TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

home

The link he manu tara.erua kauatu te huru.i too mai ai leads to the following pages:

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

Erua means 2, and therefore the number of birds maybe should be 2 + 15 * 20 = 302?

Or, perhaps erua instead could be connected with the following kauatu, because

Katahi te kauatu marima po means 'fifteen days', according to Vanaga.

Here katahi evidently stands for 'a single sequence of'. And kauatu resembles kauati:

Kauati

Pau.: to make fire. Mgv.: kounati, the plowed stick in fire-making. Ta.: auati, auai, stick used in fire-making. Mq.: koukati, koukani, the plowed stick. Viti: kaunita, to rub fire. Ma.: kauati, a fire-making stick. Churchill.

Maybe katahi te kauatu marima po literally means a 15-day long sequence of making fire in the dark? I cannot find any word marima, which probably means we should read it as ma rima. Therefore we will have ma rima po = with (an additional) 5 days. I.e., 10 must be somewhere in katahi te kauatu.

A grammatical exampel from Harawira: "65 - ono tekau ma rima" illustrates how in the Maori dialect tekau stands for 10. Apparently, then, on Easter Island 20 was erua kauatu:

he manu tara.erua kauatu

sooty terns - 20

To which should be added 'torches' (huru), or 'lights', and the final comment i too mai ai:

Huru

Custom, tradition, behaviour, manners, situation, circumstances; poki huru hare, child who stays inside (to keep a fair complexion); te huru o te tagata rivariva, a fine person's behaviour; pehé te huru o Hiva? what is the situation on the mainland? Huruhuru, plumage, feathers (the short feathers, not the tail feathers), fleece of sheep. Vanaga.

Samoa: sulu, a torch; to light by a torch; sulusulu, to carry a torch; susulu, to shine (used of the heavenly bodies and of fire). Futuna: susulu, the brightness of the moon. Tonga: huluaki, huluia, huluhulu, to light, to enlighten; fakahuhulu, to shine; iuhulu, a torch or flambeau, to light with a torch. Niuē: hulu, a torch; huhulu, to shine (as the moon). Maori: huru, the glow of the sun before rising, the glow of fire. Churchill 2.

Too

1. To adopt, to take, to acquire, to admit, to accept, to gather, to dispose, to seize, to pull up, to extirpate, stripped, to withdraw, to intercept, to frustrate, to touch, to employ, to serve; tae too, to renounce. Mq.: too, to take, to receive, to accept, to adopt, to seize, to pull up. 2. Raa too, noon. 3. Numeral prefix. P Mgv.: toko, id. Mq.: toko, too, id. Ta.: too, id. Samoa and Futuna use to'a and toka, Tonga and Niuē use toko, and the remainder of Polynesia uses the latter form. Tooa: kai tooa, intact, entire, whole; paea tooa, to deprive. Churchill.

If 10 is tekau in the Maori dialect (as in 65 = ono tekau ma rima) and if 20 should be erua kauatu in the language of Manuscript E, then kau is the common factor:

Kau

1. To move one's feet (walking or swimming); ana oho koe, ana kau i te va'e, ka rava a me'e mo kai, if you go and move your feet, you'll get something to eat; kakau (or also kaukau), move yourself swimming. 2. To spread (of plants): ku-kau-áte kumara, the sweet potatoes have spread, have grown a lot. 3. To swarm, to mill around (of people): ku-kau-á te gagata i mu'a i tou hare, there's a crowd of people milling about in front of your house. 4. To flood (of water after the rain): ku-kau-á te vai haho, the water has flooded out (of a container such as a taheta). 5. To increase, to multiply: ku-kau-á te moa, the chickens have multiplied. 6. Wide, large: Rano Kau, 'Wide Crater' (name of the volcano in the southwest corner of the island). 7. Expression of admiration: kau-ké-ké! how big! hare kau-kéké! what a big house! tagata hakari kau-kéké! what a stout man! Vanaga.

To bathe, to swim; hakakau, to make to swim. P Pau., Mgv., Mq.: kau, to swim. Ta.: áu, id. Kauhaga, swimming. Churchill.

The stem kau does not appear independently in any language of Polynesian proper. For tree and for timber we have the composite lakau in various stages of transformation. But kau will also be found as an initial component of various tree names. It is in Viti that we first find it in free existence. In Melanesia this form is rare. It occurs as kau in Efaté, Sesake, Epi, Nguna, and perhaps may be preserved in Aneityum; as gau in Marina; as au in Motu and somewhere in the Solomon islands. The triplicity of the Efaté forms [kasu, kas, kau] suggests a possible transition. Kasu and kas are easy to be correlated, kasu and kau less easy. They might be linked by the assumption of a parent form kahu, from which each might derive. This would appear in modern Samoan as kau; but I have found it the rule that even the mildest aspirate in Proto-Samoan becoming extinct in modern Samoan is yet retained as aspiration in Nuclear Polynesia and as th in Viti, none of which mutations is found on this record. Churchill 2

Kahu

Clothing, dress, habit, cloth, curtain, vestment, veil, shirt, sheet; kahu hakaviri, shroud; kahu nui, gown; rima o te kahu, sleeve; kahu rahirahi, muslin; hare kahi, tent; horega kahu, shirt; hakarivariva ki te kahu, toilet; rakai ki te kahu, toilet; patu ki te kahu, to undress; kahu oruga, royal sail; kahu hakatepetepe, jib; kahu nui, foresail; hakatopa ki te kahu, to set sail; (hecki keho, canvas T.) P Pau.: kahu, dress, garment, native cloth. Mgv.: kahu, cloth, stuff, garment, clothing. Mq.: kahu, habit, vestment, stuff, tunic. Ta.: ahu, cloth in general, vestment, mantle. Chuchill.

