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TRANSLATIONS
I have just starting rereading Barthel 2 again. It is not possible for me to assimilate, make my own, all information at once. Almost at the very beginning of the book I have noticed facts which I did not register earlier.
"... Why Nga Tavake is characterized as 'swollen' remains a mystery ..."
He was there on the island even before the explorers arrived, the last survivor (or tribe) of an older population. In a sense he was at the end of an older cycle, at the position of - symbolically - Haga Te Pau. There is no mystery, to be 'swollen' and to be the last one is much the same thing. It is to be like a nut, full of nutrition for next generation (or cycle).
Then a name rang a bell, tahito, a word which I remember from somewhere else. If it hadn't resembled Tahiti I would not have remembered it.
"... But other names are also very descriptive, such as 'the pale phantom' (T:24 and L:34 [Te Rika Tea respectively Te Rikatea, names in genealogical lists from Easter Island]) or 'he who is here and there' (L:35 [Te Teratera]).
'The frightening band of the ancient ones' (T:25 and L:36 [Te Ria Kautahito respectively Te Riakautahito]) closes with the name segment tahito, which again relates these lists to very early segments of Polynesian genealogies ..."
Now to a more important find. The genealogical lists of the Polynesians start with the gods, so also on Easter Island:
"At the beginning, there is a 'god, who comes from heaven' (T:17 [Atua Ure Rangi]), or a 'god of flaming light' (L:26 [Atuauraranga]), attributes that match those of the god Tane, or Atea.
This is followed by 'the wrath of the precious Tuu' (T:18 [Te Riri Tuu Kura]), obviously a name for the Polynesian god of war (compare HAW. Ku-ula), and in a parallel position 'Divine countenance (eyes)' (L:27 [Atuamata]) or 'manly countenance (eyes)' (L:28 [Uremata]), which also seems to refer to the god Tuu (compare RAP. Atua Mata Riri 'god with the angry face', ME:320).
'Rongo', the third member of the great Polynesian triad of gods, concludes the opening segment (T:19 and L:29 [Korua Rongo respecively Koruarong(o)]).
It is interesting to note that Tangaroa is absent from this crucial passage; T:38 [Tangaroa Tatarara] may be related to the mythological motif in ME:311."
Rogo we have located at new year. I think Tuu and the god who came from heaven also must 'own' a time-space location each.
The god from heaven (or flaming light) could stand at spring equinox, the proper place for a 'Lucifer'.
A warrior is, I guess, represented by a fully grown man, tagata, in the rongorongo system:
The location is at 'noon', or midsummer in the solar cycle for the year. And I saw the possibility of the 'peculiar eyes' representing Atuamata (or Atua Mata Riri or Te Riri Tuu Kura):
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The phase which begins is not only the phase of the warrior but also the beginning of the journey down from the apex. We should remember inky pinky spider being washed out by the rain. It can go very quick:
  
The step from 'fully erect' (tu'u) to 'let go' (tuku) is so short as to give reason for wordplay and thought:
| Tu'u 1. To stand erect. 2. Mast, pillar, post. Van Tilburg.
1. To stand erect, mast, pillar, post; tuu noa, perpendicular; tanu ki te tuu, to set a post; hakatu tuu, to step a mast; tuu hakamate tagata, gallows; hakatuu, to erect, to establish, to inactivate, to form, immobile, to set up, to raise. P Mgv., Mq., Ta.: tu, to stand up. 2. To exist, to be. Mgv.: tu, life, being, existence. 3. To accost, to hail; tuu mai te vaka, to hail the canoe. Mgv.: tu, a cry, a shout. 4. To rejoin; tuua to be reunited. 5. Hakatuu, example, mode, fashion, model, method, measure, to number. PS Sa.: tu, custom, habit. Fu.: tuu, to follow the example of. 6. Hakatuu, to disapprove; hakatuu riri, to conciliate, to appease wrath. 7. Hakatuu, to presage, prognostic, test. 8. Hakatuu, to taste. 9. Hakatuu, to mark, index, emblem, seal, sign, symbol, trace, vestige, aim; hakatuu ta, signature; akatuu, symptom; hakatuua, spot, mark; hakatuhaga, mark; hakatuutuu, demarcation. Churchill.
