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TRANSLATIONS
We must not forget earlier 'truths':
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... The 'knees'
oriented left and right in
Aa4-58 respectively Aa4-60
indicate (I believe) that there
is a reversal in between them,
at Aa4-59:
The reversal
takes place at summer solstice,
after which sun returns from his
maximum. We have a similar shift
in 'leg' orientation from Aa1-8
to Aa1-9:
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Aa1-8 |
Aa1-9 |
At winter
solstice the legs ought to be
shifted again, this time from
'knee' at right to 'knee' at
left. I happened to notice just
such a reversal in
Aruku Kurenga:
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Ba6-7 |
Ba6-8 |
Ba6-9 |
Ba6-10 |
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ka huri te hatu |
e tagata huri |
hatu |
e tagata haga |
The first
GD42 (vae kore) was
explained as e tagata
huri, and huri
means 'to turn over' (etc),
while the second vae kore
(without legs) was described
as
e tagata haga
...
... The word
haga could mean
'bay', 'beach' or
'anchorage', as for instance
the beach of Anakena.
Another possibility is
'creation'. Presumably both
meanings are meant here. I
think these two GD42 glyphs
indicate takurua, the
place where the old year is
'finished' and a new year is
'created'.
It is intriguing to find
haga nui to mean 'to
weary' (etc), because
Hanga Nui is the bay in
which we find Marotiri
(and Maro is the last
month of the year).
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... To tack the
Polynesian way necessarily
implies moving in the canoe and
it will sway to and fro.
Stability vanishes (hides)
temporarily during the changes
needed.
On another level
of understanding the situation
can be looked upon as the
initiation rites for the sun. He
becomes an adult person. The
idea is probably expressed in
the day calendar of H:
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Ha6-1 |
Ha6-2 |
Ha6-3 |
Ha6-4 |
Ha6-5 |
Ha6-6 |
The standing tall
figure in Ha6-2 is fully grown,
a warrior just born.
I suspect the
rhomboid form inside the legs in
GD15 (tagata) alludes to
the rhomb of (the surface of)
the earth.
As if by coincidence the
Pleiades at the same time
disappear from visibility in the
yearly voyage of the sun, from
that point onwards being hidden
by the earth, presumably
expressed by a triplet of rhombs.
When sun is transformed
(socialized) by the initiation
rites he stops to grow. In the
vocabulary of Lévi-Strauss we
would say that he has now been
'cooked', an expression which
takes on additional meaning
because at noon (midsummer) it
is as hot as it can be.
His fire then dwindles and at
the end he becomes ashes.
'Knees' out at noon / midsummer
point to the dark beginning ...
The joints of the limbs are the
moving (unstable) parts used
when dancing (hura).
A
wordplay between hura and
huri explains it better:
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Huri
1. To turn (vt.), to
overthrow, to knock
down: huri moai,
the overthrowing of
the statues from
their ahus
during the period of
decadence on the
island. 2. To pour a
liquid from a
container: ka
huri mai te vai,
pour me some water.
3. To end a lament,
a mourning: he
huri i te tagi, ina
ekó tagi hakaou,
with this the
mourning (for the
deceased) is over,
there shall be no
more crying. 4. New
shoot of banana:
huri maîka.
Vanaga.
1. Stem. P Mgv.:
huri, a banana
shoot. Mq.: hui,
shoot, scion. 2. To
turn over, to be
turned over onto
another side, to
bend, to lean, to
warp; huri ke,
to change, to
decant; tae huri
ke, invariable;
huri ke tahaga no
mai, to change
as the wind; tae
huri, immovable;
e ko huri ke,
infallible;
huhuri, rolling;
hakahuri, to
turn over;
hakahuri ke, to
divine. P Pau.:
huri, to turn.
Mgv.: huri,
uri, to turn
on one side, to
roll, to turn upside
down, to reverse.
Mq.: hui, to
turn, to reverse. 3.
To throw, to shoot.
4. To water, to wet.
5. To hollow out.
Hurihuri: 1.
Wrath, anger;
kokoma hurihuri,
animosity, spite,
wrath, fury, hate,
enmity, irritable,
quick tempered, to
feel offended, to
resent, to pester;
kokoma hurihuri
ke, to be in a
rage. 2. (huri
4) hurihuri titi,
to fill up. 3. To
polish. 4. (uriuri).
Hurikea, to
transfigure, to
transform.
Churchill.
