TRANSLATIONS

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The form of vero in Aa2-4 is somewhat strange, as we now have grown accustomed to a fatter 'spear shaft':

Aa2-4 Eb4-2 Eb5-10 Ga5-17
Right: 'after death of Kuukuu'
Ha6-138 Pa6-23 Qa6-25

Furthermore, it seems as if the bottom part is a separate entity. The three vero 'after the death of Kuukuu' have a slimmer 'neck' than the vero in E and G. I guess these differences are signs. Ka1-6 has a comparatively short 'neck' and a 'fat head and bottom':

- -
Ga1-1 Ga1-2 Ga1-3 Ga1-4 Ga1-5 Ga1-6
- - -
Ka1-1 Ka1-2 Ka1-3 Ka1-4 Ka1-5 Ka1-6

Aa2-4 is probably in some way connected to the glyphs which follow and we should therefore repeat:

Ha7-1

Ha7-2

Ha7-3

Ha7-4

Aa2-7

Aa2-8

Aa2-9

ka pu te ipu

ka pu - i te mahigo

ka pu i te tamaiti

The 'knee' in Ha7-4 respectively Aa2-8 is at left, i.e. signals the time of growth. The head in Ha7-3 probably has its parallel in Aa2-9, where it is hidden behind what may be the raw material for a rei miro (GD13).

According to Jaussen (ref. Barthel): 'Les Mahigo (enfants) et les petites calebasses [ipu] sont ici réunis. Dans leurs prières, en demandant à Makémaké de petits calebasses, c'étaient surtout des enfants qu'ils désignaient par ce mot.

Aa2-6

Aa2-7

Aa2-8

Aa2-9

ma te hupee

ka pu te ipu

ka pu - i te mahigo

ka pu i te tamaiti

From the primeval misty state (hupee) to the emergence () of spring sun the process necessarily must contain te pito.

What can there be before 'hupee'? Nothing, I guess. Yet there are glyphs to decipher:

Aa2-1 Aa2-2 Aa2-3 Aa2-4
Ko te ohoga i vai ohata eko te nuku erua - no te tagata
Aa2-5 Aa2-6 Aa2-7 Aa2-8
vero tahi ma te hupee ka pu te ipu ka pu - i te mahigo

At Aa2-1 the travel begins (ohoga), according to Metoro:

Oho

1. To go: ka-oho! go! go away! (i.e. 'goodbye' said by the person staying behind); ka-oho-mai (very often contracted to: koho-mai), welcome! (lit.: come here); ku-oho-á te tagata, the man has gone. Ohoga, travel, direction of a journey; ohoga-mai, return. 2. Also rauoho, hair. Vanaga.

1. To delegate; rava oho, to root. 2. To go, to keep on going, to walk, to depart, to retire; ka oho, begone, good-bye; oho amua, to preced; oho mai, to come, to bring; oho arurua, to sail as consorts; hakaoho, to send, a messenger. 3. Tehe oho te ikapotu, to abut, adjoin; mei nei tehe i oho mai ai inei te ikapotu, as far as, to; kai oho, to abstain, to forego; hakaoho, to put on the brakes. 4. The head (only in the composite rauoho, hair). Churchill.

I cannot find any word ohata. Maybe we should read the word as o-hata? I collect the following information from Churchill and Churchill 2 which convinces me that Metoro indeed probably thought about hata:

Hata

1. Table, bureau. P Pau.: afata, a chest, box. Mgv.: avata, a box, case, trunk, coffin. Mq.: fata, hata, a piece of wood with several branches serving as a rack, space, to ramify, to branch; fataá, hataá, stage, step, shelf. Ta.: fata, scaffold, altar. 2. Hakahata, to disjoint; hakahatahata, to loosen, to stretch. P Pau.: vata, an interval, interstice. Mgv.: kohata, the space between two boards, to be badly joined; akakohata, to leave a space between two bodies badly joined; hakahata, to be large, broad, wide, spacious, far off. Mq.: hatahata, fatafata, having chinks, not tightly closed, disjointed. Ta.: fatafata, open. 3. Hatahata, calm, loose, prolix, vast. Mgv.: hatahara, broad, wide, spacious, at one's ease. Ta.: fatafata, free from care. Mq.: hatahata, empty, open. 4. Hatahata, tube, pipe, funnel. Churchill.

