TRANSLATIONS

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It must be noted here that Fornander's description of a Polynesian year as having 12 or 13 months: '... In regard to the division of the year by months, the Polynesians counted by twelve and by thirteen months, the former obtaining in the Tonga, Samoan, and Hawaiian groups, the latter in the Marquesas and Society groups ...' does not disagree with our finding a 10-period solar year in Aa1-1--10, where sun (Kuukuu) dies at Aa1-11:

There is a 'break' at 260 (= 10 * 26) because there the traditional old agricultural year ends. The full year has 364 (= 14 * 26) nights.

The Tahua text, counted by glyphs, has a length which is 1334 = 46 * 29. We have found out that the creator of the text located viri at Ab7-26 and Aa8-26 (note the ordinal numbers in the lines) in order to divide 1334 into 754 + 580, where 754 = 29 * 26 and 580 = 29 * 20.

The relation between 260 and 364 equals 5 / 7, which incited the creators of the calendars of the week in Hb9-17--58 and Pb10-29--Pb11-105 to mark a 'break' congruent with the end of the old agricultural year in relation to the total astronomical year. The 'break' in Thursday is announced by glyphs signifying takurua ('Janus' and great feast). According to Makemson Jupiter was called Ta'urua in Tahiti, viz.:

Ta'urua-of-the-confusion-in-the-sky-with-Hawaii-in-the-rear

Ta'urua-who-struck-the-zenith-of-the-sky

Ta'urua-who-rises-in-the-path-of-the-rainbow

At Eb7-12 Metoro found reason to say atua mata viri:

I have classified the glyph as fundamentally belonging to GD74 and we can see the upraised arm with hand outwards as a variant of GD35, rima. But the wavy leg is normal for a person who is sitting down - the knee is conveniently drawn up a bit from the ground. Therefore the wavy leg did not persuade me to see viri.

As seen for instance in GD52 (kai) there is always a wavy form in the leg of a person who is sitting down:

I think it was not the wavy form of the leg which influenced Metoro to think about atua mata viri. Instead he probably saw a triplet of signs: GD42, the position of rima and the curious end of the leg. I have as an additional GD (no. 111) defined glyphs with this sign:

I guess it depicts a penis (ure).

Ure

1. Generation; ure matá, warlike, bellicose generation (matá, obsidian, used in making weapons). 2. Offspring; brother; colleague i toou ure ka tata-mai, your colleague has turned up. 3. Friendship, friendly relationship; ku-ké-á te ure, they have become enemies (lit.: friendship has changed). 4. Penis (this definition is found in Englert's 1938 dictionary, but not in La Tierra de Hotu Matu'a). Ure tahiri, to gush, to spurt, to flow; e-ure tahiri-á te toto, blood is flowing in gushes. Ure tiatia moana, whirlwind which descend quickly and violently onto the ocean; whirlpool, eddy. Vanaga.

Penis; kiri ure, prepuce, foreskin. Ureure, spiral. Churchill.

H. Ule 1. Penis. For imaginative compounds see 'a'awa 1, 'aweule, ulehala, ulehole, ulepa'a, ulepuaa, ule'ulu. Kū ka ule, he'e ka laho, the penis is upright, the scrotum runs away (refers to breadfruit: when the blossom (pōule) appears erect, there will soon be fruit). 2. Tenon for a mortise; pointed end of a post which enters the crotch of a rafter (also called ma'i kāne). Ho'o ule, to form a tenon or post for the crotch of a rafter. 3. To hang. Wehewehe.

Furthermore, in Wednesday according to P, we have GD111 (Pb10-43):

which earlier made me associate to Makahiki (the first day of the new year in Hawaii):

... In the deep night before the image [of Lono] is first seen, there is a Makahiki ceremony called 'splashing-water' (hi'uwai). Kepelino tells of sacred chiefs being carried to the water where the people in their finery are bathing; in the excitement created by the beauty of their attire, 'one person was attracted to another, and the result', says this convert to Catholicism, 'was by no means good'.

At dawn, when the people emerged from their amorous sport, there standing on the beach was the image of Lono. White tapa cloth and skins of the ka'upu bird hang from the horizontal bar of the tall crosspiece image. The ka'upu is almost certainly the albatross, a migratory bird that appears in the western Hawaiian chain - the white Lanyon albatross at Ni'ihau Island - to breed and lay eggs in October-November, or the beginning of the Makahiki season ...

