TRANSLATIONS

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In Mamari there is a sequence of 12 glyphs in 4 groups, where each group is initiated by vae:

Ca12-9 Ca12-10 Ca12-11 Ca12-12
Ca12-13 Ca12-14 Ca12-15
Ca12-16 Ca12-17
Ca12-18 Ca12-19 Ca12-20

Perhaps this is a list of 4 kinds of 'going away'. Vae should be possible to use as a general expression, not only referring to sun or moon at winter solstice but also at the end of shorter periods.

Polynesians mention the main word first - as for instance in tagata kai, a person eating, (not a cannibal, kai tagata) - therefore the glyphs following each vae may describe which period is ending.

On the other hand, the ordinal numbers of the glyphs and the glyphs themselves do not suggest any other season than winter solstice.

The text is part of a longer sequence, where the relations between rima and vae seem to be elaborated.
Two additional adjoining vae glyphs are revealed by looking in the glyph catalogue, one of them (redmarked below) of a special kind:

 

Ca10-10 Ca10-18 Ca10-25 Ca11-7 Ca11-17 Ca12-3
Ca12-9 Ca12-13 Ca12-16 Ca12-18 Ca12-24 Ca13-16

If the 6 vae glyphs refer to winter solstice, then the 6 rima glyphs presumably refer to summer solstice.

For a while I intended to continue with the following page, but I changed my mind. Here it can be used, though:

If we include the two additional vae glyphs the text becomes more complicated:

 

Ca12-18 Ca12-19 Ca12-20 Ca12-21
Ca12-22 Ca12-23 Ca12-24 Ca12-25
Ca12-26 Ca12-27 Ca13-1 Ca13-2
Ca13-3 Ca13-4 Ca13-5 Ca13-6
Ca13-7 Ca13-8 Ca13-9 Ca13-10
Ca13-11 Ca13-12 Ca13-13 Ca13-14
20 further glyphs
Ca13-15 Ca13-16 Ca14-211

Probably the triplet in Ca13-11 has an important role in the longer text (in which the vae glyph sequences are just a part):

Ca4-7 Ca9-27 Ca13-11
e gagata hakaariki etoru gagata hakaariki kia raua e toru gagata, tuhuga nui, tuhuga roa, tuhuga marakapa - ma te hokohuki te tapamea - te kihikihi

At Ca4-7 and Ca9-27 Metoro said hakaariki, which probably means 'to make a king'.

These three persons may be the same ones as those in Aa5-69:

Aa5-69

From the glyph catalogue (not yet complete) other glyphs of this kind can be listed:

none in B nor in E
Da8-201 Ta8-111
Gb5-24 Ra1-111
Ha5-7 Pa4-49 Qa4-139

Da8-201 is not very useful, the glyphs around are so damaged, while Ta8-111 may give us some clues:

Ta8-101 Ta8-102 Ta8-103 Ta8-104 Ta8-105 Ta8-106 Ta8-107
 
Ta8-108 Ta8-109 Ta8-110 Ta8-111 Ta8-112 Ta8-113

Ta8-105 indicates winter solstice, before new year (because the 'sails' are at left). Ta8-108 tells about complete darkness - haś without any 'feathers'. Ta8-101 may indicate the 'Temple Palace':

2 5
Ta8-101 Ta8-102 Ta8-105 Ta8-111
19
Eb5-35 Eb6-1 Eb6-2 Eb6-3 Eb1-40 Eb1-41
period 24 period 1
8
Pb2-16 Pb2-17 Pb2-18 Pb2-19 Pb2-28 Pb2-29

The text in G has a lot of rising fishes:

Gb5-5 Gb5-6 Gb5-7 Gb5-8 Gb5-9 Gb5-10
Gb5-11 Gb5-12 Gb5-13 Gb5-14 Gb5-15 Gb5-16
Gb5-17 Gb5-18 Gb5-19 Gb5-20 Gb5-21 Gb5-22
Gb5-23 Gb5-24 Gb5-25 Gb5-26 Gb5-27 Gb5-28

Gb5-25 (notice the ordinal numbers) may be related to Eb6-17:

40

40

Eb3-8

Eb4-11

Eb4-12

Eb5-11

1

42

43

84

40

40

Eb5-11

 Eb6-17

Eb6-18

Eb3-8

84

 125

126

167 (1)

Ra1-111 is most interesting. It has (like Ca4-7) no extra signs and its location at the beginning of the text connects it with A at a key point:

4-6 glyphs are destroyed here.
Ra1-101 Ra1-102 Ra1-103
Ra1-104 Ra1-105 Ra1-106 Ra1-107 Ra1-108 Ra1-109 Ra1-110 Ra1-111
Ra1-112 Ra1-113 Ra1-114 Ra1-115 Ra1-116 Ra1-117 Ra1-118

Between Ra1-107 and Ra1-108 the winter solstice probably is located. Sails at left suddenly turn over to the forward side. Instead of a 'moon canoe' we get a 'sun canoe'. The three guys appear soon afterwards.

Ra1-109 is exactly as Ra1-117 (which induced me to locate the glyphs in the same column). The 'sun canoe' (Ra1-108) therefore will be in the same column as the sun in Ra1-116, and likewise the sun in Ra1-118 will in a way indicate how sun appears also in Ra1-110 (with twice 3 = 6 'feathers').

