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We
do not know if the rongorongo texts used the haga rave
type of glyphs to indicate such haga 'anchorage places' as
apparently was connected with a few of the kuhane stations
the explorers visited on their journey around the island.
In the Mamari
moon calendar the full moon night (Omotohi)
has no haga
rave sign. Instead we can
see what looks like a 'broken stick':
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|
Ca7-24 |
A
broken stick means the branch was old and dry, no longer soft and
pliant in
the way haga
rave glyphs seem to
illustrate.
If there was an ordered system, which is fairly certain, we can
conclude that the 'anchorage places' for the moon on her journey
from west to east were thought of as qualitatively opposite to the
haga rave stations for the
sun. In all aspects the moon is the mirror image of the sun.
The dream soul (kuhane) of Hau Maka was his female
(moon) side, and she happened to
break a branch
in the season when winter was giving way to summer, therefore
presumably to be regarded as a cardinal point for the moon.
7
* 24 = 168 = 2 * 84, a fact which alludes to the end of the winter
'half' of the year, the time when sun 'lives' north of the equator
and the light from the moon is more important than when sun is
'present'. |
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The kuhane of Hau Maka trampled on a stick and broke
it:
... The dream soul went
on. She was careless (?) and broke the kohe plant with her
feet. She named the place 'Hatinga Te Koe A Hau Maka O Hiva'
...
|
1st quarter |
2nd quarter |
3rd quarter |
4th quarter |
|
He Anakena
(July) |
Tagaroa uri
(October) |
Tua haro
(January) |
Vaitu nui
(April) |
|
Te Pei |
Te Pou |
Tama |
One Tea |
Mahatua |
Taharoa |
Nga Kope Ririva |
Te Pu Mahore |
|
Hora iti
(August) |
Ko Ruti
(November) |
Tehetu'upú
(February) |
Vaitu potu
(May) |
|
Hua Reva |
Akahanga |
Hanga Takaure |
Poike |
Hanga Hoonu |
Rangi Meamea |
Te Poko Uri |
Te Manavai |
|
Hora nui
(September) |
Ko Koró
(December) |
Tarahao
(March) |
He Maro
(June) |
|
Hatinga Te Kohe |
Roto Iri Are |
Pua Katiki |
Maunga Teatea |
Peke Tau O Hiti |
Mauga Hau Epa |
Te Kioe Uri |
Te Piringa Aniva |
"... The name 'Breaking
of the kohe plant', which is used in the same or nearly the
same form in all of the tradition, must refer to a special event.
*Kofe is the name for bamboo on most Polynesian islands, but
today on Easter Island kohe is the name of a fern that grows
near the beach ..." (Barhel 2)
If
Nga Kope Ririva is regarded as 'zero', numbering the stations by
way of measures in time from there, Hatinga Te Kohe becomes
number 10, a number which can indicate a cardinal point.
This method will number
Hanga Takaure
as number 14 and
Hanga Hoonu
as number 20, obviously better than the odd numbers 15 respectively 21.
Roto Iri Are
is located at the threshold of summer
and already the 'rosy fingers of dawn' were flickering on the
surface of the sea. The 'break of dawn probably occurred at
Hatinga Te Kohe. |
With moon as the primary time
piece, possessor of time, she decides when the season should end, be broken.
Counting from 12
Acatl (reed) 8 steps forward the reed (kohe) should be broken, I
think:
|
0 |
Cipactli
(alligator) |
10 |
Ozomatli (monkey) |
|
1 |
Ehecatl
(wind) |
11 |
Malinalli (grass) |
|
2 |
Calli
(house) |
12 |
Acatl (reed) |
|
3 |
Cuetzpallin (lizard) |
13 |
Ocelotl (jaguar) |
|
4 |
Coatl
(serpent) |
14 |
Cuauhtli (eagle) |
|
5 |
Miquitztli
(death) |
15 |
Cozcacuauhtli (buzzard) |
|
6 |
Mazatl
(deer) |
16 |
Ollin (movement) |
|
7 |
Tochtli
(rabbit) |
17 |
Tecpatl (flint knife) |
|
8 |
Atl
(water) |
18 |
Quiahuitl (rain) |
|
9 |
Itzcuintli (dog) |
19 |
Xochitl (flower) |
At 0 Cipatli
(alligator) summer has arrived. This means the 4th quarter of the year should
encompass from 8 Atl (water) up to and including 11 Malinalli
(grass).
