TRANSLATIONS

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The glyph which I have chosen for the vaero prototype is Aa2-14, and 4 glyphs later there is another vaero:

Aa2-14 Aa2-15 Aa2-16 Aa2-17 Aa2-18

The arrangement suggests a relationship between them, and they seem to be mirror images of each other. But there is a 3rd vaero involved:

vaero glyphs in Tahua
line a2
Aa2-14 Aa2-18 Aa2-45
line a3
Aa3-18 Aa3-22 Aa3-28
line a5
Aa5-32 Aa5-33 Aa5-34
line b7
Ab7-55 Ab7-56
 

All 9 vaero on side a belong in the group of 526 glyphs which end with tagata in Aa8-5:

side a side b side a
525 80 525 138 64
Aa8-5 (590) Ab7-30 (526)
526 808 = 8 * (99 + 2)
1334

To be more precise, however, entails a distinction between the triplet in line a2 from those three in line a3 (the first of them is Aa3-18) and a further distinction as regards those three in line a5 (the first of them Aa5-32):

157 239
Aa3-10 (185) Aa5-10 (343) Aa5-11 Aa7-84 (584)
160 = 2 * 80 240 = 4 * 60
400 = 5 * 80

Each group of triplets of vaero must consequently be considered separately from the rest, at least as a first step.

The first triplet is among 120 glyphs beginning with Aa1-65 and ending with Aa3-9:

116
Aa1-64 Aa1-65 Aa1-66 Aa3-8 Aa3-9 Aa3-10 (185)
120 = 4 * 30

These 120 glyphs could represent 120 days, and with 64 added from the end of the earlier season it becomes 184, which then possibly would be the number of days in the first half year. We will here investigate where the triplet of vaero glyphs in line a2 are located according to this guess.

 
 

Maybe each glyph line constitutes a separate 'chapter' of the text. Line a1, we know, seems to begin with an overview of the year, and we will take the opportunity to once again look at the beginning of side a:

Aa1-1 Aa1-2 Aa1-3 Aa1-4 Aa1-5 Aa1-6 Aa1-7
Aa1-8 Aa1-9 Aa1-10 Aa1-11 Aa1-12 Aa1-13 Aa1-14
14 * 29.5 = 413 (Tama) and 15 * 29.5 = 442.5 (One Tea).

With 16 * 29.5 = 472 (Hanga Takaure) we apparently have closed the cycle of the lunar year.

The Queen perishes after having given birth (probably at Tama) which means One Tea seems to be her last station.
Aa1-15

... After the three children of Hotu A Matua had been born, they went with his wife, Vakai, to Te Ngao O Te Honu and lived there. The last child of Hotu A Matua, Tuu Hotu Iti, was born. Vakai laid down and died. The king wept for his wife ...

... the fourth residence is 'Te Ngao O Te Honu', and the island king is accompanied to this place by a small adopted boy. The fifth residence is 'Taro Tataka'. In each case, the king is followed by Vakai. According to Leonardo Pakarati, 'the neck of the turtle' was the birthplace of the youngest son, Tuu Hotu Iti ...

Then follows what evidently is a calendar for the daylight and after that a calendar for the nighttime. Though they can of course also be read as another overview of the year, a sun-oriended cycle with summer followed by winter. The continuation of the kuhane journey beyond One Tea is indeed the Path of the Sun arriving from the east:

Aa1-16 (ka ero) Aa1-17 Aa1-18
1st 'week'
Aa1-19 Aa1-20 Aa1-21 Aa1-22
Aa1-23 Aa1-24 Aa1-25
2nd 'week'
Aa1-26 Aa1-27 Aa1-28 Aa1-29
Aa1-30 Aa1-31 Aa1-32
3rd 'week'
Aa1-33 Aa1-34 Aa1-35 Aa1-36

If each glyph here would denote 10 days, there would be 210 days for 'summer'. Each 70-day long 'week' would end with a 'Monday' - Moon measures the time by marking where the periods are ending.