Ra1-114--118 is the beginning of the parallel which we recently saw and which continues:

...
Ra1-119 Ra1-120 Ra1-121 Ra1-122 Ra1-201 Ra1-202

Between Ra1-122 and Ra1-201 there may have been a vae glyph, but it is far from certain because Ra1-121 has a vae sign. In Ra1-104, however, there is a vae - properly located before the solstice.

I have commented in the 'text' part:

... The parallel text in R probably starts a bit earlier with e.g. Ra1-103 corresponding to Aa5-51 and Ra1-107--108 to Aa5-51--52.

This piece of the great puzzle may be essential, and the referred to glyphs in A are therefore presented here:

vae in Ra1-104 has no A counterpart
Aa5-50 Aa5-51 Aa5-52 Aa5-53
Aa5-54 Aa5-55 Aa5-56 Aa5-57 Aa5-58 Aa5-59 Aa5-60
Aa5-61 Aa5-62 Aa5-63 Aa5-64 Aa5-65 Aa5-66 Aa5-67
neither has side b of A any vae here
Ab7-75 Ab7-76 Ab7-77 Ab7-78

On side b of Tahua the parallel text goes immediately from Ab7-78 to rona, without any glyphs corresponding to Aa5-54--67:

Ab7-79 Ab7-80 Ab7-81 Ab7-82 Ab7-83 Ab7-84 Ab8-1

The 29 glyphs in line Ca4 probably have a lot to tell us, but contain no vae:

Ca4-1 Ca4-2 Ca4-3
Ca4-4 Ca4-5 Ca4-6 Ca4-7
Ca4-8 Ca4-9 Ca4-10 Ca4-11 Ca4-12
Ca4-13 Ca4-14 Ca4-15 Ca4-16 Ca4-17
Ca4-18 Ca4-19 Ca4-20 Ca4-21 Ca4-22
Ca4-23 Ca4-24 Ca4-23 Ca4-24 Ca4-25
Ca4-26 Ca4-27 Ca4-28 Ca4-29

H/P/Q, on the other hand, give us interesting variants of vae appearing slightly before the three 'king makers' (hakaariki):

-
Ha4-56   Ha5-1 Ha5-2 Ha5-3 Ha5-4 Ha5-5
Pa4-40 Pa4-41 Pa4-42 Pa4-43 Pa4-44 Pa4-45 Pa4-46 Pa4-47
-
Qa4-134   Qa4-135 Qa4-136 Qa4-137
Ha5-6 Ha5-7 Ha5-8 Ha5-9
Pa4-48 Pa4-49 Pa4-50 Pa4-51
Qa4-138 Qa4-139 Qa4-140 Qa4-141

We recognize the 'moon' signs 'flying away' (not going away). And if they want to make a king (ariki), then he indeed appears immediatley thereafter:

31
Ga7-5 Ga7-6 Ga7-7 Ga7-8 Ga7-9 Ga7-10
29
Kb4-10 Kb4-11 Kb4-12 Kb4-13 Kb4-14

Possibly ariki glyphs should come after vae glyphs. The other proposition, that vae glyphs come before ariki glyphs is another matter - kings ought to appear in several places.

Possibly the 'flying away' signs (Ga7-5 etc) indicate feet (not wings). On the other hand, when the birds move in the air - is not their wings their legs? No, it is more like they are swimming in the air with their arms.

The last and summary page:

 

Evidence suggest vae indicates 'exit' ('going away') of a season.

Evidence also suggest the season in question is the old year. No evidence has been found which indicates vae was used at the end of any other season.

The 'person' leaving is the sun. The moon ought ideally to be at her full moon phase at new year. If vae occurs among signs of moon (cfr Ab7-83), then - presumably - it is the waxing phase which is leaving.

The opposite of vae is a special variant of rima:

Rima has fingers at the top, vae toes at the bottom. Rima has the joint pointing left (backwards), vae the joint oriented forwards.

The little 'eye' at right in the special variant of rima probably indicates the position of the sun - beyond the center of the sun cycle (midsummer).

This symbol is not used beyond noon in the calendars for the daylight. But we recognize the sign from the short description of the year at the beginning of side a of Tahua:

 

Aa1-9 Aa1-10 Aa1-11 Aa1-12

Signs of the moon around Ab7-83 ought to be found also on the rona glyph:

 

Ab7-79 Ab7-80 Ab7-81 Ab7-82 Ab7-83 Ab7-84 Ab8-1

Maybe the rightmost part in the glyph indicates the moon? If so, then it must be the descending moon (south of the equator). And then the outline of a lying down figure 8 can be understood as growing moon to the left and declining moon to the right (forward in time). The head in between and at the top must be the full moon phase.

The thoughts move on. Maybe we here have arrived at another explanation of some of the pu glyphs? One side of Ab7-79 is open, and we remember:

 

Ab4-21 Ca6-28 Eb6-30 Ha5-53 Pa5-36 Qa5-44 Sa1-206

Ca6-28 definitely talks about the moon. Maybe the pu variants without 'holes' refer to the interior figure of the '8':

 

Aa8-22 Qb8-111 Pb7-16 Hb7-6