Rakau

Raau, medicine, remedy, drug. Ra'a'u, scratch on the skin. Rakau, a plant. Râkau, goods, property. Vanaga.

1. Wood; rakau ta, cudgel, stick. P Pau.: rakau, tree, to dress a wound. Mgv.: rakau, wood, timber, a tree; medicine, a remedy; an object. Mq.: ákau, wood, tree. Ta.: raáu, id. 2. Medicine, remedy, potion, ointment, furniture, any precious object, resources, baggage, riches, heritage, dowry, merchandise, treasure, wealth; rakau hakaneinei, purgative; rakau nui, rich, opulent; rakau kore, poor, beggar, indigent, miserable, an inferior; hakakamikami ki te rakau, to impoverish; rakau o te miro, ballast. Mq.: akau, anything in general. The medicine sense is particularized in Tonga, Nukuoro, Hawaii, Tahiti, Mangareva, Paumotu. In no other speech does wood stand so fully for wealth of possessions, but it will be recalled that Rapanui is destitute of timber and depends wholly upon driftwood. Churchill.

I imagine rakau (the 'Tree') is close in meaning to Rano Kau. At the high place, in the east and at Rano Raraku, 'fire' emerges in the form of moai statues, who are like great fiery cocks (moa) holding the sky roof aloft. Down in the southwestern corner such 'Sun Kings' will have used up all their 'heat', which can be compared to how 10 is counted on the fingers. To begin with both fists are closed but with time (and movement from east to west) one finger after another is being 'emptied' which can be observed when they are no longer hidden inside the fists.

When 10 is reached all the fingers are stretched out and it looks like a great tree with 10 branches held high in the air.

Kahu in raka(h)u presumably implies the 'fire' is 'dressed' (as if covered with 'cloth', kahu). No more light can be seen. Kau implies the time of regeneration - the 'potatoes' must go down into the earth, and Spring Sun must be liquidated to release his spirit and to make it available for his offspring.

Maori tekau evidently is te kau. In the Maori dialect 21 (another example from Harawira) becomes rua tekau ma tahi. Only when in the English translation a noun follows does rua evolve into e-rua, but then the order of the words will have the number at the end, e.g. he whare e rua (two houses). If this rule of word order applies also in Manuscript E (which seems probable), then we must reconsider:

he manu tara.erua

2 sooty terns

These 2 sooty terns could correspond either to the 2 'halves' of the cycle of light (white in front and sooty at the back) or to the pair of parents of the 4 juveniles following in the list.

Maybe these manu tara erua are depicted in Aa1-3--4, because they have pointed 'beaks' and they are followed by a quartet of 'juveniles' (vae kore):


Aa1-3	Aa1-4	Aa1-5	Aa1-6	Aa1-7	Aa1-8

We are back again to the need of generating fire by friction (kauati) because 10 (kauatu) has been reached:

Kauati

Ati

1. Ati ko peka, vengeance, to avenge. Ati oo, disciple. 2. Hati. Atiati. 1. To wait for, to hope, to wait, to attend (aati). Mgv.: ati, to wait for, to hope for some time. 2. To go boldly. PS Sa.: atia'i, to go softly toward in order to seize, to take by surprise. Atiave, further, ulterior. Churchill.

Ta.: ati, inclosed, entangled. Mq.: kati, closed, embarrassed, plugged. To.: kajia, to obstruct. Ma.: kati, to block, to obstruct. Churchill.

Atu

Particle of meaning opposite to that of mai; it refers to the second or third person, expressing movement away: ka-avai-atu, give it to him: he-oho-atu au, I am going there, after you; i-oho-atu-era, when I had gone there. Vanaga.

1. a. Directive, of motion from the speaker. b. Somewhat expressive of the comparative degree. 2. Pupil; hakaatu, proof; hare hakaatuga, schoolhouse, class. 3. (hakaatu), to presage. 4. (hakaatu), mark, object. Churchill.

Atu implies motion away, as when Spring Sun is leaving. Maybe atua (god) basically signifies moving away (atu) to the back side (tu'a):

Atua, atu'a

1. Lord, God: te Atua ko Makemake, lord Makemake. Ki a au te Atua o agapó, I had a dream of good omen last night (lit. to me the Lord last night). 2. Gentleman, respectable person; atua Hiva, foreigner. 3. Atua hiko-rega, (old) go-between, person who asks for a girl on another's behalf. 4. Atua hiko-kura, (old) person who chooses the best when entrusted with finding or fetching something. 5. Atua tapa, orientation point for fishermen, which is not in front of the boat, but on the side. Atu'a, behind. Vanaga.

