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TRANSLATIONS
Barthel has an answer to the question of why 3 and not 4: "... By going back to adjacent Polynesian idioms, as wordplays for topographic features of the area of the landing site. 'Pure O' permits a wordplay with MAO. pūreo (i.e., purero 'that which sticks out of the water'), 'Pure Ki' with MAO. pureki (i.e., pūrei 'an isolated rock'), while 'Pure Vanangananga' brings to mind TUA. vanavana 'protuberance'; TAH. vanavana 'rough, ragged'. Put differently, the names of the three ghostly emissaries, which are actually forms of prayer, point to tangible objects in the environment, such as the cliffs and reefs in the water of the bay, which may have caused the damage done to the stone figure of the ancestor. The accident must have occured where the otherwise sandy beach of the landing site is bordered by rocky promontories or where sections of the reef jut out of the water. If in our version 'Pure O' is said to have used a pureva (i.e., a large round stone) to sever the head of the stone figure, this must be a wordplay, intended to bring about the fourth pure association, which would complete the 'pure tetrade' of spirits living in Vai Hū. Separating pureva into pure va indicates noisy talk (compare especially HAW. wā) or loud laughter (TON., UVE. vā), both forms of expression that have very little in common with 'prayer' and may instead indicate the failure of the undertaking. 'Pure Va' is, in this case, the opposite of 'Pure Henguingui'." (Barthel 2) Now it becomes obvious why we should count 3 + 1 = 4:
Metoro affirms that the right part of Aa1-15 is king (ariki). His kua tuu is explained by:
I.e., kua presumably means 'and company' (= the 4 ghostly emissions from the old king), while the king himself probably is designated by tu'u to indicate that he has 'arrived' (to his point of departure - from whence he originated he shall disappear). 'The hen roosts', kua tau te moa, is another way to translate the situation. She does not move for a while and it is night. Apparently there is an association between moa and the sun. When sun at solstice takes a rest it is as if he has reached a station where he has anchored. The anchor (tau) certainly was a stone (tau). A hen who roosts (tau) has 'anchored' (tau). Orion's Belt is Tautoru (three stones) according to Van Tilburg. Are they maybe the 3 spooky 'emmissions' of Hotu Matua? Earlier we have identified the three 'eggs' Motu Nui, Motu Iti and Motu Kaukau.as marking the beginning: '... like the three great pyramids are placed not exactly in a straight line but their locations adjusted to the Belt of Orion: In Nilsson's book I found many strange pieces of information, e.g.: 'Among the Nahyssan of S. Carolina time was measured and a rude chronology arranged by means of strings of leather with knots of various colour, like the Peruvian quipos. The Dakota use a circle as the symbol of time, a smaller one for a year and a larger one for a longer period: the circles are arranged in rows, thus: OOO or O-O-O. The Pima of Arizona make use of a tally. The year-mark is a deep notch across the stick...' About the Ibo-speaking tribes' in Africa: ...they seem to be singularly incurious about heavenly bodies and occurrences; however names were got for the following constellations: - The Pleiades ('Hen and Chicken'), the belt of Orion ('Three and Three')... But Tautoru is the belt of Orion. 'Three and Three' is more like the Pleiades, Tauono. I guess that first was the belt of Orion named Tautoru and after that the Pleiades were named Tauono. Even the three great pyramids in Gizeh were connected with the belt of Orion, as shown by their locations in relation to each other on the ground. The concept of two 'years', summer and winter, could then result in the belt of Orion being seen as a mark between those two 'years'. Moving then to the idea of three double months in each such 'year', they could identify the belt of Orion with a 'year'. And as the last step in this logic the Pleiades - about two thousand years later when the equinoxes had moved away from Orion – would have taken over the role of mark between the two half-years of three double-months. And we then have Tauono. so the three islets outside Orongo may have influenced the creator of Ga3-17 to reflect a somewhat assymetric design ...'
Metoro's marai we have earlier tentatively understood as the fertile flat sacred ground 'in front' (of the new year):
Marae could be mara (the Viti burying place) + é, or it could be ma + ra'e as Churchill suggests.
