TRANSLATIONS
One thing leads
to another and so on without limit. While searching for the myth
about Maui fishing up land I happened to notice another short
little story (from Kapingamarangi) worthy of attention:
"Lobster said to Flounder: 'Let us-two hide from each other, see
who is best at that.' Flounder agreed to play this game.
Lobster went to a hole in the coral, hid his body; but his
feelers struck out, he could not hide them. Flounder knew where
he was, found him.
Said Flounder; 'Now it is my turn.' He stirred up a cloud of mud
and scooted into it. Then he returned to Lobster's side, so
quietly that Lobster did not know he was there.
'Here I am sir, Lobster!'
Lobster was so angry at being beaten that he stamped on the fish
and smashed him flat. Cried Flounder; 'Now I've got one eye in
the mud!' Therefore Lobster gouged it out for him and roughly
stuck it back on top.
This is the reason why men tread on the Flounder, but can always
see the Lobster's feelers outside his hole." (Legends of the
South Seas)
My attention was drawn to the fact
that there is a Lobster involved, which made me associate to how
on Easter Island they forgot the old customs and beliefs.
Furthermore:
... The dream soul
came to Rangi Meamea and looked around searchingly. The
dream soul spoke: 'Here at last is level land where the king can
live.' She named the place 'Rangi Meamea A Hau Maka O Hiva'
[22
Rangi Meamea].
The mountain she named 'Peke Tau O Hiti A Hau Maka O Hiva'
[23
(Maunga) Peke Tau O Hiti].
The dream soul
moved along a curve from Peke Tau O Hiti to the mountain
Hau Epa, which she named 'Maunga Hau Epa A Hau Maka O
Hiva' [24
Maunga Hau Epa].
... It is difficult
to interpret pair 23 and 24, which represents two mountains. The
terracing of Maunga Hau Epa (this is the correct form,
not 'Auhepa') and obscure traditions (RM:295; Brown
1924:59, Maunga Hau Eepe) suggest that the place must
have had special importance ...
... The segment
peke of place name 23 suggests (by way of MAO.) some type of
insect (for example, pepeke 'insect, beetle'; pekeriki'
'lice, vermin'; peketua 'centipede') ...
Peke
1. To
bite (of fish or lobster pecking at fishhook). 2. To
repeat an action: he-peke te rua; ina ekó
peke-hakaou te rua don't you do it a second
time; ina ekó peke hakaou-mai te rua ara,
don't come back here again.
Vanaga.
To succeed, to
follow. Churchill. |
It would not surprise me if
Mauga Peke Tau O Hiti in some way refers to the Lobster and
I think about Ab8-52:
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Ab8-43 |
Ab8-44 |
Ab8-45 |
Ab8-46 |
Ab8-47 |
o te
pito motu |
ihe tau |
e i te
tahiri - ka
hauhaua |
ki tona marama |
iheihe tuu ma
te toga |
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Ab8-48 |
Ab8-49 |
Ab8-50 |
Ab8-51 |
Ab8-52 |
te hau tea |
ko te henua -
ki te ragi |
kua noho ia |
i tona henua |
i te
ura |
Metoro
identified Ab8-52 as a lobster (te ura).
At Ab8-47 he said
not only toga (south) but intensified his normal ihe
(for GD45) into iheihe (thereby telling us that the left
part of the glyph - according to him - is GD45).
Toga
1. Winter season. Two seasons used to
be distinguished in ancient times: hora,
summer, and toga, winter. 2. To lean against
somehing; to hold something fast; support, post
supporting the roof. 3. To throw something with a
sudden movement. 4. To feed oneself, to eat enough;
e-toga koe ana oho ki te aga, eat well first
when you go to work. Vanaga.
1. Winter. 2. Column, prop;
togatoga, prop, stay. Churchill.
Wooden platform for a dead chief:
ka tuu i te toga (Bb8-42), when the wooden
platform has been erected. Barthel 2. |
The intensification
(ihe-ihe) confirms my view about Ab8-47 as the 'Great
South' (Tonga-nui). We can compare with how Metoro
at midnight (Aa1-42--43) said tau-uru-uru instead of his
otherwise used tau-uru.
