6. The location of Te Kioe Uri presumably represents the important moment when growth is beginning, when the kuhane is about to move along the southern coast line towards the rising Sun and when Waxing Moon is about to rise from the horizon in the west. The sky dome has been moving upwards and light is now brought in, and with the increasing light comes increasing life. It is a time of joy, winter is over and instead of a time of scarcity now comes a time of plenty. A festival of thanksgiving (hakakio) would not be out of place. According to Barthel (The Eighth Land, p. 52) such a festival took place in the month Tangaroa Uri: Cleaning up of the fields. Fishing is no longer taboo. Festival of thanksgiving (hakakio) and presents of fowl. Uri is the dark colour which also occurs in Te Kioe Uri. All through the Pacific the islands were divided into a dark eastern half and a white western half, and therefore the front side of the year can be described as uri. This strange notion can be explained by the fact that the back side of the year belongs to Moon, and she has a white face. In the Hawaiian calendar the time corresponding to Te Kioe Uri could be the 6th night Ku-pau: It is a day of low tide like the others until the afternoon, then the sea rises, then ebbs, until the afternoon of the next day. The wind blows gently but it is scarcely perceptible. The sand is exposed. The sand is exposed, i.e. the 'high tide of winter' has ended, and after a season when the sky dome has gradually turned away from the dark Muku, becoming increasingly light, the season of 'land' lies around the corner:
Like the station Te Kioe Uri the night Ku-Pau evidently is the last phase of winter. Pau means 'finished':
'The wind blows gently but it is scarcely perceptible' sounds like an echo of what the kuhane felt when she looked down into Rano Kau: The dream soul climbed up and reached the rim of the crater. As soon as the dream soul looked into the crater, she felt a gentle breeze coming toward her ... |