TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

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The 10-glyph internal parallel is divided in two groups which begin and end in a similar manner:

Due to the resemblance between the glyph type with three rhombs and the glyph type with three 'balls' I have classified both as variants of GD53:

Here we see them surrounding hau tea (GD41):

As to the meaning of the rhomb-variant I cite myself (from the current state of the glyph dictionary, GD53 - signs):

Ab6-88:

Here the 'balls' are changed into rhombs, meaning three lunar double-months. Wheareas the solar double-months have 2 * 30 = 60 days, the lunar double-months have 30 + 29 = 59 nights.

There is no vertical straight line in the middle of the glyph. 59 is an odd number and cannot be divided into twins. Also there is no measurement, the moon is a 'clock' in itself.

The four corners in the rhomb marks where periods of 14 nights are completed. 4 * 14 = 56 = the number of nights in a two-month period when the moon is visible.

In a rhomb the 14 nights when the moon is waxing may be seen as the upwards going line at left, the apex being the time of full moon. The waning moon will then be represented by the downwards sloping line at right. At the time of new moon we turn the rhomb 180^o similar to when we start to read a rongorongo tablet (though here counter-clockwise [clockwise] instead of clockwise [counter-clockwise]), and after that we can start once again with the waxing moon of the new month.

Moon and sun are complementary. And the texts on the rongorongo tablets turn counter-clockwise only every odd turn, the even turns are clockwise. Right and left alternate, just like sun and moon. The sun is right, the moon is left.

The counter-clockwise movement seems to be connected with the sun (south of the equator) and the clockwise movement therefore with the moon. Consequently, the waning moon should be the downwards sloping line at right.

"The 'second list of place names' appears for the first time in Ms. E. The sequence of the places named runs opposite to Hau Maka's 'first list of place names'. Commencing on land at a point 'that can send signals' out to sea, the path turns to the right along the coastline so that the ocean is always on the left.

On the other hand, proceeding from the land of origin with the description of the route to the new land, Hau Maka's place names are intended to provide a route that starts from the ocean and along which the ocean is always to the right.

We seem to be dealing here with two possible inversions; turning 'toward the sea' vs. turning 'toward the land', while maintaining the same general direction, which is described by the common Polynesian contrast pair tai vs. uta, or turning 'toward the right' vs. turning 'toward the left', facing in the same direction at the start." (Barthel 2)

The 'first list of place names' (sun) seems to have been handed down in writing, the 'second list of place names' (moon) presumably was passed on with kaikai:

"While the 'first list of place names' is supposed to have been handed down explicitly in writing (ta ki runga ki te kaka), the 'second list of place names' was passed on with the aid of a mnemonic device in the form of recitations (patautau) accompanied by the string-figures (kaikai)." (Barthel 2)

If this suggestion of mine is a correct understanding of the three rhombs, then we should perhaps interpret Ab5-7 as 2 * 56 + (56 - 14 - x) = 154 - x nights:

One side of the bottom rhomb is totally missing (14) and one side has a part (x) missing. However, we should notice that the two complete sides of the bottom rhomb are longer than usual, presumably compensating the missing 14 + x nigths.

The reason for the missing parts of the bottom rhomb probably is to show a 'break' (koti) between two 'seasons'.

As it happens I am at present describing what defines GD66:

First I wrote that 'the fundamental characteristic of GD66 is that there is a vertical division in parts', but then I became convinced to change that; the fundamental characteristic is a division in parts either vertically or horizontally. Because it felt obvious that such glyphs as Aa1-15 and Aa4-72 carried the same fundamental meaning of 'break in time-space' (koti):

The meaning of GD66 is in the weekly calendars (of H and P) clearly connected with a temporary darkness, as seen in the days of Mercury and Venus - planets which sometimes disappear from view:


Hb9-36	Pb10-44	Hb9-50	Pb10-54
Wednesday		Friday

The discovery of the missing parts of the bottom rhomb in Ab5-7 makes me now consider that GD66 should include this and similar glyphs too, glyphs which are missing a part without there being a separation of parts.

But the four examples in Wednesday and Friday evidently are drawn without any missing parts. Therefore I should retreat to my initial definition - vertically separated parts. In the horizontally separated parts we have seen so far the hand is missing.

We are discussing two separate characteristics: separated parts and missing parts. To put it in focus: The meaning of Ab5-7 is hardly the same as the meaning of Aa8-80:

Aa8-80 appears at the close of side a and we recognize in Aa8-79 the open variant of GD29 (va'e):

Cfr how the solar GD29 is closed and arrives after the circular variant of GD53:

A
H

A moment's reflection makes it evident that the idea about 14 nights beginning at the left corner and rising towards full moon at the apex of the rhomb probably is wrong. Ab5-7 instead seems to tell us that the 'thread' of the bottom rhomb is beginning (or ending?) at the top apex:

It would be preposterous for the thread to begin at the rightmost corner of the bottom rhomb, a beginning should have only one way forward, not two. The same goes for the bottom corner.

The top apex corner (of the bottom rhomb) has three ways forward if the beginning is there. Furthermore, the 'thread' presumably is just one for all three rhombs and therefore the beginning cannot be at the top apex corner of the bottom rhomb.

Possibly, though, the beginning end of the 'thread' has come loose from the top apex of the bottom rhomb. Anyhow, beginning and end does not matter in a cyclic pattern.