TRANSLATIONS

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If we count 'realms' outside the tidal zone (Haida, Xhaaydla), there are 3 of them: The deep sea (tai), the forest inland (uta) and the sky above (ragi). The 4th (human) realm is he-nua(-hine), Flood Tide Woman, I imagine.

Vai and hua poporo are inland (or rather between heaven and earth?), with vai representing light entering. Immediatly, then, also its opposite must 'become'; hua poporo representing light leaving:

Ghaadagas gyaanhaw ising ghaalgagang, wansuuga ... It was light then, and it turned to night, they say ...

In the beginning there is only a grey mist or fog, and nothing is visible:

... the name [Vindler, one of the epithets of Heimdall] is a subform of vindill and comes from vinda, to twist or turn, wind, to turn anything around rapidly. As the epithet 'the turner' is given to that god who brought friction-fire (bore-fire) to man, and who is himself the personification of this fire, then it must be synonymous with 'the borer' ...

The Sibyl's prophecy does not end with the catastrophes, but it moves from the tragic to the lydic mode, to sing of the dawning of the new age:

Now do I see / the Earth anew / Rise all green / from the waves again ... / Then fields unsowed / bear ripened fruit / All ills grow better ...

We must think in terms of time-space, and then the misty tidal zone represents the beginning, while its opposite must be the mountains inland (uta), and we remember king Oto Uta:

... At the time of the loading of the emigrant canoe, Hotu Matua ordered his assistant Teke to take a (stone) figure (moai) named 'Oto Uta' on board the canoe, along with the people (aniwa) who were emigrating. However, the figure was left behind 'out in the bay' (E:73). After the arrival in the new land, after disembarkation in the bay of Anakena, and after the return of the explorers to the homeland, our source continues with the following account [E:87].

On the thirtieth day of the month of October ('Tangaroa Uri'), Hotu asked about the stone figure (moai maea) named Oto Uta. Hotu said to Teke, 'Where is the figure Ota Uta (corrected in the manuscript for Hina Riru)? Teke thought about the question and then said to Hotu, 'It was left out in the bay.' Hotu said to Pure O, to Pure Ki, and to Pure Vanangananga: 'You fellows (kope), sail to the friend (hoou), to Oto Uta. Bring him here, he who is resting out in the bay. Move him carefully (? nee), you fellows, so that the king, that Oto Uta is not damaged!' Pure O, Pure Ki, and Pure Vanangananga took the canoe, put it into the water, and sailed to Hiva.

The canoe of Pure O left on the fifth day of the month of November ('Ruti'). After the canoe of Pure O had sailed and had anchored out in the bay, in Hanga Moria One, Pure saw the figure, which had been lying there all this time, and said to his younger brothers (ngaio taina), 'Let's go my friends (hoa), let us break the neck of this mean one (or, ugly one, rakerake). Why should we return to that fragment of earth (te pito o te kainga, i.e., Easter Island)? Let us stay in our (home)land!' ...

Ko Ruti is the month before midsummer. Like a truncated pyramid Oto Uta must be. Life ends at midsummer.

Let us now return to the questions about why sometimes (midwinter) hua poporo has only 3 'fruits', and vai only 3 'moon signs'. I remember how Ure Honu searched for his skull:

... Ure Honu looked around for his skull. It was no longer in the house. When he questioned those who knew, the foster child of Ure Honu said, 'On the day on which the banquet for the new house was held, Tuu Ko Ihu saw the skull. He was very much moved and wept, 'Here are the teeth that ate the turtles and the pigs (? kekepu) of Hiva, of the homeland!' When the foster child of Ure Honu had spoken, Ure Honu grew angry. He secretly called his people, a great number of men, to conduct a raid (he uma te taua).

Ure set out and arrived in front of the house of Tuu Ko Ihu. Ure said to the king, 'I (come) to you for my very large and very beautiful skull, which you took away on the day when the banquet for the new house was held. Where is the skull now?' (whereupon) Tuu Ko Ihu replied, 'I don't know.' When Tuu Ko Ihu came out and sat on the stone underneath which he had buried the skull, Ure Honu shot into the house like a lizard. He lifted up the one side of the house. Then Ure Honu let it fall down again; he had found nothing. Ure Honu called, 'Dig up the ground and continue to search!'

The search went on. They dug up the ground, and came to where the king was. The king (was still) sitting on the stone. They lifted the king off to the side and let him fall.

Just like Ure had lifted up the house of Tuu Ko Ihu and let it fall down, so his men lifted the king and let him fall. In a way the house of the king is the king, I think. Furthermore, given that the king's house is a hare paega (or a similar construction) - which I am fairly certain of - I then would suggest that this house is the dome of the night sky. Ure personifies the morning sun, and he pushes this 'night roof' up to let in the light and thereby easily to be able to ascertain if the skull is there or not. Ure is also a lizard, which we will remember. We cannot follow all threads here and now.

