TRANSLATIONS

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Now to the key question: What can we learn from the circuit of the explorers and the calendar of the year? There are no dates noted for the circuit of the kuhane - of course not because it all happened just in one night's dream - but in real life time travels together with us.

"Extended periods of rest are taken at Hanga Takaure (seven days) and in Hanga Hoonu (five days). Here the contrast between the 'bay of flies' and the 'bay of the turtle' represents the contrast between supernatural animals of the land and of the sea.

Both resting places are followed by an 'upper region' and two mountain summits. The parallel positioning of place names 15 and 20 and 21 and 26 corresponds chronologically to the juxtapositioning of two seasonal quarters of the year.

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

6 red-marked half-months equals a quarter and the same goes for the 6 black-marked half-monts.

From Hua Reva to One Tea we have a 3rd quarter (marked green).

25

Oromanga

26

Hanga Moria One
28 - 3 * 6 = 10 half-months equals a last quarter + 2 months (presumably the '7th flame of the sun').

27

Papa O Pea

28

Ahu Akapu

Whatever purpose the path of the explorers may have had in relation to the time-space scheme of Hau Maka, a definite time schedule can be established for the explorers based on the traditions of Ms. E:

Event Date Duration
Departure of the explorers from Hiva Vaitu nui 25 35 days
Arrival at Haga Te Pau He Maro 1
Construction of house and yam plantation He Maro 10 10 days
Mako'i surveys the crater He Maro 15 5 days
Departure from the house He Anakena 5 20 days
Arrival at Te Pau He Anakena 10 5 days
Rest at Haga Takaúre   7 days
Departure from Haga Takaúre He Anakena 18  
Rest at Haga Hônu   5 days
Arrival at Ragi Meamea He Anakena 23  
Stay at Oromaga   27 days
Departure for Papa O Pea Hora iti 20  
Stay at Papa O Pea   5 days
Departure for Ahu Akapu Hora iti 26  
Stay at Ahu Akapu   2 days

I have divided the table into two parts, where the part above is parallel with the kuhane circuit.

Departure for Pu Pakakina Hora iti 29  
Stay at Pu Pakakina   'one month'
Departure for yam plantation Hora nui 1  
Stay at yam plantation   'one month'
Explorers greet Hotu Matu'a Tagaroa uri 15 10 days
Departure of the explorers for Hiva Tagaroa uri 25

To get a bird's eye view of when the events took place, I have constructed a new table based on the information in Barthel 2. Immediately it becomes obvious that the distance in time from departure from Hiva to departure back to Hiva took exactly ½ year:

2nd quarter

3rd quarter

4th quarter

1st quarter

Tagaroa uri (October)

Tua haro (January)

Vaitu nui (April)

He Anakena (July)

Cleaning up of the fields. Fishing is no longer taboo. Festival of thanksgiving (hakakio) and presents of fowl.

Fishing. Because of the strong sun very little planting is done.

Planting of sweet potatoes.

Same as the previous month.

Tagaroa uri 25, departure of the explorers for Hiva. Vaitu nui 25, departure of the explorers from Hiva. He Anakena 23, arrival at Ragi Meamea

Ko Ruti (November)

Tehetu'upú (February)

Vaitu poru (May)

Hora iti (August)

Cleaning of the banana plantations, but only in the morning since the sun becomes too hot later in the day. Problems with drought. Good month for fishing and the construction of houses (because of the long days).

Like the previous month. Some sweet potatoes are planted where there are a lot of stones (pu).

Beginning of the cold season. No more planting. Fishing is taboo, except for some fishing along the beach. Harvesting of paper mulberry trees (mahute). Making of tapa capes (nua).

Planting of plants growing above the ground (i.e., bananas, sugarcane, and all types of trees). Good time to fish for eel along the shore.

