8. There is yet another source of informaiton which we must use, viz. names. In myths, and presumably also in the rongorongo texts, names were chosen with care. It was an essential way to communicate meaning. Ulu is Hawaiian for kuru = breadfruit. In Hawaiian there is no 'r', they use 'l' instead. Like e.g. the Chinese the Polynesians have difficulties in distinguishing between the sounds of 'r' and 'l'. And the initial 'k' has been lost in Hawaiian ulu. It is said that the fruit of the breadfruit tree is similar in shape to the human skull:
(I fetched this picture from Wikipedia, and whenever I in the following will not mention the source of a picture or of a cited text the source is Wikipedia.) The breadfruit tree cannot grow in the comparatively cool climate of Easter Island. But calabashes thrive there. |