At Ab8-43 we have
the 'cut-off-navel-string' station (in other words: the place of
'crossing over',
hakapekaga mai, as
Metoro said at Ca5-20).
At Ab8-45 we
remember the 'gushing forth' (tahiri) of a 'feathery
snake' with 10 marks:
... At right (in
the glyph sequence above) we find GD73 (toga) suggesting
death and separation of soul from body. In the middle we have a
variant of niu combined with GD19 (hau) where
there possibly is a gushing forth (tahiri), maybe of
blood ('e-ure tahiri-á te toto'):
Ure
1.
Generation; ure matá, warlike, bellicose
generation (matá, obsidian, used in making
weapons). 2. Offspring; brother; colleague i toou
ure ka tata-mai, your colleague has turned up.
3. Friendship, friendly relationship; ku-ké-á te
ure, they have become enemies (lit.: friendship
has changed). 4. Penis (this definition is found in
Englert's 1938 dictionary, but not in La Tierra
de Hotu Matu'a). Ure tahiri, to gush, to
spurt, to flow; e-ure tahiri-á te toto, blood
is flowing in gushes. Ure tiatia moana,
whirlwind which descend quickly and violently onto
the ocean; whirlpool, eddy. Vanaga.
Penis; kiri ure, prepuce, foreskin. Ureure,
spiral. Churchill.
H.
Ule 1. Penis. For imaginative compounds see
'a'awa 1, 'aweule, ulehala,
ulehole, ulepa'a, ulepuaa,
ule'ulu. Kū ka ule, he'e ka laho, the
penis is upright, the scrotum runs away (refers to
breadfruit: when the blossom (pōule) appears
erect, there will soon be fruit). 2. Tenon for a
mortise; pointed end of a post which enters the
crotch of a rafter (also called ma'i kāne).
Ho'o ule, to form a tenon or post for the
crotch of a rafter. 3. To hang. Wehewehe. |
... The flamy (ûra) red (úraúra) crayfish (ura)
- as he appears after having been cooked properly - probably was
used as a symbol for how sun returned after the 'flood' ...
... The old woman
returned and saw that the earth oven had been opened and the
crayfish eaten; only the shell remained. She said angrily,
'Where is my share of the crayfish?' They said, 'There is no
more. We forgot you and that is why nothing has been left.'
The magician
shouted, 'Men who are standing, fall down. This is because
nothing has been left of the large crayfish with the long tail,
and to teach you never to take my belongings again.' All the
statues fell down, for the heart of the magician was full of
anger ...
In Ab8-52 we can see 4 + 4 = 8
'legs' in harmony with the number of the text line. The ordinal
number of the glyph is 52 which equals 364 / 7. Looking again at
the kuhane stations we maybe should reorganize the table
a little into:
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 |
24 * 15 = 360 |
25 |
Oromanga |
26 |
Hanga Moria One |
residences of the
current
king at Anakena |
26 * 14
= 364 |
Paepae: |
27 |
Papa O Pea |
28 |
Ahu Akapu |
residences for the
future
and the
abdicated
kings |
28 * 15 = 420 |
The Lobster may be located at the
last ordinary station (no. 23), before the cycle is completed in
no. 24. I guess no. 24 means a new beginning.
Epa
To extend horizontally, to jut out.
Vanaga. |
In Ab8-45 the
'gushing forth' (of a kind of liquid of course) must result in a
horizontal surface, that is the nature of water and other liquids.
Barthel denies that
Auhepa is the correct name, but I disagree. What is said,
done or written is always right in the mythic world. If we combine
epa (horizontal extension - a quite reasonable name for
the plateau of solstice) with au = mist (etc) it becomes meaningful. Au-(h)epa is the place where sun has
stopped in his travel southwards and where now the mist of a new
birth is spreading out:
Au, a'u
Au 1. Me, I. Personal pronoun
used in conjunction with verbs; when on its own, the
form used is koau. 2. Smoke; au kiokio,
thick, pungent smoke (of a fire). 3. Current;
he-haro te vaka i te au , the boat is towed off
course in the current. 4. Dew. 5. bile, gall. 6.
