hotu were seen near the (off-shore) islets. On the fifteenth day of the month of October (tangaroa uri) the canoe of Hotu and the canoe of Ava Rei Pua landed.

On the fifteenth day of the month of October (tangaroa uri), Nonoma left the house during the night to urinate outside. At this point Ira called out to Nonoma, 'Look at the canoe!' Nonoma ran, he quickly went to Te Hikinga Heru (a ravine in the side of the crater Rano Kau) and looked around. There he saw the double canoe way out near the (offshore) islets, and the two (hulls of the canoe) were lashed together.

He ran and returned to the front of the house. He arrived and called into the house: 'Hey you! This canoe has arrived during the night without our noticing it!'

Ira asked Nonoma, 'Where is the canoe, which you say is lying out there (in the water)?' Nonoma's voice came back: 'It is out there (in the water) close to the (offshore) islets! There it lies, and the two (hulls) are lashed together.'

The four of them (corrected for 'the six of them') went out and picked up leaves (on branches) to give signals. They picked them up, went and arrived at Te Hikinga and saw the canoe." (The Eighth Island)

They intended to use branches with fresh leaves (rau) in order to give the proper signals out to the double-canoe on the threshold to the island - still with its pair of hulls lashed together - to wave with these summer ('year in leaf', raumati) branches in orderly fashion as a language of common understanding.

Rau

Rau 1. (Also: raupá) leaf of a plant, stem and leaves. 2. Hundred: e tahi te rau, e rua te rau, etc., 100, 200... Also seems to have been used in the meaning of 'many'. Tu'u henua rau, someone who has travelled to many countries (such were called in the 19th century natives who had travelled abroad, employed as sailors). Compare with: tai raurau-á riki. Vanaga.

Rau hei. 1. Branch of mimosa. 2. Killed enemy. 3. Hanged 'fish'. 'Branche du mimosa (signe de mort), ennemie túe (poisson suspendu)' according to Jaussen. Barthel.

Ra'u 1. To take something without the owner's permission; to seize something forcibly. 2. Ra'u maahu, ancient expression, literally: to appropriate the steam (maahu) of the food just taken out of an earth oven. It refers to intruders coming to help themselves uninvited. Warriors off to a battle used to be told: E ra'u maahu no koe, o pagaha'a! meaning: 'Eat little, lest you be heavy (and lose your agility).' Vanaga.

1. Sa.: la'u, to clear off, to carry away; la'u mai, to bring. Uvea: laku, to send, to throw into. Ha.: laulau, a bundle, a bag; a wrapper of a bundle, the netting in which food is carried; lalau, to seize, to catch hold of. 2. To.: lau, lalau, lauji, to pinch with the fingers, to nip. Ha.: lau, to feel after a thing; lalau, to extend (as the hand), to seize, to catch hold of. 3. Sa.: lau, a leaf; lalau, to be in leaf; laulau, a food tray plaited from a coconut leaf, to set out food on such a tray or on a table. To.: lau, lou, a leaf; laulau, a tray. Fu., Uvea, Nuguria: lau, a leaf. Niuē: lau, a leaf; laulau, a table. Ha.: lau, a leaf; laulau, the netting in which food is carried. Ma., Ta., Rarotonga, Rapanui, Paumotu, Nukuoro, Fotuna: rau, a leaf. Mgv.: rau, rou, id. Mq.: au, ou, id. Churchill 2.

Ta.: rauhuru, dry banana leaf. Mq.: auhuu, id. (To.: hulu, leaves dry and dead.) Ha.: lauhulu, banana leaf. Churchill.

Lau, s. Haw., to feel for, spread out, expand, be broad, numerous; s. leaf of a tree or plant, expanse, place where people dwell, the end, point; sc. extension of a thing; the number four hundred; lau-kua, to scrape together, to gather up from here and there confusedly; lau-la, broad, wide, extension, width; lau-na, so associate with, be friendly; lau-oho (lit. 'leaves of the head'), the hair.

Tong., lau, low, spread out, be broad, exfoliate; s. surface area; lau-mata, eyelash; lo, a leaf; lo-gnutu, the lips (lit. 'leaves of the mouth'). N. Zeal. and Mang., rau, spread, expand; raku-raku, to scratch, scrape. Sam., lau, leaf, thatch, lip, brim of a cup, breadth, numeral hundred after the first hundred; lau-a, to be in leaf, full-leafed; laua-ai, a town, in opposition to the bush; lau-ulu, the hair of the head; launga-tasi, even, level; lau-lau, to lay out, spread out food on a table; lau-tata, a level place on a mountain or at its foot; lau-le-anga, uneven; lau-talinga, the lobe of the ear, a fungus; lau-tele, large, wide, common, of people.

