TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

Let us continue with the glyph dictionary and the pages for pu:

2. Quite possibly it is the same idea as that of old Egypt:

(Reference: Wilkinson)

At left the goddess of dawn raises the sun up and at right the goddess of evening (with face down) takes care of the descending sun.We can infer that the two holes in pu glyphs alternatively can be regarded as the blinding light discs of the morning and evening suns.

Yet, the holes are there. To combine the two alternative readings it seems necessary to regard the sky region behind the sky 'roof' as a region of flames.

The East Polynesian concept of sunlight resembling lifegiving water (vaiora a Tane) then will give rise to further ideas:

"... Now the deluge was caused by the male waters from the sky meeting the female waters which issued forth from the ground. The holes in the sky by which the upper waters escaped were made by God when he removed stars out of the constellation of the Pleiades; and in order to stop this torrent of rain, God had afterwards to bung up the two holes with a couple of stars borrowed from the constellation of the Bear. That is why the Bear runs after the Pleiades to this day; she wants her children back, but she will never get them till after the Last Day." (Hamlet's Mill)

Holes can be plugged. Maybe this explains why there are instances, in the rongorongo texts, where the parallel glyphs are without holes, e.g.:


Hb5-28	Hb5-29	Hb5-30	Hb5-31	Hb5-32	Hb5-33

Pb7-12	Pb7-13	Pb7-14	Pb7-15	Pb7-16	Pb7-17

Qb8-111	Qb8-112	Qb8-113	Qb8-114	Qb8-115	Qb8-116

The three parallel texts are here different in many details, suggesting somewhat different messages.

P has a few glyphs with 'holes', as seen for instance in Pb11-104 (Saturday):

						-		...
Pb10-55	Pb10-56	Pb11-101	Pb11-102	Pb11-103	Pb11-104	-	Pb11-105	...

Mostly, though P has 'plugged holes', and Q has nothing but such. Maybe the 'plugged holes' means that sun is not arriving and not leaving - i.e. is he is living in the north with his Winter Maid?

... Hamiora Pio once spoke as follows to the writer: 'Friend! Let me tell of the offspring of Tangaroa-akiukiu, whose two daughters were Hine-raumati (the Summer Maid - personified form of summer) and Hine-takurua (the Winter Maid - personification of winter), both of whom where taken to wife by the sun ...

The 'plugged holes' (like mouth and anus) certainly must have many allusions. I have therefore included a hyperlink ('plugged') which leads to the following page:

Then he went with his father Qinggi, they say.

As soon as Qinggi landed at his town,

he gave a feast.

He tried to make the one we speak of eat.

But he would not accept a morsel.

Qinggi gave a feast again the next day.

to make his child eat.

Again he would eat nothing.

Two greedyguts arrived,

and someone grabbed a storage chest of cranberries.

One of the two greedyguts opened up his maw.

They poured in the whole boxful.

They poured one down the other's throat as well.

Next day, his father gave another feast.

The greedyguts arrived.

Again they poured entire storage chests

of cranberries into their mouths.

The one we are speaking of ran to the edge of town.

As he was walking there,

cranberries bubbled up out of the swampland.

He plugged the vent with moss.

When another vent formed, he plugged it too.

Then he went back to the house

and asked the greedyguts closest to the door,

'Tell me, how do you manage to eat so much?'

'Sir, don't ask that.

Do you think this is a happy way to be?'

'No, but tell me.

If you will eat

at every feast my father gives.

If you don't agree to tell me,

I will plug you up for good'.

'Alright, sir, sit beside me.

I will tell you what to do.

In the morning, take a bath and then lie down.

Rub yourself raw where you feel it most deeply.

By the following day, a scab will form.

You must swallow the scab.

He followed these instructions.

Then, after sitting there awhile:

'Father, I'm hungry!'

His father gave a feast without delay.

Again the greedyguts arrived.

Again they upended boxes into their mouths.

He couldn't be filled.

He was famished.

Qinggi gave another feast.

Then he gave another and another, day after day.

At last, the one we speak of went outside.

When he kept picking cranberries out of their turds,

they saw who it was,

and they shut the door in his face.

Then he walked away, they say.

He went around behind his father's house.

'Father, let me come in!'

No answer.

They turned him away

The text above is part of the adventures of Raven ('the one we are speaking of') as told in Haida Gwaii according to 'Sharp as a Knife'. The two major openings (possible to plug) in animals and in other creatures are for input and for output:

... 'What's she like, Hine nui te Po?' asked Maui. 'Look over there', said Makea, pointing to the ice-cold mountains beneath the flaming clouds of sunset. 'What you see there is Hine nui, flashing where the sky meets the earth. Her body is like a woman's, but the pupils of her eyes are greenstone and her hair is kelp. Her mouth is that of a barracuda, and in the place where men enter her she has sharp teeth of obsidian and greenstone.' ...

Holes for entering and exiting are located in the far away east respectively in the far away west.

The Haida Gwaii myth is rather cryptic, and I want it to remain so. Thoughts must be generated.

The Raven appears to be like Maui - a trickster which can be found everywhen. His character is 'civilized' (i.e. not in contact with nature). The natural functions like eating and procreating is unknown for him. Raven is like the Mad Hatter - crazy.

Nature rules during the 1st part of the year, and nature is - like Hercules - 'killed' at summer solstice, the time of ritual death when the wings of the youngsters are cut short. They must be assimilated into the culture.

When Raven 'plugged the vents' it surely was in order to stop the openings through which winds and other creatures of nature arrives. It was an act of civilization. Man rules civilization and nature (woman) must be curbed. Yet, at autumn equinox she will be (at the) back.