The 'day' begins at midnight and therefore there was 'splashing water' (ure tahiri) in the 'deep night' already before daybreak. Finding ure (GD111) in Wednesday is not really surprising either: Wednesday is the day of water.

Jupiter is 'father light' and a father is a generator (ure), but my earlier idea that Mars-Mercury-Jupiter is a single person in different stages possibly explains why GD111 is already in Wednesday.

I.e., number 10 for the first phase of the solar calendar at the beginning of side a (of Tahua) does not disprove that also other numbers could be used for the year - 20 / 26 equals 10 / 13, for instance.

5 / 7, however, is not equal to 10 / 13 but equals 10 / 14.

The Polynesians used 10 in their calendars, that is documented in Heyerdahl 6:

"... Heine-Geldern, searching for casual and sporadic analogies to Polynesian culture anywhere from Pakistan to East Asia, claims ... with regard to the calendar conceptions, that 'some traits of Polynesian time reckoning systems (ten day weeks on Niue and Hawaii, ten year cycles on Easter Island) have their closest parallels in China.'

This is correct only if Peru and South America are excluded from consideration in Polynesian affairs. The Easter Island custom of reckoning with ten-year cycles has long since been recorded from Pacific South America.

Montesinos ... thus writes of the early Peruvian time reckoning system: '... ordinary years were counted as having three hundred and sixty-five days and hours, and then there were decades, giving each decade ten years ...'

Neither need we resort to China for the ten-day weeks recorded from parts of Polynesia. Montesinos says of a meeting of amautas in the life of Ayay Manco, the thirty-fifth of the pre-Inca kings in his list ...: 'After the meeting had lasted many days, it was decided that they would not count the year by moons, as up to that time, but that each month should have thirty fixed days, and that the weeks should have ten days ...

... We may add that there is some evidence that even so unnatural a period as a ten-month year was attempted in parts of ancient Peru. As Bennett ... writes: 'Cieza de León (1553) states that the Aymara had a year of ten months, but this is not confirmed by any other writer.'

Again, Fornander ... writes: 'There is evidence that the Marquesans at one time counted the year by ten lunar months, and called it a Puni - a circle, a round, a revolution - but how they managed either this or the year of thirteen months to correspond with the sidereal year, I am not informed ..."

We should furthermore remember (from Makemson) the Hawaiian structure possibly equal in form to Aa1-1--14:

... According to the ancient history of Kanalu some Hawaiian tribes assigned fourteen months to the year, or hookahi puni ma eha malama, one puni consisting of ten months plus four odd months ...

The 'plain' viri in Ab1-1, exhibiting no signs except the fundamental nature of GD33, presumably indicates the 'corner of the sail' (clew), i.e. functions to show where to begin the reading, on side a or on side b. Metoro presumably saw that, and began his reading on side b. A natural question then arrives: Is Ab1-1 located at the beginning of a calendar?

... the New Year began with the first day of the month Makalii [Pleiades], which day, being the first of the year, was called Maka-hiki (equivalent to 'commencement day') ...

Probably we here ought to repeat the citation from Islands of History describing the New Year ceremonies on Hawaii:

... in the ceremonial course of the coming year, the king is symbolically transposed toward the Lono pole of Hawaiian divinity; the annual cycle tames the warrior-king in the same way as (e.g.) the Fijian installation rites. It need only be noticed that the renewal of kingship at the climax of the Makahiki coincides with the rebirth of nature. For in the ideal ritual calendar, the kali'i battle follows the autumnal appearance of the Pleiades, by thirty-three days - thus precisely, in the late eighteenth century, 21 December, the winter solstice. The king returns to power with the sun.

The correspondence between the winter solstice and the kali'i rite of the Makahiki is arrived at as follows: ideally, the second ceremony of 'breaking the coconut', when the priests assemble at the temple to spot the rising of the Pleiades, coincides with the full moon (Hua tapu) of the twelfth lunar month (Welehu). 

