TRANSLATIONS

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I happened to notice how the unique and curious Gb2-16 could be an image of the 'tree at zenith':

The hero climbed easily up '... since the way to the nest was like a stairway ...'

... The Indian took off his clothing and started to climb up the cliff, which he found quite an easy task, since the way to the nest was like a stairway. But the Trickster commanded that the peak increase in height. He made the sides completely smooth so that the Indian was unable to come back down and remained stranded at the top ...

The 'berries' at left are striving upwards, those at right are hanging down. The number pattern 4 + 3 (though the last 'berry' has been 'picked') agrees with that in Ca1-20:

At left - in Gb2-16 - there are 4 'feathers' on the inside (of the sky roof?) shining on the central 'stem' (earth?), while there are none at the right (except, possibly, 1 at the bottom outside - meaning the new fire?).

Though the pattern rather suggests 4 unripe sun berries striving up before 'noon', followed by 2 ripe ones hanging down and a 3rd which has fallen down. 6 is the living sun, the 7th will be ihe kuukuu:

Aa1-5 Aa1-6 Aa1-7 Aa1-8
ko te moa e noho ana ki te moa e moa te erueru e moa te kapakapa
Aa1-9 Aa1-10 Aa1-11 Aa1-12
e moa te herehua ka hora ka tetea ihe kuukuu ma te maro ki te henua

If the 'stairway' only exists on the way up, then it must be - if we identify Gb2-16 with the 'bird-nester' story - the 4 inside 'feathers' which constitutes the 'stairway'.

I think it is worthwile to make a detour and inspect the surrounding glyphs. We should not miss the opportunity to get a foothold on the 'back side' of Small Santiago Tablet.

First we advance forward in time:

The elbow ornament in Ga2-18 suggests summer 'year' is complete.
Gb2-17 Gb2-18
Gb2-19 Gb2-20 Gb2-21 Gb2-22 Gb2-23 Gb2-24
19 'feathers' in both Gb2-17 and Gb2-25, and the 7th is extra large.

7 + 12 = 19

Gb2-25 Gb2-26

7 dark half-months (twigs) in Ca1-20 + 2 * 6 'living sun' half-months could be the meaning behind 19 ('the death of the sun', cfr 29 for the moon).

Winter: 7 * 26 = 182 and summer: 12 * 15 = 180.

Beyond the 'bird-nester' autumn will follow, i.e. the season of the turtle:

17  
Ga5-4 Ga5-5 Ga5-6 Ga5-7 Ga5-8 Ga5-9
18
Ga5-10 Ga5-11 Ga5-12 Ga5-13 Ga5-14 Ga5-15 Ga5-16
19
Ga5-17 Ga5-18 Ga5-19 Ga5-20 Ga5-21
20 The right part of Ga5-10 resembles Gb2-22.
Ga5-22 Ga5-23 Ga5-24
Ga5-25 Ga5-26 Ga5-27 Ga5-28 Ga5-29

If we go backwards (in time from Gb2-16) there appears to be a continuation in theme all the way back to the beginning of the text on side b, indeed even continuing from the text at the end of side a. Possibly it means there is some kind of calendar for the year also at the beginning of side b.

Let us just take a quick look at some of the glyphs:

Gb1-21 Gb1-22 Gb1-23 Gb1-24 Gb1-25 Gb1-26
Gb2-1 Gb2-2 Gb2-3 Gb2-4 Gb2-5 Gb2-6
Gb2-7 Gb2-8 Gb2-9 Gb2-10 Gb2-11 Gb2-12
Gb2-13 Gb2-14 Gb2-15 Gb2-16 Gb2-17 Gb2-18

The strange and symmetric Gb2-14 probably illustrates summer solstice. Gb2-13 and Gb2-15, located symmetrically around, have a common shape alluding to vaha kai (GD75) with and 'undulation' at the top, as seen for instance in Qa7-116:

At the top of the 'tree' we should find the 'nest':

"... The central pole of the ceremonial lodge [of the Arapaho Sun-Dance Ritual], which is also, of course, the tallest, is attributed to the sun's wife: a digging stick, placed horizontally at the top, represents the one the heroine placed across the hole in the celestial vault to hold the rope she used to climb back down to earth ...