Tah., rau, a leaf, a hundred; when counting by couples, two hundred; many indefinitely; rau-rau, to scratch. Fiji., lou, leaves for covering an oven; longa, a mat, a bed for planting; drau, a leaf; drau-drau, leaves on which food is served up, also a hundred.

Saparua., laun, leaf. Mal., daun, id.; luwas, broad, extended. Sunda., Rubak., id., Amboyna, ai-low, id. Malg., rav, ravin, leaf; ravin-tadign, lobe of the ear; lava, long, high, indefinite expression of extension; lava-lava, eternal; lava-tangh, a spider.

The word lau, in the sense of expanse, and hence 'the sea, ocean', is not now used in the Polynesian dialects. There remain, however, two compound forms to indicate its former use in that sense: lau-make, Haw., lit. the abating or subsiding of water, i.e., drought; rau-mate, Tah., to cease from rain, be fair weather; rau-mate, N. Zeal., id., hence summer.

The other word is koo-lau, Haw., kona-rau, N. Zeal., toe-rau, Tah., on the side of the great ocean, the weather side of an island or group; toa-lau, Sam., the north-east trade wind. In Fiji, lau is the name of the windward islands generally. In the Malay and pre-Malay dialects that word in that sense still remains under various forms: laut, lauti, lautan, lauhaha, olat, wolat, medi-laut, all signifying the sea, on the same principle of derivation as the Latin æquor, flat, level, expanse, the sea.

Welsh, llav, to expand; lled, breadth. Armor., blad, flat, broad. Lat., latus, broad, wide, spacious. Greek, πλατυς, wide, broad, flat; πλατη, broad surface, blade of an oar; πλακοσ, broad, flat.

Pers., lâtû, blade of an oar, oar. Lith., platus, flat. Sanskr., prath, be extended, to spread. Goth., laufs or laubs, a leaf. Icel., laug, bath; lauga, to bathe, lögr, the sea, water, moisture.

Bearing in mind l and n are convertible in the West Aryan as in the Polynesian dialects, we might refer to the following as original relatives of the Polynesian lau:

Sanskr., nau, boat, ship; snâ, and its connections, 'to bathe'. Greek, ναω, to flow, float; ναω, νεω, to swim, to spin; νευσις, s. swimming; ναυς, ship, &c. Lat., no-are, to swim, float. A.-Sax., naca, id. O. Norse, snäcka, a shell, sobriquet of boats and vessels. Perhaps the Gothic snaga, a garment.

Liddell and Scott and also Benfey refer the Greek νεω and Latin neo, 'to spin', to the Sanskrit nah, 'to bind, tie'. With due deference, I would suggest that the underlying sense of 'to bind' and 'tie' is 'to shorten, contract, to knit' - necto, nodus - and that the original conception of 'to spin' was one of extension, lengthening, as represented in the Polynesian lau. (Fornander)

Ira appears to make dumb questions about where the canoe was - when it was he who first had observed the King's canoe! This strange part of the narrative was necessary, I believe, to underline the position of the double-canoe - a point not to be missed. It gave information about the location in time. Nga Kope Ririva A Taanga was not the real land of the Sun King, it did not belong to Hau Maka. The 'owner' of the 3 islets could be the 'horizon' (te tatanga in the dialect of the Gilbertese).

Thus Tagaroa Uri 15 probably referred to the 3 islets.

Nga Kope Ririva A Taanga

Ga6-3	Ga6-4 (144)	Ga6-5
no star listed (207)	τ Bootis (208.2), Benetnash (208.5), ν Centauri (208.7), μ Centauri, υ Bootis (208.8)	no star listed (209)
Tagaroa Uri 14	15 (288)	16
ºOctober 10	*11 (204)**	12 (285)
'September 17 (260)	18	*19 (182)**
"September 3 (246)	4	*5 (168)**
no star listed (24)	no star listed (25)	*ANA-NIA*
no star listed (24)	no star listed (25)	POLARIS, Baten Kaitos (26.6), Metallah (26.9)
Vaitu Nui 14	15	16 (472)
ºApril 11 (101)	12	13 (468)
'March 18 (78)	*19 (364)**	20 (445)
"March 4 (64)	*5 (350)**	6 (431)


