4. In our first example of a rongorongo text we now ought to recount 16 from 8 + 8 into 2 + 6 + 8:
In contrast to the 'events in the dark' (the mysterious process restarting growth) I have painted red for the next stage, when we can observe life thriving. There are 3 'trees' with 'berries' in Eb7-3, Eb7-5, and Eb7-7. ... on the very spot where she had buried her husband's heart, there grew a stately tree covered over with broad, green leaves dripping with dew and shining in the early sunlight, while on the grass lay the ripe, round fruit, where it had fallen from the branches above. And this tree she called Ulu (breadfruit) in honor of her husband ... On Easter Island there were no breadfruit trees, but once the inhabitants must have arrived from somewhere else, and possibly the breadfruit tree grew there and remained in memory. It is, though, not necessary (nor advisable) to 'read' these 3 'trees' as breadfruit trees. I only suggest they are meant to represent some kind of tree. Metoro said rakau (tree) when he saw them. He said so also at Eb7-9, but for various reasons I prefer to regard this glyph as a special case, primarily because it has 'sunken low'. A 'tree' is evidently a key element in the story. The head of One Hunaphu was placed in a tree. |
