TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

On one hand the haú glyphs appear to be emblems of feather crowns, presumably signifying gods, and on the other hand the feather marks are used to deliver numerical messages about number of nights, months etc.

15 = Otua, in Ca7-15, tells us that the Easter Island moon calendar (according to Mamari) was not identical with the those used on Marquesas and by the Maori (where the 14th night was Atua).

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	Ca7-13	Ca7-14	Ca7-15	Ca7-16
	*Maharu*	*Ohua*	*Otua*

My identification of Otua with Ca7-15 mostly depends on how Ohua in Ca7-14 obviously refers to the picture of a hanging 'fruit' (hua). If Otua arrives in the night following Ohua, then Ca7-15 must be Otua.

Métraux and Thomson had a sequence of nights Maharu, Hua, Atua, Hotu, and accordingly I guess Ca7-16 could be Hotu (or rather Ohotu with honorific).

Englert had the beginning of the sequence: Maharu, Ohua, Otua. Then he had Maure, Ina-ira, Rakau and Omotohi.

Omotohi is perhaps he omo tohi.

Omo

To suck; omoaga, bulky cloud; ragi omoaga cumulus; omoomo; to suck repeatedly, to suckle; omotahi, to win everything at a game (lit: to suck whole): omotahi-mai-á e au, he has cleaned me out; omotohi, full (of the moon); ku-omotohiá te mahina, the moon is full. Vanaga.

Rima omo, infidelity, faithless, unfaithful. Omoomo, to smack the lips, to suck the breast, to smoke tobacco, to taste of; hakaomoomo, to suckle, to paint. Churchill.

Tohi

Omotohi, full (of the moon); ku-omotohiá te mahina, the moon is full. Vanaga.

Mgv.: tohi, to cut breadfruit paste. Ta.: tohi, a chisel, to cut, to split. Mq.: tohi, to cut up. Sa.: tofi, a chisel, to split. Ma.: tohi, to cut, to slice. Churchill.

Ha.: kōhi. 1. To gather, as fruit; to break off neatly, as taro corm from the stalk with a stick or knife; to split, as breadfruit; to dig; splitter, as stick, stone, knife. Nā wāhine kōhi noni, the noni-gathering women (an insult to Pele, perhaps likening her disposition to sour noni fruit). (PPN tofi.) 2. Fat, rich, as food; fatness. Nā kōhi kelekele o Kapu'u-kolu, the rich foods of Ka-pu'u-kolu (Kaua'i, famous for abundance). 3. To fill or heal, of a wound. Ke kōhi maila ka 'i'o, the flesh is beginning to heal. 4. To hold back, check, restrain: to strain, especially as in childbirth, to travail; to hold or hold back by pressing a person's arm, as in withholding consent, or as in urging someone not to be generous; labor pains, travail. Fig., agony, fear. Cf. haukōhi, kāohi, ho'o kōhi. Also ha'akōhi. 5. Prolonged, as a sound; long. He kōhi ka leo, the sound is long. Wehewehe.

Waxing moon is growing like a sucking (omoomo) child. He will be sliced (tohi) in the middle at full moon (omotohi). We have learned that the rongorongo texts are describing general attributes. The glyph types are general habits, possible to carry not only by the moon but also by the sun etc. Therefore I imagine the behaviour of waxing sun can be used as a model for how waxing moon is sucking:

			3 periods of sucking.
Ha5-49	Ha5-50	Ha5-51	3 periods of sucking.

Ha5-52	Ha5-53	Ha5-54	Ha5-55	Ha5-56	Ha5-57	Ha5-58	Ha5-59

Ha6-1	Ha6-2	Ha6-3	Ha6-4	Ha6-5	Ha6-6	Ha6-7	Ha6-8

When the 'fruit' (hua) is ripe, the gods assemble because they are invited as first guests. They will be the first in the line of the hungry. Not until the gods have had their share can the people eat.

It is therefore absolutely clear that Ohua must be followed by Otua (probably without nights or glyphs in between).

However, the 'fruit' ought to be Omotohi, the fully grown moon - it is he who is 'cut'. The 'cutting' (tohi) will certainly follow after Ohua, it cannot come earlier. Neither Englert nor Métraux have Omotohi earlier than Ohua.

Both Englert and Métraux - and even Atan (in his odd and differently constructed month) - have paired together Omotohi (He Omo Tohi according to Atan) with an immediately preceding night called Rakau:

Rakau

Raau, medicine, remedy, drug. Ra'a'u, scratch on the skin. Rakau, a plant. Râkau, goods, property. Vanaga.

