TRANSLATIONS
I once thought that Aa1-83 (by reason of the sleepy head, moe) indicated the end of a sequence of glyphs, but now I have come to understand that it is Aa1-84 which is the natural point to stop 'to fish' for a while:
Aa1-84 certainly connects to Aa1-78 and Aa1-77 probably does not belong to the previous sequence of glyphs because the parallel sequences of H/P/Q stop with Aa1-76:
However, we must notice that the triplet of rhombs (and the little 'bird' - GD42 - see Aa1-79) occur also in H/P/Q among the glyphs which follow immediately after the parallel sequence:
In P we also recognize the 'fish line' connected to the triplet of rhombs in Aa1-84. The 14 glyphs after Aa1-76 and up to the end of line a1 therefore should be divided into two groups of glyphs, Aa1-77--84 (8 glyphs) and Aa1-85--90 (6 glyphs). And, as we remember, we have 28 (= 2 * 14) glyphs beginning with the triplet of ihe tau (GD45) and ending with Aa1-76. A more symmetric and beautiful table is the result of this correction:
Another structural finding, I think, is the fact that halfway in from the beginning of line a2, counted with the goal 42 in view, we find the curious Aa2-21 - the glyph (the back of which) resembles Aa1-90:
The unusual glyph type in Aa2-22 exhibits an open 'limb', presumably indicating a kind of end at bottom left. The glyph type evidently appears as the right part of Aa2-15 (with a peculiar 'fish' as left part):
At the end of our counting to 42 we also (now at left) find this unusual type of glyph. Possibly Aa2-39 is the same typ of glyph:
In Aa2-41 we recognize the 'head' of Aa2-6. The beginning of line a2, with parallels in H/P/Q, has 8 glyphs ending with Aa2-8 which clearly exhibits toko te ragi (GD32) - which Metoro this time calls mahigo (child): "Les Mahigo (enfants) et les petites calebasses sont ici réunis. Dans leurs prières, en demandant à Makémaké de petits calebasses, c'étaient surtout des enfants qu'ils désignaient par ce mot." (Jaussen according to Barthel)
The Dogon peoples saw the sun as a calabash: '... In the upper part of the façade, as a pendant to the calabash on the right which represents the sun, it is a drawing of the moon, either full or as a crescent. This is a reminder, on the left-hand side, of the celestial regions ...' In Aa2-4 we recognize the glyph type which appears in the sequence of glyphs in H/P/Q cited above (the second glyphs). In Aa2-7 we see hua (GD51) at left - also a way of representing 'fruit'. Aa2-7 has 'open limbs' both at left and at right. This probably means that we should understand Aa2-7 as a separate 'ending' of the sequence starting with Aa2-1. The concept of a cyclic number + 1 has mythical meaning (as we have learnt earlier): 'Put his head in the fork of the tree that stands by the road', said One and Seven Death. And when his head was put in the fork of the tree, the tree bore fruit. It would not have had any fruit, had not the head of One Hunaphu been put in the fork of the tree. This is the calabash, as we call it today, or 'the skull of One Hunaphu', as it is said. And then One and Seven Death were amazed at the fruit of the tree. The fruit grows out everywhere, and it isn't clear where the head of One Hunaphu is; now it looks just the way the calabashes look. All the Xibalbans see this, when they come to look." (Popol Vuh) 8 is the number resulting from 7 + 1. Also the Dogon noticed the importance of 7: "The four males and the four females were couples in consequence of their lower, i.e. of their sexual parts. The four males were man and woman, and the four females were woman and man. In the case of the males it was the man, and in the case of the females it was the woman, who played the dominant role. They coupled and became pregnant each in him or herself, and so produced their offspring. But in the fullness of time an obscure instinct led the eldest of them towards the anthill which had been occupied by the Nummo. He wore on his head a head-dress and to protect him from the sun, the wooden bowl he used for his food. He put his two feet into the opening of the anthill, that is of the earth's womb, and sank in slowly as if for a parturition a tergo. The whole of him thus entered into the earth, and his head itself disappeared. But he left on the ground, as evidence of his passage into that world, the bowl which had caught on the edges of the opening. All that remained on the anthill was the round wooden bowl, still bearing traces of the food and the finger-prints of its vanished owner, symbol of his body and of his human nature, as, in the animal world, is the skin which a reptile has shed. Liberated from his earthly condition, the ancestor was taken in charge by the regenerating Pair. The male Nummo led him into the depths of the earth, where, in the waters of the womb of his partner he curled himself up like a foetus and shrank to germinal form, and acquired the quality of water, the seed of God and the essence of the two Spirits. And all this process was the work of the Word. The male with his voice accompanied the female Nummo who was speaking to herself and to her own sex. The spoken Word entered into her and wound itself round her womb in a spiral of eight turns. Just as the helical band of copper round the sun gives to it its daily movement, so the spiral of the Word gave to the womb its regenerative movement. Thus perfected by water and words, the new Spirit was expelled and went up to Heaven. All the eight ancestors in succession had to undergo this process of transformation; but, when the turn of the seventh ancestor came, the change was the occasion of a notable occurrence. The seventh in a series, it must be remembered, represents perfection. Though equal in quality with the others, he is the sum of the feminine element, which is four, and the masculine element, which is three. He is thus the completion of the perfect series, symbol of the total union of male and female, that is to say of unity. And to this homogenous whole belongs especially the mastery of words, that is, of language; and the appearance on earth of such a one was bound to be the prelude to revolutionary developments of an beneficial character. In the earth's womb he became, like the others, water and spirit, and his development, like theirs, followed the rhythm of the words uttered by the two transforming Nummo. 'The words which the feamale Nummo spoke to herself', Ogotemmêli explained, 'turned into a spiral and entered into her sexual part. The male Nummo helped her. These are the words which the seventh ancestor learnt inside the womb.' The others equally possessed the knowledge of these words in virtue of their experiences in the same place; but they had not attained the mastery of them nor was it given to them to develop their use. What the seventh ancestor had received, therefore, was the perfect knowledge of a Word - the second Word to be heard on earth, clearer than the first and not, like the first, reserved for particular recipients, but destined for all mankind. Thus he was able to achieve progress for the world. In particular, he enabled mankind to take precedence over God's wicked son, the jackal. The latter, it is true, still possessed knowledge of the first Word, and could still therefore reveal to diviners certain heavenly purposes; but in the future order of things he was to be merely a laggard in the process of revelation. The potent second Word developed the powers of its new possessor. Gradually he came to regard his regeneration in the womb of the earth as equivalent to the capture and occupation of that womb, and little by little he took possession of the whole organism, making such use of it as suited him for the purpose of his activities. His lips began to merge with the edges of the anthill, which widened and became a mouth. Pointed teeth made their appearance, seven for each lip, then ten, the number of the fingers, later forty, and finally eighty, that is to say, ten for each ancestor. The numbers indicated the future rates of increase of the families; the appearance of the teeth was a sign that the time for new instruction was drawing near." |