Au moa, chicken's gall; greenish colour (like
that of gall). 7. Au ra'e, the people first
served in a feast where food or gifts are
distributed. 8. Au hopu bonito fish. Vanaga.
A'u 1. Birthing pains;
matu'a a'u, biological mother (not adoptive);
vi'e hakaa'u, midwife. 2. Vessel, cup (Tahitian
word). Vanaga.
1. I (vau). P Mgv., Mq.,
Ta.: au, I. Ta.: vau, id. In its
simplest Polynesian form this pronoun is compound,
u being the element in which inheres the ego
sense. We note here the occurrence of forms in which
au is modified. The Maori has ahau, a
composite of a and hau. The vau
type is found in Rapanui, Paumotu and Tahiti,
ovau in Tahiti and Paumotu, kovau in
Rapanui, wau in Hawaii, owau in
Hawaii, awau in the South Island Maori,
avou in Aniwa. 2. The gall. P Mgv.: au,
hau, eahu, gall. Mq., Ta.: au,
id. The aspirated Mangarevan eahu may
preserve a Proto-Samoan original, for we find ahu
in Tonga and Niuē, two
languages generally retentive of an original
aspiration which has vanished from Samoan. 3. Vapor,
smoke T. P Mgv.: ahu,
au, cloud
mist. Ta.: au,
smoke vapor. Of the Proto-Samoan stem asu
all the Tongafiti languages have lost the consonant,
except for its interesting preservation as an
alternative in Mangarevan, and all have lost the
distinctive smoke sense. The attribution of smoke as
a meaning in Rapanui
we owe to an authority of the second rank, but taken
with the form preservation in Mangarevan this sense
retention is probable, and taken in coagmentation
they bear upon the central theme of a Proto-Samoan
migration onward to Southeast Polynesia.
Auahi (au
3 - ahi
1), smoke; miro auahi,
steamboat. Mgv.: auahi,
smoke. Mq.: auahi,
smoke, vapor. Ta.: auahi,
fire. Churchill. |
... I
knew of two men who lived in another settlement on
the Noatak river. They did not believe in the
spirit of the string figures, but said they
originated from two stars, agguk, which are
visible only when the sun has returned after the
winter night. One of these men was inside a
dance-house when a flood of mist poured in ... His
two companions rapidly made and unmade the figure
'Two Labrets', an action intended to drive away the
spirit of the string figures, uttering the usual
formula ... but the mist kept pouring in ... |
It was not the above which made me
decide to write about the Lobster and the Flounder. Instead my
thoughts went like this:
Given that the Lobster represents
one phase of the sun's yearly journey (i.e. the end of the 2nd
half counted from new year at winter solstice), then his
opposite phase must be the Flounder, his antagonist in the
little hide-and-seek story.
The Flounder is a fish and a fish
which hides in the mud. The mud is one facet of the earth and if
there is a fish which personifies earth it may be the Flounder. The Flounder is flat and so is
Mother Earth.
If the Flounder represents the end
of the 1st half of the year, then the whole first half will mean
the beginning up to the point when land is fished up from the
deeps.
Before that can happen, the sky
must be lifted up and that we indeed can see in Aa1-5--8:
Next I remembered the glyphs around
midsummer:
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Aa4-55 |
Aa4-56 |
Aa4-57 |
Aa4-58 |
Aa4-59 |
Aa4-60 |
Aa4-61 |
Aa4-62 |
ko
te tagata |
kua
rere ki te manu |
ki
te ihe - kua rere te manu |
ki
te ragi |
ko
te manu kua agau - ki te ihe |
e
pare tuu ki te ragi |
e
hanau |
ki
to ihe - te manu kua rere |
One 'eye' in Aa4-58 becomes two in
Aa4-60. Possibly this development alludes to the Flounder having
his eye-in-the-mud excavated and transplanted onto the upside.
