TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

The first of the bird list pages:

The bird list from Manuscript E according to Barthel 2 and after my 'upgrading' (cfr at rona):

manu tara	*tavake*
*pi riuriu*	*ruru*
*kava eoeo*	*taiko*
*te verovero*	*kumara*
*ka araara*	*kiakia*
*kukuru toua*	*tuvi*
*makohe*	*tuao*
*kena*	*tavi*

There is no obvious bird name here similar to kea. The closest fit is kiakia, the 5th bird in the 2nd half of the list. Barthel 2:

"In a short recitation that accompanies a string game, the next bird on the list, kiakia (number 13), the white tern, is associated with the leaves of the sweet potato:

kiakia kiakia	The white terns
tari rau kumara	carry the leaves of sweet potatoes in their beaks."

Tari is the first part of tariga (ear), from which we could guess the function of an ear, viz. to carry pendants.

Tari

1. To take from one place to another; he-tari-mai, to bring. 2. Upper end of the sugarcane, which was used in military training as a harmless weapon. Tariga, ear; tariga pogeha, tariga pó, sordo; tariga maîka, bunch of bananas. Vanaga.

1. To pluck, to gather, to reap, to load; kai taria te kai, abundance. 2. To lead, to carry; hakatari, to conduct, to guide, to direct, to escort, to carry, to bring, to pay; hakatari miro, pilot; hakatariga, payment. Tariga, ear, earring; tariga hakarogo, faithful, observant, submissive; tariga kikiu, din, buzzing; tariga meitaki, to have good hearing; tariga pogeha, deaf, to disobey; tariga puru, disobedient; tariga purua, stubborn; tarigariga, chain. Tarirapa, to gather. Churchill

However, tari means to take from one place to another, and the word could therefore rather be an allusion to the 'whirlpool' (cfr under Hatinga Te Kohe in the excursion at haati). The ear looks like a whirlpool and in a whirlpool you will be carried away, in myth to some other place:

... taken round and round to the very lowest center of the whirlpool, when another circle caught him and bore him outward. He told afterwards that when he reached the narrowest circle of the maelstroem the water seemed to open below and he could look down as through the roof beam of a house, and there on the bottom of the river he had seen a great company, who looked up and beckoned to him to join them ...

Fornander ought to have identified the equality of sound and meaning between 'to carry' and the Hawaiian version of tari (which should be kali), I thought. However, he instead has identified Hawaiian kali with 'to tarry', because kali means 'to wait, to tarry, to stay, expect, hesitate'. This kali is the opposite of being carried away, and therefore we can anyhow see a connection between tari and kali.

So much is clear, though, that kiakia indeed is a white (tea) bird. Number 13 fits it better than number 5, because a white bird is coloured like old bleached bones.

Maybe there is a link here to the crab, which has neither feathers nor any other growth on its outside - crustaceans illustrate the state of death. If so, then pikea could signify death and kea could be its opposite (like the bright-coloured lively thrush).

Maybe tea is the light from Moon and kea the light from Sun. Makea tutara was the father of Maui - cfr 'How Maui gave mortality to Man' (among the myths in my Index) - and names are significant.

According to Churchill kiakia could possibly be a general term for white birds:

Kiakia

Dove, gull T. Mgv.: kiakia, the cry of the kotake (a white marine bird). Churchill.

But there is no place for a thrush or a dove in a list of sea birds, and the gull is not represented.

To carry the leaves of kumara in the beak is - I think - quite close in meaning to how on New Zealand it was said that Rongo brought the sweet potato in his penis to impregnate his wife, Pani, the field:

... If I am allowed to lift a page from The Golden Bough: each year the sylvan landscape of old New Zealand provided 'the scene of a strange and recurring tragedy.' In a small sweet-potato garden set apart for the god, a Maori priest enacted a sacred marriage that would be worthy of his legendary colleague of the grove of Nemi. Accompanying his movements with a chant that included the phrase, 'Be pregnant, be pregnant', the priest planted the first hillocks (puke, also 'mons veneris') of the year's crop. The priest plays the part of the god Rongo (-marae-roa, Ha., Lono), he who originally brought the sweet potato in his penis from the spiritual homeland, to impregnate his wife (Pani, the field) ...

