TRANSLATIONS

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The drum and the smith has one common factor - the noise:

"The European had known for years the magical function of the sounds of a smithy. He had been present many times at rituals in the course of which at a certain point a smith would strike the rock with his hammer or with the iron part of his anvil. By producing sound from the iron, in which the mythical first smith had brought so many benefits to mankind, he was reminding his fellow-men of the supreme power of Amma and the Water Spirit.

He was assisting their prayers and strengthening them by the sounds he made; he was appeasing the possible wrath of the celestial Beings by this acknowledgement of their pre-eminence. When men quarrelled with one another, he would intervene between the parties, hammer in hand, and strike the rocks, thus bringing a divine note into the human disorder and calming the passions aroused ..." (Ogotemmêli)

This reminds me about Thursday. Earlier I have written:

THURSDAY

This is Thursday:

Thursday is the day of thunder and therefore presumably of rain and lightning. Twins (glyph no. 4 from the left) signify fertility and without rain no growth.

Rain and things growing means that the period of hunger is over. Time for feasting. Glyphs nos. 5 and 7 perhaps are signs indicating 'kava' (= ginger on Easter Island). And glyphs nos. 3, 6 and 8 probably show people sitting down and eating. At first though the Gods must be given their share of the best, perhaps illustrated in glyph no. 2.

And glyph no. 9? Some of the global myths about twins talk about one of the twins being changed into a star. To get there presumably he must fly.

A few more reflections may now be added: The back-to-back pair (2nd and 3rd glyphs) presumably indicates the old and the new periods, and the uplifted Y-shape maybe illustrates the ghost-status of the left figure. We can compare with the equivalent moon phase (in Ca8-28--29):

week H
month C

Although the parallel calendars of the week in H and P start with Sunday, the 'new year' is embedded in the middle. The Stranger King in his double canoe (Tuesday) travels across the waters (Wednesday) to make a landing in Thursday, establishing himself as the new ruler.

'... The chief thus makes his appearance at Lakeba from the sea, as a stranger to the land. Disembarking at the capital village of Tubou, he is led first to the chiefly house (vale levu) and next day to the central ceremonial ground (raaraa) of the island. At both stages of this progression, the pretender is led along a path of barkcloth by local chieftains of the land. In Lau, this barkcloth is prescriptively a type considered foreign by origin, Tongan barkcloth. 

Later, at the kava ceremony constituting the main ritual of investiture, a native chieftain will bind a piece of white Fijian tapa about the paramount's arm. The sequence of barkcloths, together with the sequence of movements to the central ceremonial ground, recapitulate the correlated legendary passages of Tui Nayau from foreign to domestic, sea to land, and periphery to center.  

The Fijian barkcloth that in the end captures the chief represents his capture of the land: upon installation, he is said to hold the 'barkcloth of the land' (masi ni vanua). The barkcloth thus has deeper significance. In general ritual usage, barkcloth serves as 'the path of the god'. Hanging from the rafters at the rear, sacred end of the ancient temple, it is the avenue by which the god descends to enter the priest ...'

I cannot see any ceremonial adze (toki) among the Thursday glyphs. But the god Tor (as in Thursday) had a hammer, Mjölner:

"Never did this dreaded weapon - which was thrown - miss its mark. Afterwards it would return of its own accord to Thor's hand and, when necessary, become so small that he could easily hide it under his garments.

It had a name, Mjolnir, which meant 'The Destroyer'. A magic object, the hammer Mjolnir not only served to fight the enemy but also to give solemn consecration to public or private treaties, and more especially to marriage contracts." (Larousse)

The kava (GD34) glyphs may signify the change of state (death and rebirth) needed at the end and beginning of a ruling period. Another interpretation is that we see the zigzag lightning announcing thunder, in which case the absence of toki is understandable - the sound is enough.

The central power in ancient China was illustrated like this (we remember):

 

"... 'By striking the anvil,' said Ogotemmêli, 'they get back from the earth some of the life-force they gave it. Their blows recover it.'

But blows on the iron must be dealt by day. The smith's work is day labour, no doubt because the smithy fire, being a fragment of the sun, could not shine at night.

That is why it is forbidden, not only for smiths but for everybody, to strike blows on iron or stone or earth in the night-time. No blow of hammer or tap of pestle should be heard, whether loud or soft, in the silent hours. To strike blows at night would destroy the effect of the blows struck by day. It would mean the rejection of all that had been gained, so that the smith would lose whatever he had recovered during the day of the life-force of which he formerly divested himself." (Ogotemmêli)

Parallel ideas may have existed in Polynesia:

'There was noise at night at Marioro, it was Hina beating tapa in the dark for the god Tangaroa, and the noise of her mallet was annoying that god, he could endure it no longer. He said to Pani, 'Oh Pani, is that noise the beating of tapa?' and Pani answered, 'It is Hina tutu po beating fine tapa.' Then Tangaroa said, 'You go to her and tell her to stop, the harbour of the god is noisy.' Pani therefore went to Hina's place and said to her, 'Stop it, or the harbour of the god will be noisy.' But Hina replied, 'I will not stop, I will beat out white tapa here as a wrapping for the gods Tangaroa, 'Oro, Moe, Ruanu'u, Tu, Tongahiti, Tau utu, Te Meharo, and Punua the burst of thunder ...'

 

We should also remember my idea of translating Poike as Po-Ike (Darkness-Tapa beater), connected with the noon glyph Aa1-26:

Metoro seems to have read something similar at the beginning of side b (i.e. presumably at a cardinal point):

Ab1-1 Ab1-2 Ab1-3 Ab1-4 Ab1-5 Ab1-6 Ab1-7 Ab1-8
Te hoea - rutua te pahu - rutua te maeva - atua rerorero - atua ata tuu atua ata Rei - tuu te Rei hemoa i ako te vai Ko te maitaki - ko te maharoga

The sound of drums (rutua te pahu) evidently corresponds to Ab1-2 and we can recognize the similarity with Aa1-28:

  

In Ab1-2 the moon, rather than the sun, seems to be the person involved.

Pahu

Drum. Pahu-rutu-roa = Long-beating-drum. Barthel.

M. Pahu. Tree gong. Starzecka.

Pahu uma, coffin; in modern usage, any sort of jar. Pahupahu = To dig a hole. Vanaga.

A trough, barrel, cask, cradle, drum, chest, box; pahu nui, a kettle; pahu oka, a drawer; pahu papaku, coffin; pahu rikiriki, sheath; pahu viriviri, hogshead. Pahupahu, box. Churchill.

A trough, barrel, cask, cradle, drum, chest, box; pahu nui, a kettle; pahu oka, a drawer; pahu papaku, coffin; pahu rikiriki, sheath; pahu viriviri, hogshead; pahupahu, box. P Mgv., Ta.: pahu, a drum. Mq.: pahu, a drum, a large cylindrical container. (To.: bahu, a hollow tree set in water as a filter.) Sa.: pusa, a box. To.: buha, id. Fu.: pusa, id. Niue: puha, id. Pau.: puha, id. Pahuahi, lantern, beacon. Paukumi, closet, cupboard. Pahupopo, a mould; pahupopokai, cupboard for food. Pahure: 1. To sweep everything away. 2. To wound, to lacerate, scar, bruise, lesion, sore; pahurehure, to wound, to scratch; hakapahure, to wound. T Pau.: pahure, to be skinned; pahore, to peel off, to scale. Mgv.: pahore, to cut off, to chop, to slice. Ta.: pahore, to flay, to skin. Churchill 2.