Metoro said ragi and
the Flounder should then be not the physical land but the land
in the sky, i.e. that part of the sky which is centered around
the south celestial pole. At midsummer sun is closer to that
part of the sky than during the rest of the year.
Toga-nui
means the Great South, but in the rongorongo texts we
find GD73 (toga according to Metoro) at the
darkest time of the year. Fishing up land
should not occur during the darkest time of the year, therefore
GD73 - which is designed to show the time when somebody has died
and his soul rises to the sky - presumably should not mean
south. I think of the glyph toga meaning 'north' in spite
of the word toga being south. Toga =
to-ga and to means how sun rises towards zenith:
To
1. Particle sometimes used with the
article in ancient legends; i uto to te hau,
the ribbon was in the float. 2. To rise (of the sun)
during the morning hours up to the zenith: he-to
te raá. Vanaga.
1. Of. T Pau., Ta.: to, of.
Mgv.: to, genitive sign. Mq.: to, of,
for. 2. This, which. Churchill. |
Beyond zenith we
probably have ta (as in Taha, Tavake etc)
instead of to:
Tá
OR. Write, writing. The name of
writing before the term rongorongo in 1871
became current. Fischer.
1. To tattoo ( = tatú), to
tattoo pictures on the skin, also: he-tá ite
kona, tá-kona. 2. To weave (a net): he-tá i
te kupega. 3. To shake something, moving it
violently up and down and from one side to the
other; he-tá e te tokerau i te maga miro, the
wind shakes the branches of the trees; also in the
iterative form: e-tá-tá-ana e te tokerau i te
tôa, the wind continuously shakes the leaves of
the sugarcane. 4. To pull something up suddenly, for
instance, an eel just caught, dropping it at once on
a stone and killing it: he-tá i te koreha.
Tá-tá-vena-vena,
ancient witching formula. Vanaga.
1. Of. 2. This, which. 3.
Primarily to strike: to sacrifice, to tattoo, to
insert, to imprint, to write, to draw, to copy, to
design, to color, to paint, to plaster, to note, to
inscribe, to record, to describe, number, letter,
figure, relation; ta hakatitika, treaty;
ta igoa, sign; ta ki, secretary; ta
kona, to tattoo; ta vanaga, secretary.
Churchill.
... the root ta through its
long series of known combinations carries a strongly
featured sense of action that is peripheral,
centrifugal, and there seems to be at least a
suspicion of the further connotation that the action
is exerted downward ... The secondary sense of
cutting will easily be seen to be a striking with a
specialized implement, and we find this sense stated
without recognition of the primal striking sense
only in Mangareva, Nukuoro, Viti, and Malekula. In
Indonesia this secondary sense is predominant,
although Malagasy ta may come somewhat close
to the striking idea ... Churchill 2. |
Maybe the Easter
Island double forms of words as in for instance mauga /
mouga is a result of the shifting of poles?
Maúga (mouga)
Maúga.
1. Last; aga maúga o te Ariki o Hotu Matu'a,
King Hotu Matua's last work. 2. Hill, mountain.
Vanaga.
Mouga, moúga.
Last; vânaga moúga o te Ariki O Hotu Matu'a,
the last words of King Hotu Matu'a. Vanaga.
Mouga.
1. Enough, that's all, at last. 2. Mountain, ridge
of hills; mouga iti, hillock; tua mouga,
mountain top; hiriga mouga; hillside,
declivity, slope. 3. Extinction, end, interruption,
solution; te mouga o te hiriga, end of a
voyage; pagaha mouga kore, without
consolation. 4. To get. Churchill. |
The mountain at the
end of the year seems to have been regarded as located in the
north among for example the Chinese. The cold winds blew from
the north and the emperor always faced south.
So even if the sun
at midsummer on Easter Island is as close as possible = as far
south as possible, the cold wind blew from the south. South
could then be referred to as Toga = the last phase of the
year.
The word toga
presumably existed before the Polynesians went as far south as
New Zealand and Easter Island. The meaning of rising sun towards
zenith, connected with south, points to a place north of the
equator.
