TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

We leave moko for the moment. A lizard easily slips into a hole in the ground, a good symbol for Mercury, but also useful - to a lesser extent - for the other 'planets'.

Instead the game should be hônu, and how for example Aa2-65 (65 = 5 * 13) fits in with what has been written in the dictionary, where hônu is described as a creature of the 'sea' (the 'sweat of the worm Rigi'), who dies with the 2nd quarter, allowing room for the 'turtle'.

This is the place to document what I earlier have written about the glyphs around Aa2-65:

While I was documenting the GD53 glyphs in Tahua I found the odd Aa2-67:


Aa2-59	Aa2-60	Aa2-61	Aa2-62	Aa2-63	Aa2-64	Aa2-65	Aa2-66	Aa2-67
koia	tona purega	ka moe	ki te hoga ka rogo			ki te honu	no te henua	ka hua nei te poporo

Here I have changed my normal painting method for the words of Metoro: instead of painting red those words which I recognize as his normal choices according to what the glyphs show I have this time painted red those words which appear contrary or strange according to his normal choices.

In Aa2-61 there is nothing whatsoever (as far as I can see) which motivates moe. And in Aa2-62--64 rogo also is a strange word to find.

The two redpainted words probably indicate that Metoro had an idea of the meaning of this sequence of glyphs, and that he tried to convey its meaning to Bishop Jaussen.

The conjunction between my thinking about how to classify Aa2-67 and the investigation into the mystieries of the bird-snare in New Zealand suddenly made me realize that possibly Aa2-67 should be interpreted as the bird-snare by which the sun 'bird' is caught at winter solstice. To argue for this:

1. The henua (GD37) at left has signs of darkness (lines across).

2. The two semiovals at right also have lines across, adding to the impression of darkness, at the same time giving us a clue for the sun (which seems often to be depicted as two semicircles, possibly to indicate half-years).

3. The semiovals are not semicircles, instead they are more broad than high, maybe to indicate the slow movement at the solstices as contrasted with his quick movement at the equinoxes.

4. Ordinary GD53 glyphs with (probably) sun-circles has a straight vertical line through the circles, here we see straight horizontal lines across the semiovals, which possibly should be understood to mean that sun is 'lying down to take a rest'.

5. In Aa2-65 we have honu - a sign of solstice (by comparing sun's slow movement with those of a turtle).

6. In Aa2-61 Metoro (oddly) is using the word moe (probably to indicate that someone is 'sleepy').

7. His word rogo at Aa2-62--64 probably is to be read as Rogo and in the moon calendars Rongo always seems to be located at the end of the month (if his name is mentioned at all), which presumably means that he is in some way connected with end and beginning (cfr also the Hawaiian Makahiki new year ceremonies when Lono is sacrificed).

8. The left part of Aa2-67 could be interpreted as the 'black’(meaning 'death' )‘perch' because GD37 suggests both 'time/space period' and 'wood'.

9. The right part of Aa2-67 could then be intepreted as the two strings snaring the 'bird' with the straight lines across indicating the 'legs' of the sun bird having been caught. (Of course the glyph must first be turned 90° counterclockwise.)

10. The glyph sequence Aa2-59--67 is a unit, because another group of glyphs is beginning with Aa2-68 and because yet another group of glyphs is ending with Aa2-58. There are 9 such groups of glyphs which seem to belong to a greater pattern, all ending similarly, viz. with hatched GD37 glyphs:


Aa2-35	Aa2-43	Aa2-48	Aa2-52	Aa2-58	Aa2-67	Aa2-77	Aa3-11	Aa3-38
5	4	4	5	4	4	6	5	4
26						15
1st half-year (?)			2nd half-year (?)			X (?)

The top short ends of the GD37 rectangles are drawn as if they were 'lopped off' in Aa2-48 and Aa3-38 (though in different directions). Presumably this means that they are 'cut short' (koti), Aa2-48 after the 1st half-year (13 hatchmarks, the last four across a very thin GD37 - midsummer) and Aa3-38 after the 2nd half-year - including the X-area - (28 hatchmarks).