They lifted up the stone, and the skull looked (at them) from below. They took it, and a great clamour began because the skull had been found. Ure Honu went around and was very satisfied. He took it and left with his people. Ure Honu knew that it was the skull of the king (puoko ariki) ...

When Ure Honu let the house fall down it is like a guillotine. In a way we shouldn't be surprised if suddenly 4 'berries' were only 3:

Ka5-4 Ca1-19
midsummer autumn equinox
Aa1-14 Aa1-15 Eb6-8 Eb6-9
midwinter

Beyond the crucial time of the guillotine the lost head will be the origin of new life. Probably this explains what we see in Aa1-14 and Eb6-8.

3 will therefore be associated with the time when the Chesire Cat has vanished, with only the spirit head of him remaining. Cats can climb trees, but not dogs. At midwinter there is a dog instead.

At the back side (tu'a) there are only 3, in accordance with the number of visible phases of the moon.

spring equinox autumn equinox
6 15
Eb3-7 Eb3-8 Eb4-26 Eb4-27
- 17
Ga5-6 Ga5-7

Eb3-7 is like an hour-glass filled to the brim, while Eb4-26 may show how the 'water' has collected at the bottom. In Ga5-7 possibly a different sign is used: the water oval in the middle is not full but rather slim in outline (similar to the oval in Eb4-26).

A closer look reveals how the top of the oval in Ga5-7 is drawn like the end of a lemon, not quite symmetrical. It must be a sign, and the feature is shared with Gb2-27 and - inversed - with Gb4-23:

Ga5-7 Gb2-27 Gb3-5 Gb3-25 Gb4-2 Gb4-23 Gb8-11

Maybe the sign indicates autumn, respectively - in the inversed form - spring? The meaning could be the fruit season, and in spring there are no fruits. We should look at earlier ideas:

... Once again we should consider if Hb9-19 is it not a picture of the 'insect' stage:

i.e. a 'completely dried out' skin (pakapaka) around a fruitful center:

... A dry outer shell protects the soft inner parts of the sun from the watery surroundings when he is taking a rest to rejuvenate himself ...

First sun, though, must be washed carefully in fresh water to get rid of the salt from the ocean  ('he washed it with fresh water until ... the head ...was completely clean'). This process possibly motivates Hb9-18:

Perhaps we see vai ora a Tane, the sweet water of the sun. However, it looks more like a 'canoe of the night'. I have noticed that in Tahua the two versions of GD16 (oval with single respectively double rim) are distributed according to side. On side b there are only GD16 glyphs with a single rim ...

'Fruit' variants are in Tahua found only on side b, i.e. single oval is related to 'fruit' in some way:

Ab2-58

Ab3-72

Ab3-75

Ab6-59

Ab6-60

Ab6-61

Ab6-62

Ab6-64

Aa1-56

Aa2-37

Aa2-54

Aa6-65

Aa6-75

Aa6-76

8 on side b and 1+6 = 7 on side a - with the sum 15 - may allude to the time of full moon.

Aa8-4

In Aa2-54 the inner oval is full, while later on the watery sack has sagged:

Aa2-37 Aa2-54 Aa6-65 Aa6-75 Aa6-76 Aa8-4
91 216 4

216 = 3 * 72, i.e. we can interpret the 3 glyphs as each covering 1/5 of the solar year, leaving 2/5 or 144 (= 12*12) to the moon.

There are 5 vai glyphs with 4 moon signs. The moon will have Aa2-54 and Aa8-4 in her realm.

If 3 berries in hua poporo indicates the dark 2nd 'year' - but most of all the regenerative season, with death miraculously turning around into life - what, then, will 3 moon signs in the vai glyphs mean?

When one of the 4 moon signs have left, the power of moon has lessened. Vai with 3 moon signs may indicate how the force of the moon is less during summer than winter. Moon is taking a vacation, taking a sun bath.

In Ga5-7 (inside the new season of the moon as indicated by Rei in Ga5-6) left could be right and the reverse. Then, the running person at left could refer to the present, while vai at right could refer to the past.

17
Ga5-6 Ga5-7

During the sun bath season both sun and moon enjoy themselves together, therefore 4 moon signs below the vai bath tub:

... In the deep night before the image [of Lono] is first seen, there is a Makahiki ceremony called 'splashing-water' (hi'uwai). Kepelino tells of sacred chiefs being carried to the water where the people in their finery are bathing; in the excitement created by the beauty of their attire, 'one person was attracted to another, and the result', says this convert to Catholicism, 'was by no means good'.

At dawn, when the people emerged from their amorous sport, there standing on the beach was the image of Lono. White tapa cloth and skins of the ka'upu bird hang from the horizontal bar of the tall crosspiece image. The ka'upu is almost certainly the albatross, a migratory bird that appears in the western Hawaiian chain - the white Lanyon albatross at Ni'ihau Island - to breed and lay eggs in October-November, or the beginning of the Makahiki season ...

At the equinoxes the regenerative power of the bath is not full.