A	H	P

Hau = Thread, line, string, ribbon; this is the name of the fibres of the hauhau tree formerly used to make twine, cloth, etc.; hau kahi, fishing line for tuna; hau here, line for eel trap; hau moroki, strong, tough line, thread; hau paka, fibres of the hauhau tree, which were first soaked in water, then dried to produce a strong thread. Ha'u = Hat. Vanaga. Hau. 1. Hibiscus. 2. Wick. 2. To contribute. 3. Hat, cap, helmet; hakarere ki te hau, to take off the hat; hauvaero, plume, aigrette, head ornament; hauvarikapau, plume, aigrette, head ornament. 4. Dew; hakaritorito ki te hau, to bleach in the dew. 5. To blow freshly, coolness, zephyr, salubrious, breeze, wind (hahau, ahau); kona hauhau, kona hahau, a breezy spot; ahau ora, agreeable breeze; hakahahau, to hang out in the air; hakaahau, to blow. Churchill. Hat, cord; the tree Triumfetta semitriloba. Van Tilburg. T. The tree Hibiscus tiliacus. Henry. Pau.: Hau, superior, kingdom, to rule. Mgv.: hau, respect. Ta.: hau, government. Mq.: hau, id. Sa.: sauā, despotic. Ma.: hau, superior. Churchill. Hauhau. A tree (Triumfetta semitriloba). Vanaga. 1. Dog (onomatopoetic). 2. To scratch, to scrape, to rub. 3. Wood used in plowing fire. 4. = hau 5. Churchill.

The fibres for lashing the planks of the sun canoe tightly together should be bleached (hakateatea) into brilliant white (tea), but 'first soaked in water, then dried to produce a strong thread'.

In the description of Sunday according to H:

we can in Hb9-18 see a canoe (asymmetric and more convex at right - perhaps meaning a 'night time canoe'). I have earlier guessed that the canoe is a kind of symbol for 'vai ora a Tane', the living water of Tane (meaning 'health' etc):

The 'living water of Tane' (vai ora a Tane), meaning in some way the life- and healthgiving force of the sun rays, seems to be a strange concept. That sun is necessary for life is no problem to accept as a useful idea, but why confuse things by mixing this concept with water? Water (at least sweet water) is also needed for life and health. And such water is delivered from above, presumably by the sun.

The sun may obtain his water from somewhere below the earth, where there surely is water enough. Water always moves downwards. To my mind comes the constellation Amphora, ruling during the winter months in old Babylonia, probably the origin of our Aquarius, the water-carrier. The sign of Aquarius is frozen in time and has not moved together with the constellation, which nowadays is to be found a quarter of a circle away from the winter months (north of the equator).

Had there been people on Easter Island at the time when the constellation Aquarius ruled the winter months north of the equator, then Aquarius would have occupied their summer months. For the creators of the rongorongo day calendars the memory of Aquarius ruling the watery regions of the dark winter must have survived (not only the timetravel from old Babylonia but also a movement across the equator). Maybe the ultimate origin of the tôa glyph type is a picture of an amphora?

In Hb9-19 I earlier - hesitantly - saw a parallel with the mummified Osiris:

This is probably a picture of a person hanging upside down. Normally we would then euphemistically call him 'fish' (ika), i.e. a victim bound up in a tree and soon to be offered to the Gods (and potentially also to be made into food for the victorius).

But I doubt that this is the correct interpretation in this instance, in part because there is a sign included: The corpse is not hanging as it should, i.e. straight down. Instead it looks more like a bound up body floating on the surface of the sea. However, it might be too imaginative to compare it to the coffin of Osiris in the Egyptian myth.

These two earlier guesses did not quite fit together. How come that the dry stage appears after the wet one? Now we have the (or one) answer: 'first soaked in water, then dried to produce a strong thread'.

The canoe names Oraora Miro and Oraorangaru has not so far been thoroughly investigated. What does double ora fundamentally means? Furthermore: garu does not really mean a wedge, rather the water below the canoe. From where did Barthel obtain his translation 'that which parts the water like a wedge'?

