Metoro's maitaki and maharoga (for the 2nd GD53 in a row) means beautiful respective object of admiration.

1. Tauono means 'six stones', each stone representing a star in the Pleiades. The Polynesians regarded the constellation Matariki (another name for the Pleiades) as having six stars (not seven as was customary with us).

"The Rapa Nui ethnographers say that 'old men' watched the stars on Poike, from a cave on the west coast or from near an ahu where six boulders represented the Pleiades …" (Van Tilburg)

GD53 shows us three of these stones - with a vertical line added to indicate that the glyph represents a measurement (vertical line = middle). To write the time of Tauono GD53 had to be duplicated:

The Pleiades marked the beginning of the year. When Tauono was seen close to the horizon in the eastern sky just before sunrise, that meant a new year had come. This happened at about the time of winter solstice.

GD53 can also be read as three double-months, each such double-month being represented by a 'stone'. Three double-months = six months = half a year.

Ancient times most peoples regarded summer and winter as two different 'years' and saw spring equinox (once upon a time, very long ago) - defined by the heliacal rising of the Pleiades - as the start of the summer 'year'. 

In modern times, and for people living north of the equator like the Hawaiians, the Pleiades was observed in the evening, and when they appeared again - late in autumn - this was regarded as an announcement of the arrival of the new year. The Pleiades were once again in the night sky, Matariki i nika, after having been below the horizon, Matariki i raro.

For people living south of the equator Matariki i nika nowadays - due to the precession of the equinoxes - covers the time from winter solstice to summer solstice and Matariki i raro is the time from summer solstice to winter solstice. South of the equator the Pleiades were observed preferentially in the early morning ('heliacal rising', rising together with the sun), not in the evening.

In Keiti (Eb3-1--3 compared with Eb5-4--6) we find a difference between the triplet of 'stones' (tau) due to the season:

'winter'
'summer'

'Winter' is written with more of the stones shown at left (the 'dark 'side), while 'summer' has more of the 'stones' shown at right (the 'light' side). The right side of the vertical straight line refers to what lies ahead, while the left side refers to what already has passed away.

Additional information is given by the  surrounding glyphs. The 'man' in 'winter' has a 'barren' Y-shaped hand and his elbow ornament is not drawn in full (the end at bottom is missing). The man in 'summer' has a 'growing' arm and no elbow ornament.

As regards the meaning of the 'staffs' at right - see GD37.

2. The vertical line through GD53 also indicates that the left part is something else than the right part. This is clearly seen in e.g. Ka4-8:

The 'stones' are double-months, but we can only see half of each month, a month is represented by a semicircle.

In the Belt of Orion (Tautoru, Three Stones) they saw a string (Tui), which also may 'throw light on' the vertical line. Tautoru is rising somewhat later than Tauono, which means that in very very ancient times Tautoru, not Tauono, marked spring equinox.

A straight line, as imagined when viewing Tautoru in the sky, marks the middle. At a very very ancient time this middle meant the middle between the two 'years' winter and summer.

Nowadays, when Tauono marks winter solstice (south of the equator), the middle has shifted from spring equinox to winter solstice and it now means the middle between two years.

As the string in the Belt of Orion is not really there, just a 'filament' of our imagination, a work of man, we can draw the conclusion that a straight vertical line signifies artificiality, measurement.

Folding something in the middle, gives a straight line as a mark. Straightness is normally not part of Mother Nature. The long sides of henua (GD37) illustrate that the rays of the sun (being - for all practical uses - straight and parallel) stands above Mother Nature. Sun is similar to people in this respect.

3. The two sides of GD53 are - as exemplified above - seldom exactly alike. This means that we should regard them as different, i.e. already the single glyph type GD53 describes six stones.

There is a very old picture (ref. Campbell 2) showing how at the time of new year (the Sed Festival) the ancient Pharaohs had to visit the sanctuary of the wolf-god Upwaut, the 'Opener of the Way', and in the picture we recognize the same 'half-stones'. The right (future) Pharaoh is in the sanctuary of Upwaut located between the 'half-stones' (old half-year at left and new half-year at right):

There is also an old version of the Chinese sign for 'root', 'origin' which incorporates three 'half-moons' (ref. Henshall):

As the Pleiades mark the beginning of the year we can understand them to be the 'roots' of the year. See also GD42.

1. Tribe, people; te mata tûai-era-á, the ancient tribes. 2. Eye; mata ite, eyewitness. 3. Mesh: mata kupega. 4. Raw, uncooked, unripe, green, matamata, half-cooked, half-ripe. Vanaga.

1. The eye; mata neranera, mata kevakeva, mata mamae, to be drowsy; mata keva, mataraparapa, matapo, blind; mata hakahira, squint eyed; mata pagaha, eye strain. 2. Face, expression, aspect, figure, mien, presence, visage, view; mata mine, mata hakataha, mata pupura, mata hakahiro, to consider. 3. Raw, green, unripe. 4. Drop of water. 5. Mesh; hakamata, to make a net. 6. Cutting, flint. 7. Point, spear, spike (a fish bone). 8. Chancre. Churchill.

There is a wide range of significations in this stem. It will serve to express an opening as small as the mesh of a net or as large as a door of a house; it will serve to designate globular objects as large as the eye or as small as the bud on a twig or the drop of rain, and designating a pointed object it answers with equal facility for the sharpened tip of a lance or the acres of a headland; it describes as well the edge of a paddle or the source from which a thing originates. Churchill 2.