Ga6-6	Ga6-7	Ga6-8 (148)
Muphrid (210.1), ζ Centauri (210.3)	φ Centauri (211.0), υ¹ Centauri (211.1), υ² Centauri (211.8), τ Virginis (211.9)	Agena (212.1), θ Apodis (212.5), Thuban (212.8)
Tagaroa Uri 17 (290)	18	19
ºOctober 13	14	15 (288)
*'September 20 (183)**	21 (264)	22
"September 6	7 (250)	*8 (171)**
*Al Sharatain-1 /* Ashvini-1 / *Bond-16*	ι Arietis (28.0), λ Arietis (28.2)	Alrisha, χ Phoenicis (29.2), Alamak (29.7)
Segin, Mesarthim, ψ Phoenicis (27.2), SHERATAN, φ Phoenicis (27.4)	ι Arietis (28.0), λ Arietis (28.2)	Alrisha, χ Phoenicis (29.2), Alamak (29.7)
Vaitu Nui 17	18 (474 = 108 + 366)	19 (109)
ºApril 14	15 (104 = 59 + 46)	*16 (25)**
'March 21 (80 = 59 + 21)	*22 (367)**	23 (448 = 366 + 82)
"March 7 (432 = 66 + 366)	8 (67 = 59 + 22)	*9 (354)**

According to my reading of the Mamari tablet its side b is beginning where in Roman times the Sun rose at the First Point of Aries = when the Full Moon was at Muphrid (η Bootis) and ζ Centauri.

'Equinox around 76 B.C.	'March 22 (81)	23 (448)
'September 20	21 (264)	'Equinox (around 76 B.C.)
April 17 (107)	18	19 (475)
October 17 (290)	18	19

Cb1-1 (393)	Cb1-2	Cb1-3
E tupu - ki roto		o te hau tea
Al Sharatain-1 / Ashvini-1 / Bond-16	ι Arietis (28.0), λ Arietis (28.2)	Alrisha, χ Phoenicis (29.2), Alamak (29.7)
Segin, Mesarthim, ψ Phoenicis (27.2), SHERATAN, φ Phoenicis (27.4)	ι Arietis (28.0), λ Arietis (28.2)	Alrisha, χ Phoenicis (29.2), Alamak (29.7)
Muphrid (210.1), ζ Centauri (210.3)	φ Centauri (211.0), υ¹ Centauri (211.1), υ² Centauri (211.8), τ Virginis (211.9)	Agena (212.1), θ Apodis (212.5), Thuban (212.8)

Possibly these 3 islets corresponded to the stars Polaris, Baten Kaitos (ζ Ceti), and Metallah (α Trianguli).

The tail of the Sea Beast (Cetus) is marked by Deneb Kaitos (β, 9.4) and the stone figure from Easter Island has its tail twisted around (hiro) in order to exhibit a pentagonal fire place (umu) above the death skull:

Hiro

1. A deity invoked when praying for rain (meaning uncertain). 2. To twine tree fibres (hauhau, mahute) into strings or ropes. Ohirohiro, waterspout (more exactly pú ohirohiro), a column of water which rises spinning on itself. Vanaga.

To spin, to twist. P Mgv.: hiro, iro, to make a cord or line in the native manner by twisting on the thigh. Mq.: fió, hió, to spin, to twist, to twine. Ta.: hiro, to twist. This differs essentially from the in-and-out movement involved in hiri 2, for here the movement is that of rolling on the axis of length, the result is that of spinning. Starting with the coir fiber, the first operation is to roll (hiro) by the palm of the hand upon the thigh, which lies coveniently exposed in the crosslegged sedentary posture, two or three threads into a cord; next to plait (hiri) three or other odd number of such cords into sennit. Hirohiro, to mix, to blend, to dissolve, to infuse, to inject, to season, to streak with several colors; hirohiro ei paatai, to salt. Hirohiroa, to mingle; hirohiroa ei vai, diluted with water. Churchill.

Ta.: Hiro, to exaggerate. Ha.: hilohilo, to lengthen a speech by mentioning little circumstances, to make nice oratorial language. Churchill.

Whiro 'Steals-off-and-hides'; also [in addition to the name of Mercury] the universal name for the 'dark of the Moon' or the first day of the lunar month; also the deity of sneak thieves and rascals. Makemson.

Umu

Cooking pit, Polynesian oven (shallow pit dug in the ground, in which food is cooked over heated stones); the food cooked in such a pit for a meal, dinner, or banquet; umu pae, permanent cooking pit, in a stone enclosure.; umu paepae, permanent cooking pit with straw cover for protection from rain and wind; umu keri okaoka, temporary cooking pit without stone enclosure; umu ava, very large temporary cooking pit, made for feasts; umu takapú, exclusive banquet, reserved for certain groups of persons, for instance the relatives of a deceased family member; umu tahu, daily meals for hired workers; umu parehaoga, inaugural banquet (made on occasion of a communal enterprise or feastival); umu ra'e, banquet for fifth or sixth month of pregnancy; umu pâpaku, banquet on occasion of the death of a family member. Vanaga.