But ... at a lower level, there is also a forked stick stuck into the ground - a kind of miniature central pole since both are forked - which bears the effigy or remains of a small bird, the symbol of a different return to the earth, i.e., the bird-nester's descent. The Arapaho are aware, then, of a structural homology between the two myths ..." (The Naked Man)

Riding on the back of geese, or climbing a rope, the two main roads back to earth from the sky. The forked stick is a miniature (I think) of the forked tree in which the sun-bird takes a rest, meeting with his wife, the moon.

Gb2-14 may illustrate the union, two eyes and a variant of ragi with sun and a moon sickle as a single unit.

At the same time the forked stick symbolizes the 'death' of the sun. We should remember what happens beyond noon, and I think it will here be useful to 'recapitulate' (once again cut the head off and return to the origin):

Aa1-26

Aa1-27

This is the 6th period and noon has passed. The sun has started his voyage down towards the western horizon and darkness, illustrated by the Y-sign on top (future). Afternoon is a reversal of morning. The right part of Aa1-26 shows this turn around and the same message is seen in the orientation of tapa mea.

The sun in Aa1-26 has another appearance than before noon, it is no longer compressed:

1

2

3

4

5

6

Moreover, before noon his left 'shoulder' (upper right 'flame' seen from us) is like a finger pointing right (seen from us). Now, beginning with the right part of the noon glyph (5) this 'flame' is bent upwards. And also the left 'flame' is similarly bent. The meaning ought to be that sun now is high in the sky.

The mid upper 'flame' is converted into the shape of Y. This is a sign similar to the double mid-flame in the first period (1). The similarity in form implies similarity in meaning. Therefore we should understand it to mean 'darkness'.

This sun, at a quick glance, looks like an inverted 'fish-sun':

The meaning of 'fish-sun' is that sun is moving quickly (quick as a fish), i.e. he is full of life. If we invert this type of glyph and change the tail of the fish we reach a sun with Y at the top. This, then should mean a sun having no more life, no longer growing.

'... ín the second half of life, when, as Dr. Jung has so frequently stated, 'man's values and even his body tend to undergo a reversal into opposite'. Old men become womanish, old women mannish, the fear of life becomes a fear of death. And so now it is the dry branches, not the green, of the universal tree around which the heavens spin that must be grasped and painfully climbed.' (Campbell)

As regards Aa1-27 we should notice that this reversed tapa mea is exactly as the reversed tapa mea in the 1st period:

Aa1-17

Aa1-27

1

6

And these two reversed signs differ not only in orientation from the normal (in Tahua) tapa mea. The upper group of three marks are oriented more upwards than usual and the one in the middle is longer, not shorter as in tapa mea oriented in the normal direction:

Aa1-19

Aa1-21

Aa1-23

Aa1-25

2

3

4

5

We also can see that the reversed tapa mea are slimmer. Altogether (reversal of the orientation of the glyph, reversal of the length of the mark in the middle of the top three, slimmer 'body', more upwards oriented marks in the top half of the glyph) signifies 'darkness'. At a cardinal point there is no order, i.e. no 'light'.

... Chi Khang Tzu asked Master Khung [Confucius] about the art of ruling. The Master said, 'Ruling (cheng, government) is straightening (chêng, rectifying). If you lead a straight way, who will dare go by a crooked one?' (Needham 2)

Order must be banned at a cardinal point, because at such a point there must be change, a disintegration of what has ruled up to that point, a new world of events and habits is due. The world of morning is over and the world of after noon has arrived, filled with events of a different kind than the events of morning. After the cardinal point it will be clear what to do, i.e. vision returns. Light arrives again.

The acient Egyptians observed the stars and the circumpolar stars they regarded as qualitatively different from the ordinary stars which arrived at the eastern horizon and later disappeard behind the western horizon. The circumpolar stars had a circular motion, whereas the ordinary ones went straight across the sky.

'The inscriptions relating to one of the very earliest of the illustrations refers to Horus, 'the great god, the light of the heavens, the lord of Edfû, the bright ray which appears on the horizon'.