I would like to add how Aa2-43 and Aa2-58 are similar, yet different. The structure locates the equinoxes to these two glyphs, I think. Both have 4 lines across henua, and the lines are horizontal (= equal duration for day and night, equinox).

In Aa2-58, though the 3rd line (counted from the top) is slanting downwards, probably to distinguish autumn equinox ('fall', vero) from spring equinox.

On the Santiago Staff we have glyphs (redmarked) which probably indicates the presence of sun (I5-99) and moon (I5-93) in conjunction with hatchmarked henua:


I5-92	I5-93	I5-94

I5-95	I5-96	I5-97

I5-98	I5-99	I5-100

The moon signs in I5-93 - 2 at left and 3 at right (presumably referring to the moon side respectively the sun side) - inspires comparison with those in Aa2-60, 62--63:


Aa2-60	Aa2-62	Aa2-63

I guess those 3 at right in Aa2-60 also allude to the sun (the 3 wives of the sun?). The signs are very similar to those in I5-93.

In Aa2-62 there are also 2+1 = 3 signs, but they have a different design. The 2 at bottom are similar to the 'feet' of`hônu, while the top one is more like the front end of a canoe. However, considering the 'feet' in Aa2-65

we see an anomaly in the right 'foot' - it is turned the wrong way. I imagine the meaning is to allude to the (normally) open beak of GD23:

The front end of the canoe here (in the beak) is shown in upside down position.

In Aa2-63 the major message conveyed is the gesture of 'eating' (while in Aa2-62 we can imagine a 'snake'). I guess we have one moon sickle at left and one at right. The 3rd sign (bottom right) looks more like a sign of the sun in form of the front end of a symmetric oval. I have seen such signs (showing the complete oval) as elbow signs.

An example is Aa5-21:

In the year calendar of G we have these honu glyphs:


Ga3-12	Ga5-12	Ga5-14	Ga5-22	Ga5-25	Ga5-28	Ga6-24
3	18		20			28

The variants in periods 3 and 28 are different from the 5 other. Possibly Ga3-12 ignites a new fire, while Ga6-24 marks the end of a lunar period (GD37 with 'watery' end at the top). Not only do the line numbers and the ordinal numbers of the glyphs in the lines give information (3-12 is half 6-24), but also the period numbers in the calendar (3 for the 3 extra-calendrical dark nights between the calendar years respectively 28 as the last illuminated moon night in the month).

18 is the autumn exquinox period (18 alludes to 180 = 360/2). Ga5-12 has one 'eye' while Ga5-14 has two, and 1 means both the 1st 'year' and sun, while 2 means both the 2nd 'year' and moon. The ordinal numbers 12 and 14 reinforce the message.

20 is the period number which ought to associate to a final phase, although in the G calendar the vero of fall appears in the 19th period. 20 is in G rather the period which initiates the dark quarter. According to the kuhane stations, however, Hanga Hoonu is number 21, which presumably means that Taharoa is vero:

1	*Nga Kope Ririva Tutuu Vai A Te Taanga*	9	*Hua Reva*	17	*Pua Katiki*
2	*Te Pu Mahore*	10	*Akahanga*	18	*Maunga Teatea*
3	*Te Poko Uri*	11	*Hatinga Te Kohe*	19	*Mahatua*
4	*Te Manavai*	12	*Roto Iri Are*	20	*Taharoa*
5	*Te Kioe Uri*	13	*Tama*	21	*Hanga Hoonu*
6	*Te Piringa Aniva*	14	*One Tea*	22	*Rangi Meamea*
7	*Te Pei*	15	*Hanga Takaure*	23	*Peke Tau O Hiti*
8	*Te Pou*	16	*Poike*	24	*Mauga Hau Epa*

The conclusion must be that the ordinal numbers of the periods in the G calendar are wrong: we must add 1 to all the periods.

As to the honu in Aa2-65, it in some way presumably represents sun and the 1st 'year', because it has only 1 'eye'.