TRANSLATIONS

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Here, at the beginning of side b, it is necessary first to recapitulate what has been learnt from side a. Before giving such a summary, however, a few reflections left over from side a should be noted down:

GD71 (makemake) as seen in Eb6-24 perhaps is to be turned 90º leftwards (in our minds) into:

First (at left) the 'eyes' are 'inside' (ki roto), then (at right) they are 'outside' (haho).

The shape at left corresponds to p'u (GD24), the shape at right to viri (GD33):

The midsection in Eb6-24 (like an arrow with head at right) may depict the 'nose' of Makemake. We should remind ourselves about what earlier was written:

GD71
 makemake 'makemake'

The sun god of Easter Island.

signs catalogue mixed glyph types glyphs dictionary home
1. This type of glyph gives us signs comparable to those in the lower face of this image (from the hard covers of Heyerdahl 4):

In this image, though, the bottom part of GD71 (probably viri) has been transplanted to be the eyebrows of the sun. Like the bivalve shell of the cosmic clam viri encloses the sun. The sun is inside cosmos, not on the outside.

There are two suns in the clam, one for each half of the year, because the ancients considered each half year as a complete 'year'.

"In north Asia the common mode of reckoning is in half-year, which are not to be regarded as such but form each one separately the highest unit of time: our informants term them 'winter year' and 'summer year'. Among the Tunguses the former comprises 6½ months, the latter 5, but the year is said to have 13 months; in Kamchatka each contains six months, the winter year beginning in November, the summer year in May; the Gilyaks on the other hand give five months to summer and seven to winter. The Yeneseisk Ostiaks reckon and name only the seven winter months, and not the summer months.

This mode of reckoning seems to be a peculiarity of the far north: the Icelanders reckoned in misseri, half-years, not in whole years, and the rune-staves divide the year into a summer and a winter half, beginning on April 14 and October 14 respectively. But in Germany too, when it was desired to denote the whole year, the combined phrase 'winter and summer' was employed, or else equivalent concrete expressions such as 'in bareness and in leaf', 'in straw and in grass'." (Nilsson)

As regards appearance it is of course not strange that the sun god has more than one shape: "The feline motif is also an element in the local art, where, as shown by Thomson (1889, pp. 481-482), 'a mythical animal, half human in form, with bowed back and long claw-like legs and arms ..  was intended to represent the god 'Meke-Meke' ...'" (Heyerdahl 4) Cfr also the mixed glyph type GD37/GD52.

The design on the hard cover above is a reproduction of the design incised on a stone found 'between the lava boulders covering the ahu at Hanga-tetenga'. "The sculpture is almost spheroid, with a slight flattening of the ventral side, the rest of the surface being covered by a double-headed animal carved in low relief in such a manner that the heads face in opposite directions on each side of a round mutual body." (Heyerdahl 4)

2. The image on the stone is like a terrestial globe, a map connecting earthly matters with the heavens above. The 'eyebrows' are not symmetric, because the seasons are assymmetric; south of the equator summer is shorter than winter and the 'eyebrows' represent these two seasons. The 'eyebrows' are bent henua and like bent branches, one a little bit longer than the other. The longer branch is also marginally thicker at the trunk.

As new year on Easter Island was starting in July (at winter solstice), the first half of their year was longer than the second half, and it is these two halves which are illustrated as 'eyebrows' on the 'globe'.

The left 'eyebrow' is slightly shorter than the right. From spring equinox to autumn equinox the number of nights are fewer than from autumn equinox to spring equinox (if we are viewing the year from a point south of the equator).

When something is shown as bent in rongorongo we should think 'darkness', cfr GD36. And in darkness (July) the new year is born.

3. The central pillar connecting the two images is the axis of the earth, around which the earth is spinning making light and darkness change places every 24 hours. So when our side of the earth is light, i.e. the sun is looking at us, he cannot observe the other side, it is in the dark. Exactly as when we are looking at this 'terrestial globe' - we can only see one side at a time, the other side is not visible = in the dark. Our eyes are like the sun.

"The eye is the symbolic site of subjection. Valeri observes that: 'The two sentiments that permit the transcendence of the self are, according to Hawaiians, desire and respect. One and the other are called kau ka maka, literally, 'to set one's eyes on'... 

