The Gilbert Islanders had a month which stretched for 20 nights, no further. We in the Western Civilization quickly could say that it was because they couldn't count beyond the number of fingers and toes. Nothing could be more wrong, they certainly were expert counters.

So why did they not count beyond 20? I think the extremely ancient picture of time was that light ended abruptly, when sun, moon, stars reached the horizon (Mother Earth). Experience told life (light) ends abruptly.

Therefore it was hard to accept the fact that the light of moon gradually faded away. Moon was the image of life, connected with the tides and nearly every aspect of what moved.

Therefore the light of moon had to be quickly terminated at some point beyond full moon. 20 was a natural choice.

The pattern of the calendars for the sun (day, year) was influenced by the pattern of the older calendar for the moon, and that in turn depended on the even older perceived structure of life (light):

Here time I have shown time flowing from right to left, in the opposite direction of the solar view. It is not a matter of cause and effect. Experience is looking backwards, not into the unseen future.

What came first, hen or egg? An impossible question to answer if we think in terms of cause and effect. Equally impossible to answer as the question if noon comes before midnight or the opposite.

If we use the ancient perspective, on the other hand, the biological (Aristotelian) view would answer by looking at what is 'at hand' (Heidegger's term, and it is interesting to reflect on how all his thinking was built on the perspective of the coming individual death.). If the egg grew up to be a cock then the hen must have come first. Quite certain.

If the hen for some reason failed to produce an egg, then the egg must have come first. No question about it.

If the hen produced an egg which turned into a new hen, then hens were needed, but not cocks. The egg for producing a hen of course must come before the necessary hen.

The final purpose explains what has happened.

Let us move on:

"Hau Maka told about his dream: 'I was sleeping, and this is what happened: My dream soul moved on, and, through the power of her mana, my dream soul reached seven lands, which were lying in the midst of a dim twilight. My dream soul looked around searchingly, but these lands were not very good at all.

In the midst of dim twilight there is Te Pei, the residence. Not even eight groups of people (i.e., countless boat crews) can find the small piece (of land?) again once it has been lost. But one can take possession of the eighth land: (It lies) 'on high', (it) juts out (on the horizon), and its contours stand out against the (rising) sun (i.e., in the east).

My dream soul surveyed the land carefully and (also) gave it a name. Likewise, the future residence of the king and all other (places) were named. The name (ingoa nui) for the whole land is 'Te Pito O Te Kainga A Hau Maka'." (Manuscript E according to Barthel 2)

I think we no longer can fully rely on the translations of Barthel - we have moved on into another terrain. But it would take too much time to start from the original Manuscript E text. Instead we must continue as before, sometimes diving down into the Polynesian wordplays.

One of my impressions from the cited text is that the 8th land in some way is equal to Poike.

Then we have Te Pei, which we have so far only regarded as one of the many kuhane stations. Here it is prented as pars pro toto, representing the Residence.

Pei Grooves, still visible on the steep slopes of some hills, anciently used as toboggans. People used to slide down them seated on banana-tree barks. This pastime, very popular, was called pei-âmo. Vanaga. Like, as; pei ra, thus, like that; such, the same as; pei na, thus, like that; pei ra ta matou, proverb; pei ra hoki, likeness, similitude; pei ra tau, system; pei ra hoki ta matou, usage. PS Sa.: pei, thus. This is particuarly interesting as preserving one of the primordial speech elements. It is a composite, pe as, and i as demonstrative expressive of that which is within sight; therefore the locution signifies clearly as-this. Churchill.

Remarkably, I find a reasonable translation of Te Pei to be 'what is at hand'. I did not remember it was so, but subconsciously I must have known. That which is within sight is only a slightly larger perspective - with no difference in meaning to what Heidegger meant:

The grooves lead, and it is all predestined.

"Routledge is the first one to mention specifically the visionary Hau Maka:

Now there was on one of the islands (i.e., Marae Renga or Marae Tohio) a certain Haumaka, who had tattooed Hotu, and received from him in return a present of mother-of-pearl which had been given to Hotu's father by an individual called Tuhu-patoea.

Tuhu had seen that the men who went down to get pearls were eaten by a big fish, so he invented a net by which the precious shell could be obtained without risk, and the pearl so procured he had presented to his chief, Ko Riri.

This man, Haumaka, had a dream, and during it his spirit went to a far country, and when he awoke he told his six men whose names are given, to go and seek for it; they were to look for a land where there were three islets and a big hole, also a long and beutiful road. (RM:277-278)

Another description of Hau Maka is given by Brown who received his information from Juan Tepano in 1922:

... the king of Marae Renga, called Haumaka, had a similar dream (moe mata) descriptive of the islet which Hotu Matua was to make for and of the bay where he should land. When he awoke he sent off six men ... to spy out the land for the great pioneer ... (Brown 1924:40)

TP:23 also shows that Hau Maka must have held a high rank (Ko Hau Maka, Ariki). However, he did not have the same position as Hotu Matua himself, who called him 'little king' (ariki iti) and gave him instructions (E:14).

The unique relationship between Hau Maka and Hotu Matua is obviously based on the tattooing that had taken place. If one draws on the customs of other Polynesian islands for comparison, the Marquesans come to mind, among whom tattooing was the prerogative of the son of the chief.

The tattoo master had the right to demand a handsome reward, such as a precious headdress (von den Steinen 1925:59 ff., 85). In the homeland of the emigrants, the reward consisted of a mother-of-pearl ornament, which was handed over to the tattoo master by the father of the tattooed [i.e., by the father of Hotu Matua to Haumaka].

The precious object that was the generous reward for the tattoos of Hotu Matua has its own special history. Short segments from two native manuscripts can be used to support the statement made by Routledge:

We seem to be dealing with a recitation or perhaps even the magic incantation of a master in charge of the nets.

Tu'u Pato Eo, as the name can be reconstructed from all three versions, means 'the diver of the ornament of the tall youth'.

His invention is the net called hura (HM:443 'una red [net] pequeña en forma de embudo que se amarra en la punta de un palo'; ME 185 incorrectly kupenga ura).

The master of the nets boasts how the net works for him: 'the fish nibbles on the bait', tito; 'the fish pulls more vigourously', tongi; 'the fish is caught', ma'u.

I am not familiar with the following four names, but perhaps it is no coincidence that in TUA. ene (definition 1) means 'to make a fish net'.

At any rate, the extent to which Ms. E and Ms. F agree leads one to believe that Routledge's information, which was published in only a drastically shortened version, represents genuine knowledge of the past, which the 'old ones' [korohua] had retained." (Barthel 2)

The chief Ko Riri, who was presented with the pearl obtained by Tuhu-patoea using his wonderful net, could be Hotu Matua. It is not clear if Ko Riri is another person or not.

My attention was drawn to Ko Riri because it seems to be a shorter version of Atua Mata Riri.

... The location is at 'noon', or midsummer in the solar cycle for the year. And I saw the possibility of the 'peculiar eyes' representing Atuamata (or Atua Mata Riri or Te Riri Tuu Kura):

The men who went down were eaten by a big fish. The spring sun is like a voracious fish.

... Tu'u Pato Eo, as the name can be reconstructed from all three versions, means 'the diver of the ornament of the tall youth' ...

The tall youth ought to be the 'midsummer person' (tagata):

We are on the verge of a great mythic theme, how the sun (boat) is caught in a net:

As illustrated in the ancient Egyptian picture the net is used at dawn. There is, though, not just one sun person but many. One of them is the spring sun and he cannot go beyond midsummer. He must be stopped by a net, like all other sun persons.