TRANSLATIONS

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Next page is the first one in the 'Excursion':

 

The number of glyphs on the G tablet is 471. It has been established that glyph number 236 (counted from Ga1-1) probably was meant to indicate a 'downfall', an idea connected with what happens when a cycle reaches its limit. There is a parallel between glyph number 236 and the kuhane station Te Pei:

Gb1-6 Gb1-7 (236)

In Gb1-6 'feathers' at the top illustrate the light from the sun at high summer, and in Gb1-7 it is all suddenly over - the power in the sky has 'toppled'. Apparently the same event is depicted in Aa6-14, a glyph with twice as large ordinal number (here counted from pito at Ab8-43):

Aa6-8 Aa6-9 Aa6-10 Aa6-11 Aa6-12 Aa6-13 Aa6-14 (472)
Aa6-15 Aa6-16 Aa6-17 Aa6-18 Aa6-19 Aa6-20 Aa6-21

The text in A is very long and probably two glyphs were used for each day.

To fall down is acceptable if the idea originates from a concept of gods experiencing time on another scale than we. For us it is a long time from high summer to autumn (fall), and for some small creatures a day is equal to life time.

The creator of Tahua may have played with his glyph Aa6-14, because the top 'grasping hand' resembles an upside down version of the top of Gb1-6. An inversion happens from one day to another. Furthermore, the bottom (hua) part becomes the fat torso of rau hei once you have seen it. And both resemble tamaiti in that respect:

 

tamaiti Te Pei rau hei

The 'feathered' sun person is falling down as in rau hei glyphs, and this downward moving 'fish' will generate next generation hua (or tamaiti). The 'fruit' is the regenerated 'parent', whose 'head' obviously is shown at bottom in tamaiti:

 

The meaning of a glyph depends on the surrounding glyphs:

Aa6-8 Aa6-9 Aa6-10 Aa6-11 Aa6-12 Aa6-13 Aa6-14 (472)
Aa6-15 Aa6-16 Aa6-17 Aa6-18 Aa6-19 Aa6-20 Aa6-21

In Aa6-11 a kind of hua (representing next 'generation' - i.e. next phase in the time cycle) emerges from the uplifted hand. It has 3 + 3 = 6 'feathers'. At bottom is a connected (but separate) 'ball' with what looks like a horizontal line behind. It may signify the sun (the ball) and how at a solstice the path is flat, nothing changes over the days.

The strange Aa6-14 apparently is meant to show next stage in the development, hua has grown and the little 'ball' at bottom is now integrated, it is no longer a separate entity. The 'head' of the sun continues in the next generation. To quote Popol Vuh:

... 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 ...

In Aa6-12 a pau sign probably indicates how the light of the first half of the cycle has come to an end. The complex Aa6-15 has henua ora in its center, the sign of a 'recycling station'. Then follows a cock crying out (moa in Aa6-16) - a new light is about to appear.

6 * 14 (in Aa6-14) = 84 and 472 = 16 * 29.5, numbers which indicate ends of time cycles.

The last sentence indicates that more than one cycle may coincide at some glyphs. 84 and 472 are not commensurate. I have earlier thought of 84 as 3 * 28 and 28 as another measure for the month. Here a more reasonable measure is the fortnight. Maybe 28 does not exist (in rongorongo) as a length for the month.

2 * 84 = 168 will then be thought of as 12 * 14. And we then will understand why the 13th zodiacal sign has disappeared - because there is room for only 12 and 14.

364 = 13 * 28, but when counting you should have only 12 double fortnights. The 13th is te pito - in the dark, cannot be counted. I guess the 5th station of the Rain God, when he is down in the earth, should be thought of as the 13th:

Having thus defined te pito for the Rain God it is easy to see how there are 3 groups with 4 stations in each:

 

  1 (beginning) 2 3 4 (end)
dark
light
4 elements