Aa8-18	Aa8-19	Aa8-20	Aa8-21	Aa8-22	Aa8-23	Aa8-24	Aa8-25
Aa8-26	Aa8-27	Aa8-28	Aa8-29	Aa8-30	Aa8-31	Aa8-32	Aa8-33

A sun door in the east is in some way equivalent to Lower Egypt in the north. The Nile may be similar to the path of the sun from morning (the snaky delta) to evening (Upper Egypt, the vulture). East is north and west is south.

There are two places in Wilkinson where Wadjet is mentioned, the first is in the description of iaret and the second in the description of per-nu:

    

"A pre-dynastic chapel, called Per-nu or Per-neser ('The House of the Flames') was established in the city of Buto in the Nile delta, the site of the snake goddess Wadjet ...

... In the third 'hour' in the underworld, as described in the Book of the Gates, there are twelve such chapels with open doors to show the gods who live in them. A gigantic serpent lies along this row of chapels to emphasize the meaning of these 'sacred gods in the underworld' ..." (Wilkinson)

The major parts in the construction of Per-nu is seen in the hieroglyph: a triple vertical section at bottom and above we find one horizontal beam (lintel) across, topped by a 'hemispherical' roof.

The bottom vertical section has an open space in the middle. The vertical side lines of Per-nu are extended to include the roof.

The hieroglyph per-nu may be compared with GD22 (the top part) and GD41 (bottom part):

  

The night (GD22) with sky roof and moon sickle is similar to the roof section with extended side lines in per-nu.

The two vertical beams in GD41 are similar to the two vertical beams in per-nu.

At the beginning of the Tahua text (on side a) we should expect to find (close to the 4 limbs of the 'snake-men' lifting the sky roof up to let in light) some sign of a sun door:

I think Aa1-3--4 very well might allude to a sun door.

The left (from us seen) leg is like an extension of the ragi (GD22) sign which is held high. In P we can clearly see that there is a vertical beam in each of the two glyphs. In Tahua the 45° leaning is like in Egypt.

The two beams are needed (in a hurry it seems) to construct the sun door.

In hau tea (GD41) we have learnt to interpret the picture as a 'house':

Even the fact that east is depicted at left (i.e. we are looking south) agrees with the Egyptian picture.

In the rongorongo texts I believe the past is at left, we read from left to right. But the past (old) should be in the north (domain of the dead). Here we find east at left and in the Egyptian picture east was north too (as seen by way of the symbols for Lower Egypt in the picture earlier). At last the curious question of why hau tea opens her roof at left in spring has been answered.

The 'spreading out' of light according to hau tea on side a presumably means that life is spreading out. Everything does not need an Egyptian explanation:

'... And so they waited there in the darkness at the place where the sun rises. At length the day dawned, a chilly grey at first, then flaming red. And the sun came up from his pit, suspecting nothing. His fire spread over the mountains, and the sea was all glittering. He was there, the great sun himself, to be seen by the brothers more closely than any man had ever seen him. He rose out of the pit until his head was through the noose, and then his shoulders. Then Maui shouted, and the ropes were pulled, the noose ran taut. The huge and flaming creature struggled and threshed, and leapt this way and that, and the noose jerked up and down and back and forth; but the more the captive struggled, the more tightly it held ...'

 

'... Another day dawned, and the men saw a dense swarm of flies pour forth and spread out like a whirlwind (ure tiatia moana) until it disappeared into the sky. Tuu Maheke understood. He went up and took the head, which was already stinking in the hole in which it had been hidden. He took it and washed it with fresh water. When it was clean, he took it and hid it anew ...'

 

'... It is one of the cardinal principles of Polynesian poetry to use the description of something concrete as a cover for various allusions. This principle is practiced her with great skill. Below are four possible translations of the report of the explorers and two of the answers to the king.

Report of the explorers, first version:

The land is bad. / The growing shoots cannot spread. / Too long is the tangle (of weeds) / when one pulls it out, / when one weeds it. / Leave (this bad land) behind (you)!

(Compare MAO. kahu 'young shoot, sprout', wakakahukahu 'to begin to grow, acquire size'; Mao. unu 'to draw, pull out'; RAR. unu 'to draw, to drag'.)

Report of the explorers, second version:

The uterus is bad. / The original yam cannot slide out / because of the long seaweeds. / Let's have a drink! / Let's have a bit (of food)! / Leave something behind!

(Compare RAP. kainga 'matrix, uterus'; yam varieties RAP. papaki kahukahu and (h)anau kaho; TON. kahokaho 'yam, a particularly good kind'; RAP. and MGV. unu 'to drink'; MQS. vere 'morceau'.)

Report of the explorers, third version:

The food is bad. / The octopus is hiding in his ink. / His tentacles sway like seeweeds / when one tries to pull him (from his hiding place) / when his tentacles / are parting.

(Kainga means the act of eating in several Polynesian lnaguages. According to information based on my own fieldwork, the meaning of kahukahu o heke is 'when an octopus hides in his ink'; MQS. ve'eve'e 'tentacules du heke'; MAO. toe 'split, divide'.)

Report of the explorers, fourth version:

A bad meal. / The hymen will not be deflowered / in the long tangle (of the pubic hair) / when one thrusts back and forth. / Let's have the fold (of the female genitals). / Tear open (the hymen)!

(Compare TUA. kahukahu 'the maidenhead, hymen'; MQS. kahukahu 'membrane'; RAP. kai heke, as well as hakaheke 'to deflower'; TUA. unu 'to move longitudinally', unuunu 'to move vigorously back and forth'; TUA. verevere 'pudenda, muliebra; TUA. toe 'to tear, split'.) ...'