In the latter eighteenth century, the Pleiades appear at sunset on 18 November. Ten days later (28 November), the Lono effigy sets off on its circuit, which lasts twenty-three days, thus bringing the god back for the climactic battle with the king on 21 December, the solstice (= Hawaiian 16 Makali'i). The correspondence is 'ideal' and only rarely achieved, since it depends on the coincidence of the full moon and the crepuscular rising of the Pleiades.

Whereas, over the next two days, Lono plays the part of the sacrifice. The Makahiki effigy is dismantled and hidden away in a rite watched over by the king's 'living god', Kahoali'i or 'The-Companion-of-the-King', the one who is also known as 'Death-is-Near' (Koke-na-make). Close kinsman of the king as his ceremonial double, Kahoali'i swallows the eye of the victim in ceremonies of human sacrifice (condensed symbolic trace of the cannibalistic 'stranger-king').  

The 'living god', moreover, passes the night prior to the dismemberment of Lono in a temporary house called 'the net house of Kahoali'i', set up before the temple structure where the image sleeps. In the myth pertinent to these rites, the trickster hero - whose father has the same name (Kuuka'ohi'alaki) as the Kuu-image of the temple - uses a certian 'net of Maoloha' to encircle a house, entrapping the goddess Haumea; whereas, Haumea (or Papa) is also a version of La'ila'i, the archetypal fertile woman, and the net used to entangle her had belonged to one Makali'i, 'Pleiades'. 

Just so, the succeeding Makahiki ceremony, following upon the putting away of the god, is called 'the net of Maoloha', and represents the gains in fertility accruing to the people from the victory over Lono.  A large, loose-mesh net, filled with all kinds of food, is shaken at a priest's command. Fallen to earth, and to man's lot, the food is the augury of the coming year. The fertility of nature thus taken by humanity, a tribute-canoe of offerings to Lono is set adrift for Kahiki, homeland of the gods. 

The New Year draws to a close. At the next full moon, a man (a tabu transgressor) will be caught by Kahoali'i and sacrificed. Soon after the houses and standing images of the temple will be rebuilt: consecrated - with more human sacrifices - to the rites of Kuu and the projects of the king ...

Maka-hiki equals Mata-hiti.

Hiti

1. To show itself again, to reappear (of the new moon, of a constellation - meaning uncertain). 2. Said of thin, tough-fleshed fish of indifferent taste: ika hiti. 3. Said of fish when they come to the stones of the shore for insects among the seaweed: he hiti te ika. 4. To reproach someone for his ingratitude. Vanaga.

1. To rise, to appear, to dawn; hitihaga, rising; hitihaga roa, sunrise; hitihiti, to dawn; horau hitihiti, break of day; hakahiti ki te eeve, to show the buttocks. 2. Puffed; gutu hiti, thick lips. Churchill.

If Ab1-1 announces not only where to begin reading but also the commencement of a calendar for the year, it would be logical to deduce that Ab1-2 must tell about Mata-hiti:

Ab1-1 Ab1-2 Ab1-3 Ab1-4 Ab1-5 Ab1-6 Ab1-7

The two 'eyes' (mata) could mean that we are on the right track. The bottom part is like a canoe in form and possibly indicates the reappearance of somebody who has been away, perhaps it is the king who 'returns to power with the sun'.

In the calendar of the night, after having passed midnight (equivalent to winter solstice), we find Aa1-45, exhibiting a canoe seen from above:

Possibly the rongorongo men, chanting the text, were reminded of the word (Mata-hiti) by way of the two eyes in hau tea.

When you get old it may become difficult to retrieve a specific word from memory - it would be catastrophic not to be able to start the chanting for loss of the word at the beginning.

Beyond the first word the retrieval will be automatic because of the chanting mode. But the glyph immediately following the 'clew' must be very important to design in a proper way.

If the 'two-eyed' hau tea is to be pronounced mata, then we should reexamine such glyph. In Tahua we have 4 of them:

Ab1-2 Ab4-49 Aa1-28 Aa7-79

Aa7-79 probably represents Matariki (the Pleiades), because of its location among the hau tea glyphs:

Aa4-43

Aa4-46

Aa4-54

Aa4-70

Aa5-5

Aa5-63

Aa7-79

Aa8-51

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Aa1-28 appears in the calendar of the daylight at a position immediately after a reversed tapa mea, probably meaning the beginning of the time when sun will descend:

Aa1-24

Aa1-25

Aa1-26

Aa1-27

Aa1-28

Aa1-29

Aa1-30

Aa1-31

Aa1-32

Aa1-33

Aa1-34

Aa1-35

Aa1-36

The two eyes in double-eyed hau tea glyphs probably implies 'Janus', too (not only mata). Hakamata means 'to start' according to Barthel.

