TRANSLATIONS

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"... 'When towards morning the Pleiades become visible the dry season is imminent [for the Arawak of Guiana], Masasikiri starts his journey and comes to warn people it is time to prepare their fields.

He makes a whistling sound to which he owns his nickname Masakiri (sic).

When people hear him at night, they strike their cutlasses with something, which makes a sound like a bell; in this way they thank the spirit for his warning ...25

25 According to P. Clastres (who gave me the information personally), the non-agricultural Guayaki believe in a trickster-spirit, who is master of honey and armed with an ineffectual bow and arrows made of ferns. This spirit announces his approach by whistling and is driven away by noise.

Thus the return of the Pleiades is accompanied by an exchange of acoustic signals, the contrast between which has some formal resemblance to that between the two fire-producing techniques, friction and percussion ..." (From Honey to Ashes)

According to the Arawaks of Guiana the early morning appearance of the Pleiades is a signal to start working their fields.

My earlier suspicion that rhombs in GD53 glyphs depict the 'skin of the earth mother' (the agricultural fields) is thereby strengthened: 

The goddess at left represents Lower Egypt (low headgear) and the goddess at right Upper Egypt (high headgear). Which implies that the center beetle is located moving from east (bottom) to west (top - with starry sky above).

The beetle seems to have emerged through the sun door at bottom. The 6 legs of the insect become 12 limbs at their ends.

To the cardinal points in east and west are here added the two cardinal points of north (Lower Egypt) and south (Upper Egypt). In between these 4 cardinal points we find the surface.

'... The God Amma, it appeared, took a lump of clay, squeezed it in his hand and flung it from him, as he had done with the stars. The clay spread and fell on the north, which is the top, and from there stretched out to the south, which is the bottom, of the world, although the whole movement was horizontal. The earth lies flat, but the north is at the top. It extends east and west with separate members like a foetus in the womb. It is a body, that is to say, a thing with members branching out from a central mass. This body, lying flat, face upwards, in a line from north to south, is feminine. Its sexual organ is an anthill, and its clitoris a termite hill ...'

As we have identified the picture of arms raising the sun both on Easter Island and in ancient Egypt, it appears reasonable to suspect that the rhomb figure in rongorongo represents the surface of the earth.

'... Above the door of the temple is depicted a chequer-board of white squares alternating with squares the colour of the mud wall. There should strictly be eight rows, one for each ancestor. This chequer-board is pre-eminently the symbol of the 'things of this world' and especially of the structure and basic objects of human organization. It symbolizes: the pall which covers the dead, with its eight strips of black and white squares representing the multiplication of the eight of human families; the façade of the large house with its eighty niches, home of the ancestors; the cultivated fields, patterned like the pall; the villages with streets like seams, and more generally all regions inhabited, cleared or exploited by men. The chequer-board and the covering both portray the eight ancestors ...' 

As to the whistling, I remember Kena:

... The Masked Booby is silent at sea, but has a reedy whistling greeting call at the nesting colonies ...

... Kena, the name for the booby, is also an eastern Polynesian name. Line 18 of the creation chant lists as the mythical parents of kena 'Vie Moko' and 'Vie Tea' (PH:520). The 'lizard woman' (vie moko) and her younger sister the 'booby woman' (vie kena) were considered the originators of tattooing (ME: 367-368).

The 'white booby woman' (vie kena tea), together with other deities, protected the eggs of sea birds (RM:260). She might even be considered to be the female counterpart of the supreme god Makemake. In modern Hangaroa, vie kena tea is a term of endearment for a beloved wife whose well-rounded body and light skin is being praised ...

Anakena (presumably ana-kena, the 'cave' out of which the 'booby' arrives ?) is located - according to the Easter Island calendar - at the beginning of the year.

Another association from whistling goes to the 4 (as in a rhomb) Pure (kinds of prayer) emitted by Hotu Matua:

... Why are there only 3 Pure emitted by Hotu Matua? Shouldn't it be an even number? As O, Ki, and Vanangananga were three of a quartet we miss Pure Henguingui. Maybe it has something to do with the 3 X-time glyphs?

There are 4 ghostly beams of light in Aa1-13, but there are only 3 'fruits' (hua, offspring) as 'passengers' in the canoe of Aa1-14 ...