Toga
1. Winter season. Two seasons used to
be distinguished in ancient times: hora,
summer, and toga, winter. 2. To lean against
somehing; to hold something fast; support, post
supporting the roof. 3. To throw something with a
sudden movement. 4. To feed oneself, to eat enough;
e-toga koe ana oho ki te aga, eat well first
when you go to work. Vanaga.
1. Winter. 2. Column, prop;
togatoga, prop, stay. Churchill.
Wooden platform for a dead chief:
ka tuu i te toga (Bb8-42), when the wooden
platform has been erected. Barthel 2. |
To
eat well (e-toga koe) also tells us about the 1st half
of the cycle of the sun. We can then understand (in a new
way) the meaning of Aa1-22 and similar glyphs:
Probably toga has developed from to and
possibly toka refers to the original meaning:
Toka
1. Any large, smooth rock in the
sea not covered by seaweeds (eels are often
found between such rocks). 2. To be left (of a
small residue of something, of sediments of a
liquid, of dregs); to settle (of sediments);
ku-toka-ana te vai i raro i te puna, there
is little water left at the bottom of the lake;
ku-toka-á te oone, the sediments have
settled. Tokaga, residue, remainder;
firm, stable remainder or part of somthing.
Vanaga.
A rock under water. P Mgv.:
toka, coral. Mq.: toka, a bank where
the fishing is good. Ta.: toa, rock,
coral. Tokatagi, sorrow T. Churchill. |
The
sediments have settled (ku-toka-á te oone) reminds us
about the Flounder. But she (lying flat down cannot be a he)
'stirred up a cloud
of mud', which means that she is not at the toka
station.
Shifting the first wovel in toka from o to
a we get taka:
Taka
Taka,
takataka. Circle; to form circles,
to gather, to get together (of people). Vanaga.
1. A dredge. P Mgv.:
akataka,
to fish all day or all night with the line, to
throw the fishing line here and there. This can
only apply to some sort of net used in fishing.
We find in Samoa
ta'ā a small fishing line, Tonga taka
the short line attached to fish hooks, Futuna
taka-taka a fishing party of women in the
reef pools (net), Maori takā the thread
by which the fishhook is fastened to the line,
Hawaii kaa in the same sense, Marquesas
takako a badly spun thread, Mangareva
takara a thread for fastening the bait on
the hook. 2. Ruddy. 3. Wheel, arch; takataka,
ball, spherical, round, circle, oval, to roll in
a circle, wheel, circular piece of wood, around;
miro takataka, bush; haga takataka,
to disjoin; hakatakataka, to round, to
concentrate. P Pau.: fakatakataka, to
whirl around. Mq.: taka, to gird. Ta.:
taa, circular piece which connects the frame
of a house. Churchill.
Takai, a curl, to tie; takaikai, to
lace up; takaitakai, to coil. P Pau.:
takai, a ball, to tie. Mgv.: takai, a
circle, ring, hoop, to go around a thing. Mq.:
takai, to voyage around. Ta.: taai,
to make into a ball, to attach. Churchill. |
The meaning of
taka is connected with the line to a fishhook, also to
ruddy, also to gird, whirl around etc. We should presumbly
understand taka to refer to the end of the 2nd half
of the cycle of the sun.
In Churchill's
note about the similarity between Easter Island and the
Marquesas we may have a clue to the Hiva from where
Hotu Matua travelled:
Magó
Spotted dogfish, small shark.
Vanaga.
Mogo,
shark. Tu. id. Mgv. mago, id. Mq.
mano, mako, mono, moko id. T. maó,
id. In addition to this list the word is found
as mago in Samoa, Maori, Niuē,
and in Viti as mego.
It is only in Rapanui and the Marquesas that we
encounter the variant mogo.
Churchill. |
The double forms (mogo
/ mago) must have a reason, I think, and the reason,
I guess, is the cosmic structure where o refers to
the 1st half of the cycle and a to the 2nd half.