Ab4-49 we have not yet looked closer at. But we have seen that it is the 8th 'uncomplicated' hau tea glyph on side b, and that it has a short central vertical line in contrast to the extremely long one in Aa7-79. Only Ab8-53 (the 15th and last of the 'uncomplicated' hau tea glyph on side b) shares this feature of a short middle vertical line.

We do not yet know how to 'pronounce' Aa1-28, but mata should be part of the word, I guess. There are, however, many pieces of the puzzle to consider.

Tapa mea (the 'red cloth') may refer to a 'red count', where tapa mea is used not only to refer to the light from the sun (in contrast to the 'black cloth' of night), but where tapa also refers to counting (or rather recounting):

Tapa

1. Side, corner, edge; he-hakarere a te tapa, to leave aside, to abandon; a te tapa mata'u o te haga, on the right-hand side of the bay. 2. Tapa mahute, piece of mahute material; this term is very common nowadays, but it seems probable that it was borrowed from the Tahitian in replacement of parehe mahute. 3. To recount the years, the months; to recount happenings of many years ago, in verses called manu, in which a murderer confided his crime to his victim's relatives; the murderer himself asked a brother or a friend to compose those verses: e tapa koe itooku manu, compose my manu. The expression tapa ite manu was also used of a group of people expressing the desire to kill someone. 4. Tagata tapa ta'u, according to traditions, this term referred to the scribes who recorded births on the tablets. Vanaga.

1. Border, fringe, edge, groin, cloth, clothing, dress, garment. Tatapa, lateral, bank. Tapatapa, edge. 2. To name, to mention, to count, to calculate, to reckon, to number, to figure up, to recapitulate; tapa ki te igoa, to take a census; tapa igoa, list. Tatapa, to count, to number, to reckon. Tapatapa, to mention. Churchill.

En passent we also see: a te tapa mata'u o te haga, on the right-hand side of the bay, where mata'u means 'right'. This we understand from reading te va'e mata'u, te va'e maúi, right foot, left foot:

Va'e, vae, vaega

Va'e: Foot, leg; te va'e mata'u, te va'e maúi, right foot, left foot. Va'e ruga, va'e raro, quick and light, without detour (lit.: foot up, foot down). Ka-oho koe ki a nua era va'e ruga va'e raro, ina ekó hipa-hipa, hurry straight to your mother, do not make any detours. Va'e pau, misshapen foot, clubfoot. Vanaga.

Vae, to choose. Vanaga.

Vaega, middle, centre; i vaega o, in the middle of. Vanaga.

1. Foot, paw, leg, limb; vae no roto, drawers; karikari vae, ankle. P Pau.: vaevae, foot, leg. Mgv.: vaevae, id. Mq.: vae, id. Ta.: vaevae, avae, id. 2. Pupil. 3. To choose, elect, prefer, promote, vote; vavae, to destine, to choose; vaea (vae 2), pupil. Vaeahatu (vae 1 - ahatu): moe vaeahatu, to sleep sprawling with legs extended. Vaega, center, middle, within, half; o vaega, younger; ki vaega, among, between, intermediate. P Pau.: vaega, the middle. Mgv.: vaega, center, middle. Mq.: vaena, vavena, vaveha, id. Ta.: vaehaa, half. Vaehakaroa (vae 1 - roa): moe vaehakaroa, to sleep with legs stretched out. Vaehau (vae 1 - hau 3), pantaloons, trousers. Vaeherehere (vae 1 - here 1), to attach by the paw. Vaerere (vae 1 - rere 1), to run. Churchill.

If the beginning of a calendar is located immediately to the right (mata'u) of Ab1-1, then we should expect to find GD29, va'e, which we saw at Aa1-15:

But there is no sign of va'e here (after Ab1-1). We should perhaps reinterpret va'e in Aa1-15 to mean vaega (middle, center). Indeed, if the two eyes (mata) in the 4 above mentioned glyphs serve as cues for remembering words beginning with mata-, then GD29 (va'e) may serve as a cue for remembering words beginning with va'e- (including those beginning with vae-).