'To see' (ike) in Hawaiian (as in French or English) is 'to understand', but it is also 'to know sexually'.

Witness to the order, the world of forms generated by the chief, the eye, is the sacrifice of those who violate that order. The left eye of the slain tabu-transgressors is swallowed by Kahoali'i, ceremonial double of the king and living god of his sacrificial rites. Like the sun, chiefs of the highest tabus - those who are called 'gods', 'fire', 'heat', and 'raging blazes' - cannot be gazed directly upon without injury. The lowly commoner prostrates before them face to the ground, the position assumed by victims on the platforms of human sacrifice. Such a one is called makawela, 'burnt eyes'." (Islands of History)

Nothing in this needs to be changed so far, but additions may be made according to what has been learnt lately, e.g. about the relations between GD71, GD24 and GD33 and takurua. These additions should be documented in the 'signs chapter' of GD71.

Although it may be a coincidence it should here anyhow be noted that the Hawaiian ike ('to see' or 'to know sexually') remarkably well harmonizes with possible events at 'noon' (Poike) in Aa1-26:

'...The divine names Bran, Saturn, Cronos ... are applied to the ghost of Hercules that floats off in the alder-wood boat after his midsummer sacrifice. His tanist, or other self, appearing in Greek legend as Poeas who lighted Hercules' pyre and inherited his arrows, succeeds him for the second half of the year; having acquired royal virtue by marriage with the queen, the representative of the White Goddess, and by eating some royal part of the dead man's body - heart, shoulder or thigh-flesh.

He is in turn succeeded by the New Year Hercules, a reincarnation of the murdered man, who beheads him and, apparently, eats his head. This alternate eucharistic sacrifice made royalty continous, each king in turn the Sun-god beloved of the reigning Moon-goddess.

But when these cannibalistic rites were abandoned and the system was gradually modified until a single king reigned for a term of years, Saturn-Cronos-Bran became a mere Old Year ghost, permanently overthrown by Juppiter-Zeus-Belin though yearly conjured up for placation at the Saturnalia or Yule feast ...'

We must, of course, here also review what glyphs surround Eb6-24. From Tahua we have learned that the lines could be used as a way to divide the text into parts. Therefore we had better start already from the beginning of line b5 in Keiti (although there is no great 'break' in the calendar between Eb4-42 and Bb5-1):

Eb5-2 connects to Eb5-4.
Eb5-1 Eb5-2 Eb5-3
Eb5-4 Eb5-5 Eb5-6 Eb5-7 Eb5-8 Eb5-9
Eb5-9, Eb5-13, Eb5-17 and Eb5-20 are alike, while Eb5-3 differs in the mouth.
Eb5-10 Eb5-11 Eb5-12 Eb5-13
Eb5-14 Eb5-15 Eb5-16 Eb5-17
5 marks are inside Eb5-19. The bottom of vai (GD75) - the left part of Eb5-18 -  may signify viri (GD33).
Eb5-18 Eb5-19 Eb5-20
The 'sun cat' in Eb5-24 and Eb5-28 is 'loosing his foothold'. In Eb5-26 5 'legs' at left are 'waving goodbye' while 5 'legs' at right are 'like empty shells', presumably indicating takurua, cfr Ab8-84:
Eb5-21 Eb5-22 Eb5-23 Eb5-24
Eb5-25 Eb5-26 Eb5-27 Eb5-28

Then follows the rest of line b5, maybe as a kind of introduction to line b6:

'Bird' at bottom left and 'fish' at bottom right.
Eb5-29 Eb5-30
Eb5-31 Eb5-32 Eb5-33
Eb5-31 with hand 'in bareness' contrasts with Eb5-34.
Eb5-34 Eb5-35

Here we should note GD13 (rei) at Eb5-32, a glyph type 'not yet quite understood' (meaning total ignorance of course). I believe we are now in a position where we may be 'enlightened'. First we list all GD13 I have found in Tahua:
3 glyphs may be questionable (marked red) and if we eliminate them we have 6 * 6 = 36 rei glyphs. 

11 of the glyphs are combined with GD11 (manu rere). Possibly I should have added one more glyph to reach 12, and if so that ought to be the one coloured black above (with a shark at right instead of a bird at left), i.e. Aa8-35. We remember that GD13 is connected with GD11 also in Saturday (Hb5-56, Hb5-58) and at the 'crossing over place' (hakapekaga) in Ca5-20--22, though with GD11 arriving after GD13.

