TRANSLATIONS

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There is more to Te Pei. A long quotation is necessary:

"If one examines the list of place names of localities, it becomes apparent that they are grouped into pairs according to the proximity of location or the similarity of terrain. The twenty-eight names are arranged in fourteen pairs. The first step in the reconstruction of the compositional scheme shows the following groupings:

1. Nga Kope Ririva Tutuu Vai A Te Taanga 2. Te Pu Mahore
3. Te Poko Uri 4. Te Manavai
5. Te Kioe Uri 6. Te Piringa Aniva
7. Te Pei 8. Te Pou
9. Hua Reva 10. Akahanga
11. Hatinga Te Kohe 12. Roto Iri Are
13. Tama 14. One Tea
15. Hanga Takaure 16. Poike
17. (Maunga) Pua Katiki 18. Maunga Teatea
19. Mahatua 20. Taharoa
21. Hanga Hoonu 22. Rangi Meamea
23. (Maunga) Peke Tau O Hiti 24. Maunga Hau Epa
25. Oromanga 26. Hanga Moria One
27. Papa O Pea 28. Ahu Akapu

The vertical columns represent opposites according to their color attributes. If we consider only those color attributes that are listed twice, we come up with the contrasting pair ure (3 and 5) vs. tea(tea) (14 and 18). Dark vs. light (or black vs. white) is a contrast pair that was used poetically in eastern Polynesia figures of speech (so-called stereotype parallelism) and also found its way into the Easter Island script (Barthel 1963:39). The groupings according to colors definitely seems to be planned.

Te Pei is number 7 and - using Barthel's suggestion of 7 and 23 indicating the 1st respectively the 4th quarter of the moon, it is not strange to find uri in the first week and tea in the central part of the month. The total is not 29 (which Barthel used when explaining 23) and therefore Hanga Hoonu is the last of the central light part. Red (mea) initiates the last week (Rangi Meamea) and possibly also (implicitly) the 2nd week (with a great - red - star = Sirius, Te Pou).

The moon determines time and accordingly also the structure for the year ought to have black at the beginning and white (the moon colour) as the central part. Red will come naturally from dawn and sundown both of which colour the sky in blood.

The list of names of localities is divided into two subseries of unequal length. While the first twelve pairs (reading horizonally) are topographic stations along the dream soul's path in search of the future residence of the king, the last two pairs represent places of political importance (25 and 26 are the residences at Anakena of the current king; 27 and 28 are the residences of the future king and of the abdicated king).

If one traces this path on a special map of Easter Island, the following pattern emerges, based on the direction in which the dream soul travels: eight pairs of names make up the stretch from west to east; one pair marks the segment from south to north; two pairs indicate the path from east to west; and, finally, another pair marks a second segment from south to north. In both cases, the (relative) 'cross segments' (17 and 18, and 23 and 24) are pairs of mountains.

Why did not Barthel say from north to south at 23 and 24? Without being certain I think Peke Tau O Hiti (23) lies northeast of Hau Epa (24). The movement of the kuhane describes a curve and even Manuscript E indicates this where the curve is tightest, viz. at the end of the non-political stations: 'The dream soul moved along a curve from Peke Tau O Hiti to the mountain Hau Epa ...'

16 + 2 + 8 + 2 can be imagined as a dolmen, with the 16 at bottom forming the ground and the top 8 forming the roof:

The picture is from The White Goddess and shows how letters (and then, according to the principles of correspondence, indirectly to all the other connected qualities of nature) may have been assigned to the different parts of the building.

The number eight, used to indicate the path from west to east, reminds us of the description of the dream voyage to Easter Island: the future homeland  is the 'eighth land', which stands out high against the eastern horizon, where the sun rises. With the eighth pair of names, the entire length of the island has been traversed at a place named after a high plateau (poike).

The starting point in the west is associated with the three sons of Te Taanga, and, indeed, the first ones who came from the west and searched (in vain) for Easter Island were the sons of Te Taanga. Perhaps the eight pairs of names, which indicate the maximum expansion of the island (less than 25 km from Motu Nui to the eastern cape of Poike), were meant to recount the voyage across the sea.

A more plausible explanation, I think, is that the movement from west to east represents the path of the moon. It is limited to 16 (twice 8) stations, because then must follow 12 (twice 6) stations representing the path of the sun (up in the east, then from east to west, and down again).

The dolmen structure in the picture above has its base under ground (where the vowels are located) and the artificial manmade structure of stones is above earth (in the light).

