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TRANSLATIONS
The hyperlink 'the Milky Way' leads to:
Metoro may
have been influenced by Aa6-70 when he said e he goe kua moe:
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|
Aa6-66 |
Aa6-70 |
| e he
goe kua moe |
e
mago |
Metoro mostly said mago (shark)
at the glyph type
in Aa6-70, but of the
9 times he mentioned goe (Milky Way) it was mostly at the
mago glyph type. I cannot have more than one label for each glyph
type, but this is an instance where it would have been beneficial.
| "Kepelino wrote: 'Lalani
or stars of heaven are the stars close to the heavens,
called ruling stars. There is a vast number of these
stars and they shine with a tiny, twinkling light
because of their great height.' Lalani, in the Kumulipo or Hawaiian Chant
of Creation, was translated 'row of stars' by Queen
Liliuokalani. The Hawaiians also called the Milky
Way Kuamoo, Backbone of the Lizard. Many Polynesian names for the Milky
Way may be reminiscent of the crocodiles of Western
Melanesia, the moko-roa, 'long lizards' of
legend, for the same motif is found in various parts of
the Pacific. The Tuamotuans termed the Milky Way
Vaero-o-te-moko, Tail of the Lizard, and
Mango-roa, Long Shark.
The Mangaian name Moko-roa-i-ata,
Long-lizard-of-morning, not only sounds the lizard or
crocodile note but also refers to the method of
determining the small hours of the night before the
rising of the morning star. The Maori used the same term
contracted to Mokoroiata. Again they called the
Galaxy Mango-roa, Long Shark, and
Mangoroiata, Long-shark-of-dawn.
In the island of Pukapuka Te Mango,
the Shark, was applied to the long dark rift which
divides the Milky Way from Scorpius to Cygnus. They
declared that the 'shark of winter' had its head to the
south and the 'shark of summer' had its head to the
north, referring to the seasonal change in the position
of the constellation.
This, they said, was the monster which
Maui speared and hurled high into the sky and
they pointed out a small triangular patch of dark
nebulosity near Scorpius as te tao, the spear with which
Maui had performed his prodigious feat. In the Society Islands there were two
distinct names for the rift, Vero-nu'u,
Pierce-the-earth, and Vero-ra'i, Pierce-the-sky,
the names of the two great wooden spears of Tane.
The Central Polynesians called the
Milky Way the Vai-ora or Water of Life of Tane
and located it in the tenth heaven. They tell the story of
Faa-rava-i-te-ra'i,
Sky-shade, a handsome blue shark which was the pet of
the gods. Unfortunately, it developed an appetite for
human beings and two lads plotted to kill it, but the
gods learned of their purpose in time and transported
the shark to the heavens where it can still be seen. When Maui ascended to the tenth
sky to implore the assistance of Sky-builder, he found
the god diving for fish in the Living Water to feed his
pet sea swallow, the star Deneb in Cygnus ... (Makemson) |
It may be that the 'long lizards' of Melanesia have nothing to
do with the origin of the Polynesian names for the Milky Way. The origin
may instead lie in Maia-wa (the distant land of Maya). I
cite from Maya Cosmos:
| "... Yucatan crosses today are
... referred to as yax che', 'First (or
green) Tree'. Yax che' also happens to be the
name of the ceiba tree, and we have naturalistic
images from the Classic period of fruit-laden ceibas
that represent the World Tree ..."
"... The form they gave to the
Raised-up-Sky and the central axis of the world was
that of a great ceiba tree. That tree is still there
as the cross and as the tree ..."
| "World trees are a
prevalent motif occurring in the
mythical cosmologies, creation accounts,
and iconographies of the pre-Columbian
cultures of Mesoamerica. World trees
embodied the four cardinal directions,
which also serve to represent the
four-fold nature of a central world
tree, a symbolic axis mundi which
connects the planes of the Underworld
and the sky with that of the terrestrial
realm ...
Among the Maya, the
central world tree was conceived as or
represented by a ceiba tree, and is
known variously as a wacah chan
or yax imix che, depending on the
Mayan language. The trunk of the tree
could also be represented by an upright
caiman, whose skin evokes the tree's
spiny trunk ...
World trees are
frequently depicted with birds in their
branches, and their roots extending into
earth or water (sometimes atop a
'water-monster', symbolic of the
underworld). The central world tree has
also been interpreted as a
representation of the band of the Milky
Way." (Wikipedia) |
"As the Milky Way
turns from its north-south position as World
Tree to its east-west position as the Cosmic
Monster, it arches from the southwest to
northeast quadrants of the sky. At that time it
looks as if the crocodile is riding just above
the swollen bulge of its base.
This 'crocodile
tree' is a very ancient image among the Maya and
is featured in Popol Vuh version of Creation. In
fact, a monument from the very early ceremonial
center of Izapa in Chiapas shows this crocodile
tree along with a picture of one of the Hero
Twins after his arm has been ripped off in a
struggle with Itzam-Yeh, the Classic name
for Seven-Macaw. With his good arm he is holding
a pole on which a Late Preclassic-period version
of Itzam-Yeh perches.
If Itzam-Yeh
was symbolized by the Big Dipper in the
Classic period, this picture also happens in the
sky. When the Wakah-Chan Milky Way moves
from its erect north-south position and becomes
the Crocodile Tree, the Big Dipper dives
downward until it touches the horizon. It
disappears as the Crocodile Tree changes into
its east-west Cosmic Monster. I believe this
movement may correspond to the defeat of
Seven-Macaw by the Hero Twins."
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It was not the Maya who invented the
cosmic tree with a dragon at is foot. According to Maya Cosmos already the
Olmecs depicted a world tree with dragon snout at bottom (stylized as the legs
of the god in the picture below):
Probably it is a very ancient idea and
the Polynesians could have got it from other peoples than the Maya.
The summary page in the ua
'chapter' of the glyph dictionary:
The ua
glyph type seems to be associated with the arrival of the season
when sun no longer is high in the sky. In the K calendar,
for instance, the only ua glyph is the last glyph in what
probably was regarded as the summer half of the year:
|
Ka1-1--Ka1-24 |
24 |
|
Ka2-1--Ka2-10 |
10 |
|
Ka2-11--Kb3-5 (ua) |
108 |
|
Kb3-6--*Kb5-20 |
50 |
|
sum |
192 |
108 glyphs for
summer was chosen because the winter half of the year then would
have 24 + 10 + 50 = 84 glyphs. A balance between the two halves of
the year can therefore be expressed by 6 * 18 (summer) and 6 * 14
(winter).
18 is a natural
choice for summer, a short expression for 180 days, and 14 will be
the corresponding expression for a fortnight when moon stands high
in the sky.
The parallel ua
glyph in E is located 3 * 18 = 54 glyphs from the middle of the
calendar, but then follows only 21 glyphs up to the end. Instead of
192 this E calendar has a total of 150 glyphs. Instead of 108 + 84
the pattern is 108 + 42 (half 84). Instead of 18 and 14 there is 18
and 7. But also in E ua is positioned as the end of the 3rd
quarter. |
For a while I intended to have yet
another page immediately before the summary page, but in the end I decided
against it - I do not understand the beginning of the text in S. The following
page is therefore not included in the glyph dictionary:
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In the sequence of
36 glyphs at the beginning of the text in Large Washington Tablet
(S) number 7 is a ua glyph: |
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