TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

home

The 'cousin of the Moon', the entrail-snatcher, wanted a smile, because then he could snatch her intestines:

... The Moon now said to her: 'Look here! My poor cousin, the entrail-snatcher, he will surely come in to take away thy entrails, but now listen how to act. Thou must begin to blow and at the same time to thrust thy hands in under the front flap of thy fur coat, holding them so that they resemble a bear, then he must take himself off. Do thus, whenever thou art on the point of smiling!' Thus he told her to act ...

In The Raw and the Cooked we can get another piece of the puzzle explaining the peculiar causal relationship between merriment and losing your entrails:

"... laughter caused by tickling and groans provoked by peppery seasoning can be treated as combinative variants of bodily opening and, more precisely in this case, of oral opening.

Lastly, to conclude the subject of laughter, it should be noted that in South America (as in other areas of the world) certain myths establish a connection between laughter and the origin of cooking fire ..."

Losing your entrails makes it impossible to digest food: - 'He had given one of them something to chew, but as usual it fell down through him, where the entrails had been removed. Whenever they swallowed something, they had chewed a little, it fell right through them ...'

Eating does no longer cause growth. The sky cannot be uplifted by strong arms and the night will prevail, and a full belly is needed for laughter.

The 'cooking' (consumption and consummation) will not take place:

'... The Haida language had ka-ta for 'to eat', while Tsimsyan and Tlingit had other words expressing the effects of a good meal, viz. a full belly (like the sun at noon):

In the Marquesas kai and kai-kai means to 'eat'; and on the Northwest Coast kaik (Tsimsyan) and ka-aia (Tlingit) means 'belly'; and ka-ta (Haida) means to 'eat'.

With a full belly there will be a happy mood:

Kata, katakata

To laugh; laughter. Vanaga.

Kata. To laugh, to smile; kakata: tae kakata, dourness. P Pau., Mgv.: ata, to laugh, to be happy, joyful. Mq.: kata, to laugh, to joke. Ta.: ata, to laugh, to smile. Churchill.

I guess that Metoro may have had kata in mind when he said ka takata at Aa2-85, a kind of smile is there:

... Aa1-49--90 covers 42 glyphs and then we have the double 42 in line a2. The extra glyph in line a2 certainly, then, must be the last glyph in the line, viz. Aa2-85:

The triple 'feathers' are here standing at the top of the outstreched (and broken?) 'wing'. Notice that there are 4 'feathers' in Aa2-85 - the 4th is 'inside' the 'knee' of the 'wing' ...

Oroi, the dark adversary, does not want light (king Hotu) to gain power.

Hotu

Ta.: hotu, to produce fruit, Sa.: fotu, id. Mgv.: akahotu, the September season. Churchill.

H.: Hoku, Night of the full moon. When this moon set before daylight it was called Hoku Palemo, Hoku that slips away. When it set after daylight it was called Hoku Ili, grounded Hoku. Ka mahina o Hoku, the full moon of the night Hoku. Cf. hōkū, star. Hō kū, star. (PPN fetu'u). Wehewehe.

The Hawaiian Hoku Ili (Hotu Iri) is when the full moon is setting after daylight has arrived, 'Grounded Hotu'. The Full Moon is not sailing free from the coast, he does not 'slip away':

Iri

1. To go up; to go in a boat on the sea (the surface of which gives the impression of going up from the coast): he-eke te tagata ki ruga ki te vaka, he-iri ki te Hakakaiga, the men boarded the boat and went up to Hakakainga. 2. Ka-iri ki puku toiri ka toiri. obscure expression of an ancient curse. Vanaga.

Iri-are, a seaweed. Vanaga.

In the Mamari moon calendar - we remember - the canoe of the moon in Ca7-19 was 'grounded', while later - after full moon - the canoe was afloat again (Ca8-6):

From this I get the impression that Hotu A Matua is the personified full moon phase, and then, of course, Oroi will be the dark new moon.

... The 'dark of the Moon', Mercury and the first day of the lunar month, Whiro in New Zealand (Ohiro on Easter Island) was the deity of 'sneak thieves and rascals', dark characteristics:

Hiro

1. A deity invoked when praying for rain (meaning uncertain). 2. To twine tree fibres (hauhau, mahute) into strings or ropes. Vanaga.

