Needham delivers information about yin and yang, the two complementary (not opposing) principles governing everything: "Originally meaning the 'shady side' and the 'sunny side' of hills or houses, the words suddenly appear as philosophical terms about the -4th century [Needham is using the subtraction sign instead of B.C.], Yin standing for dark, weak, female, night, moon and so on; and Yang standing for bright, strong, male, day, sun, etc. - from these categories an elaborate theory of Nature grew up." Hills or houses. The concepts of yin and yang, I believe, are permeating the rongorongo texts and we must therefore consider the hills / houses which necessarily must be there too. In trying to define GD14 I guessed that there was a little heap of earth in the middle. And we have seen that Metoro may have said henua. Between the breasts of 'mother' there could be an equinox (if we regard one breast as summer and the other as winter). However, once upon a time there was only summer, winter was just the shadowy death between the real years (half-years). "There was to all early peoples all the difference in the world, of course, between day and night, while we, with our firm knowledge, closely associate them. There was no artificial illumination such as we have, and the dark night did not so much typify rest as death; so that the coming of the glorious morning of tropical or sub-tropical climates seemed to be a re-awakening to all the joys and delights [de-light] and activities of life; thus the difference between night and day was to the ancient Egyptians almost the difference between death and life." (Lockyer) |