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TRANSLATIONS
Nets were constructed - I think - very early, presumably even before fire was harnessed. Nets can ensnare any powerful creature. In the rongorongo texts I have not seen any nets, and there shouldn't be any. Kaikai were not for the men (who carved the boards). Men should be outside, not inside, and therefore only the outlines (not the inside) of the glyphs were carved. And when exceptionally, as e.g. in Aa1-11, lines were carved across a glyph it was to indicate a 'downfall:
Another instance is Pa5-41, with cut-marks across the right of the twin 'staffs' - similar to the abrupt change from 'tree' to 'downfall' at midsummer. The preceding haga rave also indicates a 'station of rest'. 5 * 40 = 100 and the parallel glyph in A has ordinal number 20, signs of a 'season' reaching its end:
Possibly cut-marks across a glyph indicate strings, or as pars pro toto nets. If so, then there should be a net also in what we so far have regarded as autumn (Aa1-11). But now I have begun to doubt it, the 'horizon' is enough in autumn. The alternative is to place A1-11 at midsummer, because even in Q there are parallel glyphs:
And Metoro read these glyphs (in A) without indicating any discontinuity. And the numbers 1-12 would be correct for the number of half-months in the first half-year. In the new perspective, with nets playing an important role, we should remember here at Aa1-18:
Eels do not like the sun (cfr how Maui and Tuna fought) and they can be caught in a snare (here):
Reading on in Barthel 2 I find: "... The search of the dream soul for a future homeland is complicated by the fact that she can see the islands only in a 'dim twilight' (te nehunehu kapuapua). Leonardo Pakarati explained this situation with the expression that follows in the text (i te pei 'during the fast journey'). He said the dream soul had built up so much speed (as if gliding down a grassy slope with a sled, RAP. pei) that she could see the land below her only in a blur. This interpretation by a modern Easter Islander is still moot, however. On other Polynesian islands, pei (or pehi) is the name of a game of skill that involves throwing. In MAO. it can mean 'earth; clump of earth', which may be a possible translation when there is talk of a 'clump of earth as residence' (ko te pei te nohonga) or of 'Te Pei', which can be lost and found. Te Pei is also the name of a place on the southern shore of Easter Island. The six references in the text do not allow for a general definition, but perhaps an expression from Mangaia can provide some insight: 'Hina alone keeps seven, yes eight balls in motion' (Pei aea i te pei itu, i te pei varu, é Ina é, Tregear 1891:596). Here, an outstanding achievement is characterized by the ability to extend control beyond seven to eight. The expression 'dim twilight' shows up in a slightly altered form in the recitation (ko te ehuehu, ko te kapuapua). '... the gray smoke, ... that which is hazy', Barthel 1960:855 and 842; 'Es la hora de la penumbra y hay neblina suave[mild, soft, still etc]', Campbell 1971:404 and 419) and, in this context at least, seems to refer to a natural phenomenon ..." The dim twilight causing eyes to see poorly is a natural phenomenon of the night, nothing strange for a kuhane: ... Originally the highly born family of the Sun, Moon, and stars dwelt in a cave on the summit of Maunga-nui, Great Mountain, in the ancient homeland. They were not at all comfortable in their gloomy home for they could not see distinctly and their eyes watered constantly ... The general definition of pei must include a fast downfall, a collision with the horizon (earth): ... During his descent the ancestor still possessed the quality of a water spirit, and his body, though preserving its human appearance, owing to its being that of a regenerated man, was equipped with four flexible limbs like serpents after the pattern of the arms of the Great Nummo. The ground was rapidly approaching. The ancestor was still standing, his arms in front of him and the hammer and anvil hanging across his limbs. The shock of his final impact on the earth when he came to the end of the rainbow, scattered in a cloud of dust the animals, vegetables and men disposed on the steps. When calm was restored, the smith was still on the roof, standing erect facing towards the north, his tools still in the same position. But in the shock of landing the hammer and the anvil had broken his arms and legs at the level of elbows and knees, which he did not have before. He thus acquired the joints proper to the new human form, which was to spread over the earth and to devote itself to toil ... Heavenly bodies rise in the east and go down at the horizon in the west. They cannot 'live' (give light) for more than 12 hours. Those who meet their end at dawn must have been born in the evening, those who meet their death at midsummer must have been born in midwinter. The general definition of pei must also include the 'field' of surrounding similar words and their meanings. If we for practical reasons concentrate only on those words which begin with pe- we have in my wordlist (so far) these items to consider:
Pea - perhaps, peaha - chance, peapea - erasure, peau - wave. At a cardinal point there is always an element of hazard - to be or not to be that is the question. Pehau - wing, fin. Limbs for movements in sky or water. Pehe - cat's cradle, snare. Pehi - great canoe. Pehu - shadow. Peka - starfish, cross, hakapekapeka - interlace, pekapekavae - shoelaces (?). Peke - to succeed, follow, repeat. Pepe - butterfly, sketch. Peu - habit, mattock, energy, peupeu - to groan, to grow tender, hakapeu - to strut. These words together define a perilous situation, a situation of abrupt change. You can succeed (peke) and continue on a new path, or you can go down to the shadows (pehu) and then you will need fins (pehau). Or you can rise to the sky like a butterfly (pepe). At the crossroads you must stop - there are several alternatives in front. The great canoe (pehi) of the sun must also come to a stop (at the solstices). The other stars may be born in the east and die in the west, but sun is born at midwinter and must come to a stop at midsummer - the limit is determined by the measure half a year. To stop the sun only cat's cradles (pehe) will do. Maybe 'cradle' in cat's cradle implies sun must be reborn at midsummer. In Aa6-67 the great fish canoe of the sun may be illustrated as caught with his head in a kind of cross (peka):
I suddenly realize how the Swedish customs at midsummer resemble hiki:
We raise a pole enshrouded in flowers and greenery and make merry by dancing around it. The pole is basically a kind of cross, and from its arms are hanging two flowery circles (now making me think about heads hanging loose at solstices). The two circles (cycles) - I now can translate - means the first and second halves of the year. At midsummer it weighs even between them. Will the year continue for another half year or not? What can be done? For the amusement of the children a special kind of dance must always take place. The song is about 'small frogs' and 'how funny they look', with 'no ears' and 'no tails'. The children - and those adults who show them - are to jump around with their knees bent as the small frogs do. The Easter Island youngsters had no frogs around, but they anyhow remembered how the knees must be bent. Without a tail there is no past. Without ears you cannot hear. The new season is like a newborn child. And frogs like rain. While sun is washed down like a spider through the spout. In ancient Egypt frogs (kerer) symolized creation, regeneration, birth and so on:
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