Mq. huri,
resemblance. Sa.:
foliga, to
resemble. Churchill. |
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Hura
1. To fish with a
small funnel-shaped
net tied to the end
of a pole. This
fishing is done from
the shore; fishing
with the same net,
but swimming, is
called tukutuku.
2. To be active, to
get moving when
working: ka hura,
ka aga! come on,
get moving! to work!
3. Tagata gutu
hura, a
flatterer, a flirt,
a funny person, a
witty person.
Hurahura, to
dance, to swing.
Vanaga.
1. Sling. In his
brilliant study of
the distribution of
the sling in the
Pacific tracts,
Captain Friederici
makes this note
(Beiträge zur
Völker- und
Sprachenkunde von
Deutsch-Neuguinea,
page 115b): 'Such,
though somewhat
modified, is the
case in Rapanui,
Easter Island. The
testimony of all the
reporters who have
had dealings with
these people is
unanimous that
stones of two to
three pounds weight,
frequently sharp
chunks of obsidian,
were thrown by the
hand; no one
mentions the use of
slings. Yet Roussel
includes this weapon
in his vocabulary
and calls it hura.
In my opinion this
word can be derived
only from the
Mangareva verb
kohura, to throw
a stone or a lance.
So far as we know
Rapanui has
received its
population in part
by way of
Mangareva.' To this
note should be added
the citation of
kirikiri ueue
as exhibiting this
particular use of
ueue in which
the general sense is
the transitive
shake. 2. Fife,
whistle, drum,
trumpet, to play;
hurahura,
whistle. P Mq.:
hurahura, dance,
divertissement, to
skip. Ta.: hura,
to leap for joy.
Pau.: hura-viru,
well disposed.
Churchill.
H. Hula, a
swelling, a
protuberance under
the arm or on the
thigh. Churchill 2. |
What shape do the
limbs of the sun describe at
winter solstice? By
extrapolation we conclude that
the 'knees' will point inwards
and form the shape of X. Instead
of bow legs we should
find knock legs (legs the
knees of which strike against
each other as if in battle)
...
... We found an
example of 'knees inwards':
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Ba6-7 |
Ba6-8 |
Ba6-9 |
Ba6-10 |
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ka huri te hatu |
e tagata huri |
hatu |
e tagata haga |
Ba6-8 is described as e
tagata huri, maybe meaning
'it is a person who turns over'.
Ba6-10 is e tagata haga,
which I suspect alludes to
hagahuru (with a wordplay
between huri and huru):
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Hagahuru
Ten (agahuru,
hagauru). P
Mq.: onohuú,
okohuú, id.
Ta.: ahuru.
id. Churchill.
The Maori recognized
two main divisions
of the year: winter
or takurua, a
name for Sirius
which then shone as
morning star, and
summer, raumati
or o-rongo-nui,
'of the great
Rongo', god of
agriculture. They
occasionally
recognized spring as
the digging season
koanga, from
ko, the
digging stick or
spade. The autumn or
harvest season was
usually spoken of as
ngahuru,
'tenth' (month),
although it was
considered to
include also the
last two months of
the year. Mahuru
was the
personification of
spring. Makemson. |
The triplets of rhombs in Ba6-7
and Ba6-9 have small 'suns'
attatched and Metoro said
hatu:
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Hatu
1. Clod of earth;
cultivated land;
arable land (oone
hatu). 2.
Compact mass of
other substances:
hatu matá, piece
of obsidian. 3.
Figuratively:
manava hatu,
said of persons who,
in adversity, stay
composed and in
control of their
behaviour and
feelings. 4. To
advise, to command.
He hatu i te
vanaga rivariva ki
te kio o poki ki
ruga ki te opata,
they gave the
refugees the good
advice not to climb
the precipice; he
hatu i te vanaga
rakerake, to
give bad advice. 5.
To collude, to unite
for a purpose, to
concur. Mo hatu o
te tia o te nua,
to agree on the
price of a nua
cape. 6. Result,
favourable outcome
of an enterprise.
He ká i te umu mo te
hatu o te aga,
to light the earth
oven for the
successful outcome
of an enterprise.
Vanaga.
1. Haatu,
hahatu,
mahatu. To fold,
to double, to plait,
to braid; noho
hatu, to sit
crosslegged; hoe
hatu, clasp
knife; hatuhatu,
to deform. 2.. To
recommend.
Churchill.
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The meaning of these four glyphs
are unclear, though. Maybe the
Pleiades are turning around.
Maybe the earth is turning
around.
