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TRANSLATIONS
To 'finish' a hydra it is necessary to 'burn' the necks after the heads have been cut off. Hauling on number 108 we need to find the head, cut it off and then burn. Or we may do as on Easter Island and everywhere else - just forget it. I cannot pass 108 by so easily. In my mind the mighty churn was there already when I remembered the Japanese variant of cosmic churn:
As I recall it I was provoked by Ab2-3:
The choice of words by Metoro: e mama vaiehu set my mind on the track. We have learnt that the core of meaning in ehu is dusty (like ashes).
Vaiehu should mean not ashes but 'watery dust', i.e. mist'. Therefore I remembered Izanagi and Izanami - they are in the misty prehistory of mankind. Izanagi 'stirs the waters of the sea with his celestial lance to produce the island of Onokoro'. In the beginning, in the total darkness, there is a watery world, therefore the mist. There are mists like clouds prohibiting any vision whatsoever. There are no eyes to see with. The fundamental mystery is how to light the fire in order to enable the eyes. In Ab2-4 an eye has appeared, tagata mata etahi. Metoro interprets it as one eye only, and we remember .. All the natives of the South Sea islands are great swimmers. Both men, women and children could almost be called amphibians, because they spend a good portion of their day swimming, diving, bathing and doing all those and similar sports in the midst of the breakers and the surging sea rolling in over the coral banks. The more the sea is heaving, the more the islander feels at home in this his right element. These islanders seem to be very fond of children, especially their neighbours’, which they until quite recently did not hesitate to eat. That in addition to the repulsive murder of their own children, especially as regards girls, results in a quite considerable reduction in the number of the children. But otherwise the children are as merry and free from sorrow as their parents. They learn to swim almost as soon as they begin to walk. The children are very amused by swinging and by sending up paper kites. They also have a rather peculiar game, which consists of keeping their eyes wide open with the help of a stiff straw of grass pushing the eye-lids apart ... The 5 wedge-marks inside the oval (of Ab2-3) maybe has to to with the 5 in 4 * 35 = 108? Let us review the 'facts' and ideas again: We have fairly good grounds to believe that the creator of Tahua had several simultaneous structures in mind. One of these was the one defined by viri:
We have now established the possible existence of another 'global' structure:
The excursion into the wonderful world of 108 was the result of subtracting 28 from 1000. Number 28, in turn, was chosen as a piece of the puzzle because our attention was drawn to the parallel with H:
The 28 glyphs in parallel with H begin with Aa1-49, i.e. immediately after the end of the night calendar:
Maybe toa tauuru alludes to the dead 'Einherier' who comes out to the final battle with the wolf?
The 'rocks' (toa) are definitely standing in the 'water' (in the time after sun has disappeared (he-kehu te raá). But there are no wolfs on Easter Island, just rats.
The number of glyphs on the sides of Tahua are 664 (side b) and 670 (side a). We have already for a long time considered Aa1-43 as an important marker because it is unique in the text (with regard to its design):
Once we constructed this table where we can define its location:
... the midnight staff belongs to the new 'day' ('po'), it is not located just before the start point, it is included in the new period. (The structure is built on number 6 and to reach 6 glyphs before dawn Aa1-43 must be included) ...
... Tauuruuru we probably should read as tau-uruuru. Possibly we should interpret tau with ta'u = year (season, age etc) and uruuru with to reach around the cycle and thread one of its ends into the other ... ... In Aa1-15 we saw a break between the left and right parts. The break in the night occurs between Aa1-42 and Aa1-43 because there are 12 'hours' in the night and an even number of glyphs cannot have a break in the middle - the middle is two glyphs. Could Aa1-42 be the end of the sequence of glyphs which are 'outside' the 200π?
If that is so, then the meaning of this sign could be that with Aa1-43 'life' (sun) is reborn, which could allude to side a being used for 'mapping' the 'solar life' (over the year). 10 glyphs beyond Aa1-42 we find Aa1-52:
52 = 364 / 7 and the old year will soon meet his end. The end between Aa1-42 and Aa1-43 was just a part of the introduction and more information follows here ... I have since then changed my mind. It is Aa1-54 which is the 'final': ... 90 - 36 = 54 and Aa1-54 tells us about the end:
'Light closed' as opposed to the hand held high - telling (presumably) of coming 'dawn'. 90 = 36 (Aa1-1--36) + 18 (Aa1-37--54) + 36 (Aa1-55--90):
My intention to present in a table the division of line a1 into 36 + 18 + 36 glyphs failed. Considering what I perceive as the meaning in the glyphs it became impossible to sum up to 18: The calendar of the night consists of 12 glyphs and does not easily extend forward 6 glyphs more. ... The 'finished' leg is seen both in Aa1-15 and Aa1-54. I have shown the last glyphs of each sequence in the column at right. Those 6 glyphs which stand out require further consideration:
Consulting the parallel texts we find that in P (the only reliable text because the H text is damaged and in Q the sequence does not appear) there is a long sequence with 10 glyphs containing both the X-area and the parallel to Aa1-49--54:
Presumably the creator of Tahua strived to expand the number of glyphs in line a1 (the longest line of side a) to reach 90. One example of this probably is Aa1-49--51 which in P could be expressed by a single glyph ... ... If we regard Aa1-49--54 as an important separate sequence (which though is secured only backwards as Aa1-48 obviously marks the end of the preceding sequence - the night - whereas the break in the forward direction still is uncertain), then an interesting consequence appears:
670 - 6 = 664 i.e. equal to the number of glyphs on side b. It is curious that 42 extra glyphs (a number which alludes to the dark season) should appear on side a and suddenly we escape from that problem. We eliminate the problem by thinking of Aa1-49--52 as belonging to side b (thereby increasing 36 to 42 on that side). Moreover, 664 is a number which easily can be read as 364 + 300. I have earlier suggested that 314 was an idea which originated from the problem of presenting both solar and lunar calendars on the same tablet (one sort of calendar on one side and the other kind on the opposite side). Here we can see both twice 314 and 364. Another consequence of extracting Aa1-49--54 from its surrondings is that the number pattern of line a1 becomes 36 + 12 + 36 = 84 = 6 * 14.