... RAP. henguingui is synonymous with MGV. henguingui 'to whisper, to speak low' and goes back to west Polynesian forms (SAM. fenguingui 'to talk in a low tone'; UVE. fegui 'murmurer'). In many of the Polynesian languages, ki is the spoken word; in some few, ki refers to the process of thinking; (MGV., MAO., HAW.) and in some instances, it indicates special noises (MQS. ki 'to whistle with two fingers'; SAM. 'i 'to call like a bird'; TON. ki 'to squeal'). Generally, o is the affirmative answer to the caller, while vanangananga indicates repeated speaking. The four spirits represents, on one hand, the sound scale of empty conch shells and, on the other hand, a classification of types of prayers ... By going back to adjacent Polynesian idioms, as wordplays for topographic features of the area of the landing site. 'Pure O' permits a wordplay with MAO. pūreo (i.e., purero 'that which sticks out of the water'), 'Pure Ki' with MAO. pureki (i.e., pūrei 'an isolated rock'), while 'Pure Vanangananga' brings to mind TUA. vanavana 'protuberance'; TAH. vanavana 'rough, ragged'.

Put differently, the names of the three ghostly emissaries, which are actually forms of prayer, point to tangible objects in the environment, such as the cliffs and reefs in the water of the bay, which may have caused the damage done to the stone figure of the ancestor. The accident must have occured where the otherwise sandy beach of the landing site is bordered by rocky promontories or where sections of the reef jut out of the water.

If in our version 'Pure O' is said to have used a pureva (i.e., a large round stone) to sever the head of the stone figure, this must be a wordplay, intended to bring about the fourth pure association, which would complete the 'pure tetrade' of spirits living in Vai Hū. Separating pureva into pure va indicates noisy talk (compare especially HAW. ) or loud laughter (TON., UVE. ), both forms of expression that have very little in common with 'prayer' and may instead indicate the failure of the undertaking. 'Pure Va' is, in this case, the opposite of 'Pure Henguingui ...

The arrival of the Pleiades (i nika) announced new year on Easter Island too. On side b of Tahua I think the middle of the text represents this point. On side a we have earlier discussed the possibility of Aa4-64 marking a new season:

Aa4-63 Aa4-64 Aa4-65 Aa4-66 Aa4-67
i to rei - kua hua ia kua hura i te ragi ko te manu kua moe ki to ihe e kua puhi ki te ahi
Aa4-68 Aa4-69 Aa4-70 Aa4-71 Aa4-72
o te nuahine - mau i te rei ko te matariki e hau tea - e hapai ana koe i te maitaki - ko matou hanau

... Metoro's words at the π glyph (Aa4-64), kua hura i te ragi, are worthy of note. One of the few Polynesian words spread internationally is hula-hula:

Hura

1. To fish with a small funnel-shaped net tied to the end of a pole. This fishing is done from the shore; fishing with the same net, but swimming, is called tukutuku. 2. To be active, to get moving when working: ka hura, ka aga! come on, get moving! to work! 3. Tagata gutu hura, a flatterer, a flirt, a funny person, a witty person. Hurahura, to dance, to swing. Vanaga.

1. Sling. In his brilliant study of the distribution of the sling in the Pacific tracts, Captain Friederici makes this note (Beiträge zur Völker- und Sprachenkunde von Deutsch-Neuguinea, page 115b): 'Such, though somewhat modified, is the case in Rapanui, Easter Island. The testimony of all the reporters who have had dealings with these people is unanimous that stones of two to three pounds weight, frequently sharp chunks of obsidian, were thrown by the hand; no one mentions the use of slings. Yet Roussel includes this weapon in his vocabulary and calls it hura. In my opinion this word can be derived only from the Mangareva verb kohura, to throw a stone or a lance. So far as we know Rapanui has received its population in part by way of Mangareva.' To this note should be added the citation of kirikiri ueue as exhibiting this particular use of ueue in which the general sense is the transitive shake. 2. Fife, whistle, drum, trumpet, to play; hurahura, whistle. P Mq.: hurahura, dance, divertissement, to skip. Ta.: hura, to leap for joy. Pau.: hura-viru, well disposed. Churchill.

H. Hula, a swelling, a protuberance under the arm or on the thigh. Churchill 2.

Kiri

Skin; bark; husk; kiri heuheu, downy skin; kiri mohimohi (also kiri magó), smooth hairless skin. Kirikiri miro, multicoloured. Vanaga.

Skin, hide, bark, surface; kiri ekaeka, leprous; kiri haraoa, bran; kiri hurihuri, negro; kiri maripu, scrotum; kiri ure; prepuce. P Pau.: kiri, bark. Mgv.: kiri, skin, bark, leather, surface, color, hue. Ta.: iri, skin, bark, leather, planking. Kirikiri, pebble, gravel, rounded stone, sling stone; kikiri, pebble. P Pau.: kirikiri, gravel, stony, pebbly. Mgv.: kirikiri, gravel, small stones, shingle. Ta.: iriiri, gravel, stony, rough. Kirikirimiro: ragi kirikirimiro, sky dappled with clouds. Kirikiriteu, soft gray tufa ground down with sugar-cane juice and utilized as paint T. Kiriputi (kiri - puti) cutaneous, kiriputiti, id. Kirivae (kiri - vae 1), shoe. Churchill.