Garu Surfing. Garuru, to feel dizzy, seasick; to have a sudden headache: he garuru te puoko. Vanaga. 1. To swim over the waves (see aruaru 2). P Mgv.: garu, foam, froth. Mq.: kaú, naútai, wave, billow. Pau.: puhi-garu, a bubble of water. In aruaru 2 is found another galu derivative. The sense of this garu is nowhere else encountered; the stem means simply the waves and involves no idea of swimming. We note, however, the Viti galo to swim; un uncertain identification. 2. Garu hoa, a friend of either sex. PS Sa.: galu, an number of young persons (galu teine, galu taulele'a). To.: ? gauta, many in number. Data fail for the comparison. The plural sense of the Samoan does not appear in Rapanui. The Tongan form involves the rather infrequent loss of an inner l and leaves the latter element ta unexplained. Garuru, headache, vertigo; puoko garuru, migraine. P Mgv.: garuru, nausea that persists. Mq.: naúú, kaúú, headache, migraine. Churchill.

If I use my own Polynesian dictionary in this site and search for 'wedge' I can at present find only one item:

Ava, áva-áva 1. To remain (of dregs, of very small objects in the water or in a place which used to be full of water); he-ava, he-paroparoko, expression, said when small fishes swarm in the water holes along the coast. 2. Furrow, rut, groove, crevice, fissure; he-hahata te ava o te henua, a crevice opened in the ground. 3. To strike, to hit; to sound like a blow; ku-ava-á te poko (see also hatutiri), thunder sounded. Vanaga. Áva-áva. 1. To lift up. 2. to strike, to hit repeatedly; he-áva-áva i te koreha a ruga a te ma'ea, he struck the eel several times against a stone (to kill it). Vanaga. 1. a) Distance, distant; ava poto, a short distance. b) Space, interval. PS Mq.: ava, distance, space, interval. Ta.: ava, interval. The simpler form of the root is va, which is not found in Rapanui and Marquesan, and in Tahiti is narrowly restricted to the spacing of thatch, but in Nuclear Polynesia and in the Tongafiti migration [va] is expressive of the sense of distance and interval. In Samoa the same meaning is carried by an advanced form of the root, and ava in this sense is not found elsewhere. Its reappearance in these three languages of Southeast Polynesia points to a direct migration from Samoa. 2. Channel, strait, pass, passage, breach, entrance to a harbor. Avaava. 1. a) To strike, to slap, to grind, to dent. b) To correct, to maltreat, to exterminate. 2. Angle, chink. 3. Tobacco. In this nook of Polynesia tobacco and its common method of pleasurable use are alike imported. In Melanesia tobacco was indigenous but was employed for the business of medication and not to assuage the conditions of cannibal society. The leaves when fully grown were shredded, macerated and employed as a cataplasm. Applied upon the abdomen it was the principal agency in the production of emesis and catharsis. Applied secretly in axilla [arm-pit] it superinduced the ecstasy of the priest when in the trance of possession by his god. In Fiji it was used as an insecticide. Avahi, a wedge, to split; avahiga, part, partial; avahiga kore, inseparable. Avamouga (ava 1 - mouga 2), valley. Churchill.

This ava, however, is the negative wedge, the fissure in between, e.g. in avamouga (valley).

The daily cycle of the sun starts at midnight and at noon there is a kind of fissure, because there a.m. and p.m. must be lashed tightly together.The two periods can be symbolized as two wooden beams together meating at the prow of the canoe.

My early understanding of henua (GD37) as a symbol for a time-space period is still useful.

"He [Eric Thompson] established that one sign, very common in the codices where it appears affixed to main signs, can be read as 'te' or 'che', 'tree' or 'wood', and as a numerical classifier in counts of periods of time, such as years, months, or days.

In Yucatec, you cannot for instance say 'ox haab' for 'three years', but must say 'ox-te haab', 'three-te years'. In modern dictionaries 'te' also means 'tree', and this other meaning for the sign was confirmed when Thompson found it in compounds accompanying pictures of trees in the Dresden Codex." (Coe)

Maybe te in teka is the same word as Mayan te (che)?

The prow of the canoe should be noon and the stern should be midnight.

Some time ago I happened to switch on to a TV-channel where a program was running showing two men (father and son it was later revealed) who worked together standing on the sandbank of the river up to their waists in water. I was puzzled because they bailed water into their barge-like ship.

When the water inside had reach a level high enough they climbed on board and set sail. They sailed out through the mouth of the river and far out across the sea. Luckily the sea stayed fairly calm or they would have been in trouble because of all water inside the ship.

