TRANSLATIONS

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We continue with the glyph dictionary pages:

5. Most of the rongorongo texts are, seemingly, calendrical (in a broad sense), and therefore it is to be expected that hua poporo should have calendrical implications.

 

Poporo

A plant (Solanum forsteri); poporo haha, a sort of golden thistle. Vanaga.

A berry whose juice is mixed with ashes of ti leaves in tattoing. Ta.: oporo, a capsicum plant. The Tahiti oporo is not a degradation of poporo but is the original poro stem augmented by that o which in Tahiti is word-formative in a sense too elusive to find expression in European ideas. Mgv.: poporo, the July season when the leaves fall. Mq.: pororo, dry, arid. Sa.: palolo-mua, July. Ma.: paroro, cloudy weather. Poporohiva, milk thistle. Churchill.

In Mangareva poporo was the season when leaves fall (July). In Samoa the same season was called palolo-mua. South of the equator July is the first month beyond winter solstice.

The words poporo and palolo (paroro) are not equal in form, yet a certain resemblance may have induced July to be named poporo on Mangareva (given that Samoan palolo was known).

"... In Tahiti the bread-fruit can be gathered for seven months, for the other five there is none: for about two months before and after the southern solstice it is very scarce, but from March to August exceedingly plentiful. This season is called pa-uru (uru = 'bread-fruit'). The recurring scarcity of bread-fruit shewed the changes in the course of the year, but the Pleiades afforded a surer limit.

In Samoa one authority gives the wet season, ending in April, and the dry season, which comes to an end with the palolo fishing in October; another vaipalolo the palolo or wet season from October to March, and toe lau, when the regular trade-winds blow, embracing the other months; a third the season of fine weather - in which however much rain falls in some localities - and the stormy season, when it rains heavily ..." (Nilsson)

We remember how breadfruit (Maori: kuru, Tahitian: uru after loss of k) was renamed poporo on New Zealand. On Tahiti the season of breadfruit was named pa-uru, which presumably is to be compared with Samoan pa-roro (palolo):

 

Tahiti March - August 6 months pa-uru
September - February 6 months ?
Samoa April - September dry season toe lau
October - March wet season (vai-)palolo

Dimly perceived is an opposition between delicious ripe breadfruits during the dry summer months and the food during scarcity times (black nightshade Sunberries, palolo worms etc).

"The palolo worm or samoan palolo worm (Palola viridis) is a species of invertebrate in the Eunicidae family ..." (Wikipedia)
 

After having written this page I have come to understand that December is a key month on Easter Island, because that is what the story about Ure Honu definitely tells us. A new 'year' is beginning, with a preceding vero period. Beyond midsummer it grows darker, it is not necessary to wait until autumn equinox to see that.

The 'cosmic tree' which raises the sky roof up to let in light has reached its maximum growth at midsummer. When we read about this season in G and K we must keep the perspective in mind:

7
Ga4-1 Ga4-2 Ga4-3 Ga4-4
- -
Ka4-16 Ka5-1
8
Ga4-5 Ga4-6
Ka5-2 Ka5-3
8
Ga4-7 Ga4-8
Ka5-4 Ka5-5

This triplet of periods are located immediately before the turnover:

G period no. number of glyphs

1, 2, 3

8 + 4 + 7 = 19

35

19

4, 5, 6

3 + 2 + 3 = 8

27

7, 8, 9

4 + 2 + 2 = 8

35

10, 11, 12

2 + 3 + 2 = 7

35

42

13, 14, 15

4 + 3 + 5 = 12

54

16, 17, 18

3 + 6 + 7 = 16

70
K period no. number of glyphs
1, 2, 3 7 + 3 + 4 = 14 28 14
4, 5, 6 3 + 2 + 3 = 8 22
7, 8, 9 2 + 2 + 2 = 6 28
10, 11, 12 2 + 3 + 2 = 7 *28 35
13, 14, 15 3 + 2 + 3 = 8 43
16 *13 *56

Is it because of the increasing heat that in Ga4-7 the 'droplets' are missing:

Ko Koró (December)

Because of the increasing heat, work ceases in the fields. Time for fishing, recreation, and festivities. The new houses are occupied (reason for the festivities). Like the previous month, a good time for surfing (ngaru) on the beach of Hangaroa O Tai.
Ga4-7 Ga4-8
Ka5-4 Ka5-5

The 12 'twigs' in Ga4-7 probably refer to the 12 'months' in a 'year', while the 4 droplets in Ka5-4 probably refer to the 4 'quarters' in a 'year'.

In Ka5-4 we see how the 'solar limb', as drawn with two of the toes, generates hua poporo. In Ga4-7, on the other hand, the 'lunar limb' generates another kind of growth.