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TRANSLATIONS
Next pages in the excursion:
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Next we go back
to side a and try to fit kuhane stations to the glyphs
defined as multiples of 59 on that side:
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1. Nga Kope Ririva |
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Ga2-29
(59) |
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3. Te Poko Uri |
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Ga5-8
(118) |
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5. Te Kioe Uri |
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Ga7-8
(177) |
This result is
utterly unacceptable, because Nga Kope Ririva should
connect to Ga7-8 and Te Kioe Uri connect to Ga2-29
(according to my judgment of the meaning of the glyphs).
Only Te Poko Uri is located in its right position. My main
arguments can be read following this hyperlink.
The only
possible solution to the dilemma - though at first somewhat
preposterous - is that
we must read (and count) backwards on side a. We follow in
the steps of the kuhane and she moves counter to the
sun, who in a way resides among the glyphs on side a and
moves from its beginning towards the end of the side, i.e.
from east to west. Nga Kope Ririva is as far in the
west you can get, before you must leave the island. But for
the kuhane it was the first contact with the island.
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The three islets
outside Orongo was a characteristic landmark for Easter
Island when arriving over the sea, and also a suitable first
station for the kuhane flying in from the west:
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1. Nga Kope Ririva |
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Ga7-8
(177) |
The three ovals
in Ga7-8 can make one associate to the three islets:
The vertical
straight line in maitaki glyphs is the same element
as the 'stem' in poporo:
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maitaki |
poporo |
This element
(what remains after having taken away the 'seed' at bottom
and the 'leafs' at the top end of poporo) probably is
what makes poporo a mark of 'birth'.
The maitaki
glyph type, therefore, should indicate how the three islets
at the beginning of the kuhane journey around the
island is the 'birth' place of the new moon, arriving from
the horizon in the west.
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Birthmarks are dark in colour, uri:
If we then turn
to the 59th glyph on side a, we recognize the form of niu:
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5. Te Kioe Uri |
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Ga2-29
(59) |
Niu
glyphs are located at the beginning of calendars for the
year, we have learnt, which is an argument for Ga2-59 to be
the 59th glyph (instead of a higher multiple of 59). Niu
means coconut palm, the nut of which is like a human death
skull (coco).
However, this
niu
is not indicating death, its perimeter is drawn without any
break. The Black Rat (Te
Kioe Uri)
means the king of the island in his function at winter
solstice:
... The cult
place of Vinapu is located between the fifth and
sixth segment of the dream voyage of Hau Maka. These
segments, named 'Te Kioe Uri' (inland from Vinapu)
and 'Te Piringa Aniva' (near Hanga Pau Kura)
flank Vinapu from both the west and the east. The
decoded meaning of the names 'the dark rat' (i.e., the
island king as the recipient of gifts) and 'the gathering
place of the island population' (for the purpose of
presenting the island king with gifts) links them with the
month 'Maro', which is June. Thus the last month of
the Easter Island year is twice connected with Vinapu
...
A normal ('spooky') niu glyph may depict how the
old fire (year) has been stamped out and only the ghost of
it remains at the top.
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Te Kioe Uri |
ariki |
niu |
Te
Pei |
Another interpretation is to see the king (ariki)
turned upside down with his head in a kind of sack.
The sack makes his 'light' (eyes) invisible, and the 'cross'
has open ends meaning he is only a kind of fiction, not a
real person. But in Ga2-29 he is definitely alive. He has to
appear for the winter solstice ceremonies.
At the solstices
the sun turns around, and in Te Pei (half way through
the cycle of the text) the picture is obvious, with head
down. With
niu
at midwinter, there should be a similar picture - a
person upside down, but here it is not the head which is
shown but the legs (in accordance with the low position of
the sun).
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If summer solstice is located where the text changes from side a to side b, then winter solstice ought to be at the opposite end, where the text cycle has reached to its end and will once again begin with side a. However, Te Kioe Uri comes 59 glyphs later.
The expected location of Te Kioe Uri is instead taken by Hanga Takaure, the 'summer solstice' of the moon, where her journey has reached the 15th night (station). Therefore Te Kioe Uri must come later (but as soon as possible).
There now only
remains to explain
Te Poko Uri:
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3. Te Poko Uri |
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Ga5-8
(118) |
The wings of
this fat bird are drawn as a separate unit, distinct from
the bird itself, and presumably it is a 'glyph
play' (analogous to word play). We can imagine the
shape behind the bird as a viri glyph turned a
quarter around, a method we have seen before:
However, there
is an importance difference: In Ga1-26 and Gb1-6 the
'person' and viri are integrated, not separate units.
This wingless bird
has not moved far from his egg we can see from his body form, it is a very young
bird (which also explains why he is so fat). That the
'wings' indeed is viri, can easily be proved by
counting, given that we understand also Ga1-1 as viri
(a distorted variant):
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116
= 4 * 29 |
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Ga1-1 |
Ga5-8 |
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118
= 4 * 29.5 |
With both Ga1-1
(Hanga Takaure) and Ga5-8 as viri glyphs, they
must both be black, we know from earlier (the 29th night of
the moon is black). A little fat black (uri) chicken sounds like the future great king
of the island (Te Kioe Uri). But the king cannot be
located at a viri point:
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57 =
2 * 28.5 |
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Ga1-1 |
Ga2-29 |
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59 =
2 * 29.5 |
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This counting exercise shows that 29 and 29.5 can be coordinated only after 4 months, a useful knowledge when later on we have to investigate how the distribution of the viri glyphs can be integrated with the kuhane stations. A measure unit consisting of 4 months works well with 16, and the inoino glyph type maybe is expressing 16: 
The positive maitaki, on the other hand could be expressing 12:
The general shape is the same, but the rounded 'balls' suggest the domain of the sky (with sun), rather than the domain of the earth (with moon). The problem of squaring the circle illustrates the two sides, sky and earth. I feel convinced 'glyph play' once was the established method in drawing and creating signs. Therefore the symbol for eight, 8, must consiste of two interconnected cycles. If we read 8 as eight years, we will understand why there are two cycles with 4 years - because after 4 years a leap day must be inserted (and the Olympic games must take place). If we read 8 as 12 months, there will be 6 months in each cycle, a model easily translated into a hexagonal shape allowing the flames of the sun to form around
its border, the squaring of the circle solved by changing 4 into 6: 
With 3 cycles instead of 2
(as in maitaki), there will be 12 years instead of 8. And there will be 16 months instead of 8. The maitaki glyphs are never drawn like that, though, they always have a vertical line dividing the cycles in two. The reason probably is that each solar month was regarded as consisting of two halves, a rule established very anciently by the division of the lunar months into waxing and waning. Nga Kope Ririva, therefore, is expressing 24 - the zero time.
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