TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

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4. Probably the 'eating gesture' of a.m. sun is a sign originating from the kai glyph type:


Ha5-52	kai

What is nourishing the sun? Whatever it is mother nature has her rules: What you take you must - sooner or later - return, or in the words of Ogotemmêli:

'The rays drink up the little waters of the earth, the shallow pools, making them rise, and then descend again in rain.' Then, leaving aside the question of water, he summed up his argument: 'To draw up and then return what one had drawn - that is the life of the world' ...

If we reverse the 'eating gesture' it ought to mean the process when sun returns what he has taken. The top parts in Ga2-25--26 exemplify 'reversed eating gestures':


Ga2-25	Ga2-26

The glyphs can therefore be labelled 'fire generators', and their appearance around new year, when a new 'fire' (sun, year) is to be alighted, appears to be appropriate.

Strictly speaking the gestures in Ga2-25--26 are not reversed because the 'fingers' are oriented upwards, not to the right. In e.g. Ab8-28 there is a truly reversed 'eating gesture:


Ab8-24	Ab8-25	Ab8-26	Ab8-27	Ab8-28	Ab8-29	Ab8-30

Ab8-31	Ab8-32	Ab8-33	Ab8-34	Ab8-35	Ab8-36

Ab8-37	Ab8-38	Ab8-39	Ab8-40	Ab8-41	Ab8-42	Ab8-43

A vertical reversal appears to take place between Ab8-24 and Ab8-25. In Ab8-26--27 there are 'eating gestures' and in Ab8-30 there is a set of uplifted hands, the right one curiously drawn. These 5 hands probably represent a group. Ab8-29 is an odd glyph in the surroundings, and the missing hand here possibly explains why there are two hands in Ab8-30. Ordinal number 29 together with a variant of hoea with the bottom opening towards left clearly says 'dark'.

We should remember the twin glyphs Ab4-68--69 which probably are expressing 'dark' respectively 'anti-dark', a change from darkness to light:


Ab4-68	Ab4-69

This insight forces me to add the following in the rima page:

... However, the 'fingers' in Ga2-25--26 are strictly speaking not 'reversed eating gestures' - they are oriented upwards and not to the right. Instead, a truly 'reversed eating gesture' is exemplified in Ab8-28:


Ab8-24	Ab8-25	Ab8-26	Ab8-27	Ab8-28	Ab8-29	Ab8-30

Here the meaning is not 'fire generator' but evidently diminishing ('anti-growing') light. Ordinal number 29 in the following glyph means 'dark'. It is a hoea (instrument for tattooing) glyph and it is normally oriented, not reversed (meaning light) as in Ab4-69:


Ab4-68	Ab4-69

The kai fingers upwards in the 'fire generators' refer to the sky above - the 'fire' to be alighted is in the sky, not on earth.