Leaving these
speculations and returning to the glyphs we should begin
with
rereading some of my previous comments:
I imagine that Haua and
Makemake possibly are described with Aa4-58
and Aa4-60:
My interpretation is based
first of all on the similarity between the words
Haua and hau (GD19).
Secondly, I have classified
these unusual glyphs as belonging to GD19, due
to the top part which is rounded and have
'feather' signs on them.
Thirdly, although Metoro
did not say hau here, he expressed his
opinion of the meaning by saying: ki te ragi
resp. e pare tuu ki te ragi. I think
he was talking about the 'commanders' (ragi),
i.e. the gods in the sky.
4thly, my earlier ideas about
these two glyphs (obviously belonging together,
yet mirror images), do not contradict the new
ideas:
...
Aa4-58 and Aa4-60 are very strange glyphs
without - as far as I have been able to
ascertain - parallels anywhere among the
rongorongo texts. But we can observe the
'knee' at left in Aa4-58 and at right in Aa4-60
- probably indicating the shift from waxing to
waning phase. One (black?) 'eye' in the 'head'
of Aa4-58 is changed into two (one black and one
white?) in the (double?) head of Aa4-60, as if
the 'fire' of the old half-year has gone and a
new 'fire' been alighted from the old. Aa4-58
has 'spooky arms' presumably indicating 'ghost'
status ...
To be more specific: the left
('spooky' or 'female' figure) is Haua,
while the right is Makemake. I identify
them with the 2 halves of the cycle. In Hawaii,
at new year, we have Haumea briefly
mentioned:
...
The 'living god', moreover, passes the night
prior to the dismemberment of Lono in a
temporary house called 'the net house of
Kahoali'i', set up before the temple
structure where the image sleeps. In the myth
pertinent to these rites, the trickster hero -
whose father has the same name (Kuuka'ohi'alaki)
as the Kuu-image of the temple - uses a
certain 'net of Maoloha' to encircle a
house, entrapping the goddess Haumea;
whereas, Haumea (or Papa) is also
a version of La'ila'i, the archetypal
fertile woman, and the net used to entangle her
had belonged to one Makali'i, 'Pleiades'
...
5thly, I identify Haua
with the Hawaiian Haumea, the 'archetypal
fertile woman’. The appendix -mea means
red (the colour of growth and abundant life)...
we
have here a goddess Haumea, which sounds
like a combination of hau tea and tapa
mea. The night side of Haumea could
be hau (tea) and the day side
could be (tapa) mea. Together
these two glyph types would then represent
Mother Earth.
Haumea
is Mother Earth (Papa), but she is also
La'ila'i, i.e. Ragiragi, 'sky-sky'
(?). Earth and sky are close. Here both are
women.
6thly, we have the kuhane
of Haumaka. The combination of hau
and maka probably is meant to allude to
Haua and Makemake.
...
No mention has ever been made of Haua
except in connection with Makemake. The
formula which accompanies an offering to
Makemake always includes Haua who
appears in the myth as the god's companion ...
Make
and maka are different, but:
...The first allusion to Makemake is
found in the early account of Gonzalez
expedition:
...
I observed that on the day on which we erected
the crosses, when our chaplain went accompanying
the litanies, numbers of natives stepped forward
onto the path and offered their cloaks, while
the women presented hens and pullets, and all
cried Maca Maca, treating them
with much veneration until hey had passed beyond
the rocks by which the track they were following
was encumbered ... |
At Aa4-55 we can see what looks like a
birth (presumably of the 2nd half of the year), though
Metoro waited until Aa4-61
with his 'e
hanau':
Hanau
1. Race, ethnic group. Hanau
eepe, the thick-set race; hanau momoko,
the slender race (these terms were mistranslated
as 'long-ears' and 'short-ears'). 2. To be born.
Hanau tama, pregnant woman; vî'e hanau
poki, midwive (also: vî'e hakaa'u).
Vanaga.
To be born; vie hanau,
midwife. Churchill. |
Maybe the birth process is not completed
before the 60th glyph.
|