After several hours they reached their destination, a tiny island with a village where people were waiting. The ship delivered their important sweet water. People fetched water in all sorts of buckets, paying father and son for it. That was their way of living.

GD16 (vai ora)

could - by a long guess - be that kind of ship. Though the variant with a single perimeter

is not necessarily without water. The ways of illustrating 'planks lashed together':

should have taught us that the same concept may be expressed in different ways.

In Ha5-46

I guess we may have (under the two hulls) a representation of the two time-space 'beams' of the daily cycle, lashed together at midnight and at noon (in the same way as the planks of the two hulls floating above).

Taking away the two hulls we get (Pa8-45):

 The parallel glyphs, though, are quite different:

They are of the GD11 type and we may from this guess that there is a close association between GD11 (manu rere) and GD75 (vai) - usually with this appearance:

maybe because it delineates a (watery) mouth.

Where have (in Pa8-45) the 4 'leaves' of 'vai ora' (GD16) gone? One of them surely must have gone to the henua (GD14) at left. Probably the other three are there too, but engulfed. One is enough to show them all (pars pro toto).

Still we have not explained why Barthel was convinced that Oraora Ngaru could mean 'that which parts the water like a wedge'. I have not (yet) found any confirmation in my word lists of that translation.

 

Ora 1. Healthy; to recover, to be saved (from an illness or a danger): ku-ora-á, ina kai mate, he recovered, he did not die; ku-ora-á te haoa, the wound has healed; e-ora-no-á, he is still alive; ora-hakaou mai, to come back to life; ora ké, what a pleasant breeze! (lit: how healthy!). 2. Stick for spinning top (made from the shell of a sandalwood nut) with which children make the top spin. Vanaga. 1. December, January. Ora nui, November, October. 2. To live, to exist, to draw breath, to survive, to subsist, to be well, healthy, safe, to refresh, a pause, rest, ease; e ko ora, incurable; ora tuhai, previous existence; ora iho, to resuscitate, to revive; ora nui, vigorous; oraga, life, existence; oraga roaroa, oraga roaroa ke, oraga ina kai mou, immortality; oraga kore, lifeless; oraga mau, oraga ihoiho, vivacious; oraora, oraora no iti, to be better; hakaora, to draw breath, to revive, to strengthen, healthy, to sanctify, to animate, to save, to repose, to cure, to rest, to comfort, to assuage; hakaora ina kai mou, to immortalize; hakaoratagata, Messiah, Saviour. 3. To give water to; kua ora te kevare, to water a horse; hakaunu ora, to water. 4. To staunch, to stop the flow of a liquid. 5. To make an escape; hakaora, to discharge, to deliver, to set free. 6. To be awake (probably ara); hakaora to guard. 7. A zephyr, light wind; kona ora, a breezy spot; ahau ora, agreeable breeze. Churchill. Ola, life, health, well-being, living, livelihood, means of support, salvation; alive, living; curable, spared, recovered, healed; to live; to spare, save, heal, grant life, survive, thrive. Ola loa, long life, longevity, Ola 'ana, life, existence. Wehewehe.

Curiously Churchill seems to have ignored the Hawaiian language in his Easter Island book. Therefore I have now included Wehewehe as one of my reference sources.

 

Wehewehe 1. vt. To explain. Wehewehe 'ana, explanation, definition. 2. Redup. of wehe; to unsaddle or unharness, as a horse; to pull growing taro stalks slightly apart so as to strengthen the corn. 3. Name of a star (no data). Wehewehe.

To explain is to draw apart to let the light (of understanding) in, just as when Tane forced sky and earth apart.

The prow of a war canoe often had an elaborate ornament (rei muri) illustrating this forcing apart:

"Throughout Polynesia, elite lineages trace their ancestry to the gods. Among the Maori, tribal accounts of their history extend back to creation; these stories share similarities, and all are presented in art works, known as taonga, 'the treasures of the people'.

Appropriately, given the mana of war canoes, the stern and prow ornaments depicted central cultural themes in Maori cosmogony. Many prows depict the creation of earth and sky:

The openwork spirals on the main panel may represent the entry of light and knowledge into the world when the god Tane separated his parents Papatuanuku and Rangi, Earth Mother and Sky Father.

