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To continue with Polynesian navigation by stars:

"In 1865 Kamakau recorded the Instructions in Ancient Hawaiian Astronomy as Taught by Kaneakahowaha, Astronomer, Seer, and Counselor of the Court of King Kamehameha I from which the following extract was taken:

Take the lower part of a gourd or hula drum, rounded as a wheel (globe), on which several lines are to be marked and burned in, as described hereafter. These lines are called na alanui o na hoku hookele, the highways of the navigation stars, which stars are also called na hoku ai-aina, the stars which rule the land.

Stars lying outside these three lines are called na hoku a ka lewa, foreign, strange, or outside stars.

The first line is drawn from Hoku-paa, the fixed or North Star, to the most southerly star of Newe, the Southern Cross. (This hour circle coincides with the meridian on an evening in June, when it would divide the visible sky into halves.)

The portion (of the sky) to the right or east of this line (the observer is evidently assumed to be facing north) is called ke ala ula a Kane, the dawning or bright road of Kane, and that to the left or west is called ke alanui maawe ula a Kanaloa, the much-traveled highway of Kanaloa. (Kane and Kanaloa were important gods in the Polynesian pantheon, Kane being associated with light, Kanaloa with darkness.)

Then three lines are drawn east and west, one across the northern section indicates the northern limit of the Sun (corresponding with the Tropic of Cancer) about the 15th and 16th days of the month Kaulua (i.e., the 21st or 22nd of June) and is called ka alanui polohiwa a Kane, the black-shining road of Kane.

The line across the southern section indicates the southern limit of the Sun about the 15th or 16th days of the month Hilinama (December 22) and is called ke alanui polohiwa a Kanaloa, the black-shining road of Kanaloa.

The line exactly around the middle of the sphere is called ke alanui a ke ku'uku'u, the road of the spider, and also ke alanui i ka Piko a Wakea, the way to the navel of Wakea (the Sky-father).

Between these lines are the fixed stars of the various lands, na hokupaa a ka aina. (These are the stars which hang suspended in the zeniths of the Polynesian islands most of which lie within the tropics.) On the sides are the stars by which one navigates." (Makemson)

We should remember that there is a vertical straight line at noon too (Ha6-3):

'... The Hawaiians placed a pillar (kukulu) at the four corners of the earth after Egyptian fashion; while the Maori and Moriori considered a single great central pillar as sufficient to hold up the heavens ...'

Pillars, stars and pits (rua) are the same. I guess that Makemson's kukulu is derived from ku'u-lua.

Stars in the tropics (na hokupaa a ka aina) mark zenith for islands in Polynesia, while stars 'on the sides' are used for navigation.

The navigation stars were called na hoku ai-aina, 'the stars which rule the land'. Hawaiian aina must surely correspond to kaiga (land etc), the sound 'k' having disappeard in the Hawaiian language.

Consequently we should understand Hawaiian ai to be equal to kai ('eat' etc).

As Hawaiian hoku means 'star', ga hotu kai-kaiga could be 'navigation star' translated into Rapanui. (Hawaiian 'k' corresponds to Rapanui 't').

A navigation star seems to take possession of the land - as I imagine is the meaning of kai-kaiga ('consumes land') - and a navigation star is therefore similar to a Stranger King arriving by sea to take possession of the island.

The zenith stars have a name which ends similarly: na hokupaa a ka aina. But ka aina is not the same as ai-aina. The definite singular article sometimes is ka (and sometimes ke) in Hawaiian.

It is interesting to find that Hoku (Hotu) means star. Is Hotu Matu'a a star? I remember that full moon (Omotohi) was called Hotu according to Métraux:

 

In the Atan list we find coloured balls (popo) in the order white, pink, black and red. 4 coloured balls followed by 'the sun-plant' (he raakau - i.e. rakau changed into, I guess, Ra'akau), amazingly similar to an American X-mas tree.

X-mas and X-area of course are related subjects:

"The first tree is the silver fir, a female tree with leaves closely resembling the yew's, sacred in Greece to Artemis the Moon-goddess who presided over childbirth, and the prime birth-tree of Northern Europe, familiar in the Nativity context. In Orkney, according to Roger's Social Life in Scotland, mother and child are 'sained' soon after delivery with a flaming fir-candle whirled three times round the bed. It is remarkable that ailm [silver fir], in Old Irish, also stood for the palm, a tree not native to Ireland (though it grew well on my grandfather's estate in Co. Kerry). The palm, the birth-tree of Egypt, Babylonia, Arabia and Phoenicia, gives its name phoenix ('bloody') to Phoenicia, which formerly covered the whole Eastern Mediterranean, and to the Phoenix which is born and reborn in a palm. Its poetic connexion with birth is that the sea is the Universal Mother and that the palm thrives close to the sea in sandy soil heavily charged with salt; without salt at its roots a young palm remains stunted. The palm is the Tree of Life in the Babylonian Garden of Eden story. Its Hebrew name is 'Tamar' - Tamar was the Hebrew equivalent of the Great Goddess Istar or Ashtaroth; and the Arabians adorned the palm of Nejran as a goddess, annually draping it with women's clothes and ornaments ... But the silver fir, which also likes sandy soil and sea breezes, is as old a birth-tree as the palm, being the tree under which the God of Byblos was born: the prototype of the pre-dynastic Osiris of Egypt." (The White Goddess)

Red (kura, ula) is the colour of both east and west according to Kamakau:

'The portion (of the sky) to the right or east of this line ... is called ke ala ula a Kane, the dawning or bright road of Kane, and that to the left or west is called ke alanui maawe ula a Kanaloa, the much-traveled highway of Kanaloa ...'

 

In contrast north and south are 'shining black' (poro hiva, polo hiwa):

'Then three lines are drawn east and west, one across the northern section indicates the northern limit of the Sun (corresponding with the Tropic of Cancer) about the 15th and 16th days of the month Kaulua (i.e., the 21st or 22nd of June) and is called ka alanui polohiwa a Kane, the black-shining road of Kane.

The line across the southern section indicates the southern limit of the Sun about the 15th or 16th days of the month Hilinama (December 22) and is called ke alanui polohiwa a Kanaloa, the black-shining road of Kanaloa ...'

The red colour reminds me of Tavake:

'The Red-tailed Tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda, is a seabird that nests across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the rarest of the tropicbirds, yet is still a widespread bird that is not considered threatened. It nests in colonies on oceanic islands. The Red-tailed Tropicbird looks like a stout tern, and hence closely resembles the other two tropicbird species. It has generally white plumage, often with a pink tinge, a black crescent around the eye and a thin red tail feather. It has a bright red bill and black feet ...'

Could the 'pink ball' (he popo mea) refer to a Tavake egg: '... white plumage, often with a pink tinge ...'

Are, maybe, the balls in the 'X-mas tree' symbols for the hua of next generation?