There is a change from light to darkness and back again to light, and so on forever. The living reality is 'breathing in and out' like the tides. 'Winter' should therefore come with Aa1-37 (where Metoro said ehu, ashes):

Aa1-37 Aa1-38 Aa1-39 Aa1-40 Aa1-41 Aa1-42 Aa1-43
Aa1-44 Aa1-45 Aa1-46 Aa1-47 Aa1-48

There are 2 'ashes' glyphs, the 2nd of them with an opening at top right. Following Moon at Aa1-36 there ought to be a Mars night at Aa1-37, but following my intuition I think we here should count two 'Mondays' in a row. The glyphs tell me so, and maybe there is a need for two 'Mondays' because the end of the 3rd 'week' coincides with the end of a first cycle of 36(0). The Midnight Henua at Aa1-43 will by this manipulation become a Sun-day.

Though the pair of growing maro signs (2 * 8 = 16) in Aa1-37--38 can be read as an expression of the Moon, in which case a triplet of Moon-days (Aa1-36--38) is another reading:

Aa1-37 Aa1-38
Aa1-39 Aa1-40 Aa1-41 Aa1-42 Aa1-43
Aa1-44 Aa1-45 Aa1-46 Aa1-47 Aa1-48

This would explain the 'crack' at top right in Aa1-38 - the limit of daylight has been set here by the Moon. 38 * 16 = 608 (60 and 8), and 38 * 20 = 760 (= 360 + 400).

The 808 glyphs long section of the text ends with Aa1-64, and 64 - 38 (Aa1-38) = 26.

10 of these 26 glyphs constitute the 'calendar of the night'. Or maybe we should recognize a limit defined by Aa1-49--51 as the end of the nighttime calendar, in which case half of these 26 glyphs will come before Rei in Aa1-52:

Aa1-46 (8) Aa1-47 (9) Aa1-48 (10)
Aa1-49 (11) Aa1-50 (12) Aa1-51 (13)
Aa1-52 (1) Aa1-53 Aa1-54
Aa1-55 Aa1-56 Aa1-57
Aa1-58 Aa1-59 Aa1-60
Aa1-61 Aa1-62 Aa1-63
Aa1-64 (13)

The tiny Rei in Aa1-52 is followed by a great maitaki with only two mata. It could mean that Spring Sun has left after 52 * 7 = 364 / 2 = 182 days - we are in the 808 glyph long part where there is a need for 2 glyphs per day.

64 glyphs will be 32 'days', and with Aa1-48 'day' number 24 (presumably times 10) has been reached. Vae in Aa1-54 could refer to Spring Sun, he has left. Then comes the season of Nuku. Evidently we should read in triplets of glyphs.

300 / 20 = 60 is the glyph where the 10 months of the Sun could be ending. A new little one (Aa1-61, 'one more') will arrive. Metoro: kua tute ki tona poki - ki te mago. A child (poki) there is, and the Shark is involved. If the station is Tama, then the Queen will die at Aa1-64 (and we will count only 1 glyph per day from then onwards).

The strongly drawn Aa1-63 is interesting. Metoro said te herehua, the same appellation he used at Aa1-9 (presumably at the beginning of autumn):

Aa1-9 Aa1-10 Aa1-11 Aa1-12
e moa te herehua ka hora ka tetea ihe kuukuu ma te maro ki te henua

The 9th kuhane station is Te Pou (Sirius), and what could be a better sign in the sky for a change of seasons than the return of brilliant Sirius?

Herehua can be translated as 'ties up the fruit' (Barthel 2). The 'fruit' is presumably the 'skull' of the Sun King, and we should remember the fate of this skull (cfr at hua poporo and at ua), not to mention how the skull of One Hunaphu fascinated Blood Moon:

... And then the bone spoke; it was there in the fork of the tree: Why do you want a mere bone, a round thing in the branches of a tree? said the head of One Hunaphu when it spoke to the maiden. You don't want it, she was told. I do want it, said the maiden. Very well. Stretch out your right hand here, so I can see it, said the bone. Yes, said the maiden. She stretched out her right hand, up there in front of the bone. And then the bone spit out its saliva, which landed squarely in the hand of the maiden ...