Beginning with Ab1-1 we will be very close to the middle at Aa1-15. 664 glyphs on side b + 14 glyphs on side a before we reach Aa1-15 results in 678 as the distance travelled counted in glyphs. The rest of the total distance around the tablet will be 1334 - 678 = 656 glyphs.

Had we reached 676 instead of 678 it would have been nice, because 13 * 52 = 676 = 4 * 132. Maybe we should not count the 'plain' viri (at Ab1-1 and Ab7-26). The rest of the path would then become 1334 - 676 - 4 = 654 = 24 * 27 +  6. The possibilities are many.

Maybe GD29 could be used both for 'center' (vaega) and for 'go ahead' (va'e). It would have been easy to distinguish between different meanings by attaching different marks on a glyph type.

I have registered the following 38 glyphs at GD29 in the glyph catalogue:

 

Obviously we should not expect all these glyphs to express va'e or vaega

After having deleted the most complicated glyphs I have these 14 remaining:

 

Aa1-15 Aa1-54 Aa3-2 Aa3-4 Aa5-71 Aa8-79
Ab2-20 Ab2-23 Ab2-25 Ab2-29 Ab3-34 Ab4-67
6 on side a (probably the sunny side) and 8 on side b (probably the side for the moon).
Ab7-65 Ab7-83

I included Aa1-15 because GD29 is there seen isolated, similar to a separate glyph. The maro glyphs I included because if GD29 has a maro, then - presumably - the same glyph without maro cannot mean 'center' (vaega). But va'e (to go) could have maro and then mean 'to stop going'.

Next step is to make a structural table:

 
Two identical glyphs separated by 40 glyphs (counting the right part of Aa1-15 as one glyph). Two identical glyphs close together and with 6-feather maro.
Aa1-15 Aa1-54 Ab2-20 Ab2-23
Two identical glyphs close together and with 5-feather maro. Two identical glyphs close together and with 5-feather maro.
Aa3-2 Aa3-4 Ab2-25 Ab2-29
Two different glyphs separated by 91 (= 364 / 4) glyphs. Two different glyphs separated by 110 glyphs.
Aa5-71 Aa8-79 Ab3-34 Ab4-67
Aa5-71 resembles Ab7-65 and Ab7-83. Aa8-79 obviously marks 'cut off' ('spirit'), whereas no such sign is seen on the side of the moon (b).

Aa1-15 and Aa1-54 respectively Ab7-65 and Ab7-83 mark 'great periods'

Two identical glyphs separated by 18 glyphs.
Ab7-65 Ab7-83

The sign at the top of GD29 in Aa1-15 is the same as in Aa3-2 (and Aa3-4). Therefore - by way of maro presumably indicating 'end' - we once again arrive at the conclusion that GD29 in Aa1-15 means 'go (ahead)', va'e.

However, it is still possible to read vaega (center) in Aa1-15, because in the middle of a period (for instance the one described in the calendars of daylight) the 1st half of the period ends and the 2nd half begins (va'e).

The suggested 'spectral' nature of Aa8-79 is reasonable because the glyph is located close to the end of side a, the 'sunny side'. Sun is there 'finished' and we can find affirmation of the koti in the following glyph Aa8-80, while the preceding glyph tells that the sky (ragi) is 'fishy':

Aa8-77 Aa8-78 Aa8-79 Aa8-80 Aa8-81 Aa8-82 Aa8-83 Aa8-84 Aa8-85

The resemblance between Aa5-71 and Ab7-83 is probably due to them being parts in parallel glyph sequences:

 

Aa5-68 Aa5-69 Aa5-70 Aa5-71 Aa5-72 Aa5-73
Ab7-79 Ab7-80 Ab7-81 Ab7-82 Ab7-83 Ab7-84 Ab8-1

We should here notice how the curious Aa5-68 has an upcurved hatchmarked arm, while Ab7-79 has an arm without hatchmarks but with viri characteristics.

The 4 hatchmarks probably recur in the 4 feathers on top of the ariki (GD63) in Aa5-72, while the parallel king in Ab7-84 has only 2 feathers - perhaps because the viri in Ab7-79 exhibits 2 'cups'.