There is another
example in Aruku Kurenga,
where the two 'persons' are
united in one glyph:
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Bb2-19 |
Bb2-20 |
Bb2-21 |
Bb2-22 |
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Bb2-23 |
Bb2-24 |
Bb2-25 |
Bb2-26 |
Also in Tahua
we find this kind of glyph,
however their heads are turned
inwards and from the parallel
text in Small Washington Tablet
it is evident that also the
'knees' are pointing inwards:
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Aa6-31 |
Aa6-32 |
Aa6-33 |
Aa6-34 |
Aa6-35 |
Aa6-36 |
Aa6-37 |
Aa6-38 |
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These
six
glyphs
correspond
to
Aa6-31
--
Aa6-38 |
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Ra2-12 |
Ra2-13 |
Ra2-14 |
Ra2-15 |
Ra2-16 |
Ra2-17 |
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It is probable
that the turning around here too
is referring to summer solstice,
not only due to the shifting
around of the orientation of the
'knees' (which I think refer to
the equinoxes) - but due to
several other signs supporting
this interpretation
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I made a mistake here: The 'knees' in
Ra2-12--13 (and therefore also in
Aa6-31) are not pointing inwards, they
are pointing outwards, i.e. summer
solstice is indicated. The signs of
darkness (e.g. mea ke) can be
explained by the fact that after summer
solstice it will be getting successively
darker, no longer lighter.
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Aa6-39 |
Aa6-40 |
Aa6-41 |
Aa6-42 |
Aa6-43 |
Aa6-44 |
Aa6-45 |
Aa6-46 |
In Aa6-39--40, following not far later
in the text, three 'fingers' held high
respectively an oval sign to symbolize a
full cycle, agree with my reading of
Aa6-31 as marking summer solstice. In
Aa6-39 we can also read a sign of
vaha kai with undulation at the top.
The undulation at bottom
in Aa6-31 should not worry us too much,
because at summer solstice the right and
left 'persons' meet face to face - not
back to back as at winter solstice.
Now to next page in the glyph
dictionary:
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2. The
name ua for the staff may be a pun, because
ûa means
not only 'rain' but also 'vein, artery, tendon':
"In the crude anatomical knowledge of these races it
is easy to see what ua [ûa] really is, the cordlike
bodies in the flesh which appear under the skin. Thus vein and
tendon are the same thing and one word describes them." (Churchill
2)
The double triple lines in the ua glyphs may refer to the ua staff (pars pro toto).
The arched 'eyebrows' on the head of the ua staff may have led
to the name ua for the glyph type (because ûa = 'vein, artery, tendon').
And maybe ua staffs were involved in
ceremonies for inducing rain (ûa). One of the meanings of ua
is 'cause, reason why something happens ':
"It was 4 August 1968, and it was the feast day of
Saint Dominic, patron of Santo Domingo Pueblo, southwest of Santa
Fe. At one end of the hot, dusty plaza, a Dominican priest watched
nervously as several hundred dancers arranged in two long rows
pounded the earth with their moccasined feet as a mighty, collective
prayer for rain, accompanied by the powerful baritone singing of a
chorus and the beat of drums.
As my family and I viewed this, the largest and in
some ways the most impressive Native American public ceremony, a
tiny cloud over the Jémez Mountains to the northwest got larger and
larger, eventually filling up the sky; at last the storm broke, and
the sky was crisscrossed by lightning and the pueblo resounded with
peals of rolling thunder." (Coe)
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Instead of following up the idea (in the
mind of the reader) of a double-faced
Easter Island 'Janus' (takurua) I
here change the approach to contemplate
the word ua (best written without
diacritic marks).
Much could have been added, for instance
a possible wordplay with uha:
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Uha
Hen; female
(familiar): taaku uha = taaku
vî'e, my wife, or my
daughter (i.e. taaku poki).
Vanaga.
Female. T
Pau.: koufa, female of
animals. Mq.: uha. id.
Ta.: ufa, uha, id.
Ma.: uwha, uha,
id. Uhamau (uha -
mau 7), to brood, to
hatch. Churchill. |
At hetuu (in the glyph
dictionary) I said 'he' about the sun
and then declared no intention of
suggesting him to be a male:
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... However, in no sense do
I wish to suggest that the
glyphs we find in the
rongorongo texts define
the 'persons' according to
sex (or gender). |
However, at this stage of the
investigation it is pretty clear that
sun in the rongorongo system
indeed is a 'he', while the moon is a
'she'. If the glyph type ua
refers to winter (which appears
reasonable) - the season of the moon -
then uha is close to ua.
Furthermore, the pouches below the eyes
on the ua staff should be thought
of as signs of the moon.
