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TRANSLATIONS
According to Makemson the Tahitian month names are as follows:
Although there is no obvious month name equivalent to the Easter Island Tagaroa uri, I have redmarked a possible candidate, Taa-oa. However, March is south of the equator not heralding summer but winter. On Tahiti - south of the equator - Taa-oa is 6 months away from Tagaroa uri (October). "As the earth makes its annual revolution of the Sun the observer sees new constellations rising in the east after sundown from week to week, while others disappear in the west and are lost in the rays of the Sun. In the northern hemisphere we are accustomed to associate Canis Major and Orion with winter and Scorpius and Sagittarius with summer because these groups of stars dominate the evening sky in their respective seasons. The Polynesians, on the other hand, made their observations in the early morning twilight. To the Maori Sirius in Canis Major was therefore a star of July and a harbinger of frost and cold weather in their southern latitude, so that the name Takurua became synonymous with winter. Antares in Scorpius was first seen by New Zealanders before dawn in November - December and was considered the herald of summer heat, the star which ripened fruit and enervated man. The morning star was said to rule the month during which it rose before sunrise ..." (Makemson) These essential pieces of information make me guess Antares = Tagaroa. The 'Entrance pillar' (Ana-mua) is standing at the gate to summer and so - it seems - is Tagaroa (at least the month Tagaroa uri). But why then is the Tahitian Taa-oa not located in spring? Once again Makemson may have the answer: "Where a difference of nearly six months is found it may be due to the practice of making observations of the stars before dawn in some islands, after sunset in others." Whether this explanation holds true for Tahitian Taa-oa and the Easter Island Tagaroa uri is though not certain. Makemson again: "Analysis of the lists of month names from twenty Polynesian areas brought to light a puzzling situation: adjacent islands of the same archipelago may use practically the same names but with order changed or with the months falling in different times of the year. Five islands of the Hawaiian group, for example, have identical names except for three months of the Kauai calender, yet in no two is the sequence the same ... If a year of twelve equal months was maintained independently of the Moon, and we are assured that it is so, then it is understandable how the lunar sequence of months may have slipped around the year and lost its connection with the governing stars from which the months originally obtained their names ..." The described situation resembles the case of the solar zodiac where the precession of the equinoxes has not resulted in updated positions for the months, e.g. Taurus which no longer 'inhabits' spring equinox (north of the equator) but still is regarded in astrology as doing so. How can an astrologer understand the meaning of Taurus without knowing its position of strength in spring? All old connotations of Taurus would loose their meanings if the real updated position of the Taurus constellation was put into focus. The sequence of the zodiacal names is still intact, though. The Tahitian had months determined by cycle of the visible moon it seems, because they had 13 month names. The Easter Islanders, on the other hand, had only 12 months, probably measuring 30 days each (instead of 29.5 days). When the Easter Islanders named their 4th month Tagaroa uri, the suffix uri may have been added to avoid misunderstandings - it is not the same month as the Tahitian autumn month Taa-oa. If the difference in season is due to people on one island observing the stars at dawn and the other in the evening, then we can expect the other names of the months to follow a similar pattern - the names should be displaced 6 months. We can compare:
No such correspondence is discernible. Another possibility is that the Tahitians have conserved an ancient calendar which once was used north of the equator, while the Easter Islanders have created a new one. The Hawaiian situation is therefore of special interest - maybe they have retained an old calendar (useful for observers living north of the equator)? Makemson describes two different Hawaiian month lists:
Tahitian Hiaia and Te Ma possibly is a faint reflection of Hinaia-eleele respectively Hilina-ma, otherwise there are hardly any similarities. Hawaiian Kaaona probably can be transcribed into Taaona, but the step from there to Tahitian Taa-oa may be difficult. If it is the same name, the seasons for this month is different, though:
If Kaaona (Taaona) is a name related to Tagaroa, then there is a perfect match between Tagaroa uri (the 1st month of summer) and the 2nd Hawaiian list, where Kaaona is the 1st month of winter. October in both cases. Tahitian Taa-oa as the last month of summer may then also be added to the match - given that observations occured in the evening instead of in the morning (Hawaii and Easter Island). We need not go any further for the moment. The question was if Metoro on Tahiti thought according to the Tahitian system or the system on Easter Island.
I have redmarked hakarava. What does it mean? Searching in my Polynesian word list I find an iteresting item:
Hakaturu is to to cause to descend. If quadrangular is hakarava hakaturu, then hakarava can have a meaning similar to hakaturu though opposite, maybe to cause to ascend. Metoro may have observed the very straight arm in Eb3-12. If the creator of the glyph meant hakarava = cause to ascend, then we can agree with Metoro's hakarava. I have postulated that the ragi glyph in Eb3-11 means that the sky is being uplifted and letting the day-light in again, reasonable if the event is located in early spring. I have not documented at rava in the wordlist what Churchill wrote. This (and only this) page happen to be missing in my documentation. I can though see from the following page that one of the many meanings of rava is 'large' and that hakarava can mean 'to enlarge'. One of the meanings of Mangarevan ravatua refers to the poles in a thatch roof. In Churchill 2 I read that the Easter Island rava means 'to be able, capable', and that hakarava means 'to make large'. In hakarava hakaturu we presumably should read 'width' and 'breadth' = quadrangular. I imagine the potency of a spring sun can be put into contrast with the vaivai state (weakness) of autumn sun. The 'mirror' is located between Eb3-12 and Eb3-13. Metoro seems to have thought about Tagaroa either because of the 'shell half' (bent in the normal way - presumably indicating the summer sky) or because he saw a 'mirror' between Eb3-12 and Eb3-13, inferring (from ragi and the straight hakarava arm) that the 'shell half' was referring to the early part of autumn. He could not have read the month Tagaroa uri at Eb3-15. Tagaroa uri is in direct opposition to the lonely Tagaroa in total primal darkness. The Tahitian Taa-oa, on the other hand, can be associated with Tagaroa in the dark. But it was not necessary for Metoro to think in those terms - the rongorongo text can speak for itself and it is not referring to the important spring month Tagaroa uri. The text can then not be referring to the month of Antares (Ana-mua), rather to Aldebaran (Ana-muri), the month of exit (from summer). But wait now! Not so fast! We have read that the fishing taboo was at its end with the arrival of Tagaroa uri. Isn't it probable that the creator of the Keiti text regarded the 6th period of his 24 periods as the time for Tagaroa uri? Isn't it probable that he then would try to write in the 6th period glyphs about the events of Tagaroa uri?
Isn't it probable that I have misunderstood when I stated: "In the 5th period of the E calendar spring equinox is described. Then follows (in period 6) an overview ..." (I meant an overview of the following periods, not an overview of the 6th half-month.) Evidence have now lead us to the another conclusion, that it is not the sun who is tired (moe) in Eb3-17 but it is the fishing taboo which is described. The taboo means to finish doing something, here obviously fishing with strings (reva).
Metoro's: kua moe - kua reva te ika may be understood as a short description '(it is) finished - (the) fishing', i.e. fishing (is) taboo. The following tama - reva ika probably is to be understood as 'child - fishing', i.e. fishing is (re)born, the fishing season now begins. |
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