TRANSLATIONS

next page previous page up home

Next page is the first in the series of 'Excursion' pages:

We can begin our investigation by referring to what happens at the end of the next to last glyph line in the K text:
Kb4-15 Kb4-16 Kb4-17 Kb4-18 Kb4-19
Ga7-11 Ga7-12 Ga7-13 Ga7-14 Ga7-15
Ga7-16 Ga7-17 Ga7-18 Ga7-19 Ga7-20

In Kb4-19 the head appears to be displaced from its normal position into the function of a fist. It happens in the glyph positioned as number 19, immediately beyond the final glyph Kb4-18.

An inverted henua ora is, it seems, the result of this displacement into a 'One Hunaphu' position. In Ga7-15 (with 15 as in the full moon night) an open hand is present. From the elbow a kind of growth emerges. In Ga7-20, at a later stage, the open hand has closed and become a great fist.

The 'emerging from elbow' sign is used also at noon according to Tahua:

Aa1-24 Aa1-25 Aa1-26 Aa1-27
ko te nuahine -  i mamau i te ahi e uhi tapamea ko te ahi - hakaturou ki te henua

The 'Old Woman' (nuahine) is arresting (mamau) the 'fire' (ahi) in Aa1-24. Then the infertile (Y) time follows and the black cloth (reversed tapa mea) covers the earth (henua). The fertile sun (ahi) is 'cursed' (hakaturou).

The words of Metoro now make perfect sense. The 'Old Woman' presumably is a personification of the moon:

Nuahine, nuehine

Nuahine. 1. Old woman. 2. Ko te Nuahine ká umu a ragi kotekote, ancient name of 'the woman in the moon' inspired by the resemblance of its landscape with the likeness of a woman sitting, lighting the fire of her oven. Vanaga.

Nuehine. Old woman. Churchill.

"[Englert 1948, 165:] '... se selia nombrar Ko te Nuahine káumu ŕ rangi kote kote que significa: La vieja que enciende el curanto en el cielo kotekote. Puedo haber sido una personificación de la luna porque las viejos decían, comentando este nombre, que no es una montańa que seve en la luna, sino una mujer anciana que está suntada [sentada?] al lado un gran curanto umu pae (de piedras en circulo)." (Barthel)

She lights the fire (enciende) at the opposite time, at midnight when a new day will take over from the old one - and the 'sky is broken' (cielo kotekote). At that time sun is on the other side of the earth and she rules. The new 'fire' (day sun) is her 'baby'. She created the new day (i.e. the 1st half of it up to noon, the fertile part) and she therefore has the capacity to 'arrest' her 'baby'.

... Maui, in the custom of ancient times, had several different names. At the beginning he was Maui potiki because he was the youngest child. Then he had his given name, Maui tikitiki a Taranga, and later he acquired other names for different sides of his character. According to what he was up to he might be known as Maui nukarau, or Maui-the-trickster; Maui atamai, Maui-the-quick-witted; Maui mohio, Maui-the-knowing; Maui toa, Maui-the-brave; and so on. He was an expert at the game of teka, or dart-throwing, and all the best patterns in the string game of whai, or cat's cradles, were invented by Maui. He was also a great kite-flier, and the story is told of a small boy of another name (but it could only have been Maui) who once came half out of the water and snatched the kite-string of a child on the land. He then slipped back into the sea and continued flying it from under the water until his mother was fetched, for she was the only one who could control him and make him behave at that time ...

Comparing Aa1-24 with Ga7-15 reveals noteworthy differences:

Aa1-24 Ga7-15

The 'product' is light (symbolized by hetuu) in Aa1-24, but darkness (hua poporo) in Ga7-15. Probably the 'persons' represent the moon in both glyphs. In Ga7-15 her period is full moon, while in Aa1-24 her period is new moon, the time when she will take a bath in vaiora a Tane.

Is that the reason why Metoro emphasized how the earth came into shadow (the sun was cursed)? Was he thinking about moon hiding the sun from us?

According to Mamari 'the sky is broken' at full moon (Omotohi):

Ca7-24

The 'sucking time' (omo) is finished (tohi) at full moon. Ordinal number 24 also here. But at full moon sun is at opposition to the moon, on the other side of the earth. Ca7-24 seems to indicate that a period is being broken, but it cannot be the sun, it must be the waxing phase of the moon.

The elbow serves the same function as broken moon 'henua' in Ca7-24, I think. But the elbows in Aa1-24 and Ga7-15 are the elbows of the moon. At new moon (when moon is in a line between us and the sun, most easily visualized at noon) a new month will begin and the old month must be broken. There are 2 'months' - the fertile 1st waxing face and the sterile 2nd waning face. At new moon (and noon) waning moon is 'broken', and at full moon (and midnight) waxing moon is 'broken'.

When waxing moon is 'broken' she changes sex and becomes male (no longer capable of giving birth). Maybe that explains why there is a 'sun limb' generated from her elbow in Aa1-24. In her new incarnation she will be p.m. sun.

The moon person in Aa1-24 is 'eating', i.e. represents waxing moon. In Ga7-15 the moon person has a sign of pregnancy in her 'beak', which puts her at another station of her cycle, presumably close to new moon. Her elbow generates hua poporo, which in this perspective must represent her fertile incarnation, her new generation. She generates 'fruit' (at right in the future) and her sex is now (implicitly) changed back to female. Her open hand waits.