The hand is female in character and 'squarely in the hand' apparently refers to Mother Earth (Nuku). So I imagine:

Aa3-64 Aa3-65

Before the 'fruit' is tied it must certainly be lifted up and this could be the reason behind the expression hua reva:

Ca9-4 (232)
63 + 232 = 295 and 9 * 4 = 36

The 'hand' at the horizon in the west (the Mayan Chikin) 'swallows' the descending Sun and the result will be a Son in the east. A new Sun is a new fire and he must be 'drilled' into being (cfr at rima):

The 'very long neck, a neck as long as a pole' has been mentioned earlier (at moe):

 

A word play involving gao and garo seems quite possible:  

Garo

1. To disappear, to become lost. He tere, he garo. He ran away and disappeared. He û'i te Ariki, ku garo á te kaíga i te vai kava. The king saw that the land had disappeared in the sea. I te ahiahi-ata he garo te raá ki raro ki te vai kava. In the evening the sun disappears under the sea. Ku garo á te kupu o te tai i a au. I have forgotten the words of the song (lit. the words of the song have become lost to me). Ina koe ekó garo. Don't disappear (i.e. don't go), or: don't get lost on the way.  2. Hidden. Te mana'u garo, hidden thoughts. Kona garo o te tagata, 'people's hidden places': pudenda. Vanaga.

To disappear, to stray, to omit, to lose oneself, to pass, absent, to founder, to drown, to sink; garo noa, to go away forever, to be rare; garo atu ana, formerly. Hakagaro, to cover with water; hakagaro te rakerakega, to pardon. Garoa, loss, absence, to be away, to drown, not comprehended, unitelligible. Garoaga, setting; garoaga raa, sunset, west. Garoraa, the sun half-set. Garovukua, to swallow up. Churchill.

Garo would then refer to sun sinking in the west, and gao to his appearing in the east. But Metoro never said garo while reading the tablets.

 
 

The 2nd list of place names definitely must be considered:

"vai tara kai uo a ngao roaroa a ngao tokotokoa

The correct name for this well-known and important watering place is 'Vai Tara Kai Ua', which is located in the hills west of Anakena. So far, no explanation has been found for the additional names 'a very long neck' and 'a neck (as long as?) a pole'." (Barthel 2)

The very long neck seems to refer to the moe glyph type. In Barthel's correlation with moon phases he has assigned this (the 18th place) with the very last phase of the moon, i.e. when moon is regenerated.

Vai tara kai ua possibly should be translated as the cardinal point (tara) where water (vai) assembles (kai) from the rain (ua) - i.e. when in spring the sun is climbing very high on his pole.

 

I cannot put everything up on the table for examination at every point in the flow of dictionary pages. But the very long 'neck' would be a suitable place for the end and a new beginning. The 'primeval mound' must be stirred by the 7 oxen of Ursa Major.

And then we should remember the broken neck of the first king (Oto Uta):

... This is Hotu's lament (tanginga):

ka hati toou ngao e oto uta e te ariki e / mo tau papa rangaranga o haho i te tai / mo tuu huehue rangaranga o haho i te tai / mo tau hahave rere ai ka pae / mo tae ngu rere ai ka pae / mo te ika aringa riva nei he aku renga ai ka pae

Broken is your neck, oh Oto Uta, oh king! / Floating (?) like a raft (?) out at sea. / To be erected for the drifting huehue (fish) out at sea. / Able (?) to put an end to the flight of the flying fish hahave; / Able (?) to put and end to the flight of the flying fish ngu; / Put an end to this fish, a dorado, with the good face! (E:87-90) ...

The 'stick' must be broken so that life can move on to the next generation. Therefore Te Pou should descend at the western horizon in order to enable next cycle to begin.