Ko Koró (December)

Tarahao (March)

He Maro (June)

Hora nui (September)

Because of the increasing heat, work ceases in the fields. Time for fishing, recreation, and festivities. The new houses are occupied (reason for the festivities). Like the previous month, a good time for surfing (ngaru) on the beach of Hangaroa O Tai.

Sweet potatoes are planted in the morning; fishing is done in the afternoon.

Because of the cold weather, nothing grows (tupu meme), and there is hardly any work done in the fields. Hens grow an abundance of feathers, which are used for the festivities. The time of the great festivities begins, also for the father-in-law (te ngongoro mo te hungavai). There is much singing (riu).

Planting of plants growing below the ground (i.e., sweet potatoes, yams, and taro). A fine spring month.

The spelling of the names of the months are according to Vanaga.

The arrival at Ragi Meamea occured at He Anakena 23, possibly the midpoint of the ½ year.

Could it be Ragi Meamea which is depicted here:

Aa4-58 Aa4-59 Aa4-60
ki te ragi ko te manu kua agau - ki te ihe e pare tuu ki te ragi

No, the exploreres arrived at Ragi Meamea ½ year later (or earlier) than midsummer. Aa4-58--60 should be at summer solstice, i.e. at the end of Tua haro. Though of course the creators of Manuscript E may have used an upside down calendar - the one introduced by the missionaries.

The word agau is mysterious, but possibly the 'bird' (manu) in question is creating (aga) the 2nd 'year':

Aga, agaaga

Work; to work, to make, to build, to create: O te atua i-aga-ai i te ragi, i te henua. God made heaven and earth. Vanaga.

Agahuru (hagahuru, hagauru). Agai (hagai). Agatahi (aga-tahi) one, (hagatahi); agatahi ahi atu, day before yesterday; hagatahi ahi, yesterday. Churchill.

The gesture with ihe (GD45) at right (in the text) maybe indicates what is generated? But why ihe, is that not a death sign? Life needs death.

Let us now return to the text in Barthel 2:

"It is difficult to estimate accurately the length of a month. According to the European calendar, a month (that was used by the Polynesians) has alternatively twenty-nine and thirty days; and a traditional month, based on lunar nights, has thirty days (ME:50, Barthel 1958:242-247).

Also, the time intervals are not consistent throughout. Whenever explicit mention is made of the time spent in a place, the actual dates are omitted. Toward the end of the calendar of dates, discrepancies occur: the 'one month each' (etahi marama) as the duration of the stay at Pu Pakakina, or at the yam plantation, is incompatible with the established dates for the months 'Hora Nui' and 'Tagaroa Uri'.

The total amount of time taken up by the activities at Pu Pakakina (surfing, installing the ornaments and the stone figures, trip around the island, naming places) seems to have been five days. But five days is precisely the time span that recurs directly or indirectly in alternating positions on the calendar!

The 'trip around the island' is a complete new circuit of the island made by Mako'i, going clockwise and naming (other) places ('the second list of place names').

It is exactly one-half year from the departure of the explorers from Hiva to their return to the homeland. Whatever method one uses to convert the six months into days (six synodical months = 177 days, six lunar months = 180, and six solar months = 182), there still appears to be an artificially constructed scheme.

Arrival and departure are accompanied by intermediate stages that amount to ten days. In all, the actions of the explorers are fixed by fourteen dates, which can be arranged into seven pairs of dates. These seven pairs, whose number corresponds to the number of explorers, are made up of 35 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + (corrected) 5 + 10 = 70 days or seven groups of ten days each.

Half the time [of 70 days] is taken up by the sea voyage, the other half by events on land. So far it is not known what coded information is concealed in this scheme.

The explorers reach the royal residence (Oromanga and Hanga Moria One) in July ('Anakena'). The place name and the name of the month coincide in the designation of the royal residence at Anakena Bay.

This appears to be the reason behind the naming of the royal residence. On this point, Ms. E contradicts Thomson's suggestion that the time of the arrival of the emigrants under King Hotu Matua and his queen was the reason for the place name: 'The landing place was named Anakena in honor of the month of August [rather July], in which the island was discovered' (PH:527).

