Our task is to investigate what possible meanings pure glyphs have. Given the general Polynesian concept of creation as beginning in the utmost dark with only Tagaroa inside a shell, a pure glyph could well describe the situation.

The first 'beings' in cosmos were not substantial, but primal 'principles'. Therefore Tagaroa ought to have been immaterial, maybe the emptiness inside the shell. He was like a spirit, a being who could be heard but not seen (there was no light or life).

'Long ago in the very beginning of time there dwelt within a shell an infant god whose name was Ta'aroa. He was Ta'aroa the unique one, the ancestor of all gods, the creator of the universe whose natures were myriad, whose backbone was the ridgepole of the world, whose ribs were its supporters. The shell was called Rumia, Upset. Becoming aware at last of his own existence and oppressed by a yearning loneliness Ta'aroa broke open his shell and, looking out, beheld the black limitless expanse of empty space. Hopefully, he shouted, but no voice answered him. He was alone in the vast cosmos. Within the broken Rumia he grew a new shell to shut out the primeval void ...'

The new shell (not broken) became in form like two canoes, one upside down on top of the bottom one, I think. The ribs of the canoes were like the ribcage of a bird. The ribs were not straight, but bent.

We are living inside the space between the two 'canoes'. The term tapakau seems to be descriptive of this condition:

"... TUA. tapakau, mythically, 'the surface of the earth, including both land and water, believed to be the mat of the god Tane' ..." (Barthel 2)

Maybe Kau in Rano Kau is expressing the same notion, where the sun begins his course along the south coast. Metoro's tapa mea is presumably similar in meaning. Tane is connected with sun light.

The upside down 'canoe' is not the domain of Tane, it is the domain of the moon. She gives light too, but not of the same kind.

The pure glyph hanging down from the bird in Ka3-7 suggests the elbow (the place of extreme bending of the arm) to be the place were the two 'canoes' meet:

Likewise does Aa5-69 indicates the position of a pure glyph to be vertical:

We should not try to rotate the glyph type 90º to the left or right.

The bottom end of the glyph type probably denotes autumn equinox and the top end spring equinox, the times when sun quickly changes his course. First comes the dark 'canoe' and then the summer half.

The pure at the elbow has a more prominent henua at right.

In Aa5-69 the leftmost henua is thinner than the other three, presumably indicating the 4th quarter. The pattern 1 + 3 could mean that in the beginning there is only one ('Tagaroa'), and then the seasons which follow are 3. Tagata ('fully grown' at left suggests the end of the year. The 2 'cowries' would then indicate the 'black canoe' respectively the 'canoe of Tane'. The powerful arms of the middle person might imply much light, and the henua to the right of him - longer than the rest - may mean the season before midsummer.

If this interpretation is right, then each of pure represents a half-year (not a year as has been suggested up to now). I guess each of the two pure in Aa5-69 means a half-year, while the single elbow pure in Ka3-7 means a year. The fundametal meaning is a cycle, and what kind of cycle will be determined from other signs and from the surrounding glyphs.

The empty shell is a 'house' (hare) without any material inhabitants. It is like a cowrie, with the top canoe like a male and the bottom one like a female. Inside a hare paega it is very dark, like the original shell house Tagaroa built from his own body. In daytime the 'canoe' is floating right side up and we can see the sun.

Nowadays the 'canoe' is full of living 'persons'. The pure glyph type is not describing the present but the very ancient past.

The real hare paega have no openings at the pointed ends. Entrance is in the middle of one side (towards the east to let in the light of the morning sun). Only gods enter at the mua and muri ends.

The hare pure, on the other hand, have no openings in the middle, only at their pointed ends.

On Easter Island the two stations at Poike in the east, Pua Katiki and Maunga Teatea, could represent one end. The other end must then lie on the west coast. The voyage of Makoi suggests the two stations Apina Iti and Apina Nui.