The preceding page was a kind of prelude to hau tea:

The 3 vertical straight lines can now be imagined as indicating morning, noon, and afternoon, and the glyph type meaning the time of daylight.

However, there are complications. At Hatinga Te Kohe - I have earlier imagined - the guiding light of the moon takes over (354 = 10 * 29.5 and sun's rule is over).

Gb4-33	Gb5-1
353	354

In Gb5-1 the 'eye' is at left and could therefore indicate the moon (instead of sun which of course must be in front, i.e. at right). But not necessarily so, because it might more reasonably indicate how the 'black cloth' has covered the phase of the sun - shown according to rongorongo 'grammar' by inverting the normal orientation.

Considered from another angle, should we not add 3 + 2 = 5 by including also the 2 'roof' lines? They are also straight. If we do so, then the message becomes 'fire' (or in general 'light from the sky'). Moon is not excluded, though her connection to 7 may be so strong as to make it impossible to associate her with 5.

One to one correspondences ought to have been the rule when the frame of reference was the theory of correspondences. Otherwise it would have become too complicated. Therefore 5 should have been another celestial 'person' than the moon, presumably Venus.

Furthermore, if 5 is a message embedded in hau tea, then 3 should mean the fingers (according to rongorongo convention), and we can imagen the 'eye' as the 'thumb'. The 'thumb' presumably is the 'cock', the male one. The 3 'fingers' could then be female. But the lines are straight and they must be male. In the hand only the palm is female.

We can conclude that if hau tea suggests not only 3 but also 5, then the 'roof' part (2) - an inverted Y (or rather V) - means the 'dark cloth' coming before light. As in Saturday darkness generates new light.

In hau tea the 'roof' is at the top where the last phase of the evolution should be located (according to rongorongo 'grammar'). As in the week darkness comes last.

But the little 'eye' is in front (future), to the right of the roof.

The explanation of hau tea as a stylized hand gains support by matagi (wind) which Metoro used at a glyph variant with bent vertical lines. Straight lines are orderly - indicating who is in charge and what is reliable, curved lines indicate change and disorder (i.e. as from gusty winds) . One example will be enough:

Aa1-74

e tagata kua mau i tona matagi

So far it can be summarized: Hau tea indicates the ordered male light originating from the 'sky roof' above, matagi its opposite.

Order is connected not only with a leader, but also with the distinction of culture in contrast to raw nature. The white tapa cloth is the dominant cultural achievement of woman. Hau tea can therefore be used also for the light from the moon. Indeed, we have learnt that the disturbing sound of beating tapa sent Hina to the moon, and hetu also means to make sound:

Hetu, hetu'u Hetu 1. To (make) sound; figuratively: famous, renowned. 2. To crumble into embers (of a bonfire). Hetu'u. Star, planet; hetu'u popohaga morning star; hetu'u ahiahi evening star; hetu'u viri meteorite. Vanaga Hetu 1. Star (heetuu); hetu rere, meteor; hetu pupura, planet. P Pau.: hetu, star. Mgv.: etu, id. Mq.: fetu, hetu, id. Ta.: fetu, fetia, id. The alternative form fetia in Tahiti, now the only one in common use, need not be regarded as an anomaly in mutation. It seems to derive from Paumotu fetika, a planet. Its introduction into Tahiti is due to the fashion of accepting Paumotu vocables which arose when the house of Pomare came into power. 2. Capital letter (? he tu). 3. To amuse. 4. To stamp the feet. Hetuhetu, to calk, to strike the water. Hetuke, sea urchin. Churchill.

In other words, tapa is generated by woman, and the straight vertical lines could illustrate the result of her work. Remember that males are generated by women.

Another question is whether moon light could be illustrated by hau tea. Possibly tapa mea during the 'day' must result in (be balanced by) an opposite hau tea for the 'night'. I have earlier, I remember, noticed how hau tea was used in Tahua during both 'summer' and 'winter'. Possibly the reason is that moon light is present all over the year.

Still, the straight vertical 3 lines suggest the ordered rays from the sun.

On the other hand, the open perimeter of the glyph indicates a 'figure of glyph' (compare 'figure of speech'), 'incorporating' the silhouette of a 'house', i.e. a 'residence' - a station of a cycle.

The 3 vertical straight lines then becomes the markers for measuring (and sun light is needed for that, which explains why there are 3 lines).

The straight lines can be imagined as the poles holding up the roof of a house, but - we have learnt - wooden posts presumably should be visualized in the rongorongo system by henua, or similar double lines with space between, not by single (thread-like) lines.

Precise measuring should be done in the 'broad' daylight, by using tightly drawn threads.

A 'house' is indicated in the Tahua text, where the roof is lifted up a little during spring to let in the light. The connection between 'house' (locations in time-space) and 'stone' (limit markers) appears in the myth about Ure Honu and Tuu Ko Ihu.

The closed inside of a glyph is dark and female in character, but in hau tea the bottom is open.