Cooking place, oven (humu). Churchill.

Samoa, Maori, Nukuoro, Niue, Tahiti, Hawaii, Mangaia, Marquesas, Mangareva, Paumoto: umu, oven. Tonga: ngotoumu, id. Uvea: ngutuùmu, id. Futuna: ùmu-kai, id. Fotuna: amu, cooking place. Rapanui: umu, oven; humu hare, cook house ... The Polynesian radical is consistently umu. Tonga and Uvea compound with it a word which in Uvea is distinctly ngutu mouth and in Tongan we may feel that ngutu has been specifically differentiated in this composite. In the Futuna composite the latter element is merely kai food ... Particular interest attaches to the discovery of the amu type in Mabulag and Miriam, western and eastern islands of the straits and remote from the New Guinea coast ... The existence of amu in Fotuna affords us reason to regard the type as ancient Proto-Samoan, and that Mabulag and Miriam received it directly and not on secondary loan from Motu. Churchill 2.

... A man had a daughter who possessed a wonderful bow and arrow, with which she was able to bring down everything she wanted. But she was lazy and was constantly sleeping. At this her father was angry and said: 'Do not be always sleeping, but take thy bow and shoot at the navel of the ocean, so that we may get fire.'

The navel of the ocean was a vast whirlpool in which sticks for making fire by friction were drifting about. At that time men were still without fire. Now the maiden seized her bow, shot into the navel of the ocean, and the material for fire-rubbing sprang ashore.

Then the old man was glad. He kindled a large fire, and as he wanted to keep it to himself, he built a house with a door which snapped up and down like jaws and killed everybody that wanted to get in. But the people knew that he was in possession of fire, and the stag determined to steal it for them. He took resinous wood, split it and stuck the splinters in his hair. Then he lashed two boats together, covered them with planks, danced and sang on them, and so he came to the old man's house. He sang: 'O, I go and will fetch the fire.'

The old man's daughter heard him singing, and said to her father: 'O, let the stranger come into the house; he sings and dances so beautifully.' The stag landed and drew near the door, singing and dancing, and at the same time sprang to the door and made as if he wanted to enter the house. Then the door snapped to, without however touching him. But while it was again opening, he sprang quickly into the house. Here he seated himself at the fire, as if he wanted to dry himself, and continued singing. At the same time he let his head bend forward over the fire, so that he became quite sooty, and at last the splinters in his hair took fire. Then he sprang out, ran off and brought the fire to the people. (From the Catlo'Itq in British Columbia according to Hamlet's Mill.)

... In Greek mythology, the Symplegades, also known as the Cyanean Rocks or Clashing Rocks were a pair of rocks at the Bosporus that clashed together randomly. They were defeated by Jason and the Argonauts, who would have been lost and killed by the rocks except for Phineas' advice. Jason let a dove fly between the rocks; it lost only its tail feathers. The Argonauts rowed mightily to get through and lost only part of the stern ornament. After that, the Symplegades stopped moving permanently. The Romans called them cyaneae insulae ...

... Argo Navis dominates this crowded scene in the southern celestial hemisphere in the Uranographia of Johann Bode (1801). On the blade of one of the steering oars lies the bright star Canopus, now part of the constellation Carina. The prow of the ship was usually imagined as disappearing between the Clashing Rocks or vanishing into the mists of the Milky Way, but here the rocks are replaced by Charles’s Oak (Robur Caroli II), a now-obsolete constellation invented by Edmond Halley. Unlike other depictions of Argo, this version has no main mast rising from the body of the ship. The spar around which the sail is wrapped appears to emerge from the stern ...

Hevelius has in contrast used the main mast of Argo Navis in order to 'spear' (vero) the Hydra (in a manner similar to how the Crane 'mast' impaled the Southern Fish):

"... The singing and dancing of the stag is intricately involved with a proto-Pythagorean theme. And the theme appears full-fledged in still another tale from the Northwest. The Son of the Woodpecker, before shooting his bow, intoned a song, and as soon as he had found the right note, the flying arrows stuck in each other's necks until they built the bridge of arrows to heaven; Sir James Frazier himself identified this theme with that of the scaling of Olympus in the Gigantomachy.

But there is more. Although it is not stated explicitly that the 'clashing doors' (the precessing equinoxes) of the old owner of fire ceased to clash, surely the stag opened a new passage by passing the door at the predestined right moment in his quest of the 'fire'." (Hamlet's Mill, p. 320)

I think the origin of this singing, dancing, and courting, when spring was in the air, ought to have been observations of the behaviour of the migrating birds who were returning to produce offspring.