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TRANSLATIONS
We have found that whereas the central 20 glyphs on side a of H could be identified by a kind of beginning and end markers in form of GD42 (vae kore) glyphs (Ha6-120 and Ha6-139)
the central 20 glyphs on side b did not have such signs, they were identified by counting (as in truth also those on side a were). Ideas about vae kore glyphs, as documented in my glyph dictionary, have so far been that they mark 'beginning' (little chicks). The pair above is no counter example. GD42 with head turned backwards may be understood as the mirror image of 'beginning' (i.e. 'end'). Heads turned backwards we saw also in Hb6-52 and in the very complex glyph Hb7-14:
Hb6-52 (with 'cosmic' numbers) is the 20th glyph counted from Hb6-33:
Hb6-35, with living henua and rima, follows after the two toga signs, and the 'barren hand' (Y) is held high in Hb6-52 as if to announce the character of the period which is 'finished' there. Bb12-40, one of the two glyphs in parallel with Hb7-14, also looks backwards and it belongs to the vae kore category:
But there seems to be a continuation between Hb7-14 and the following glyphs, therefore there should not be any looking backwards at this point. The sequence Rb8-18--14 is parallel to Hb7-7--13, and the following glyphs, Rb8-15 etc, are not similar to Hb7-14 etc:
The double mauga (?) and rima (Rb8-16--17) are similar to (though 'living') the 'dead' Hb6-33--34. Possibly we should read Rb8-15--17 together with the preceding 7 glyphs (Rb8-8--14), which together will constitute a group with 10 glyphs.
Notice how Bb12-44, with a separately drawn oval as the top of mauga, looks similar to the rightmost part of Hb7-14, probably a sign that the glyph sequences really are in parallel and that there is a continuation forward beyond Hb7-14. To investigate why Bb12-40 and a part of Hb7-14 is looking backwards it is necessary to study the glyphs in B which arrive earlier. We then will discover the reason, though the complexities become more severe:
By comparing Bb12-37--43 with Pb8-48--53 (Pb8-47 seems to be without parallel in B) it becomes possible to interpret the backwards looking Bb12-40 as a way to 'echo' Bb12-36, and that way making it clear that Bb12-37--40 is a subset of glyphs. At the same time the comparison between Bb12-37--43 with Pb8-48--53 makes it evident that in P there is 'life', whereas in B there is 'death' (see for instance toa at Bb12-38 and the open-ended legs in Bb12-42). Consequently the sequences of glyphs are not parallel more than superficially so. Instead they are contrasts. We must keep this in mind when we try to consolidate the structure in Tahua by comparing it with what we can see in other texts. The 20 central glyphs on side b of H can be subdivided into three groups (7 + 6 + 7 = 20 glyphs):
The first group (Hb7-7--13) can be put in parallel with Rb8-8--14 and the second group (Hb7-14--19) with a text at the end of side b on B. Line Rb8 is not the last but the next to last line on side b. Yet we notice how the two external parallels come at the end in B respectively close to the end in R, they are not located centrally. We have found the reason - what we at first assumed to be parallel glyphs are in reality, at closer examination, 'counter-parallel', they show the opposite season. While Bb12-37--43 easily can be read as representing a situation of 'death' (winter, night etc) the counter-parallel glyphs Hb7-14--18 surely are to be read as 'life' (summer, day etc). From this position of new enlightenment it is not surprising to find how Hb7-7--13 counter-parallels Rb8-8--14:
The first 7-group in H (Hb7-7--13) exhibits 'death', while the second group (Hb7-14--19) shows 'life'. As if to underline this fact we count 6 glyphs in the second group - the number of the sun. 7 is the number of the moon. The third group (Hb7-20--26), with 7 glyphs, then ought to reverse the situation again and present glyphs with 'death' signs:
Indeed that is true, with three maro - and Y at Hb7-24 - we must read 'finished'. 3 * 4 = 12 maro feathers may indicate the end of a 12-period 'year'. We can count to 6 feathers at the top (GD19, hau) of the running person in Hb7-24. The hau in Hb7-20 seems to have 10 feathers, possibly with yet another at left bottom, which could represent the months beyond the 10th. Another guess is that the one at bottom in Hb7-20 is making the sign Y, an interpretation which should change the number from 6 to 5 in Hb7-24 (because also there we find such a Y). There are GD63 (ariki) glyphs which exhibit Y at the end of the hau headgear, for example Cb11-11 and Cb13-1:
3 'balls' at left (i.e. the past) in Hb7-21 presumably tells about 3 double-months being ended there. If so, then the 5 following glyphs (Hb7-22-26) could represent the 5 dark nights between the end of the old solar 'year' and the beginning of the new. In Hb7-25 the old (left) head is transformed into a 'giving' (away) hand, presumably to help the new (head at right) 'year'. Hb7-22, an en face person, should be located at a cardinal top point (no more growing, not yet going down, not moving, standing still as if dead). |
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