Metoro's mara-i indicates that possibly marae primarily is to be understood as mara-é (rather than as ma-ra'e). Vanaga refers from mara to mamara:
Our quest here has a node from which innumerable associations lead in all directions and we must stop. However, before that we should recall the readings of Metoro at the beginning of the new year:
The word marama resembles mamara, though the meaning is opposite:
Whereas mamara seems to indicate the end state ('lead', 'swell up', 'sparkle', 'charcoal'), i.e. ma-mara where mara is to 'start rotting', 'land under tilth', mara-ma gives associations to the state of beginning ('light', 'brightness', 'intelligent'). By shifting ma from the beginning of mara to its end, presumably we should understand mara-ma as implying a continuation after mara:
The contrast between disappearance and reappearance, darkness and light, death and birth is tremendous. Yet, like at the turning of a coin, suddenly another shape is perceived. At the end (of the coin) there is a new beginning. The circular form should make us think. Some coins have a hole in their middle and some coins are not circular but square in form. The tying together of the two 'ends' of the 'strings of time' (maybe with differently coloured knots 'balls') is something for the women. Death and birth is their domain. Could the X-glyphs on Tahua once have been coloured? The nights before full moon were regarded as coloured according to Atan:
Atan has arranged the colours in the order white, pink, black and red (tea, mea, uri, hega). The order of things as a rule is securely anchored in human memory. Therefore we should rely on his order of the colours. At the time when sun is at his lowest (midwinter solstice) moon takes over and should be at her maximum (full moon). The coloured balls before full moon reasonably should 'spill over' to the colours before new year (i.e. onto the glyphs of the X-area). The X-area is outside the domain of the sun, a period of disorder when the elements are in upheaval ('... the waves broke, the wind blew, the rain fell, the thunder rolled, and a meteorite fell on this land ...') The 3 + 1 glyphs may represent 3 ghostly and 1 'real' (living) nights (all 4 being 'emissions' of Hotu Matua):
365¼ - 3¼ = 362, a number divisible neither by 3 nor 4. 181 is a prime number. Possibly the nights of the quarters were arranged harmoniously in the order 91 + 90 + 91 + 90 (or as 90 + 91 + 90 + 91). 13 * 28 = 364 and that number does not fit. Or does it? Maybe the 'leg' (vae) in Aa1-15 should be counted as 1 (and the moa as ¼). In Aa1-13 there are 4 'beams' of light (like spooks - or spikes - in a wheel). "spike ... A. ear of corn ... inflorescence of sessile flowers on a long axis ... B. lavender ... L. spīca ... rel. to spīna spine." (English Etymology) "lave ... wash, bathe; pour out ... refresh ..." (English Etymology) Probably we should understand GD18 (niu) as the upside down 'king' (ariki, GD63) of light (Tane):
'... One detail which is iconographically of interest is whether the god responsible for separating Earth and Sky did so by raising the Sky with his upraised arms and hands, as in Tahiti and elsewhere, or with his feet as in New Zealand ...' (Van Tilburg) The question can now be answered: he used his 'feet' (summer power). The ariki (GD63) is standing on top of the events of all 4 'directions' of his kingdom. He symbolizes 'reality' in full force, whereas his upside down image (GD18) has only 'spooky' power. The open ends of the 'quartet' on top is contrasted with the firmly closed ends of the 'quartet' at bottom. The 4 directions in Aa1-13 probably are ordered from left bottom and clockwise, i.e. with the colours white (the colour of the moon), pink (the colour of premidsummer sun), black (when Kuukuu the planter 'dies') and red (the colour of blood). The top spooky 'branches' represent summer (life of sun on land). We should compare with the tôa-glyphs (GD47) where probably the top Y represents the spooky image of daytime:
If we regard the living 'king' (GD63) then the order of his 4 cardinal directives should be from top right clockwise: white, pink, black and red. The bottom 'branches' represent summer (life of sun on land). Affirmation is seen in the length of the spooky top two branches (corresponding to the real bottom ones in GD63) - longer 'branches' tell about more light. In Aa1-14 (GD21, poporo) we have a message of darkness: '... This plant is - according to bishop Jaussen's documentations of what Metoro Tau'a Ure told him - one species of the interesting family of plants named Solanum. It was used for obtaining colour for tattooing. There are though several different variants of glyphs showing this plant, and possibly not all of these imply colour for tattooing. Every gift from nature was taken care of to the utmost. Barthel suggests the plant to be Solanum nigrum. As nigrum means black, the glyph perhaps was used for 'black'. Barthel points out that on the Marquesas they counted the fruits from the breadfruit trees in fours, perhaps thereby explaining the four 'berries' in this type of glyph. The breadfruit did not grow on Easter Island and the berries of Solanum nigrum were eaten in times of famine. Barthel also informs us that the Maori singers in New Zealand, where the breadfruit did not grow, 'translated' kuru (= breadfruit) in the old songs, from the times when their forefathers lived in a warmer climate, into poporo (= Solanum nigrum). Barthel further compares with the word koporo on Mangareva. The poor crop of breadfruits at the end of the harvest season was called mei-koporo, where mei stood for breadfruit. On other islands breadfruit was called kuru, except on the Marquesas which also used the word mei. Koporo was a species of nightshade ...' The black (nigrum) poporo was appropriately called kuru ('head') in New Zealand, because the 'head' ('nut' of the new year) is planted at the time of maximum darkness. The two 'cut' marks across the 'throat' of 'Kuukuu' in Aa1-11may allude to tattooing (the poporo time soon to arrive):
However, there are only 3 'berries' in Aa1-14 (an unusual feature for GD19 and certainly indended as a sign). The shape of GD19 is like a canoe (seen from above) and I think we should understand the 3 'berries' as being outside the 'canoe' of life (in the sun). One 'berry', though, has potential, being stored at the bottom of the 'canoe', We may colour the 'berries' in Aa1-14 so that the one at bottom with potential to come alive is white. Obviously his place before that was at bottom left (outside the 'canoe'). The 3 'berries' left outside are not due to come alive now, but maybe later in the order clockwise from left: pink, black and red. The colours do not agree exactly with the earlier ideas. Barthel 2: ...The dark brown tern with a round tail is called tuao. It belongs to a group of four birds, mentioned together in a recitation in the following order (Barthel 1960:854):
The order appears to correspond to a color scheme, which in turn may refer to the cardinal points of direction:
The order mea, uri, kura? and toua is the same as Atan's tea, mea, uri, hega, though with a different starting point: when sun arrives on land instead of at new year. The question mark after kura was well used, because Atan had hega instead of kura. The yellow-beaked albatross (kukuru toua) is also an item which Barthel has noted with a question mark. Here his hesitation is due to which species of bird is meant. But the colour should be white (tea) according to Atan.
The 'soft, fibrous part of tree bark' fits - I guess - with the time of new year, when the twinning together of old and new must be accomplished by the women. As to the difference between kura and hega:
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