TRANSLATIONS

next page previous page up home

The first pages of kea:

 

A few preliminary remarks and imaginations:

1. I do not know what macrouse means. In order to unravel what Metoro had in mind when he said kea a first step could be to notice that he once said pikea (= crab):

Ab6-84
ko te pikea

This kea glyph is exceptional, though, because the body is a separate entity. We can compare with a few other kea glyphs where body and 'claws' are integrated elements of the sign:

Ca2-10 Ea9-9 Gb8-1 *Ha9-52

The body of Ab6-84 could be a puo sign and in addition there is a horizontal cut across.

Maybe Metoro by his pikea indicated Ab6-84 was not a kea. Possibly the crab and other crustaceans constitute the opposite of kea - such seems often to be the idiom of word play.

 

 

2. Crabs live close to the water edge and to find the opposite creatures we have either to look deep down in the ocean or high up in the trees. The latter alternative could be the correct one because kea is the Hawaiian version of tea.

There are suspiciously few items for kea in Churchill, and I think the reason is that its meaning is basically the same as tea.

Tea

1. Light, fair, whitish. 2. To rise (of the moon, the stars); ku-tea-á te hetu'u ahiahi, the evening star has risen. Vanaga.

1. To shine, be bright, brilliant, white; tea niho, enamel of the teeth; ata tea, dawn; teatea, white, blond, pale, colorless, invalid; rauoho teatea, red hair; hakateatea, to blanch, to bleach. P Pau.: faatea, to clear, to brighten. Mgv.: tea, white, blanched, pale. Mq.: tea, white, clear, pure, limpid. Ta.: tea, white, brilliant. 2. Proud, vain, haughty, arrogance, to boast; tae tea, humble; teatea, arrogant, bragging, pompous, ostentatious, to boast, to show off, haughty; hakateatea, to show off. Mgv.: akateatea, pride, vanity, ostentatious, to be puffed up. Ta.: teoteo, boastful, proud, haughty. 3. Mgv.: teatea, heavy rain. Ha.: kea, the rain at Hana and Koolau. Churchill.

1. White, clear; fair-complexioned person, often favorites at court; shiny, white mother-of-pearl shell, cfr. keakea, kekea, Mauna Kea. Po'o kea, towhead, gray-haired person. One kea, white sand (this is shortened to ōkea or kea, as in the expression kea pili mai, drift gravel - vagabond). (PPN tea). 2. Breast milk. See Nu'a-kea. 3. A variety of sugar cane, among Hawaiians one of the best-known and most-used canes, especially in medicine: clumps erect, dense, of medium height; pith white. Ua ola ā 'ō kō kea, living until kea cane tassels (until the hair turns gray). 4. Name listed by Hillebrand for kolomona (Mezoneuron kavaiense); see uhiuhi. Wehewehe.

When Metoro said kea instead of tea (a word he often used), then it should be referring to a special kind of tea, maybe a bird living in the trees like the thrush. Notably, though, kea was on Marquesas instead the name of a fish (maybe a species not living close to the surface of the sea):

Kea

Mgv.: kea, a fish. Mq.: kea, id. Ha.: ea, id. Churchill.

Ta.: ea, the thrush, aphthæ. Mq.: kea, id. Sa.: 'ea'ea, id. Ha.: ea, id. Churchill.

According to Barthel kea was explained as 'macrouse' by Bishop Jaussen.

 

 

3. The thrush is mentioned in The White Goddess:

"Apr. 16 - May 13 - S - seg, hawk; sodath, fine-coloured. Why is the Hawk in this place? Not hard. Amergin sang of this month: 'I am a Hawk on a Cliff.' And Fine-coloured are its meadows.

The same - SS - stmolach, thrush; sorcha, bright-coloured. Why is the Thrush joined with the Hawk? Not hard. The Thrush sings his sweetest in this month. And Brightcoloured are the new leaves."

It may be a coincidence that stmolach was used at double S (there are double heads in kea). However, in the Swedish language there is a name for a species of thrush, dubbeltrast (double thrush), which is rather strange. Why should such a thrush be 'double'?

Translating its name into English makes this bird species no less peculiar - mistletoe thrush. It seems to thrive on the berries of the mistletoe.

The strange mistletoe is deeply involved in myths, for instance when the mistletoe was used as an arrow to kill Balder:

(Each arrow overshot his head. Elmer Boyd Smith. Picture from Wikipedia)

We cannot continue further in the mistletoe direction at the moment, it would take too much time and effort. Instead we should consult the bird list of Easter Island in order to look for the thrush.