Ue

Uéué, to move about, to flutter; he-uéué te kahu i te tokerau, the clothes flutter in the wind; poki oho ta'e uéué, obedient child. Vanaga.

1. Alas. Mq.: ue, to groan. 2. To beg (ui). Ueue: 1. To shake (eueue); kirikiri ueue, stone for sling. PS Pau.: ueue, to shake the head. Mq.: kaueue, to shake. Ta.: ue, id. Sa.: lue, to shake, To.: ue'í, to shake, to move; luelue, to move, to roll as a vessel in a calm. Niuē: luelue, to quake, to shake. Uvea: uei, to shake; ueue, to move. Viti: ue, to move in a confused or tumultous manner. 2. To lace. Churchill.

If the sky (ragi) is shaken (ueue) or leaping (hura), that sounds a lot like when mother Earth is shaking her breasts:

... It was an old Maori belief that a change of seasons was often facilitated by earthquakes. Ruau-moko, a god of the Underworld, was said to bring about changes of season, punctuating them with an earthquake. Or as another Maori saying summed up the matter, 'It is the Earth-mother shaking her breasts, and a sign of the change of season.' ...

Ru

A chill, to shiver, to shudder, to quake; manava ru, groan. Ruru, fever, chill, to shiver, to shake, to tremble, to quiver, to vibrate, commotion, to apprehend, moved, to agitate, to strike the water, to print; manava ruru, alarm; rima ruru, to shake hands. P Pau.: ruru, to shake, to tremble. Mgv.: ru, to shiver with cold, to shake with fever, to tremble. Mq.: ú, to tremble, to quiver. Ta.: ruru, to tremble. Churchill.

Ruru, to tremble, an earthquake. Sa.: lūlū, lue, to shake. To.: luelue, to roll; lulu, to shake. Fu.: lulū, to tremble, to shake, to agitate. Niuē: luelue, to shake; lūlū, to shake, to be shaken. Nuguria: ruhe, motion of the hands in dancing; luhe henua, an earthquake. Uvea, Ha.: lu, lulu, lululu, to shake, to tremble, to flap. Fotuna: no-ruruia, to shake. Ma.: ru, ruru, to shake, an earthquake. Ta., Rarotonga, Rapanui, Pau.: ruru, to shake, to tremble. Mgv.: ru, to tremble; ruru, to shake. Mq.: uu, to shake the head in negation; uuuu, to shake up. Uvea: ue i, to shake; ueue, to move. Rapanui: ueue, to shake. Churchill 2.

The nickname Masakiri sounds very much like a variant of Matariki. Heyerdahl has proven (as far as this is possible) that South America had contacts with Easter Island and the rest of Polynesia, and that the Polynesians originated in America (not in Asia). Therefore it is not unthinkable that Matariki and Masakiri - both meaning the Pleiades - are related words. The change between s and t is not impossible, likewise the shifting of syllables (metathesis), riki contra kiri, are common in the evolution of languages.

In addition we know that not only the Polynesians but also the South American Indians enjoyed playing around with their languages:

"... The Indians of eastern Bolivia 'like to borrow foreign words, with the result ... that their language is constantly changing; the women do not pronounce the consonants s but always change it into an f' (Armentia, p. 11).

More than a century ago, Bates noted (p. 169) in connection with the Mura, among whom he had lived: 'When the Indians, both men and women, talk together, they seem to delight in inventing new pronounciations and in distorting words. Everybody laughs at these slang inventions, and the new terms are often adopted. I have observed the same thing during long sailing trips with Indian crews.'

An amusing comparison with these remarks is to be found in a letter, full of Portuguese words, that Spruce wrote from a Uaupés village to his friend Wallace, who was by that time back in England: 'Don't forget to tell me how you are progressing in the English language and whether you can already make yourself comprehensible to the natives ...' Wallace gives the following explanatory commentary:

When we met at São Gabriel ... we had noticed that we were quite incapable of conversing together in English, without using Portuguese words and expressions which amounted to about a third of our vocabulary. Even when we made up our minds to speak only in English, we succeeded in doing so only for a few minutes and with difficulty and as soon as the conversation became animated or it was necessary to recount an anecdote, Portuguese reasserted itself! ...

Such linguistic osmosis, with which travellers and expatriates are well acquainted, must have played a considerable part in the evolution of the Amercian languages and in the linguistic conceptions of the natives of South America.

According to a Kalina theory noted by Penard (in Goeje, p.32): 'vowels change quicker than consonants, because they are thinner, swifter, more liquid than the resistant consonants, but in consequence their yumi close themselves sooner, which means they return to their source more rapidly ..." (From Honey to Ashes)