Sa.: fata, a raised house in which to store yams, a shelf, a handbarrow, a bier, a litter, an altar, to carry on a litter; fatāmanu, a scaffold. To.: fata, a loft, a bier, a handbarrow, to carry on a bier; fataki, a platform. Fu.: fata, a barrow, a loft; fatataki, two sticks or canes attached to each other at each side of a house post to serve as a shelf. Niuē: fata, a cage, a handbarrow, a shelf, a stage, (sometimes) the upper story of a house. Uvea: fata, a barrow, a bier. Fotuna: fata, a stage. Ta.: fata, an altar, a scaffold, a piece of wood put up to hang baskets of food on; afata, a chest, a box, a coop, a raft, a scaffold. Pau.: fata, a heap; afata, a box, a chest. Ma.: whata, a platform or raised storehouse for food, an altar, to elevate, to support. Moriori: whata, a raft. Mq.: fata, hata, hataá, shelves. Rapanui: hata, a table. Ha.: haka, a ladder, an artificial henroost; alahaka, a ladder. Mg.: ata, a shelf; atamoa, a ladder; atarau, an altar. Mgv.: avata, a coffer, a box. Vi.: vata, a loft, a shelf; tāvata, a bier. The Samoan fata is a pair of light timbers pointed at the ends and tied across the center posts of the house, one in front, the other behind the line of posts; rolls of mats and bales of sennit may be laid across these timbers; baskets or reserved victuals may be hung on the ends. The litter and the barrow are two light poles with small slats lashed across at intervals. The Marquesan fata is a stout stem of a sapling with the stumps of several branches, a hat tree in shape, though found among a barehead folk. These illustrations are sufficient to show what is the common element in all these fata identifications, light cross-pieces spaced at intervals. With this for a primal signifaction it is easy to see how a ladder, a raft, a henroost, an altar come under the same stem for designation. Perhaps Samoan fatafata the breast obtains the name by reason of the ribs; it would be convincing were it not that the plumpness of most Samoans leaves the ribs a matter of anatomical inference. Churchill 2.

Another matter is to understand what he meant. It could be the rib of Adam, it could be the void above the primal water, it could be an allusion to how sky and earth were torn apart, it could be the scaffold upon which the old year rested, etc etc.

"catafalque ... erection in a church to receive the coffin of a deceased person ..." (English Etymology)

I guess the inversion (vero) is illustrated by how the bottom part of Aa2-3 is turned upside down and put at the top of Aa2-4, while the top part of Aa2-3 is put below and only one of the rings remain:

Two nuku (one at the bottom of Aa2-3 and the other at the top of Aa2-4) explains eko te nuku erua.

The 'land' nuku (GD69) is put on top. Earlier vai (GD75) was on top. The label for GD75 is vaha kai, but that is due to the more frequent type of GD75 with a 'nick':

The flip-around from water to land probably means that the text leaves the watery winter to move on to spring and summer. I believe Metoro was right in this interpretation.

The first vero (vero tahi) is when land changes place with (primal) water. Land is fished up.

The reason - I guess - why the vero tahi glyph has such a thin neck (drawn as if top and bottom are separate entities) is that the top (land) has just switched place with the bottom (water).

The other vero glyphs are drawn with top and bottom properly joined together and drawn as a single entity.

From this follows that we possibly should read about the Beginning:

Aa2-1 Aa2-2 Aa2-3 Aa2-4
Ko te ohoga i vai ohata eko te nuku erua - no te tagata
At the Beginning (of the journey, story, time) water was hanging above the land in darkness, then land for man was coming up,
Aa2-5 Aa2-6 Aa2-7 Aa2-8
vero tahi ma te hupee ka pu te ipu ka pu - i te mahigo
it was the first changeover, and it was misty, (and then) the 'gourd' (abdomen) opened up and the child was delivered.