The myth, therefore, I take it, simply means that the rising sun destroys the circumpolar stars. These stars are represented in the earliest forms of the myth either by the crocodile or the hippopotamus; of course they disappeared (or were killed) at  sunrise. Horus, the bright ray on the horizon, is victorious by destroying the crocodile and the hippopotamus, which represent the powers of darkness.' (Lockyer)

Let us now return to Aa1-26. We can observe that hakaturou (Metoro's name for the right part of the glyph) is not only relevant but also quite to the point:

To come down, to go down, to descend; ka-turu-age koe ki tai, go down to the sea now; turuga, coming down, descent. Vanaga.

1. To fall in drops, to flow, to leak, to descend, a drop; turu ki tai, to take refuge at sea; hakaturu, to cause to descend, to lower, to take soundings; hakaturuturu, to heave and pitch. 2. To stay, to prop. 3. To come, to arrive, to overcome; tehe e turu, through and through; hakarava hakaturu, quadrangular. Churchill.

The quadrangular earth has one corner at noon, a prop is located there. From that there is descending, the new rule.

The bent toko te rangi (GD32) we should name hakaturu. This hakaturu glyph (right part of Aa1-26), however, has more signs on it than what follows from the bending (GD36). First we notice that the end point is cut off, not tapering off as in e.g. the parallel glyph (Pa5-52) in the Large St Petersburg text:

And then the 'head' part is connected to the sun by a strange sign:

Possibly what is depicted is a toki (GD79), an adze. This adze has cut off the crooked path (as indicated by the cut off end of hakaturu). The adze should signify the rule (of straightness and light and order).

Stone adzes are very old implements, and so are the ideas connected with quadrangular earth. The following (from ancient Malta) is illuminating:

'Then I become aware of ... a presence - a faint, ghostly glimmering, like moonglow, that has appeared on the solstice stone. I don't know how long it lasts, a second or two only I would guess, but while it is there it seems less like a projection - which I know it to be - than something immanent within the stone itself. And it seems to function as a herald for it fades almost as soon as it has appeared and in its place the full effect snaps on - instantaneously. It wasn't there, and then it's there.

As Chris had described, the effect does curiously resemble a poleaxe, or a flag on a pole, and consists of a 'shaft', narrow at the base but widening a little towards the top, running up the left hand side of the solstice stone, surmounted by a right-facing 'head' or 'flag'. An instant later an almond-shaped spot of light, like an eye, appears a few centimeters to the right of the 'flag' and the effect is complete.

Weirdly - I do not claim it has any significance - this flag-on-a-pole symbol is the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph neter, meaning 'god', or 'a god' - and not to be understood at all in the Judaeo-Christian usage of that word but rather as a reference to one of the supernatural powers or principles that guide and balance the universe. Manifested here, in this strange Stone Age temple, it glows, as though lit by inner fire.' (Hancock 2)

There is a Chinese / Japanese character meaning 'reform':

At left there is a snake and at right a hand holding a cane or stick. You must kill the snake (old rules and habits) as a first step towards making reforms. This character originally meant 'drive off serpents' (a symbol of undesirable things), and  thus 'clear an area' and hence by extension 'reform' ... (Henshall)

Of course, it may be coincidences. Yet, it is interesting to find turu = to fall in drops, to descend, to take refuge at sea, quadrangular etc.

The crocodile (representing circumpolar stars in old Egypt), reminds me about how the burnt man became a cayman and disappeared into the water:

... The other versions ... relate how a man becomes furious with fire which has burnt his nephew. He orders his sister to prepare an oven. 'But where is the meat?' she asks. The man replies, 'With me', and he lies down on the burning stones, which roast him. Whereupon, he gets up, walks to the river and (having changed into a cayman ...) disappears into the water.

A long time afterwards, he comes back safe and sound, bearing no trace whatever of the ordeal he has endured. He relates how he has lived in the land of the fish and, as a proof, shows all the small fish which have been caught in his long hair. They are, in fact, women, who a long time previously gave up their human form ...

Let us conclude this part with a rope story:

"... the pygmies of the mountains of New Guinea say that the first man came down from the sky by means of a rope, and discovered on earth all the animals, which he proceded to cook in an earth oven.

He then noticed that the rope had been cut. His wife, whom he had left behind in the sky, heard his lamentations, and threw fire and edible plants down to him. Among the plants were four cucumbers which turned into women, whom he then married; they planted his garden, and bore him two daughters and two sons, who were the ancestors of humanity ..." (The Naked Man)