Having sorted away all complex glyphs there remains 8 on side a and 8 on side b:

Aa1-52 Aa2-40 Aa2-78 Aa3-34 Aa5-23, Aa5-25 Aa6-20 Aa8-13
Ab1-13 Ab3-26, Ab3-60 Ab4-15, Ab5-6 Ab5-32, Ab7-44, Ab7-46

Although there is a wide range of variability in form I have tried to group some of the glyphs together.

Next the meanings of the word rei need to be looked at:

Rei

1. To tread, to trample on: rei kiraro ki te va'e. 2. (Used figuratively) away with you! ka-rei kiraro koe, e mageo ê, go away, you disgusting man. 3. To shed tears: he rei i te mata vai. 4. Crescent-shaped breast ornament, necklace; reimiro, wooden, crescent-shaped breast ornament; rei matapuku, necklace made of coral or of mother-of-pearl; rei pipipipi, necklace made of shells; rei pureva, necklace made of stones. 5. Clavicle. Îka reirei, vanquished enemy, who is kicked (rei). Vanaga.

T. 1. Neck. 2. Figure-head. Rei mua = Figure-head in the bow. Rei muri = Figure-head in the stern. Henry.

Mother of pearl; rei kauaha, fin. Mgv.: rei, whale's tooth. Mq.: éi, id. This is probably associable with the general Polynesian rei, which means the tooth of the cachalot, an object held in such esteem that in Viti one tooth (tambua) was the ransom of a man's life, the ransom of a soul on the spirit path that led through the perils of Na Kauvandra to the last abode in Mbulotu. The word is undoubtedly descriptive, generic as to some character which Polynesian perception sees shared by whale ivory and nacre. Rei kauaha is not this rei; in the Maori whakarei designates the carved work at bow and stern of the canoe and Tahiti has the same use but without particularizing the carving: assuming a sense descriptive of something which projects in a relatively thin and flat form from the main body, and this describes these canoe ornaments, it will be seen that it might be applied to the fins of fishes, which in these waters are frequently ornamental in hue and shape. The latter sense is confined to the Tongafiti migration. Reirei, to trample down, to knead, to pound. Churchill.

Mg. Reiga, Spirit leaping-place. Oral Traditions.

With red I have marked meanings implying death by force (as when a fire is 'put out') or the result thereof: 'a spirit' (the 'ashes' after a 'finished fire'). One tooth (tambua) was the ransom to be payed, one otter got away from being strangled, and at Aa1-1 one shell is left behind by the baby sun.

Especially noteworthy is: Îka reirei, vanquished enemy, who is kicked (rei). The 2nd sun may be one of those who are 'kicked' to death. Remember the strange choice of words at the kava ceremony:

'... There is a further motivation of the same in the kava taken immediately after the chief's by the herald, a representative of the land. This drinking is 'to kick', rabeta, the chief's kava. Raberabe, the same reduplicated version, means 'a sickness', the result of kicking accidently against a 'drau-ni-kau'... The herald here takes the effects on himself: drau-ni-kau is the common name for 'sorcery'...'

The 'kava' ceremony in Thursday has no GD13 glyph. Maybe Hb9-42--43 gives the same meaning by way of another expression:

The head of the chief is needed for growth, so 'of course' he has to 'go'. As written earlier at Aa4-63:

'... The skull of a dead king could be symbolically represented by hua respective rei miro:

'... Up to the present time, fertility spells for fowls have played an important role. Especially effective were the so-called 'chicken skulls' (puoko moa) - that is, the skulls of dead chiefs, often marked by incisions, that were considered a source of mana. Their task is explained as follows: 'The skulls of the chiefs are for the chicken, so that thousands may be born' (te puoko ariki mo te moa, mo topa o te piere) (Englert 1939:240). As long as the source of mana is kept in the house, the hens are impregnated (he rei te moa i te uha), they lay eggs (he ne'ine'i te uha i te mamari), and the chicks are hatched (he topa te maanga). After a period of time, the beneficial skull has to be removed, because otherwise the hens become exhausted from laying eggs ...'

