TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

I have another question mark. Let us once again read the last phase of the kuhane stations as told by way of the explorers:

... He (i.e., Ira) said, 'Let's go! We shall go to Papa O Pea'.

They all got up and moved on. On the twentieth day of the month of August ('Hora Iti') they went to Papa O Pea. They all went and came to Papa O Pea, looked around in Papa O Pea, and gave the name 'Papa O Pea A Hau Maka'.

They stayed five days in Papa O Pea. On the twenty-sixth day of the month of August ('Hora Iti') they went from Papa O Pea to Aku Akapu. They all went and reached Aku Akapu. They looked around and gave the name 'Aku Akapu A Hau Maka'.

They also saw (all of) Te Pito O Te Kainga, looked around, and gave (the whole island) the name 'Te Pito O Te Kainga A Hau Maka'. They made camp and rested at Ahu Akapu for two days ...

On the day Hora iti 20 they went to Papa O Pea, on the day Hora iti 26 they went to Aku Akapu. Between the nights of 'generation' (which I just have proposed as a possible interpretation) on the beaches of Hanga Takaúre (no. 15) and Hanga Hônu (no 21) and the resulting kuhane stations (nos. 27 respectively 28) we have 12 (referring to sun) respectively 7 (referring to moon) nights. We remember:

... In the deep night before the image [of Lono] is first seen, there is a Makahiki ceremony called 'splashing-water' (hi'uwai). Kepelino tells of sacred chiefs being carried to the water where the people in their finery are bathing; in the excitement created by the beauty of their attire, 'one person was attracted to another, and the result', says this convert to Catholicism, 'was by no means good' ...

My question mark refers to what I guess is the very last station (no. 29): ... They also saw (all of) Te Pito O Te Kainga, looked around, and gave (the whole island) the name 'Te Pito O Te Kainga A Hau Maka' ...

In the kuhane story the description is:

... She then hastened her steps toward Ahu Akapu. There she looked again for a residence of the king. Again the dream soul of Hau Maka spoke: 'May the king assemble his people (?) and may he come in the midst of his people from Oromanga to Papa O Pea. When the king of Papa O Pea has assembled his people (?) and has come to this place, he reaches Aha Akapu. To stay there, to remain (for the rest of his life) at Ahu Akapu, the king will abdicate (?) as soon as he has become an old man'.

She named the place 'Ahu Akapu A Hau Maka O Hiva'. The (entire) land she named 'Te Pito O Te Kainga A Hau Maka O Hiva'.

The dream soul turned around and hurried back to Hiva, to its (Home)land, to Maori. She slipped into the (sleeping) body of Hau Maka, and the body of Hau Maka awakened. He arouse and said full of amazement 'Ah' and thought about the dream ...

I think Te Pito O Te Kainga A Hau Maka must be a final kuhane station, not the whole island. (Though indirectly, of course, such a final - and dark - station in a way represents the whole island, which the name tells us.)

A month lasts 29 ½ nights and Te Pito O Te Kainga A Hau Maka therefore is the difference between 29 ½ and 28, a time when the moon is invisible.

The dark period comes last in the month. Easter Island is the 8th and last of the islands (te varu kaiga). In the week Saturday is the dark day, coming at the end. Ab8-43 is located at the end of the text, immediately following the 42nd glyph in the 8th line:


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

The meaning of varu (8) is worth looking at:

Varu

1. To cut one's hair (te puoko). 2. To shave. 3. To paint, to put on make-up: he varu te kiea. Varu a-roto, to have diarrhoea. Vanaga.

1. Eight. 2. To shave, to remove the beard, to shear, to clip, to rasp, a plane. Varuvaru, to peel, to remove the bark, to plane, to scrape, to shear. Churchill.

Varua

Spirit, soul; sleep, dream. This is a Tahitian word, but the same term may have been used in ancient times. Vanaga.

We should remember how in Bierbach the accumulated evidence connected varua with mummification and how the hair was removed (varu), the body fluids drained (varu a-roto) and after a period of 2 months it was make-up time (he varu te kiea):

.. Embalming is known and practised with surprising skill in one particular family of chiefs. Unlike the Egyptian method, as described by Herodotus, it is performed in Samoa exclusively by women. The viscera being removed and buried, they, day after day, anoint the body with a mixture of oil and aromatic juices. To let the fluids escape, they continue to puncture the body all over with fine needles.

In about two months, the process of desiccation is completed. The hair, which had been cut and laid aside at the commencement of the operation, is now glued carefully on to the scalp by a resin from the bush. The abdomen is filled up with folds of native cloth; the body is wrapped up with folds of the same material, and laid out on a mat, leaving the hands, face, and head exposed ...

Where, then, is the 29th station located geographically?

I remember having read somewhere that pito was not a name for the island as a whole but was equivalent to Land's End. It would for example be suitable as a name for Poike.

Though I prefer to think about the area not covered by the other kuhane stations. Let's look on the map:

Between Rano Kau and Ahu Akapu there is an empty space and - which is important - the explorers went there too.

The structure of the story in Manuscript E is like a quipu, I think. There is a fairly long main story (string), from which hangs down other strings (stories) on which are various signs (knots in different shapes and colours respectively names and numbers).

Therefore, Te Pito must have some story hanging down from it.

The map gives us a clue: Hanga Piko (cfr Hawaiian piko for pito). Following this lead we look closer:

There is even a main road leading from Hanga-piko leading out over the whole island.

When I search in the index to Barthel 2 I find further evidence that we are on the right track, because in the 2nd list of place names (resulting from the quick circuit around the island which Mako'i did alone) stations nos. 52-53 (as I quickly counted them to be) are on the spot:

"... te vai rutu a koro rupa

The 'watering place where the bird beats (the rhythm)' (wordplay, 'where a certain chant is being recited') is located near Hanga Piko.

A recitation provides the following information for the additional name: 'In Koro Rupa is the house where one is made to laugh; in Kere Mea is the house where on is made fun of' (Barthel 1960:851; Campbell 1971:400).

There the rule of the new birdman was celebrated (compare koro 'feast'). In RAP., koro rupa seems to have the same meaning as in TUA. kororupo, which describes a paradise. In the cosmology of the TUA., the name also referred to the entrance to the underworld.

e haho e hivi e e runga e to puku ohu kahi e

Hivi (maybe the same as hi ivi 'to fish with a hook made from bone'; compare the narrative ME:363) is 'outside', and 'the elevation from where (the catch of) the tunafish is announced') is 'above'.

This is a reference to a large boulder beside the place where the canoes docked in Hanga Piko. There the people waited for the canoes to return from the fishing grounds." (Barthel 2)

I cannot pursue this line of investigation any further for the moment. It would take too much time and however interesting it may be we should not leave the rongorongo glyphs in Tahua waiting any longer. Let's just remember how the text measures the circuits by using 29:

	*482 = 16 29 + 18**		*272 = 10 29 - 18**
		Aa5-7
	*26 29**
	*464 = 16 29**		*290 = 10 29**
Ab7-26		Aa4-72		Aa8-26
*26 29 = 754 measures the number of glyphs from Ab7-26 to and including Aa8-26. 16 * 29 = 464 measures the number of glyphs in between Ab7-26 and Aa4-72.**