The foremost figure depicts a male with aggressively protruding tongue. He may represent Tūmatauenga, the god of war and man." (D'Alleva)

A canoe travelling like a dart on the surface of the sea, where at the distant horizon sky and sea merge together, may very well feel like a wedge forcing sky and earth apart. Therefore I feel inclined to accept Barthel's translation of the canoe name Oraorangaru as 'that which parts the water like a wedge'.

As already stated I have no access to any dictionary support for this translation, but in this instance that does not feel necessary.

New questions arise, of course. A canoe that speeds ahead on the surface of the sea like a wedge forcing sky and sea apart is one thing. But the creation myth talks about 'Earth Mother' and sky, not sea and sky. To force sky and earth apart is another thing. Or?

Yes, to really force the sky up (not just to have an illusion of doing it) a fixed point is needed - the rock foundation, i.e. Papa-tua-nuku.

Barthel was of the opinion that this type of glyph

stood for a woman:

"Am häufigsten tritt das Zeichen 200 [GD15, tagata] auf. Es gibt eine stehende Menschenfigur wieder, deren Enface-Kopf mit dreieckig oder schleifenförmig stilisierten Ohren dargestellt wird. Diese Gestalt mit dem Lautwert 'tangata' ist der Gundtyp fûr den Mann und für den Menschen schlechthin. Einzeln und zu mehreren, vereint mit geometrischen und zoomorphen Formen, ist das Zeichen auf allen Tafeln in zahlreichen Kombinationen belegt.

I think Barthel is confused here, because although what is illustrated indeed probably is the figure of a man, that does not necessarily imply that the meaning is 'a man' or 'mankind'. As we have seen the sun himself was depicted by GD15 at noon.

Often gods are imagined as looking as we do, but that may be because artists must use some familiar form to get their expressions understood. Artists certainly are aware of this fact, but the rest of the people tend to be deceived into thinking that what they see really is a picture of god. From this we can understand that in some cultures it is forbidden to make pictures of god.

As to 'schleifenförmig' (a word the meaning of which I had to check in my dictionary) the English language has two synonyms: 'in form of a loop' and 'in form of an eye'. It is interesting to find that loop-holes and eyes are so close together in our minds. The Polynesians associated 'eye' with 'sun' and therefore put wooden plugs into their earlobes.

Das begriffliche Gegenstück bildet der Zeichentyp 530 [see above]. Bei ihm wird nur das eine Ohr wiedergegeben, während fûr das andere drei kurze Parallelstriche eintreten.

Metoro erklärt mehrere Vorkommen auf der Tafel 'Tahua' mit 'ahine poopouo', und Jaussen übersetzt in seiner Liste 'vie poko pouo' als 'femme coiffée'.

Eine Ähnlichkeit mit dem geflochtenen Frauenhut ist jedoch nicht zu entdecken. Stattdessen dürften sich die graphischen Besonderheiten auf eine bestimmte über das Ohr reichende Haartracht beziehen. Tatsächlich trugen auf der Osterinsel die Frauen tief in den Nacken fallendes Haar. Der Haarschopf scheint demnach den zugehörigen Körper als weiblich charakterisiert zu haben."

I do not interpret GD15 as necessarily to mean 'a man' (or 'men' or 'mankind'), therefore I do not equate the type of glyph which has one ear hidden by a strange hairdo to mean 'woman' (or 'women' or 'womankind').

Instead I think we should compare the hairdo with the hand sign in GD52 (kai):

Fingers indicate 'fire' and 'light'. Maybe the strange hairdo means blond hair?

According to Barthel there was a tradition on Mangareva that the mother of the war god Tu was Haumea. This fact Barthel combines with a sequence of glyphs on the Santiago Staff: 'Es handelt sich darin um die Personifizierung des 'ha'u'-Symbols, um eine weibliche Gestalt und um die einäugiger Figur, welche beide Armen erhebt.'

The glyphs in question look like this (I11-136 -- 138):

But if Barthel is right and we should see a woman in this type of glyph, then the sign for growing in a.m. sun, e.g. in Ha5-56

ought to imply 'woman', whích would increase the strength of my argument about this light for growing: that it is received from the moon (in return for services given during the other half of the day).

Papatuanuku is a woman and to lift up the sky Tane needed her as a fixed point.