Later we created this table, which should not be forgotten:
... If the new cycle of life begins with Aa1-43, then an idea which immediately floats up to the surface is that the 4 henua (GD37) on side a represent the 4 quarters of the year and that the 8 henua on side b represent the 8 'quarters' of the moon (4 for waxing moon and 4 for waning moon) ... ... As to the reason why side a has 670 = 200π + 42 glyphs, it is possible ... that Aa1-43 is the beginning of a 670 - 42 = 628 (200π) glyphs long journey of the sun, ending with Aa8-85:
The day + night calendar presumably has been created with the yearly journey of the sun in mind. Therefore it is noteworthy that at the beginning of the new 'day' there is a canoe (vaka, GD48) ... ... Adding 42 glyphs to Aa1-13 we reach Aa1-55, i.e. the point from which a new period begins (given that Aa1-54 means the end of a period):
Aa1-13 (GD18, niu) indicates that the 'fire' has been 'stamped out' (rei). All 4 cardinal henua are just ghosts:
... there are 4 'beams' of light (like spooks - or spikes - in a wheel). The new light is what fascinates: ... there are 8 lines but line a1 seems to function as a 'bringer of light' in the middle of the winter, i.e. at the beginning of the 2nd half of winter. Line a1 is similar to Aa1-43. This explains why line a1 contains so much 'sun-light', not only the calendar for the diurnal cycle of the sun but also the primary giver of order, viz. the yearly cycle of the sun as visualized beginning with Aa1-1 ... To explain the new light the darkness must be first considered. We have arrived at the possibility that 'darkness' may be spread out over 750 glyphs:
Furthermore, in line a1 (the first line outside 'darkness') there are 28 glyphs (Aa1-1-49--76) which is a separate unit, obviously of 'dark' character, which also should be added to those 750, resulting in 778. That is not an interesting number, and immediately the hydra whispers: Take away Aa1-1, then we get 777. Though beyond Aa1-76 (the 28th glyph in the dark sequence) we have 14 more which have dark characteristics. 778 + 14 = 792 = 11 * 72. As 72 = 360 / 5, this is more promising. We have a possible sign of a double cycle in the past (5 * 72 + 5 * 72), followed by 72 days into the new year. Even the hydra should be content. We have here presented the idea to add 14 glyphs at the end of the sequence Aa1-49--76, thereby reaching 42. After Aa1-48 line a1 is regarded as 'black'. We have earlier considered that a 'new day' begins with Aa1-43. Establishing that 670 - 42 = 628 and having picked out the glyphs Aa1-49--90 as those 42 glyphs to be subtracted, it follows that even the first half of the night (Aa1-37--42) must belong to the light. In a way it does, of course, because the diurnal cycle of the sun is the subject. The possibilities are too many for any decisions to be easily made. We can for example here summarize ideas and suggestions as to what 42 glyphs should be expelled from line a1:
The 2nd alternative is not good, because Aa1-1 should not be counted (unless we have misunderstood something). Furthermore, the subject of the glyph sequence is the cycles of the sun. Shouldn't the 42 glyphs picked out be 'black'? The 3rd alternative is thereby also doubtful, when the subject is the sun the glyphs (in general) cannot be 'black'. Even in the 4th alternative (containing the day calendar) we cannot consider the glyphs to be 'black' all over. The 3 glyphs of the X-area and the 6 at the end (9 together) is just part of the story. The 1st alternative is certainly also defect in the respect that not all its glyphs are 'black'. A continous sequence of so many as 42 glyphs will probably never be completely 'black'. How do we know that we should search for 42 consecutive glyphs? Maybe we should search for a dispersed triplet of sequences with 14 glyphs. How do we know for sure that the glyphs must be 'black'. There may be quite other motivations behind 664 and 670 than we have so far imagined. Even 314 is uncertain. It may mean 3 * 14 = 42. |
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