The penis of man corresponds to the beak of the bird.

It could, one might think, also correspond to the prow of a ship, but ships are female. On the prow of Pharaoh's ship down in the Underworld a swallow is perching, we have seen:

The swallow corresponds to the spirit of Pharaoh, and it functions as the bow-spr(ir)it, from which he will be reborn:

"sprit ... pole ... boom or pole crossing a sail diagonally ... f. Germ. *spreut- sprût-; see SPROUT ... sprout ... shoot forth, spring up ..." (English Etymology)

The strangely formed bow in the picture has 7 + 6 = 13 dotted oval forms in front and 8 on the back side (inside). Presumably these 8 + 13 ovals correspond to the dark time respectively the time when Pharaoh is alive again. Twice 21 is the number of judges in the Underworld:

Apparently kiakia must be connected with procreation. A further sign of this is rau (leaves), which exemplifies how life is returning from its dormant Underworld phase.

On Easter Island rau means 100 but in the Maori dialect it means 1000. The general idea is 'plenty' (of offspring).

The sweet potato (kumara) must be buried in order to sprout.

Below I have updated the bird list:

manu tara	sooty tern	*tavake*	redtailed tropic bird
*pi riuriu*	d:o	*ruru*	black petrel
*kava eoeo*	d:o	*taiko*	black petrel
*te verovero*	d:o	*kumara*	white tern
*ka araara*	d:o	*kiakia*	white tern
*kukuru toua*	albatross ?	*tuvi*	gray tern
*makohe*	frigate	*tuao*	dark brown tern
*kena*	booby	*tavi*	small lead-coloured tern

I have combined kumara with kiakia into a single white tern, because kumara apparently is closely connected with kiakia. Likewise I have combined ruru with taiko into a single item:

"The next two names on the list are ruru and taiko (numbers 10 and 11). While those two represent two different species, it should be pointed out that the combined name ruru-taiko refers in MAO. to a black petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni).

There are no cultural data available for ruru, which seems to be derived from PPN. *lulu 'owl', or for taiko (compare RAR. taiko 'black petrel', MGV. tiaku 'petrel?, omen of death'), but the textual association of taiko and spirits should be kept in mind (Campbell 1971:113)." (Barthel 2)

The picture below is from Wikipedia and the artist is Joseph Smit (1896):

Owls arrive with the night, and we should remember where the owl is located in the Mayan calendar.

My idea is that the list should be reorganized into 9 + 5 = 14 items (or rather into 8 + 5 = 13 items, which will be motivated below). My double bird items ought to indicate the 2nd part of the list, i.e. the redtailed tavake should be the last bird of the 1st part.

Page 72 of Manuscript E is where these birds are located and page 72 (= 360 / 5) enumerates 20 * 15 = 300 birds, which we immediately can identify as the 10-month cycle of Sun. 20 * 15 = 10 * 30, i.e. there are 2 halfmonths in each month.

Manu tara, the first name mentioned on the page is a special case, therefore there are not 16 but 15 times 20:

he manu tara.erua kauatu te huru.i too mai ai

With items 2-5 in the table above (pi riuriu, kava eoeo, te verovero, and ka araara) being the development stages of young manu tara birds it is also clear that the first bird, manu tara, is more of an introduction than a real item on the list.

We need to investigate what kauatu te huru.i too mai ai might mean.

