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TRANSLATIONS
The canoe - I still have it in my mind - is
a natural symbol for balance:
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...
Amalivaca
broke his daughters' legs in
order to prevent them travelling
hither and thither and to force
them to remain in one place, so
that their procreative powers,
which had no doubt been put to
wrong uses during their
adventurous wanderings, should
henceforth be confined to
increasing the Tamanac
population. Conversely,
Mayowoca bestows legs on a
primeval and, of necessity,
sedentary couple, so that they
can both move about freely and
procreate.
In M415,
the sun and the moon are fixed
or, to be more exact, their
joint representation in the form
of rock carvings provides a
definitive gauge of the moderate
distance separating them and the
relative proximity uniting them.
But, since the rock is
motionless, the river below
should - supposing creation were
perfect - flow both ways, thus
equalizing the journeys upstream
and downstream. Anyone who has
travelled in a canoe knows that
a distance that can be covered
in a few hours when the journey
is downstream may require
several days if the direction is
reversed. The river flowing two
ways corresponds then, in
spatial terms, to the search, in
temporal terms, for a correct
balance between the respective
durations of day and night ...
such a balance should also be
obtainable through the
appropriate distance between the
moon and the sun being measured
out in the form of rock carvings
... |
Lévi-Strauss does not here mention the
feeling you get when entering a canoe - how
you have to be careful not to disturb the
balance. Yet in a canoe you feel safe in
high waves. A canoe is not characterized by
spatial or temporal distances, it is
characterized by stability (like the sun on
his path). Therefore, it
would not have been bad if I had said
something about the canoe as a security
symbol in my summary of Rei:
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The rei miro glyphs were
used by the rongorongo
men to mark cardinal points,
i.e. points where the direction
of the journey of the sun canoe
across the blue sea of the sky
had to be adjusted.
The orientation of the canoe as
seen in the glyphs is therefore
'standing on its front end'. It
has stopped for a moment and a
new straight course will soon
begin.
Whereas the sun is steady and
always the same the moon is the
incarnation of change. Therefore
the rei miro glyphs have
'appendices' in form of
'sickles' below the hull, a sign
to indicate the moon. Rei
miro glyphs always appear
when change is due, never at
other times.
The calendars for the year had
the solstices and equinoxes
located at points which did not
coincide with the points where
the major calendar periods
changed. In that respect their
view corresponds with our view:
New year arrives, for example,
later than winter solstice and
spring equinox before the 1st of
April. |
Rei glyphs always appear when change
is due, because they give security. (I
notice how I wrote rei miro glyphs
instead of Rei glyphs and have to
change that at once.)
Next page in the glyph dictionary:
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4. The
long nose in the ao face has the appearance of a
tree:
 
This tree is located at summer solstice, and the 'tree' in the
ua face should be the same tree at winter solstice. It is (in a
way) the tree which grew from the heart of Ulu:
... His wife sang a
dirge of lament, but did precisely as she was told, and in the
morning she found her house surrounded by a perfect thicket of
vegetation. 'Before the door,' we are told in Thomas Thrum's
rendition of the legend, 'on the very spot where she had buried her
husband's heart, there grew a stately tree covered over with broad,
green leaves dripping with dew and shining in the early sunlight,
while on the grass lay the ripe, round fruit, where it had fallen
from the branches above. And this tree she called Ulu
(breadfruit) in honor of her husband ...
It is also (in a way) the tree in which the head of One
Hunaphu was placed:
... And they were
sacrificed and buried. They were buried at the Place of Ball Game
Sacrifice, as it is called. The head of One Hunaphu was
cut off; only his body was buried with his younger brother. 'Put his
head in the fork of the tree that stands by the road', said One
and Seven Death. And when his head was put in the fork of the
tree, the tree bore fruit. It would not have had any fruit, had not
the head of One Hunaphu been put in the fork of the tree.
This is the calabash, as we call it today, or 'the skull of One
Hunaphu', as it is said. And then One and Seven Death
were amazed at the fruit of the tree. The fruit grows out
everywhere, and it isn't clear where the head of One Hunaphu
is; now it looks just the way the calabashes look. All the
Xibalbans see this, when they come to look
...
It is the coconut tree, and all sorts of fruitful mythic trees. They
represent the vertical 'cosmic tree' which keeps the sky dome up.
Probably it is seen as the middle of hua poporo.
We say south 'pole' and north 'pole' and mean this 'tree'. On
Easter Island, when sun stands low, the 'face' is compressed like
the face on the ua staff.
In the beginning sky was lying directly on the surface of the
earth and it was totally black in between. Tane (the god of
trees) managed to raise the sky and let in the light:
... Sky (rangi)
and Earth (papa) lay in primal embrace, and in the cramped,
dark space between them procreated and gave birth to the gods such
as Tane, Rongo and Tu. Just as children fought
sleep in the stifling darkness of a hare paenga, the gods
grew restless between their parents and longed for light and
air. The herculean achievement of forcing Sky to separate from Earth
was variously performed by Tane in New Zealand and the
Society Islands, by Tonofiti in the Marquesas and by Ru
(Tu) in Cook Islands. After the sky was raised high above the
earth, props or poles were erected between them and light entered,
dispelling the darkness and bringing renewed life ...
Ure Honu (who had found the skull of the sun king - helped by a rat, the
kuhane of Hotu Matua) later lost it
and searched inside the 'house' of king
Tuu Ko Ihu. The house is a symbol for the dome of the sky
and the roof needs props (tree stems), otherwise it will be
completely dark inside. |
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"...
Ure Honu
was amazed and said, 'How beautiful you are! In the head of the new
bananas is a skull, painted with yellow root and with a strip of
barkcloth around it.'
Ure Honu
stayed for a while, (then) he went away and covered the roof of his
house in Vai Matā. It was a new house. He took the very large
skull, which he had found at the head of the banana plantation, and
hung it up in the new house. He tied it up in the framework of the
roof (hahanga) and left it hanging there.
Ure
sat out and caught eels, lobsters, and morays. He procured a great
number (? he ika) of chickens, yams, and bananas and piled
them up (hakatakataka) for the banquet to celebrate the new
house. He sent a message to King Tuu Ko Ihu to come to the
banquet for the new house in Vai Matā. A foster child (maanga
hangai) of Ure Honu was the escort (hokorua) of
the king at the banquet and brought the food for the king, who was
in the house. The men too came in groups and ate outside. When
Tuu Ko Ihu had finished his dinner, he rested. At that time he
saw the skull hanging above, and the king was very much amazed.
Tuu Ko Ihu knew that it was the skull of King Hotu A Matua,
and he wept. This is how he lamented: 'Here are the teeth that ate
the turtles and pigs (? kekepu) of Hiva, of the
homeland!'
After Tuu Ko Ihu had reached up with his hands, he cut off
the skull and put it into his basket. Out (went) the king, Tuu Ko
Ihu, and ran to Ahu Tepeu. He had the skull with him.
King Tuu Ko Ihu dug a hole, made it very deep, and let the
skull slide into it. Then he cushioned the hole with grass and put
barkcloth on top of it, covered it with a flat slab of stone (keho),
and covered (everything) with soil. Finally, he put a very big stone
on top of it, in the opening of the door, outside the house.
Ure Honu looked around for his skull. It was no longer in the
house. When he questioned those who knew, the foster child of Ure
Honu said, 'On the day on which the banquet for the new house
was held, Tuu Ko Ihu saw the skull. He was very much moved
and wept, 'Here are the teeth that ate the turtles and the pigs (?
kekepu) of Hiva, of the homeland!' When the foster
child of Ure Honu had spoken, Ure Honu grew angry. He
secretly called his people, a great number of men, to conduct a raid
(he uma te taua).
Ure set out and arrived in front of the house of Tuu Ko Ihu.
Ure said to the king, 'I (come) to you for my very large and
very beautiful skull, which you took away on the day when the
banquet for the new house was held. Where is the skull now?'
(whereupon) Tuu Ko Ihu replied, 'I don't know.'
When Tuu Ko Ihu came out and sat on the stone underneath
which he had buried the skull, Ure Honu shot into the house
like a lizard. He lifted up the one side of the house. Then Ure
Honu let it fall down again; he had found nothing. Ure Honu
called, 'Dig up the ground and continue to search!' The search
went on. They dug up the ground, and came to where the king was. The
king (was still) sitting on the stone. They lifted the king off to
the side and let him fall. They lifted up the stone, and the skull
looked (at them) from below. They took it, and a great clamour began
because the skull had been found. Ure Honu went around and
was very satisfied. He took it and left with his people. Ure Honu
knew that it was the skull of the king (puoko ariki)." (Manuscript
E according to Barthel 2) |
Tuu Ko Ihu went to Ahu Tepeu,
a name we recognize. It is located in the
domain of Tu'u, in the west:
I add peu to my Polynesian
dictionary, and cannot but notice the
meaning 'to fold, to crease' (just as in
winter the 'face' becomes wrinkled like the
forehead of ua):
| Peu
1. Axe, adze, mattock;
peu pakoa,
an axe poorly helved. 2. Energy. Peupeu:
1. To groan. 2. To be affectionate, to grow tender;
peupeuhaga,
friendship. Mq.: pèèhu,
haápeéhu,
pekehu,
to make tender. 3. Pau.: peu,
habit, custom, manners. Ta.: peu,
custom, habit, usage. 4. Pau.: hakapeu,
to strut. Ta.: haapeu,
id. Churchill.
Sa.:
mapelu, to bend, to
stoop, to bow down, persons stooping with age, housebeams sagging under
weight. To.: pelu,
bebelu,
to fold, to crease. Fu.: pelu,
peluki,
to fold. Uvea: pelu,
id., mapelu,
to bend, to bow. Ha.: pelu,
to double over, to bend, to fold. Rapanui: peu,
axe, adze. Churchill 2. |
It is because of the sagging housebeams. The
old king (Tuu Ko Ihu) is stooping
with age, folding over, and will soon fall
on his face.
('They lifted the king off to the side and
let him fall.')
Why an axe? Probably because
the old 'tree' must be felled.
From this viewpoint ua glyphs in the
rongorongo texts should be studied.
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