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How strange it would be if the Easter Islanders did not use sailing terms in their rongorongo texts! Like all Polynesians they were very much occupied with preserving their ancient memories:

"... St. Johnston (1921, p.50) ... writes of the Polynesians: 'In making their long voyages of colonization ... they were especially careful to keep accurate details and to hand the data down to their descendants. It was the proud history of their race. The names of the vessels were recorded, the names of the chiefs and their wives, and even the names of the steersmen. Many separate families would go in these large vessels, and each man with his wife and children would have a portion of the thwarts allotted to him.

A Tahitian 'history' records that certain canoes started on a voyage from Tahiti well provisioned for a long expedition, a journey of exploration, but with every intention of returning. The name of the canoes and the people were preserved in the traditional song, taught by the priests and elders from one generation to another. But they never returned.

Many generations afterwards, investigation of the Cook Islands histories brought to the light record of these same canoes and same people having safely arrived at Rarotonga (Cook Island), with full details in a manner that only the Polynesian delights in.'

Fornander (1878) similarly noted that 'in collecting Hawaiian chants of the Kualii dating from about the seventeenth century and containing 618 lines, one copy collected on Hawaii and another on Oahu did not vary in a single line; of the Hauikalani, written just before Kamehameha's time and containing 527 lines, a copy from Hawaii and one from Maui differed only in the omission of a single word.' ..." (Heyerdahl 6)

Maybe we should turn more attention to what Metoro said?

I will now try to systematically identify which words Metoro used at different types of glyphs in order to find words which will make it easier to refer to the different GD. I have used such words before, e.g. by referring to GD33 as viri. But now I wish to see if that was a good choice, i.e. if quantitatively measured viri really was the word Metoro preferred when confronted with GD33 glyphs, and I also wish to find suitable words for all GD.

The intention is not to find out the meanings of the different GD by way of translating them into the words mentioned. On the contrary, I think it would be misleading to put labels on the GD in the form of clear and understandable single words.

The Polynesian words have such complex meanings, though, that it is better to use such words than English words. Polynesian words makes one think.

Metoro read four texts for Bishop Jaussen and those texts, together with his readings (as far as I have been able to put them in parallel) form the base of the work now to begin, together with the corresponding glyphs in the glyph catalogue. To make myself clear I will use GD33 (provisionally earlier named viri, clew) as an example. Should I change the name viri into some other word or is there an objective reason for that name?

First I list all GD33 glyphs in the four rongorongo texts Metoro read (A, B, C and E):

Here it must be remarked that the function of the glyph catalogue is exclusively to function as a way to sort all the ca 10,000 rongorongo glyphs into 'pockets' where they will be possible to find according to how they look.

In the 'pocket' GD33 we find 17 + 25 + 4 + 9 = 55 glyphs in respectively the texts of A, B, C and E.

All these glyphs of course cannot mean the same thing - we can see that they are full with marks (signs) of different kinds.

When defining which glyphs should go into the 'pocket' GD33 I had to make some decisions. The exact nature of these decisions is documented separately under the headline GD33 defined (in the GD33 part of the glyph catalogue).

For example: The 'wavy wing' sign in some of the GD11 glyphs, e.g. Ha8-18:

is possibly an indication that GD33 is involved (as part in a glyph compound or as an allusion), but such glyphs are not found in the GD33 'pocket'. On the other hand a few glyphs with a quite similar 'wavy wing' (or here rather 'wavy arm') in GD15, e.g. Ba5-8:

have been listed also under GD33. The system for classifying glyphs according to different GD is not based on logic but on what is practical - there are many more GD11 birds with the wave form than there are GD15 with wave form.

Furthermore, the image in the GD33 norm:

maybe is totally without connection with the wave form in wing (GD11) and arm (GD15).

Consequently, I am now using the GD system created for glyph classification in a way which the system was not meant to be used. Bearing that in mind, I anyhow find it useful for its new purpose: to identify which words Metoro systematically may have used at different GD.

Next step is to coordinate Metoro's words with the 55 glyphs listed from the glyph catalogue. Here I can use the texts of Metoro (already paired with glyphs) as documented under the headline Metoro in the Polynesian dictionary. Thus I arrived at the following:

The listing here follows the order in which Metoro read the texts, i.e. B before A and side b of Tahua before side a.

With red I have marked where viri appears. There are no more than 6 such instances. Otherwise the words found vary much, which is not strange because of the many marks on the glyphs. Also, the meanings of the wavy form may be many and different.

Nevertheless, I think viri is a good word for GD33. The reason is that only in very few cases has Metoro used viri at other glyphs, such which I have not considered as belonging to the 'pocket' GD33 (for example GD11 birds with wavy wings). Only two glyphs, Ea9-19 and Eb7-12 are found in this category:

The shape in Ea9-19 indeed looks like half a GD33, while Eb7-12 is located in what may be Thursday in a weekly calendar.

In Thursday, we have seen, there is a change of rule:

... Another 'death' day is Thursday. To explain this the yearly path of the sun functions as a guide. Because we can calculate:

5 / 7 * 364 = 260

Thursday is the 5th day of the week and its position therefore is equivalent to the 260th day of the year.

260 = 13 * 20 while 364 = 13 * 28 ...

An objective measure of how good viri is for its purpose (as a label for GD33 - with nothing more intended) is to divide the 6 'hits' (correspondences with GD33) by the total number 8 viri, which were used by Metoro anywhere among the glyphs of A, B, C, and E:

6 / 8 = 75 %

The facts behind this 75 % measure I have tabulated like this: