TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

Next page in the glyph dictionary is relevant for Te Pei:

2. The visual impression of poporo at first is some kind of young plant growing with a straight slender stem from a seed and ending with a stylized leafy top:

The stylized top suggests that also the slender straight stem and the seed may be stylized and without any ambition to present a natural picture.

If so, then the glyph type may very well be a composition of three parts: seed, stem, and top. There are very few glyphs of this type, which fact supports the idea of a complex of signs.

The top is like the wedge sign inside henua ora, though upside down:

And then, we realize, also the stem will be explained.

An upside down 'recycling station' (henua ora) must - if the rongorongo system of writing is consistent - mean its opposite, viz. the station which produces new things. The seed at bottom confirms the idea.

The kahi glyph type has the mark of an upside down henua ora too, or expressed in another way, like the 'stem' and 'leaf' of poporo:

kahi

The poporo sign has at its top a separate wedge which is absent in kahi. Possibly the Y-sign at the end of the 'stem' means '1' in kahi, but '2' in poporo and henua.

I have earlier noticed the resemblance between the front of kahi and the bottom of henua ora and therefore included among the henua ora glyphs in my catalogue also the kahi fishes.

The kahi fish gives us two signs (rising, and poporo) which both seem to say 'not dead - very much alive', a reassurance needed when it is very dark.

Te Pei could be alluding to pe'i, and in the rongorongo system pe'i could be designed as a kahi glyph.

It should be noted that the midline in kahi is quite unnatural and eyecatching for someone knowing fishes, i.e. it is a deliberate sign to call for attention.

I searched in Wikipedia for Caranx cheilio but could not find it. Presumably it is an alternative name for one of the species listed under Caranx, but I could not be sure of which. From briefly studying the species listed I could not avoid noticing how 'upside down' the midline in kahi is drawn. A picture of Caranx lugubris (black jack) makes it clear:

The midline goes from its middle and back and there is no line from its middle frontwards.

I chose this picture not only for its clearness but also for two other reasons: It is sooty black (as a fire no longer burning) and the fins at its middle are eye-catching. They look as the fins in some of the glyphs which I have classified as kahi, for instance:


Ca5-25	Ca5-26	Ca5-27	Ca5-29	Cb2-15	Cb8-25	Cb8-29
etoru kahi			te kahi	te kahi* huga*	kua hua te kahi	te kahi

Here we can see that the open mouth generates a sign more corresponding to that in henua ora and poporo - a double wedge.

From this evidence I now feel certain I must include as next page in the dictionary information relating to kahi:

3. The straight 'stem' and 'top' parts in poporo also occur in a variant of fish glyph which I have named kahi (following the hints of what Metoro said):


poporo	henua ora	kahi

A rising fish means 'growth' (growing life, increasing light), and the sign inside kahi fishes probably supports this meaning.

" ... Te Pei [one of the kuhane stations] should probably read Te Pe'i (unfortunately, Ms. E does not indicate glottal stops). The pe'i is a large, tasty fish (Caranx cheilio, Fuentes 1960:290), caught in the deep waters of the fishing grounds (hakanononga).

In one recitation, the pe'i is likened to the 'great fish' (ika nui) and compared to the very popular tunafish (kahi) (Barthel 1960:848). This favorite food from the ocean is depicted in numerous petroglyphs." (Barthel 2)

From Wikipedia the following picture of Caranx lugubris (black jack) - I could not find the referred to Caranx cheilio - illustrates an important point:

The midline stretches from its middle backwards, not as in the kahi glyph type stretching all the way from head to tail. This characteristic trait must have been well known to all the inhabitants on Easter Island. Therefore the reversed orientation in the kahi glyph type certainly was meant to catch the attention of the reader - it is a separate sign.