Rather, the arrival of the explorers or even the episode with the 'turtle' have to be regarded as the crucial event that caused 'Anakena' to become fixed in time and space."

Although manuscript E is written down late in the history of Easter Island we find evidence of the importance of a time period corresponding to ½ year.

The 24 half-month periods are similar to our system with 24 hours per day, 12 hours for the night and 12 hours for the day. We ought to think about a 'year' as equal to 12 half-months and distinguish between the 'light year' and the 'dark year'.

Although the 'astronomical' year starts at winter solstice, the 'light year' and the 'dark year' probably are defined by the equinoxes. I guess we should read this model at Aa1-5--12:

Aa1-5 Aa1-6 Aa1-7 Aa1-8 Aa1-9 Aa1-10 Aa1-11 Aa1-12

The '8th island' is the 'light year' with midsummer between Aa1-8 and Aa1-9.

At the beginning of the day we find '6' marked (by a hexagonal shape) in P and Q, presumably signifying the 6 periods with sun fully alive:

Aa1-16 Ha5-49 Pa5-32 Qa5-40

In H on the other hand, the rhomb may indicate the surface of the earth, which in turn is defined by the 4 cardinal points or pillars, presumably Aa1-5--8. (Here 8 in Aa1-8 may suggest that with the 8th glyph the creation of the 8th island is complete.)

There are 28 half-months (kuhane stations) in manuscript E, which confirms my earlier ideas about a '7th flame of the sun' - needed to reach a congruence with 15 lunar months à 28 nights (when moon is visible).

Each 'flame' is a double month, in the same way as each month consists of two halves. Thereby each 'flame' is similar to the earth in having 4 parts.

Still unclear is where the '7th flame' is located. Maybe it should be divided in two parts:

27

Papa O Pea 1

Nga Kope Ririva Tutuu Vai A Te Taanga

28

Ahu Akapu

2

Te Pu Mahore

The solution is not good, because station no. 1 (Nga Kope Ririva Tutuu Vai A Te Taanga) ought to be at the beginning of a new year. Better would be to pick out 2 other stations among the 8 first, for example like this:

Vaitu nui

1

Nga Kope Ririva Tutuu Vai A Te Taanga

15

Hanga Takaure

Ko Ruti

2

Te Pu Mahore

16

Poike

Vaitu poru

3

Te Poko Uri

17

Pua Katiki

Ko Koró

4

Te Manavai

18

Maunga Teatea

He Maro

5

Te Kioe Uri

19

Mahatua

Tua haro

6

Te Piringa Aniva

20

Taharoa

7

Te Pei

= He Anakena

21

Hanga Hoonu

Tehetu'upú

8

Te Pou

22

Rangi Meamea

Hora iti

9

Hua Reva

23

Peke Tau O Hiti

Tarahao

10

Akahanga

24

Mauga Hau Epa

Hora nui

11

Hatinga Te Kohe

25

Oromanga

7 and 8 are 20 less than 27 and 28

 

12

Roto Iri Are

26

Hanga Moria One

Tagaroa uri

13

Tama

27

Papa O Pea

14

One Tea

28

Ahu Akapu

According to Barthel's interpretation of Manuscript E there are two quarters indicated by the geography of the island (resting places followed by 'upper regions' and 'mountain summits') - cryptically formulated as 'parallel positioning of place names 15 and 20 and 21 and 26' (which I read as 15 to 20 respectively 21 to 26), presumably meaning the 2nd and 3rd quarters (summer).

I am not convinced. The problem with 8 instead of 6 stations at the beginning is due to having defined the green, red and black quarters (see above) according to how I have read the cryptic formulation of Barthel, which in turn is based on his interpretation of how the geography of the island should be put in parallel with the kuhane stations, which are defined by some old people living at the leper station about a hundred years ago.