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TRANSLATIONS
The cockroaches are not yet explained. What does it mean, Hare Koka? Why did Tu'u ko iho go to that place? We have the necessary basic information (even though I had forgotten it and only discovered it by systematically searching for 'cockroach' in Translations): '... The division into quarters of a 28-series [of plants] can be applied to the main phases of the moon during the visible period as well as to a sidereal month. The separate subgroup (29 makere - 30 hata) consists of the names of two types of cockroaches, but in related eastern Polynesian languages these names can also be explained on a different level. MAO. makere, among others, 'to die', and whata, among others, 'to be laid to rest on a platform', deserve special attention. The theme hinted at is one of death and burial. In our scheme they occur at just that time when the moon 'has died'! This lends further support to the lunar thesis ...' I have early assigned the night name Maśri-kero (not far from ma-kere) to Ca8-19 - notice the ordinal number 19. It is the 'house' when the growing moon (going clockwise) meats her end. The ends of burning toromiro were thrown out when Tu'u arrived: ... When Tu'u ko ihu went down to the House of Cockroaches the people were taking the stones from the earth-oven and were throwing out the ends of burning wood. This wood was toromiro. Tu'u ko ihu took two flaming pieces of wood and carried them into that house, into Hare koka. He sat there, and with his sharp pieces of obsidian he carved them into moai kavakava ... Tu'u ko ihu went inside Hare Koka (i.e. disappeared from sight). The fire in the moon is a reflection from the sun. Going inside means into the dark. Full moon is the moon declining; the creature born is the creature dying.
Metoro used the word koka only once in his readings:
The 8 periods suggest the moon calendar. The ordinal number in the 6th period are 29 and 30 - as if they were makere and hata in the list cited above. The ordinal number at the beginning of these 18 glyphs is 17, one beyond 16 (the final full moon night). Vaha mea in Eb7-27 may be a determinant of henua in Eb7-26 - maybe denoting full moon. Two 'eyes' in Eb7-32 and Eb7-34 announce maximum has passed. A canoe is in Eb7-31 - the beginning of a new month? At left in Eb7-29 there is a sign reminiscent of what we saw in e.g. Sb2-8, and then imagined also in Pa3-3:
Only, here - in Eb7-29 - one of the 'buds' have developed into ragi. If koka (Eb7-30) refers to the very last night of the month, then the following 5 glyphs could allude to the 5 disordered nights in the dark at the end of a year (365 - 360). In Eb7-32 the 'insect' is flying (rere), like a soul released from its body. A kind of 'proof' that Eb8-17--35 refers to the moon is delivered by a parallel sequence of glyphs in Mamari, notably occuring immediately before the moon calendar:
Ca6-12 together with Eb7-31 suggest the vai glyph type depicts a kind of canoe. Eb7-35 is expressing hua with 3 + 3 'feathers', while Ca6-16 is cut off short at the top end downwards (and 6 * 16 = 4 * 24): ... The twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth nights of the Moon were [on Tahiti] sacred to Tane and Rongo respectively and the Maori planted their sweet potatoes on these nights in the appropriate month. Although they occured in the dark of the Moon or waning crescent phase, these nights were termed Great-Tane-of-the-light and Great-Rongo-of-the-light by the Central Polynesians. The twenty-ninth night was also dedicated to Rongo and was known as Sacred Rongo (Ro'omauri), and the thirtieth night was motu, 'cut off'. The word motu or moku recalls a curious Hawaiian tale in which Hina, who was the wife of Makalii (Pleiades) or, as some say, of Aikanaka, Man-eater, fell in love with the Moon and decided to go to it. Just as she was about to ascend beyond reach her husband seized her leg and twisted it so violently that he broke it. Hina, however, reached the Moon and immediately changed her name to Lono-moku, Crippled Lono (Rongo). An exchange of sexes seems to [be] indicated in the change of name ... Maśri-kero (Ca8-19) is not only similar to makere but also similar to Ro'omauri. The name of the 30th night, motu, is close to the Easter Island Omutu. The names do not agree exactly, but we recognize the similarities. Motu means 'cut off' (like an island from the mainland) and mutu also means 'cut off'. Ca6-16 ends the 4th (ha uriuri?) and final group of 20 interesting glyphs belonging together:
In Ca6-4 there are 3 + 3 = 6 'feathers' and in Ca6-5 another 3 'feathers' at the top of the 'heads'. These 9 'feathers' at the top end are balanced by 7 + 6 = 13 'feathers' at the bottom in Ca6-5. The number of 'eyes' are 2 (Ca6-4) + 5 (Ca6-5) = 7. Ca6-7 and Ca6-8 belong together, while Ca6-9 is another type, according to how the feet are drawn. Hau tea in Ca6-4 is strange - it has two 'eyes' (passed the apex) but at the same time the vertical lines says 'spreading out'. If Ca6-11 corresponds to the 29th and 30th nights of the moon ('cockroaches', makere respectively hata), then the preceding group of 4 glyphs ought to lie earlier in the month. 20 - 6 = 14 glyphs remain, not enough for 28 nights, but maybe each glyph covers 2 nights? Looking even earlier in the Mamari text we find a group with 15 glyphs including te pito, and the subject (we have earlier concluded) is the sun:
Counting from Rei (Ca5-21) up to and including Ca6-16 there are 31 glyphs. The 8th glyph is Ca5-28 (5 * 28 = 140) with peculiar wings not far from those in Ca8-16 (8 * 16 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2). I have early suggested an arrangement of night names and glyphs in the Mamari moon calendar, and below I now make some corrections and further suggestions:
The 6th period ought to have ordinal numbers 25-26, because the order seems to be pairwise and we have learnt from the kuhane stations that a break occurs between 26 and 27. The 7th period will then correspond to the final of the kuhane journey. ... The twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth nights of the Moon were [on Tahiti] sacred to Tane and Rongo respectively and the Maori planted their sweet potatoes on these nights in the appropriate month. Although they occured in the dark of the Moon or waning crescent phase, these nights were termed Great-Tane-of-the-light and Great-Rongo-of-the-light by the Central Polynesians ... Tane and Rongo is a pair corresponding to the 27th and 28th nights. They are still in the light. The Great-Rongo-of-the-light will be Maśri-nui on Easter Island. We have already assigned the 29th black night, Maśri-kero (alias makere) to Sacred Rongo (Ro'omauri) - alias Hawaiian Crippled Lono (Lono-moku). Maśri is connected with Rongo. Ca8-19 is in the dark. Number 19 alludes to the sun, while 8 refers to the moon. Moon is illuminated by the sun, but not in the 29th night. Ca5-29 ought to allude to Omutu. We should remember 145 (= 5 * 29) glyphs at the end of the P text and also defined by viri in G:
Ca5-28 could allude to Maśri (Rogo) and the peculiar 'wings' may have induced Metoro to identify also Ca3-25 with Rogo:
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