1. To arrive: tu'u-mai. 2. Upright pole; to stand upright (also: tutu'u). 3. To guess correctly, to work out (the meaning of a word) correctly: ku-tu'u-á koe ki te vânaga, you have guessed correctly [the meaning of] the word. 4. To hit the mark, to connect (a blow). 5. Ku-tu'u pehé, is considered as... ; te poki to'o i te me'e hakarere i roto i te hare, ku-tu'u-á pehé poki ra'ura'u, a child who takes things that have been left in the house is considered as a petty thief. Tu'u aro, northwest and west side of the island. Tu'u haígoígo, back tattoo. Tu'u haviki, easily angered person.Tu'u-toga, eel-fishing using a line weighted with stones and a hook with bait, so that the line reaches vertically straight to the bottom of the sea. Tu'utu'u, to hit the mark time and again. Tu'utu'u îka, fish fin (except the tail fin, called hiku). Vanaga.
... To the Polynesian and to the Melanesian has come no concept of bare existence; he sees no need to say of himself 'I am', always 'I am doing', 'I am suffering'. It is hard for the stranger of alien culture to relinquish his nude idea of existence and to adopt the island idea; it is far more difficult to acquire the feeling of the language and to accomplish elegance in the diction under these unfamiliar conditions. Take for an illustrative example these two sentences from the Viti: Sa tiko na tamata e kila: there are (sit) men who know. Sa tu mai vale na yau: the goods are (stand) in the house. The use of tu for tiko and of tiko for tu would not produce incomprehensibility, but it would entail a loss of finish in diction, it would stamp the speaker as vulgar, as a white man ... Savage life is far too complex; it is only in rich civilization that we can rise to the simplicity of elemental concepts ... Churchill 2. |
| Tuku 1. To leave something lying spread on the ground; to spread, unfurl, unroll something on the ground; tukuga, mat spread on the ground; tukuga tagata, mat on which have been put pieces of cooked human flesh. 2. Tuku kupega, a fishing technique: two men drag along the top of a fishing net doubled up, spread out on the bottom of a small cove, trapping the fish into the net; tukutuku, to fish while swimming, holding a basket-shaped net. 3. Tuku huri, to sit with one's buttocks resting on one's heels, soles flat on the ground. Figuratively: ka tuku! pay attention! (literally: sit still!). 4. Tuku rîu, to sit in the posture typical of choir singers in rîu festivals or singing festivals in general, which was sitting on one's heels. Tukuturi, to sit with one's buttocks resting on one's heels, soles flat on the ground. Vanaga.
To give, to let go, to deliver, to accord, to go back to the boat, to dedicate; rima tuku, to bend at the elbow (? tuke). P Pau.: tuku, to lay down, to place, to deliver up. Mgv.: tuku, to give, to deliver, to let alone. Mq.: tuku, to give, to let go. Ta.: tuu, id. Tukuga, plate, ladle, pottinger, legacy, to dedicate (tukaga). Churchill.
H.: Ku'u ku'u 1. Redup. of ku'u 1; to let down gradually, slack off a little at a time. See ala ku'uku'u. Ho'o ku'uku'u lenient, permissive; to pay out, as a fishline. Kī ho'oku'uku'u, slack key, as on a guitar (kī hō'alu is more common). Ua ho'oku'uku'u loa na mākua i keiki, parents are too lenient with children. (PPN tukutuku.) 2.Small, short-legged spider, so called because it lowers itself (ku'u) on a single string fiber. Ke alanui a ke ku'uku'u, the path of the spider (a name for the Equator). Ho'o ku'u ku'u, same as above. 3. Boomerang. 'U'uku, tiny, small; few. 'U'uku iho, undersized, smaller. Ho'o 'u'uku, to make small, reduce, lessen. Wehewehe.
Maori: tuku, to subside, to settle down. Tahiti: tuutuu, to slacken or ease a rope. Hawaii: kuu, to let down, to slacken. Tonga: tuku, to slacken, to let go as a rope; tukutuku, to sink in the sea. Futuna: tuku, to put down. Niuē: tuku, to bury. Rarotonga: tuku, to let down, to let out, to drop down. Mangareva: tuku, to throw the fishing net of fillet. Paumotu: tuku, to lay down. Sikayana: tuku, to put down. Nukuoro: tuku, to permit, to allow. Manahiki, Fakaafo: tuku, to place. Nuguria: tuku, to set. Rapanui: tuku, to give, to accord. Churchill 2. |
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