At hanga rave I have presented the following table describing a Mayan calendar with 18 months à 20 days together with a final 5-day long special month:


*5 Tzek*	*6 Xul*	*7 Yaxkin*	*8 Mol*

*9 Ch'en*	*10 Yax*	*11 Sac*	*12 Ceh*
		200
*13 Mac*	*14 Kankin*	200	*15 Moan*

*16 Pax*	*17 Kayab*	*18 Cumhu*	*19 Vayeb*

*1 Pop*	*2 Uo*	*3 Zip*	*4 Zotz*

... After studying glyphs, names and other aspects (ref. mainly Gates and Kelley) I arranged the months into the pattern above, with 10 redmarked months for 'summer', and with 'winter' being divided in two equal parts by the 19th exceptional 5-day month. 200 + 80 + 5 + 80 = 365 ...

My arrangement has 15 Moan as the first month of 'winter', i.e. the time of the year corresponding to when sun has gone down in the west in the evening. The mouth which opened wide in spring (cfr 4 Zotz) to allow Sun to enter (in 5 Tzek) has closed again in 15 Moan to show that darkness has returned. The outside 3 black dots in 16 Pax are much greater than those in 9 Ch'en. Darkness falls first with the onset of the rain clouds (the grapelike hanging formation) and then when Sun leaves in autumn.

15 Moan is my candidate for an owl. However, Gates is of the opinion that it is a falcon:

"Six glyphs at least are clearly pictographic in base: Pop, mat; Sotz, bat; Xul, ?; Kankin, skeleton ribs; Moan, falcon; Kayab, turtle." (Gates)

The 'skeleton ribs' in 14 Kankin should be regarded as a version of the 'Tree', I guess. Beyond the 'Tree' comes the 'Fall', after 200 days of 'summer'. 15 Moan could also be imagined as the month of the Vulture, someone has to take care of the fallen body. Counted from new year to 15 Moan a period of 80 + 200 = 280 = 10 * 28 days has finished.

After 280 days of light (the first 80 days with light from Moon only and then 200 days with Sun present) the region of 'water' lies ahead:

"... The origin and explanation of the custom [of sacred water] is thus given in the Hawaiian 'Kumuhonua' legend:

The Ocean, ka moana nui a Kane, which surrounds the earth, was made salt by Kane, so that its waters should not stink, and to keep it thus in a healthy and uninfected state is the special occupation of Kane.

In imitation of Kane, therefore, the priests prepared waters of purification, prayer, and sanctification, Wai-hui-kala, Wai-lupa-lupa, and ke kai-olena, for the public ceremonials, for private consolation, and to drive away demons and diseases. Such holy waters were called by the general name of ka wai kapu a Kane.

From the sprinkling of a new-born child to the washing of the dying, its application was constant and multifarious. The baptismal ceremony - E Riri - of the New Zealanders, related by Dieffenbach, with the accompanying prayers invoking the gods Tu and Rongo (the Hawaiian Ku and Lono), is a valuable and remarkable remnant of the ancient culte. It was a necessary adjunct in private and public worship, a vade mecum in life, a viaticum in death; and even now, fifty years after the introduction of Christianity in these Hawaiian islands, there are few of the older people who would forego its use to alleviate pain and remove disease." (Fornander)

The 'ocean' (moana) begins - according to my interpretation - with 15 Moan (in Polynesian a word cannot end with a consonant) and 'land' is now in the past. Slight differences between words which basically are the same must be expected. For instance is muan probably an alternatively spelled moan (picture from Kelley):

The 'turkey' in front of the 'owl' has a Sun eye and carries 3 + 4 = 7 'stones' on his head (3 in front and 4 at the back). The artist has above the head arranged number 8 (formed from 3 dots and a bar). Above the 'owl' we can see 4 dots and then the picture seems to be damaged, but I guess another 4 dots arrive after the 4 black dots. But these later and half hidden dots are white. The 'owl' is the female Moon and she follows the male Sun (we must read from right to left when looking at Mayan texts).

The Sun 'turkey' has 2 white dots and 2 white bars above his tail, and it means number 12 (= 2 + 2 * 5). Together with the 'black' 3 + 5 = 8 it becomes 20. The black-and white reproduction does not tell what the real colours were, which we see as black and white. And there certainly are many more details to be considered in the pictures. The main point is clear, though, the owl represents Moon.