The Fish-hook had been placed in position 26 on side a of the A(sh) tablet:
The design of the A text at this place suggests we should see the blasphemous glyph as a central figure: Looking for a fish-hook at the corresponding place on side b we will instead find Ab1-24 as the central figure:
The words of Metoro suggest we here have not the season of the fish-hook but a season with 'fishes' (ika) hanging down, Ika. 1. Fish. 2. In some cases, animal in general: īka ariga koreh[v?]a, animal with the face of a koreva fish (name given to horses when they arrived on the island, because of the resemblance of their heads with that of a koreva). 3. Victim (wounded or killed), enemy who must be killed, person cursed by a timo and destined to die; īka reirei, vanquished enemy, who is kicked (rei). 4. Corpse of man fallen in war. Vanaga. 1. Fish, animal; ika rere, flying fish; ivi ika, fishbone; mata ika, pearl. P Pau., Mgv., Mq.: ika, fish. Ta.: ia, id. 2. Prey, victim, sacrifice; ika ke avai mo, abuse; hakarere ki te ika, to avenge. T Mgv.: ikaiara, to quarrel; ikatamamea, to be angry because another has handled one's property. Mq.: ika, enemy, what causes horror. Ma.: ika, the first person killed in a fight. Mangaia: ika, a victim for sacrifice. 3? matamata ika, snow. Ikahi, to fish with a line, to angle. Mq.: ikahi, id. Ikakato, to go fishing. Ikakohau, to fish with a line, to angle. Ikapotu, cape, end of a voyage, destination; ikapotu hakarere, to abut, to adjoin; topa te ikapotu, id.; tehe oho te ikapotu, id.; mei nei tehe i oho mai ai inei te ikapotu, as far as, to. Ikapuhi, to fish with a torch. Mq.: ikapuhi, id. Churchill. i.e. not the season for drawing up new land (*, a sign of birth, ebb) but a season when light was going down to the fishes (, a sign of death, high tide). This should therefore be the beginning of the Behind (b) side. I early deduced (from studying the calendar of the week) that lines drawn across the henua type of glyph were illustrating nighttime (i.e. the Dark Land):
Henua. Land, ground, country; te tagata noho i ruga i te henua the people living on the earth. Placenta: henua o te poki. Vanaga. 1. Land, country, region (heenua); henua tumu, native land. P Pau.: henua, country. Mgv.: enua, land, said of shallow places in the sea; mamuenua, the earth. Mq.: fenua, henua, land, country, place, property. Ta.: fenua, land, country place. There is apparently nothing critical in the first vowel; e is the most widely extended; a is found only in Samoa, Viti, and Rotumā in Nuclear Polynesia, but is the dominant vowel in Melanesian survivals. 2. Uterus. T (cf eve). T Pau.: pufenua, placenta. Mgv.: enua, id. Mq.: fenua, henua, id. 3. Pupuhi henua, volley. PS Sa.: fana-fanua, cannon. To.: mea fana fonua, id. Fu.: fanafenua, id. Niuē: fanafonua, id. Viti: a dakal ni vanua, id. Churchill. M.: Whenua, the Earth; the whole earth: I pouri tonu te rangi me te whenua i mua. 2. A country or district: A e tupu tonu mai nei ano i te pari o taua whenua. Tangata-whenua, natives of a particular locality: Ko nga tangata-whenua ake ano o tenei motu. Cf. ewe, the land of one's birth. 3. The afterbirth, or placenta: Ka taka te whenua o te tamaiti ki te moana. Cf. ewe, the placenta. 4. The ground, the soil: Na takoto ana i raro i te whenua, kua mate. 5. The land, as opposed to the water: Kia ngaro te tuapae whenua; a, ngaro rawa, ka tahi ka tukua te punga. Text Centre. Ha.: Honua. 1. nvs. Land, earth, world; background, as of quilt designs; basic, at the foundation, fundamental. See lani. Kaua honua, world war. Ka wahine 'ai honua, the earth-eating woman [Pele]. ho'o honua To establish land, act as land; to scoop out earth, as for a fireplace; firmly established. Fig., rich (rare). (PPN fanua.). 2. part. Suddenly, abruptly and without reason. Cf. kūhonua. Huha honua ihola nō, suddenly angry and for no reason. Maka'u honua ihola nō ia, sudden fear. 3. n. Middle section of a canoe; central section of a canoe fleet, as fishing iheihe fish; main section, as of an army. Wehewehe. ... Across the bows connecting each double canoe was a floor, covering the chambers containing idols, drums, trumpet shells, and other treasures for the gods and people of Ra'itea; and upon the floor were placed in a row sacrifices from abroad, which consisted of human victims brought for that purpose and just slain, and great fishes newly caught from fishing grounds of the neighboring islands. They were placed upon the floor, parallel with the canoe, alternatively a man and a cavalli fish, a man and a shark, a man and a turtle, and finally a man closed in the line. Behind this grim spectacle stood two or three priests in sacerdotal attire, which consisted of a plain loin girdle, a shoulder cape reaching down to the waist and tipped with fringe, wide or narrow according to their grades, and a circular cap fitting closely to the head - all made of finely braided purau bark bleached white. Seated at the paddles were the navigators and warrior chiefs in gay girdles and capes of tapa and helmets of various shapes, and wise men in plain girdles, capes, and turbans of brown or white tapa. As this terribly earnest procession arrived, the canoes were quietly drawn up along the shore, and the guests were met at the receiving marae by an imposing procession of the dignitaries and warriors of the land grandly attired, and also unarmed, headed by the king, the two primates, Paoa-uri and Paoa-tea, and the priests of the realm, who greeted them in low, solemn tones. Then everybody alike set to work silently disposing of the sacrifices just arrived, combined with others of the same mixed kind prepared by the inhabitants of the land. They strung them through the heads with sennit, and act called tu'i-aha, and then suspended them upon the boughs of the trees of the seaside and inwards, the fish diversifying the ghastly spectacle of the human bodies, a decoration called ra'a nu'u a 'Oro-mata-'oa (sacredness of the host of Warrior-of-long-face) ...
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