... Several of the early missionaries comment with a fine sense of humor upon the mistake the islanders made in calling the cow when first seen a bird. This is the word which led the good missionaries into the error of their own ignorance. Manu is as wholesale in its signification as our word animal, it is generic. In the paucity of brute mammalia the first missionaries found this general term most frequently used of birds, and it was their and not a Polynesian mistake to translate manu into bird. In the material here collected it will be seen that the significations animal and bird are widely extended. In the Paumotu insects are included; the same is true of Mota, where manu signifies beetle as well as bird. Nor is its applicability restricted to earth and air; it reaches into the sea as well. Samoa uses i'amanu (fish-animal) for the whale ... (Churchill 2)

E:73 → 584 / 8 = 365 / 5 → 40 (February 9) + 33 (→ Mira)

... On February 9 the Chorti Ah K'in, 'diviners', begin the agricultural year. Both the 260-day cycle and the solar year are used in setting dates for religious and agricultural ceremonies, especially when those rituals fall at the same time in both calendars. The ceremony begins when the diviners go to a sacred spring where they choose five stones with the proper shape and color. These stones will mark the five positions of the sacred cosmogram created by the ritual. When the stones are brought back to the ceremonial house, two diviners start the ritual by placing the stones on a table in a careful pattern that reproduces the schematic of the universe. At the same time, helpers under the table replace last year's diagram with the new one. They believe that by placing the cosmic diagram under the base of God at the center of the world they demonstrate that God dominates the universe. The priests place the stones in a very particular order. First the stone that corresponds to the sun in the eastern, sunrise position of summer solstice is set down; then the stone corresponding to the western, sunset position of the same solstice. This is followed by stones representing the western, sunset position of the winter solstice, then its eastern, sunrise position. Together these four stones form a square. They sit at the four corners of the square just as we saw in the Creation story from the Classic period and in the Popol Vuh. Finally, the center stone is placed to form the ancient five-point sign modern researchers called the quincunx ...

... Mira also known as Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti, ο Cet), is a red giant star estimated 200-400 light years away in the constellation Cetus. Mira is a binary star, consisting of the red giant Mira A along with Mira B. Mira A is also an oscillating variable star and was the first non-supernova variable star discovered, with the possible exception of Algol. Apart from the unusual Eta Carinae, Mira is the brightest periodic variable in the sky that is not visible to the naked eye for part of its cycle ...

... In 1638 Johannes Holwarda determined a period of the star's reappearances, eleven months; he is often credited with the discovery of Mira's variability. Johannes Hevelius was observing it at the same time and named it 'Mira' (meaning 'wonderful' or 'astonishing,' in Latin) in 1662's Historiola Mirae Stellae, for it acted like no other known star. Ismail Bouillaud then estimated its period at 333 days, less than one day off the modern value of 332 days, and perfectly forgivable, as Mira is known to vary slightly in period, and may even be slowly changing over time ...

Two thousand (erua piere) men, women, and children made up the people (aniva) of Hotu.

Tata. 1. To wash something. 2. To go; he-tata-mai, to come, to appear, to show up. Vanaga. Tátá - see tá. Vanaga. 1. Agony, severe pain, apparent death. 2. Next, proximity; hakatata, to bring close together. 3. To strike; tata ei taura, to flog, to lash. 4. To wash, to clean, to soap, to rinse. 5. To appear, to approach, to advance, to present; hakatata, to advance, to propose, to accost. Churchill.

Taku. Prediction, prophecy, prognostic, to predict; tagata taku, wizard. P Ta.: tau, to invoke, to pray. Takurua, full of stones, pebbly, stony, a path among the rocks. Churchill. Samoa: ta'u, to tell, to mention, to announce, to certify, to acknowledge. Tonga: taku, to call by, to designate; takua, to mention, to call by name. Rapanui; taku, to predict. Maori: takutaku, to threaten, to recite imprecations. Fotuna: no-tukua, to confess. Viti: tukuna, to report, to tell. Churchill 2. At the risk of invoking the criticism, 'Astronomers rush in where philologists fear to tread', I should like to suggest that Taku-rua corresponds with the two-headed Roman god Janus who, on the first of January, looks back upon the old year with one head and forward to the new year with the other, and who is god of the threshold of the home as well as of the year... There is probably a play on words in takurua - it has been said that Polynesian phrases usually invoke a double meaning, a common and an esoteric one. Taku means 'slow', the 'back' of anything, 'rim' and 'command'. Rua is a 'pit', 'two' or 'double'. Hence takurua has been translated 'double command', 'double rim', and 'rim of the pit', by different authorities. Taku-pae is the Maori word for 'threshold'... Several Tuamotuan and Society Islands planet names begin with the word Takurua or Ta'urua which Henry translated Great Festivity and which is the name for the bright star Sirius in both New Zealand and Hawaii. The planet names, therefore, represent the final stage in the evolution of takurua which was probably first applied to the winter solstice, then to Sirius which is the most conspicious object in the evening sky of December and January, and was then finally employed for the brilliant and conspicious planets which outshone even the brightest star Sirius. From its association with the ceremonies of the new year and the winter solstice, takurua also aquired the meaning 'holiday' or 'festivity'. Makemson.

Uta. Higher up (from the coast, or from another place); i uta era, further up, up there; ki î te îka i uta, as there are lots of fish on the beach. Vanaga. 1. Inland, landward; paepae ki uta, to strand, to run aground; mouku uta, herbage. 2. To carry; uta mai, to import; hakauta, to give passage. Campbell.