TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

I decide to insert a hyperlink 'waxing and waning':

... In analogy with how in the Mamari moon calendar the 'moon fish' glyphs indicate rising (waxing) and falling (waning) the red-marked glyphs above probably indicate how the 'sun fish' is waxing and waning.

If so, then - at the end of waning - signs of spirithood are reasonable to expect.

The red-marked 'of waning' I at the same time am erasing from the text: I am not certain when the 'spiritul stage' arrives, the waning of the sun may be said to continue until midwinter or it may be regarded to end at autumn equinox. From the new hyperlink a series of pages follow, the 1st of which is this one:

To be more precise, the shark figure (mago), redmarked below, indicates the arrival of sun and the beginning of summer:

		6
Ka3-1	Ka3-2	6	Ka4-13	Ka4-14	Ka4-15

Ka3-2 is a determinative sign for the preceding 'sun fish'. Mago then reappears in the 6th period of the calendar as a determinative sign for the preceding hau glyph, where the calendar cycle is illustrated as 2 + 3 + 4 = 9 'feathers'. The cycle is preceded by 5 outside 'feathers', possibly implying the 365 - 360 = 5 days outside the regular calendar cycle. At the end of the regular cycle (right bottom in Ka4-13) the perimeter of the glyph is broken, a sign of sun's 'death' (or 'absence') beyond the 9th period (9 * 20 = 180 days).

There are 21 glyphs in line Ka3 and the 1st period of the calendar terminates the line:

1
1	Ka3-15	Ka3-16	Ka3-17	Ka3-18	Ka3-19	Ka3-20	Ka3-21

21 (= 42 / 2) is also the number of Ka4-14 counting from the beginning of the calendar. The waxing phase of the moon ends with the 14th night, and 15 therefore suggests the full moon. Mago, the voracious shark symbolizes eating and growing, the phase up to midsummer.

Counting 7 additional glyps, to Ka5-5, we find that midsummer just has passed:

7			8			9
7	Ka4-16	Ka5-1	8	Ka5-2	Ka5-3	9	Ka5-4	Ka5-5

Ka4-16 is the last glyph of 'eating', i.e. the last of the glyphs which are 'shark-like'.

Immediately before King Hotu Matua went to Orongo, climbed onto a rock and gazed in the direction of Hiva to announce his death, he had summoned his 4 children in order to give them his last words:

"The king went into his house and laid down. The first child of King A Matua, Tuu Maheke, came and went into the house. He came and kissed his father on the cheek. King Hotu A Matua asked, 'Who are you?' The royal child replied, 'It is I, the royal child, Tuu Maheke'. King Hotu A Matua said, 'Ah, I wish you luck, oh King, for your sand, very fine sand, fleas [in the sand]!'

He went out, and the second child, Miru Te Mata Nui, entered into the house and kissed him on the cheek. A Matua asked, 'Who are you?' He answered, 'Miru Te Mata Nui'. A Matua replied, 'I wish you luck, oh Miru, oh Te Mata Nui, to protect your people!'

He went out, and the third, Tuu Rano Kao, entered and kissed (his father). A Matua spoke: 'I wish you luck for your pebbles of Hanga Te Pau, for your (crater) Rano Kau!' That was all, and he went out.

The fourth child entered. Matua kissed him on both cheeks and asked, 'Who are you?' He answered, 'It is I, the last-born (hangu potu), Te Mata O Tuu Hotu Iti.' The king was glad and said, 'You are a very strong child (poki hiohio), oh last-born, I wish you luck! Swift (?) is the great shark of Motu Toremo Hiva, of the homeland!' That was the end of King Hotu A Matua's speech to his children." (Manuscript E according to Barthel 2.)

His last-born child, Te Mata O Tuu Hotu Iti, is likened to a shark. The youngest child is the one who is in the east, in spring. Growing older locations ought to follow the path of the sun, and Tuu Maheke, the first-born (royal) child therefore 'inhabits' the north (the fine sands of Anakena). According to Barthel 2:

"The quarternary system, which divides the island into four quadrants, correlates the four royal sons with the path of the sun ... The sequence of the sons is determined by their order of birth. To the first-born goes the region in which the noon sun reaches its zenith, a striking symbol for the highest ranking son; to the second-born goes the region of the setting sun. The name 'Miru' may have been connected to the central Polynesian concept of a region of the dead to the west and its guardian. The third son inherits the midnight region, and the last-born inherits the eastern section.

Since the last-born, a 'good and strong child' (poki rivariva, poki hiohio), was closest to the father, the region of the rising sun is alotted to him, which gives this region special value. While the successor of the king is like 'the sun at its highest point', the youngest son is like 'the rising sun'."

If Ka4-16 is the last glyph of 'eating', then the gesture in Ka5-2 is not meant to show 'eating' but something else. The thumb indicates it cannot be 'eating'. The parallel glyph in G suggests a gesture towards zenith:

8			9
	Ga4-5	Ga4-6		Ga4-7	Ga4-8

	Ka5-2	Ka5-3		Ka5-4	Ka5-5

Yet, the parallel hand gesture in G may mean something else than that in Ka5-2, because in Ga4-5 zenith is indicated not only by the hand but also by the very straight vertical arm and 'branch' at right. In Ka5-2 the arm instead has the bent shape of the 'scythe blade' at right. South of the equator waning moon has this shape, while the mirrored image of waxing moon seems to be illustrated in Ka5-4. The arm in Ka5-2 is evenly thick all the way - indicating sun - and so is the arm in Ga4-5.

In the citation about the quarternary system I have eliminated the following phrase:

... as it circles the island counterclockwise ...

The kuhane went counterclockwise, yes, but she was female and for that reason was expressing the qualities of the moon, not those of the sun.

Time - as expressed by the age of the 4 children - moves (increasing) clockwise, but their order of birth moves (increasing) counterclockwise. The shark in the east is youngest, i.e. comes last. Yet in the calendar for the year he comes first. The eldest son - to succeed the old sun - comes last in the calendar, yet he is the first-born.

Birth is a female event, therefore age must be a male aspect.

The third (in age) son (sun), inhabiting the south part of the island, Tuu Rano Kao, was not very popular with the old king: ... A Matua spoke: 'I wish you luck for your pebbles of Hanga Te Pau, for your (crater) Rano Kau!' That was all, and he went out ...

The south represents the dark time of the year, the time when the old sun dies.

The third in age was the second youngest. If winter solstice inhabits the south, i.e. is identified with Tuu Rano Kao, then the youngest of age (the spring shark in the east), would - if he followed the sun counterclockwise (remember south of the equator) - not move towards the second youngest brother in the south, but instead to the oldest brother in the north.

If midnight inhabits the south, then the dawn (the shark) must come before noon (at Anakena), in which case also the sun stages of the diurnal cycle moves counterclockwise.

The order of birth in the calendar moves rightwards (clockwise): →
1	2	3	4
*Te Mata O Tuu Hotu Iti*	*Tuu Rano Kao*	*Miru Te Mata Nui*	*Tuu Maheke*
E	S	W	N
The arrow of sun time moves leftwards (counterclockwise): ←
spring	midwinter	autumn	midsummer
dawn	midnight	evening	noon

It all is quite confusing and I therefore have eliminated the phrase.