I remember having read somewhere in
Churchill or Churchill 2 about uha
meaning double canoe. I search, and find
another item as a reward, which I quckly
add to uha in my own Polynesian
dictionary:
Tonga, Niuē:
uha, rain. Viti: utha,
rain. (Churchill 2)
I did not find the double-canoe uha
in Churchill or in Churchill 2.
Therefore I reversed the search process
and looked for 'canoe' in my Polynesian
dictionary, and there it was:
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Teka
Tekai,
curl, a round ball, as of twine.
(Tekateka)
hakatekateka, rudder, helm.
Churchill.
Routledge's
informants still knew the names
of the immigrant canoes
(RM:278); they were given as 'Oteka'
and 'Oua'. One
Rongorongo text shows
ua as the term used for
two canoes, while
RR:76 [Barthel's no. 76, GD111]
(phallus grapheme ure,
used in this case for an old
synonym teka; compare
TUA. teka 'penis of a
turtle', HAW. ke'a
'virile male') tends to confirm
the oral tradition with a
transpositional variant (Barthel
1962:134). (Barthel 2)
Pau. teka,
arrow. Ta.: tea, id. Mq.:
teka, a game with darts.
Sa.: te'a, id. Ma.:
teka, id. Churchill.
Mgv. teka,
a support, scaffold. Ta.: tea,
the horizontal balk of a
palisade, the crossbeam of a
house. Mq.: tekateka,
across, athwart. Ha.: kea,
a cross. Churchill. |
The two canoes in the face of the ua
staff may be Oua and Oteka.
I wrote about these words earlier:
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Oteka and Oua
probably is to be read as 'o teka and 'o ua, I think. We remember the names of the two assistants of Hotu Matu'a, Teke and Oti,
words which we have came to associate with 'gables' (teko, tekoteko) and
'to expire' (koti, kotikoti, kotekote). But
teke / teko is not the same as teka
...
... The 'crossbeam of a house' is
a horizontal beam, and 'beam' we associate with sun-beams (in our efforts to
translate the glyphs of the day calendars). The 'arrow' also indicates the sun.
Finally we should consider
the change of teka into te'a (in Samoa) and as a last step into
tea (in Tahiti). Maybe hau tea is hau teka? The canoe (O)te(k)a
would then be full (vakai) of light (tea) and represent the period
from midnight until noon and the (O)ua canoe would represent the weaker
vessel of light from noon and up to midnight ...
... We have arrived at the
conclusion that hau tea (teka lashed with hau fibres) is
close to Barhel's 'pieces of wood, tightly lashed together'. Oteka and
Te oraora miro, one of the canoes of the explorers and one of the canoes of
Hotu Matu'a, have closely connected names.
Whereas we in a way can see wedges in the glyph type 'lashed together planks' of
H and Q, these wedges are just in the form of the silhouette - the planks do not
form a wedge:
Rather the planks forms the
opposite shape, negative wedges, as we Westeners perceive the picture. But at
noon time hau tea is depicted with a pronounced wedge pointing straight
up (Ha6-9):
There is no indication that,
in the Rapanui language, tea once was teka:
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Tea
1. Light, fair,
whitish. 2. To rise (of the moon, the stars); ku-tea-á te hetu'u
ahiahi, the evening star has risen. Vanaga.
1. To shine, be
bright, brilliant, white; tea niho, enamel of the teeth;
ata tea, dawn; teatea, white, blond, pale, colorless,
invalid; rauoho teatea, red hair; hakateatea, to
blanch, to bleach. P Pau.: faatea, to clear, to brighten.
Mgv.: tea, white, blanched, pale. Mq.: tea, white,
clear, pure, limpid. Ta.: tea, white, brilliant. 2. Proud,
vain, haughty, arrogance, to boast; tae tea, humble;
teatea, arrogant, bragging, pompous, ostentatious, to boast, to
show off, haughty; hakateatea, to show off. Mgv.:
akateatea, pride, vanity, ostentatious, to be puffed up. Ta.:
teoteo, boastful, proud, haughty.
Churchill. |
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A canoe is by its very nature a
horizontal creature. When the moon or
the stars rise (tea) their light
beams are close to horizontal. When sun
is rising, the word to be used is not
tea (if Vanaga is correct). I guess
the beams of the sun were thougth of as
vertical.
In the face of the ua staff the
eyes are like the sails (raá) of
the canoes (pouches). The vertical
'mast' connects 'sail' with 'canoe', as
when the beams of the sun reaches down
to mother earth.
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