11. We know from the rongorongo texts that the end of the '1st sequence' of glyphs in a line on a tablet comes with ordinal number 16. Therefore I have below renumbered and marked with red the numbers of the kuhane stations into one less than those previously mentioned:
Pua Katiki evidently marks a natural end point of the first phase of the kuhane journey. From a lowest point in the southwest (viz. the level of the sea) she moved along the southern shore to Tama, and then added 2 more places on her list before she turned north up to the 'place aloft'. Above in the table I have not included the first 6 items on the kuhane list, because it is quite enough for the moment, but we should remember how she treated the 1st station: The dream soul of Hau Maka countinued her journey and, thanks to her mana, reached another land. She descended on one of the small islets (off) the coast. The dream soul of Hau Maka looked around and said: 'These are his three young men.' She named the three islets 'the handsome youths of Te Taanga, who are standing in the water'. The 3 islets were not named as belonging to Hau Maka, because they already belonged to Te Taanga. It is not clear if Te Taanga is an alter ego of Hau Maka, but what else could 'his' in 'his three young men' otherwise mean? Anyhow, the 3 islets outside the southwestern corners are apparently of a different kind than the rest of the kuhane stations. Therefore, it can be argued, the text in Manuscript E suggests we should not begin counting until the mainland have been reached. |