Water (8 Atl)
and rain (18 Quiahuitl) occupy symmetric positions in the table. Dog and
monkey 'inhabit' the season straddling winter solstice. Grass could allude to
the new green and virgin world rising beyond winter solstice.
I suspect 19 Xochitl
('flower'), which occupies the position parallel to 9 Itzcuintli (dog),
is Xoc-hitl a kind of shark, a creature fully adapted to the sea, unable
to walk on land. Xoc may be the origin of English 'shark'. Beyond him
comes the alligator, the amphibian.
In some mysterious way
the dog is connected with Sirius, the announcer of a new year. In ancient Egypt
the dog-star was also the announcer of land rising up again from the water
(after the inundation caused by the Nile). It seems the concept had survived
with the Aztecs.
But the shark (Xoc)
in some equally mysterious way is connected with the rise of land with the
Polynesians - where a chief is like a shark who walks on land (at least
according to the Hawaiian view). This shark is not Xoc but Cipatli,
of course, who inhabits the 'roots of the world tree' (the Milky Way).
Sirius is (according to
the Aztec day names) bringing new year to arrive at winter solstice. Xochitl
is bringing the next half year to arrive, the time when dry land (not the sky
land) emerges.
There certainly is some
kind of relationship between the rongorongo signs and the Aztec picture,
because we have deduced vaha mea to be the open red mouth of the shark:
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The glyph type
vaha mea without signs added seems to mean the 'red opening'
which is located in midwinter and through which a new sun (year)
will enter.
Metoro's
name vaha mea is probably correct, and together with
vaha hora (entrance into summer) and vaha toga
(entrance to winter) creates a logic of words. Vaha mea
can therefore be thought of as the entrance of the new year
(into spring).
The openings in
question presumably were not merely abstractions but imagined as
real holes in the sky roof. A consequence is that the midwinter
hole (entrance into spring) north of the equater (e.g. as
observed from Hawaii) will be the midsummer hole (entrance into
autumn) south of the equator. In Tahua there is such a
special vaha mea glyph (denoting the midsummer hole).
The red gills (mea)
seen in the open mouth of a fish may be the origin of the word
for the colour red (mea). The new sun brings a red dawn,
as can be observed looking towards east. Before sun himself if
seen sky and sea are coloured red from his rays. The sun comes
up where sky and sea meet - it is as if he was a mighty fish.
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Now we must wonder: If
on Hawaii they shared the same idea as the Aztecs, that summer was 'created' by
the open shark mouth ('the red flower'), that is very reasonable because they
'inhabited' the same half-years, they were both located north of the equator.
But on Easter Island there should be a reversal: the shark ought to 'create' the
winter half of the year.
What happens around new
year? The new year is born. He is though not allowed to come out into the open,
he is inside (barred) until spring, during Pop, Uo and Zip
according to the Maya:
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 5
Tzek |
6
Xul |
7
Yaxkin |
8
Mol |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 9
Ch'en |
10
Yax |
11
Sac |
12
Ceh |
 |
 |
200 |
 |
| 13
Mac |
14
Kankin |
15
Moan |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 16
Pax |
17
Kayab |
18
Cumhu |
19
Vayeb |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 1
Pop |
2
Uo |
3
Zip |
4
Zotz |
The 'shark' (Zotz)
then emerges to generate summer.
On Easter Island they could have
evaded the dilemma of an impossible reversal by looking to the stars in the
early morning (towards east) instead of in the evening (towards west). Maybe
Antares (Ana-mua) was the 'shark'? The form of Scorpio can be illustrated
in mago, as for instance in Ka4-14:
