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TRANSLATIONS
I get the idea
that in Aa8-78 the 'feet' belong to a bird, and the left
'foot' is longer as in unmarked GD11 in B and G:
On the other
hand, in A unmarked GD11 has feet more like those in
Aa8-27. Furthermore, the fishes tend to have tail-fins
similar to what we see in Aa8-78:
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 |
 |
 |
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Ab2-32 |
Ab2-67 |
Ab5-45 |
Ab5-60 |
Ab6-5 |
Ab6-10 |
The 'feet' in
Aa6-29 maybe are turtle's feet.Via Haga Hônu
marking autumn equinox (while Haga Takaure is
expressing spring equinox), I imagine the feet of the
turtle to originate from the shape of waning moon (like
an overturned canoe).
The waxing
moon would then be like a canoe right side up like the
moon sickle at the top of Aa8-78.
In vai
(GD16) we may have an image with full 'moon' (midsummer,
noon) in center, waxing moon at the top and waning at
bottom:
The difference
between growing and waning sun as expressed by vai
may then be suggested by how the sickles are located and
whether they are seen or not:
Eb3-7 (left)
and Eb4-26 (right) are examples (spring respectively
autumn). The top is the waxing phase of the sun and the
bottom the waning phase. With a single rim the phases of
the moon can be similarly expressed.
I have just
written about GD16 in the dictionary:
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A few preliminary remarks and imaginations:
1.
This type of glyph possibly
illustrates the concept of 'the
living water of Tane' (vai
ora a Tane). There may be water in
the middle oval and there are four flames
like the reflexes from water. The number
four may indicate the four 'corners' of our
'earth', which is the receiving part.
The sun was associated with water among
other ancient peoples too, e.g. among the
early Babylonians and among the Maya
indians:
"But
beyond their role as points of communication
with the Underworld, James Brady of George
Washington University has told us that in
the Maya mind caves were intimately
associated with mountains, and that it is in
such caves that it was and still is believed
that fertilizing rain is created before
being sent into the sky; even today
ceremonies are held inside them at the onset
of the rainy season." (The Maya) |
| "...Tane,
under his name of Tane-te-waiora,
is the personified form of sunlight, and
the waiora a Tane is merely an
esoteric and emblematic term for
sunligth. The word waiora carries
the sense of health, welfare, soundness.
In eastern Polynesia the words vai
and vaiora mean 'to be, to
exist'. Warmth, sayeth the Maori, is
necessary to all forms of life, and the
warmth emitted by Tane the
Fertilizer is the waiora or
welfare of all things." (Best)
A straightforward
translation of vai, though, is
(sweet) water and ora means life.
I.e. living-water of Tane.
Spelling conventions makes Tane
into Kane in Hawaii.
"Centuries ago there
lived in Hawaii-of-the-green-hills a
chieftain whose name has been forgotten.
He is known only by the place from which
he came, Hawaii-loa, Far-away
Hawaii. His home was on the coast of
Kahiki-ku, Border-of-the-rising-Sun,
which lay eastward of the region where
mankind was first created, the
Land-of-the-living-water of the god
Kane." (Makemson) |
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2.
The sun is passing
through an 'eye' in order to travel
into 'the world of darkness'. It is
the door to the yonder world, the
world of 'sleep' where 'dreams' are
living. There the sun is refreshing
himself, fetching his 'water'.
"Alice was beginning
to get very tired of sitting by her
sister on the bank and of having
nothing to do: once or twice she had
peeped into the book her sister was
reading, but it had no pictures or
conversations in it, 'and what is
the use of a book', thought Alice,
'without pictures or conversations?'
So she was
considering, in her own mind (as
well as she could, for the hot day
made her feel very sleepy and
stupid), whether the pleasure of
making a daisy-chain would be worth
the trouble of getting up and
picking the daisies, when suddenly a
White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
close by her.
There was nothing so
very remarkable in that; nor
did Alice think it so very
much out of the way to hear the
Rabbit say to itself 'Oh dear! Oh
dear! I shall be too late!' (when
she thought it over afterwards it
occurred to her that she ought to
have wondered at this, but at the
time it all seemed quite natural);
but, when the Rabbit actually
took a watch out of its
waistcoat-pocket, and looked at
it, and then hurried on, Alice
started to her feet, for it flashed
across her mind that she had never
before seen a rabbit with either a
waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take
out of it, and was just in time to
see it pop down a large rabbit-hole
under the hedge. In another moment
down went Alice after it, never once
considering how in the world she was
to get out again." (Carroll)
In South America the motif of the
weeping eye may have a
connection with the Eastern
Polynesian concept of vaiora a
Tane. At the
archeological site of Orongo
(Heyerdahl 4) was found two
paintings of faces, similar to those
on ao paddles:
 
The movements of the eye are quick -
which means full of life.
As I remember it
Posnansky was certain that the
'tears' was a way of showing how the
eyes of the sun god were quickly
moving, not really tears at all but
'movement'. |
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3.
The sky is like a kind of roof.
Above the roof the gods have
their abode (heaven). They can
fly up there. Maybe the stars
are holes in the roof and if so
then the stars are evidence that
the gods live in a glorious
light.
"Two men came to a hole in the
sky. One asked the other to lift
him up. If only he would do so,
then he in turn would lend him a
hand. His comrade lifted him up,
but hardly was he up when he
shouted for joy, forgot his
comrade and ran into heaven.
The other could just manage to
peep over the edge of the hole;
it was full of feathers inside.
But so beautiful was it in
heaven that the man who looked
over the edge forgot everything,
forgot his comrade whom he had
promised to help up and simply
ran off into all the splendour
of heaven." (Arctic Sky)
The light flaming from the
sun is like the light from the
stars - it is a sign of fire
(which in turn is symbolized by
feathers).
Cultural (non-civilized) man
knew how the sky roof slowly
revolved and that early each
morning (or evening) the
movement could be observed in
the way the sky had changed its
position a little bit since
yesterday.
Against the background of the
starry sky the movement of the
sun could be regarded as
constant. Every morning the
sun rose at dawn and every
evening he went down at the
other end of the sky.
Possibly, the canoe in which
the sun travelled was like a big
hole in the sky. The hole moved
slowly to keep the sun rising
and setting at the correct time
depending on season.
(Source:
Wikipedia) |
| Obviously the
Polynesians were well aware
of the concept of relative
movement. A gradual and slow
movement of the sun at the
horizon as observed in the
morning (or evening) could
be related to the slowly
revolving sky roof, thereby
coordinating the position of
the sun with the season and
with the position of the
star roof.
This was more easy to
grasp (and equally valid)
than the double movements of
the sun (daily and seasonal)
against a fixed sky roof (or
a view of earth
simultaneously circling
around the sun and its own
axis).
A quaint detail which
assures us about how the old
sea-farers preferred the
model of a slowly moving sky
rather than a model with
more complex movements for
sun canoe and earth is the
fact that when they
themselves travelled by
canoe to some distant island
they regarded their canoe to
stand still while the island
slowly came closer.
Navigation was more easy
that way:
"... In
traditional navigational
schools on Puluwat in
the Caroline Islands,
students learn how to sail
outrigger canoes. As
Puluwat sailors
conceptualize a voyage
between two islands, it is
the islands that move rather
than the canoe: the starting
point recedes as the
destination approaches :.."
(D'Alleva) |
We can then remember
how Sun is
symbolized in this
calendar:
|
Sun |
 |
 |
Jupiter |
 |
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|
Eb7-3 |
Eb7-4 |
Eb7-11 |
Eb7-12 |
|
Moon |
 |
 |
Venus |
 |
 |
|
Eb7-5 |
Eb7-6 |
Eb7-13 |
Eb7-14 |
|
Mars |
 |
 |
Saturn |
 |
 |
|
Eb7-7 |
Eb7-8 |
Eb7-15 |
Eb7-16 |
|
Mercury |
 |
 |
Sun
and
Jupiter
are here
referred
to by
other
signs
than
GD11,
while
the
rulership
of
Saturn
is
indicated
by a
complex
glyph
based on
GD11.
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|
Eb7-9 |
Eb7-10 |
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In the Keiti
calendar for the
year GD16
appears in the
6th and the 15th
periods:
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"The Maori
recognized
two main
divisions of
the year:
winter or
takurua,
a name for
Sirius which
then shone
as morning
star, and
summer,
raumati
or
o-rongo-nui,
'of the
great
Rongo',
god of
agriculture.
They
occasionally
recognized
spring as
the digging
season
koanga,
from ko,
the digging
stick or
spade. The
autumn or
harvest
season was
usually
spoken of as
ngahuru,
'tenth'
(month),
although it
was
considered
to include
also the
last two
months of
the year.
Mahuru
was the
personification
of spring."
(Makemson)
"The Maori
term
o-rongo-nui
was
undoubtedly
applied to
summer as in
phrases such
as te ra
roa o te
marua-roa o
te
o-rongo-nui,
'the long
days (ra,
Sun) of the
summer
solstice';
but it was
also
extended to
cover the
months of
spring and
early summer
as well as
those of
late summer
and fall.
This is
evident from
such
statements
in the
legends as:
'That bird
is a cuckoo,
and that is
the bird of
matahi o
te tau o
o-rongo-nui',
i.e., of the
first month
of the
summer
season,
although in
New Zealand
the cuckoo,
like the
robin in the
north
temperate
zone, was
the
harbinger of
spring.
Also, 'Hine-rau-wharangi'
was born in
the month
Ao-nui
(first
light) of
the
o-rongo-nui'.
Among the
Takitumu
tribe
Ao-nui
was the name
for
May-June,
the first
month of the
year which
belonged to
late fall or
early
winter.
Rongo
was the name
for June in
the Chatham
Islands and
began the
Moriori
year."
(Makemson) |
| In Barthel 2 a summary is given over the months on Easter Island (according to the structure of a modern calendar). I have adapted the table somewhat. Red means the 6 months when sun is 'present': |
|
1st quarter |
2nd quarter |
3rd quarter |
4th quarter |
|
He Anakena (July) |
Tagaroa uri (October) |
Tua haro (January) |
Vaitu nui (April) |
|
Same as the previous month. |
Cleaning up of the fields. Fishing is no longer taboo. Festival of thanksgiving (hakakio) and presents of fowl. |
Fishing. Because of the strong sun very little planting is done. |
Planting of sweet potatoes. |
|
Hora iti (August) |
Ko Ruti (November) |
Tehetu'upú (February) |
Vaitu poru (May) |
|
Planting of plants growing above the ground (i.e., bananas, sugarcane, and all types of trees). Good time to fish for eel along the shore. |
Cleaning of the banana plantations, but only in the morning since the sun becomes too hot later in the day. Problems with drought. Good month for fishing and the construction of houses (because of the long days). |
Like the previous month. Some sweet potatoes are planted where there are a lot of stones (pu). |
Beginning of the cold season. No more planting. Fishing is taboo, except for some fishing along the beach. Harvesting of paper mulberry trees (mahute). Making of tapa capes (nua). |
|
Hora nui (September) |
Ko Koró (December) |
Tarahao (March) |
He Maro (June) |
|
Planting of plants growing below the ground (i.e., sweet potatoes, yams, and taro). A fine spring month. |
Because of the increasing heat, work ceases in the fields. Time for fishing, recreation, and festivities. The new houses are occupied (reason for the festivities). Like the previous month, a good time for surfing (ngaru) on the beach of Hangaroa O Tai. |
Sweet potatoes are planted in the morning; fishing is done in the afternoon. |
Because of the cold weather, nothing grows (tupu meme), and there is hardly any work done in the fields. Hens grow an abundance of feathers, which are used for the festivities. The time of the great festivities begins, also for the father-in-law (te ngongoro mo te hungavai). There is much singing (riu). |
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The spelling of the names of the months are according to Vanaga. |
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| By now it must be clear that GD16 (vai) is a symbol for the sun. There remains, though, a question to be answered: Why is there only one oval in Hb9-18 (instead of the normal two)?
| Sunday |
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 |
 |
 |
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| Hb9-17 |
Hb9-18 |
Hb9-19 |
Hb9-20 |
Hb9-21 |
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Only three glyphs in the P calendar. |
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| Pb10-29 |
Pb10-30 |
Pb10-31 |
Answer: Because the calendar of the week is also a calendar for the planets. Planets cannot be seen during the day, only in the night. Logic has presumably made the creator of the H text to deduce that sun cannot be visible in a calendar for the week.
Therefore, he decided to chose a symbol for the invisible sun, the sun below the horizon, the sun during the night. The creator of the P text, however, seems to have missed the point, because also in Pb10-29 'night' is written by way of hatchmarks across GD37, henua. |
| Summary: The sun is symbolized by GD16 glyphs.
The label vai
for GD16 has been chosen because Metoro pointed to the
sun as the source of the important rain. Although also other glyph
types was referred to as vai by Metoro, the more
rounded versions of GD16, as for instance in the calendars for the
year in E and G, definitely appears to be connected with water.
Other versions of
GD16 are not so rounded, and the idea probably then is
not water but the canoe of the sun. In rei miro (GD13) the
sun canoe is seen as from afar (sideways), in GD16 it appears as
seen close by.
GD16 with a single
rim means the invisible sun (below the horizon). On side a of
Tahua GD16 glyphs have double oval rims, but on side b single rims. |
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