Line Eb6 begins with showing how there is a gap between the two seasons (presumably the 2nd half of last year and the 1st half of the new year):

Eb5-35 Eb6-1 Eb6-2

The two 'eyes' in Eb5-35 are similar in meaning (I believe) to the two 'eyes' inside henua in GD24 (pú). In Eb6-2 we can see 5 marks, presumably telling us that there are 5 'dead' (GD45, ihe) nights in between the two ordered seasons ('... the order, the world of forms generated by the chief ...').

A remarkable picture from Heyerdahl 6 must be inserted here as a kind of parenthesis:

"Design carved on head of Easter Island wooden image. (From Routledge 1919.)"

The similarity with GD59 gives the design a double meaning:

The oval form on the stomach is probably a hole, and we remember aker, the symbol at the threshold between day and night:

Line Eb6 continues:

Here new light is generated. There are 3 fingers at GD43 (hoea), GD13 (rei) 'kicks' the old season and 6 marks at GD18 (niu) indicate 6 newborn solar months.
Eb6-3 Eb6-4 Eb6-5
Only 3 'droplets' at Eb6-8 is a sign congruent with Aa1-14:
Eb6-6 Eb6-7 Eb6-8
Eb6-9 Eb6-10 Eb6-11 Eb6-12 Eb6-13 Eb6-14 Eb6-15 Eb6-16
A shark at Eb6-19 is a mark, because otherwise this is the place of the 'sun cat'.
Eb6-17 Eb6-18 Eb6-19

The 24th 'sun cat' is transformed into a shark:

Eb2-14 Eb2-20 Eb2-24 Eb2-27 Eb3-6 Eb3-19 Eb3-25 Eb3-28
Eb3-31 Eb4-1 Eb4-6 Eb4-12 Eb4-21 Eb4-25 Eb4-27 Eb4-31
Eb5-3 Eb5-9 Eb5-13 Eb5-17 Eb5-20 Eb5-24 Eb5-28 Eb6-19

The reversed GD45 (ihe) of Eb6-9 is unusual. I have seen a reversed ihe in just one more place, at Cb8-9:

 

Cb8-6 Cb8-7 Cb8-8 Cb8-9 Cb8-10 Cb8-11

Here the extraordinarily broad Cb8-7 immediately makes one think of the design we saw above, with double 'birds' (i.e. gods) creating an opening for the sun.

The form shaped by the wings in Cb8-11 suggests GD33 (viri).

Eb6-20 and Eb6-23 continue the development starting at Eb6-8.
Eb6-20 Eb6-21 Eb6-22 Eb6-23
The 'eye' inside (ki roto) at Eb6-27 may at Eb6-30 have cracked (haho) his shell.
Eb6-24 Eb6-25 Eb6-26 Eb6-27
Eb6-28 Eb6-29 Eb6-30 Eb6-31 Eb6-32 Eb6-33 Eb6-34
From Eb6-24 (Makemake) to the end of line b6 there are 12 glyphs. The midsection of Eb6-24 possibly corresponds to Ca8-6.
Eb6-35 Eb6-36 Eb7-1 Eb7-2

"A Senegal Parrot chick at about 2 wks from hatching. The egg tooth is near to the tip of its beak on the upper mandible.

An egg tooth is a small protuberance on the beak or nose of vertebrates that are hatched from eggs, i.e., birds and reptiles. Some lizards and snakes develop a true tooth that is shed after use; birds and other reptiles generally develop an analogous epidermal horn that is reabsorbed or falls off. Both varieties of egg tooth assist in the breaking or tearing of the eggshell, a process known as pipping ..." (Wikipedia)

Maybe tambua is an 'egg tooth':

'... Mother of pearl; rei kauaha, fin. Mgv.: rei, whale's tooth. Mq.: éi, id. This is probably associable with the general Polynesian rei, which means the tooth of the cachalot, an object held in such esteem that in Viti one tooth (tambua) was the ransom of a man's life, the ransom of a soul on the spirit path that led through the perils of Na Kauvandra to the last abode in Mbulotu. The word is undoubtedly descriptive, generic as to some character which Polynesian perception sees shared by whale ivory and nacre ...'

The tara at winter solstice may mean the spur in front (the 'egg tooth').