To spin, to twist. P Mgv.: hiro, iro, to make a cord or line in the native manner by twisting on the thigh. Mq.: fió, hió, to spin, to twist, to twine. Ta.: hiro, to twist. This differs essentially from the in-and-out movement involved in hiri 2, for here the movement is that of rolling on the axis of length, the result is that of spinning. Starting with the coir fiber, the first operation is to roll (hiro) by the palm of the hand upon the thigh, which lies coveniently exposed in the crosslegged sedentary posture, two or three threads into a cord; next to plait (hiri) three or other odd number of such cords into sennit. Hirohiro, to mix, to blend, to dissolve, to infuse, to inject, to season, to streak with several colors; hirohiro ei paatai, to salt. Hirohiroa, to mingle; hirohiroa ei vai, diluted with water. Churchill.

Though, whether king Hotu is the full moon or whether he is noon or midsummer sun is not a question to be discussed: King Hotu represents a phase in the development in the play between light and darkness, the phase with maximum brightness.

"Hotu Matua ('Hill Parent') and the pan-Polynesian Akea ('Light') are hardly to be considered as strictly personal names, but probably more as allegoric terms fit and intended for very sacred aboriginal kings of outstanding importance in the opening of the local history and genealogy." (Heyerdahl 6)

In my reading of the Mamari moon calendar there is no night named (O)hotu, instead the full moon night (Ca7-24) is Omotohi:

The shape of the 'hill' (hotu) is seen at the bottom. At the top of the 'hill' the time is ripe and the fruit should be gathered by breaking off neatly, a time for feasting (the belly of the moon):

Tohi

Omotohi, full (of the moon); ku-omotohiá te mahina, the moon is full. Vanaga.

Ha.: kōhi. 1. To gather, as fruit; to break off neatly, as taro corm from the stalk with a stick or knife; to split, as breadfruit; to dig; splitter, as stick, stone, knife. Nā wāhine kōhi noni, the noni-gathering women (an insult to Pele, perhaps likening her disposition to sour noni fruit). (PPN tofi.) 2. Fat, rich, as food; fatness. Nā kōhi kelekele o Kapu'u-kolu, the rich foods of Ka-pu'u-kolu (Kaua'i, famous for abundance). 3. To fill or heal, of a wound. Ke kōhi maila ka 'i'o, the flesh is beginning to heal. 4. To hold back, check, restrain: to strain, especially as in childbirth, to travail; to hold or hold back by pressing a person's arm, as in withholding consent, or as in urging someone not to be generous; labor pains, travail. Fig., agony, fear. Cf. haukōhi, kāohi, ho'o kōhi. Also ha'akōhi. 5. Prolonged, as a sound; long. He kōhi ka leo, the sound is long. Wehewehe.

In Barthel 2 Oroi is characterized like this:

"Oroi's posture on Easter Island is marked by secrecy and treachery. None of the sources describes him as a leader of warriors, and they all agree that his victims were defenseless children.

Oroi lives in hiding and attacks only from behind.

Darkness is there before dawn, therefore: behind dawn there is darkness.

His conduct is characterized by the cruelty and treachery of a murderer. The method of killing he used, that of tearing out the intestines, is similar to the MQS. practice of kopu hiki, the 'pulling out of the entrails of living victims by inserting in the orifice of the anus sticks of thorny kenae (flamboyant)' (Handy 1912:138), which was used to cruelly torture and kill the victims of blood feuds.

flamboyant ... characterized by waved flame-like forms; flamingly coloured ... (English Etymology)

This ethnographic parallel to the practices of the Marquesans is remarkable and is further emphasized by the fact that in the Marquesas, as well as on Easter Island, victims were killed by being burnt alive (MQS. heaka tutu pohue una vs. RAP. tutu ora, ME:84).

Oroi chooses neither the open fight nor the weapons of the honest warrior - the war club for close combat and the lance to fight from a distance.

Instead, he sets a trap and intends to finish his assault with a thrust of a needle-sharp bone dagger ..."

Maybe tara at equinox is that 'needle-sharp bone dagger'? The words Metoro used at GD26 were tara hoi:

The long, sharp antennae of the spiny lobster (vaero ura) - that was what caused 'a bell to ring' for me when reading about the stingray in M146. Immediately I then also realized the further similarities: location at the water's edge and having been for a long time in the water, now basking in the sun.