1. Wood; rakau ta, cudgel, stick. P Pau.: rakau, tree, to dress a wound. Mgv.: rakau, wood, timber, a tree; medicine, a remedy; an object. Mq.: ákau, wood, tree. Ta.: raáu, id. 2. Medicine, remedy, potion, ointment, furniture, any precious object, resources, baggage, riches, heritage, dowry, merchandise, treasure, wealth; rakau hakaneinei, purgative; rakau nui, rich, opulent; rakau kore, poor, beggar, indigent, miserable, an inferior; hakakamikami ki te rakau, to impoverish; rakau o te miro, ballast. Mq.: akau, anything in general. The medicine sense is particularized in Tonga, Nukuoro, Hawaii, Tahiti, Mangareva, Paumotu. In no other speech does wood stand so fully for wealth of possessions, but it will be recalled that Rapanui is destitute of timber and depends wholly upon driftwood. Churchill.

I have tried to summarize in my glyph dictionary the essence of the haú glyphs and already in the first sentence I suggest the picture to be a bent 'branch'. It is picture language for the path taken by a celestial object:

The haú glyphs are characterized by a bent 'branch', marked with 'feathers' on the outside:

The bent 'branch' represents the path of a luminary, beginning at bottom and moving up and counterclockwise, ending at the tip.

The 'feathers' are used to indicate calendrical periods. In the example above (Ab4-53) the 10 'feathers' indicate how the 'summer year' is divided into 10 periods (with presumably 18 days in each period).

In another example, below, from the Mamari moon calendar, the path of waxing moon is divided into 15 periods:

I have earlier located Rakau and Omotohi at Ca7-23--24:

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	Ca7-21	Ca7-22	Ca7-23	Ca7-24
	*Maúre*	*Ina-ira*	*Rakau*	*Omotohi*

Here I have followed the sequence of Englert: Maharu, Ohua, Otua, Maure, Ina-ira, Rakau and Omotohi. According to Métraux and Thompson, though, there should be a night Ohotu between Otua and Maure. I guess that idea may have been inspired by Ca7-16:

The design of Ca7-23 resembles that in Ca7-16. Englert's sequence orders Ca7-23 at Rakau (given that the pair Ca7-15--16 corresponds to one night only, viz. Otua. The sequence of Métraux and Thompson also puts Ca7-23 in parallel with Rakau (though here by using Ca7-16 as Ohotu).

It seems as if we have a double pair of glyphs with contrary meanings:

		branch not broken
Ca7-15	Ca7-16	branch not broken
branch broken
branch broken	Ca7-23	Ca7-24

16 is twice 8 and 24 is three times 8, which makes me remember the first group in Tahua:

side a
	Aa2-50	Aa2-55	Aa3-53	Aa5-47	Aa7-84
	8	8	8	10 + 1	12


Aa3-49	Aa3-50	Aa3-51	Aa3-52	Aa3-53	Aa3-54	Aa3-55	Aa3-56

Aa3-57	Aa3-58	Aa3-59	Aa3-60	Aa3-61	Aa3-62	Aa3-63	Aa3-64

2 as in 2nd phase (waning) is suggested at the top of the head in Aa3-52. In Aa3-55 an oval on the wing may suggest a completed cycle. In Aa3-54 a fat body may illustrate the ripe 'fruit', which the gods will be offered. I have classified 18 glyphs as tara (in Tahua), but only one of them, Aa3-54, has a rotund 'stomach'. Aa3-56 resembles Ha6-1--2, 'eating' though now en face.

The general shape exhibited in Ca7-16 and Ca7-23 suggests a canoe under full sail (i.e. sun). In Ca7-23 another suggestion is added: a 'branch' (i.e. the path of the sunlit moon). In Ca7-24 we can see how it has been broken (koti).

Kotikoti

To cut with scissors (since this is an old word and scissors do not seem to have existed, it must mean something of the kind). Vanaga.

To tear; kokoti, to cut, to chop, to hew, to cleave, to assassinate, to amputate, to scar, to notch, to carve, to use a knife, to cut off, to lop, to gash, to mow, to saw; kokotiga kore, indivisible; kokotihaga, cutting, gash furrow. Churchill.

The branch-shaped 'canoe under full sail' in Ca7-23 indicates that the name Rakau is correct. Ca7-24 will then naturally be the following phase - the broken branch Omotohi. In Ca7-25--29 the result is illustrated:

The bird at left has suddenly aquired a beak with a hook and the next bird in line has turned around to the back (tu'a) side.

The fish at right has suddenly changed direction, now head hanging down as if it was dead.

The central complex moon glyph has its dark side up (meaning later in time than the bottom light side). Its dark upper side has two signs (presumably sun discs), while the bottom side has only one. Its dark upper side has aquired also a moon sign.

Finally, it must be noticed that Ca7-9 (in the 3rd period), which we earlier have thought about, now becomes understandable:

The affixed eating arm is there to underline how waxing moon is eating to grow. Although the eating gesture is present in all the periods, it is in the 3rd period we must be reminded of how the 'first fruit' of every growth must be offered to the gods.