It is known that the Polynesians navigated by the stars. It is therefore not surprising that names of stars are directly and indirectly contained in some of the place names on the list. In two cases, there is direct agreement with the names of stars used by the Easter Islanders: compare he kope riva with name 1 nga kope ririrva ... and he pou 'Sirius (alpha Canis Major)' with name 8 te pou (Barthel 1962b:2)

In subsequent names there are similarities to other Polynesian names of stars: compare number 5 to TUA. na kiore; number 6 to TAH. pipiri ma, TUA. piringa-o-tautu; number 8 to MAO. poutu-te-rangi, TUA. pou-a-te-po; number 9 to MAO. karewa or marewa; number 11 to MAO. te kohi, and number 13 to MAO. a-tama-raku or ika-roa (Makemson 1941).

After sundown in the west it is once again the time of the moon, and it would be interesting to know which star corresponds to the name He Kope Riva. I cannot find it in Makemson.

Kope

Lad, lass, youth, young man or woman; he-oho te kope ra'e Ko Ira, the first youth, Ko Ira, went; pehé korua ga kope? How are you, lads? Koho-mai korua ko ga kope, ka-maitaki korua ga kope! Welcome to you, lasses, what beautiful lasses you are!

Kope tugutugu, youth T. Pau.: kope, string, filament. Ma.: kope, to bind in flax leaves. Churchill.

I think both 'string, filament' and 'youth' are relevant. A string (as in kaikai) is a sign of woman, and moon, Hina, was considered female by the Polynesians. Both the kuhane and the young moon wade ashore from the three islets.

The order of the stars when moon is rising must be the same as when sun is rising:

The Pleades and Rigel come first, then Aldebaran, Orion's Belt, Betelgeuse, and Sirius follows as the last one of those stars shown in Van Tilburg's map.

"... In another section of New Zealand Thomson learned that Puanga, Rigel, presided over June, but the stars of July were Kopu (usually identified as the planet Venus) and Tautoru, Orion's Belt." (Makemson)

Kopu is close to kope, and both can be analyzed similarly: ko-pu (the hole) and ko-pe (the 'same-again'):

... Like, as; pei ra, thus, like that; such, the same as; pei na, thus, like that; pei ra ta matou, proverb; pei ra hoki, likeness, similitude; pei ra tau, system; pei ra hoki ta matou, usage. PS Sa.: pei, thus. This is particuarly interesting as preserving one of the primordial speech elements. It is a composite, pe as, and i as demonstrative expressive of that which is within sight; therefore the locution signifies clearly as-this ...

There is a positive ring to Nga kope ririva, and we remember the appearance of moon after her absence:

... when the new moon appeared women assembled and bewailed those who had died since the last one, uttering the following lament: 'Alas! O moon! Thou has returned to life, but our departed beloved ones have not. Thou has bathed in the waiora a Tane, and had thy life renewed, but there is no fount to restore life to our departed ones. Alas'...

When Metoro used the word maitaki at that type of glyph it may have referred to Nga kope ririva (irrespective of which star was alluded to):

Maitaki

Clean, neat, pure, pretty, nice, beautiful, handsome; tagata rima maitaki, clean-handed man, correct man. Vanaga.

1. Good. Henua maitaki = the good earth. 2. Shine. Marama maitaki = the shining moon. Barthel.

Ce qui est bon. Jaussen according to Barthel.

Meitaki, good, agreeable, efficacious, excellent, elegant, pious, valid, brilliant, security, to please, to approve (maitaki); ariga meitaki, handsome, of pleasant mien; mea meitaki ka rava, to deserve; meitaki ke, marvelous, better. Hakameitaki, to make good, to amend, to do good, to bless, to establish. Meitakihaga, goodness. PS Pau.: maitaki, good. Mgv.: meitetaki, beautiful, good. Mq.: meitai, good, agreeable, fit, wise, virtuous. Ta.: maitaiki, good, well. Niuē: mitaki, good. Churchill.

The shining moon (marama maitaki) is, I think, in contrast to the inoino (shining) variant of the glyph type maitaki,

Inoino

Ce qui est éclarante, rayonnant. Jaussen according to Barthel.

which precedes:

1st season 2nd season
Ea7-7 Ea7-8 Ea7-9 Ea7-16 Ea7-17
kua rere te pepe te henua - te rima hakamoe inoino moe
Ea7-10 Ea7-11 Ea7-12 Ea7-18 Ea7-19
kua tere te pepe te henua - te rima moea te inoino moe
Ea7-13 Ea7-14 Ea7-15 Ea7-20 Ea7-21 Ea7-22
te pepe te henua - te rima moe te maitaki kua hakarava ki te huaga - 2

The stars can hardly guide us when reading rongorongo, but they can (like numbers) be used for confirmation (though never contradict).

My main point so far - we will continue on next page - is that kope (= ko pe), in the 1st kuhane station, connects it to Te Pei (number 7), and that the vertical straight 'string' in maitaki glyphs is the same element as the 'stem' in poporo:

maitaki poporo