God, devil. T (etua). P Pau., Ta.: atua, god. Mgv.: etua, god, deity, divinity; to be wicked, to be full of wickedness. Mq.: etua, god, divinity. The comprehensiveness of the definition, and the same is found in the Maori, is a question of orthodoxy, merely a matter of the point of view. Of far more moment in our studies is the vowel variety of the initial syllable. Atua: Maori, Mangaia, Tahiti, Hawaii, Tongareva, Rapanui, Paumotu, Samoa, Futuna, Uvea, Niuē, Aniwa. Etua: Marquesas, Mangareva, Rapanui. Otua: Tonga. The Rotumā oiitu is probably referable to aitu. Churchill.

Mq.: atua, the fourteenth day of the moon. Ma.: atua, id. Churchill.

If kauati is the fireproducing stick, then kauatu could be the plowed stick (the female part).

he manu tara.erua kauatu

20 sooty terns

Maybe these 20 manu tara birds are females.

In order to generate fire from friction 2 parts are necessary, which this Mayan picture (cfr at rima) illustrates:

When summer reaches its sunmit the spring fire has reached the phase of the 'Tree' and it must be chopped down:

... At mid-summer, at the end of a half-year reign, Hercules is made drunk with mead and led into the middle of a circle of twelve stones arranged around an oak, in front of which stands an altar-stone; the oak has been lopped until it is T-shaped. He is bound to it with willow thongs in the 'five-fold bond' which joins wrists, neck, and ankles together, beaten by his comrades till he faints, then flayed, blinded, castrated, impaled with a mistletoe stake, and finally hacked into joints on the altar-stone. His blood is caught in a basin and used for sprinkling the whole tribe to make them vigorous and fruitful. The joints are roasted at twin fires of oak-loppings, kindled with sacred fire preserved from a lightning-blasted oak or made by twirling an alder- or cornel-wood fire-drill in an oak log.

The trunk is then uprooted and split into faggots which are added to the flames. The twelve merry-men rush in a wild figure-of-eight dance around the fires, singing ecstatically and tearing at the flesh with their teeth. The bloody remains are burnt in the fire, all except the genitals and the head. These are put into an alder-wood boat and floated down the river to an islet; though the head is sometimes cured with smoke and preserved for oracular use. His tanist succeeds him and reigns for the remainder of the year, when he is sacrificially killed by a new Hercules ...

And then the spirit of Spring Sun moves away (atu), embodied in his genitals and head which are carried inside a 'canoe'.

Maori tekau (10) can be a wordplay meaning te-kau (the time of 'swimming'). But the word can alternatively mean teka-u, where the final u refers to Moon and teka is a dart:

Teka

Tekai, curl, a round ball, as of twine. (Tekateka) hakatekateka, rudder, helm. Churchill.

Routledge's informants still knew the names of the immigrant canoes (RM:278); they were given as 'Oteka' and 'Oua'. One Rongorongo text shows ua as the term used for two canoes, while RR:76 [Barthel's no. 76, GD111] (phallus grapheme ure, used in this case for an old synonym teka; compare TUA. teka 'penis of a turtle', HAW. ke'a 'virile male') tends to confirm the oral tradition with a transpositional variant (Barthel 1962:134). (Barthel 2)

Pau. teka, arrow. Ta.: tea, id. Mq.: teka, a game with darts. Sa.: te'a, id. Ma.: teka, id. Churchill.

Mgv. teka, a support, scaffold. Ta.: tea, the horizontal balk of a palisade, the crossbeam of a house. Mq.: tekateka, across, athwart. Ha.: kea, a cross. Churchill.

In Hawaiian kea means a cross, and teka should be te-ka, i.e. the fire:

Ka, ká

Ka. Particle of the affirmative imperative, of cardinal numerals, of independent ordinal numerals, and of emphatic exclamation, e.g. ka-maitaki! how nice! Vanaga.

Ká. 1. To light a fire in order to cook in the earth oven (see umu): he-ká i te umu, he-ká i te kai. 2. Figuratively: to fire up the soul. To put oneself in a fury (with manava): ku-ká-á toona manava he has become furious. Vanaga.

1. Of T. 2. Imperative sign; ka oho, ka tere, ka ea, begone!; ka ko iha, a greeting T; ka mou, hush; ka oho, goodbye. 3. Infinitive sign; mea meitaki ka rava, a thing good to take; ka harai kia mea, to accompany. 4. A prefix which forms ordinals from cardinals. 5. The dawning of the day. 6. Different (? ke). Churchill.

Let us close with the beginning of a story from Ha'api:

"Tu'i Tofua was the son of Vakafuhu. His mother was Langitaetaea, but she was only one of the many young women whom Vakafuhu had living behind the fences of his dwelling. When Tu'i Tofua grew he was given the first-born sons of all the wives for his companions, and they all used to play sika outside the enclosure of Vakafuhu. They made their sika of clean-peeled sticks and threw them in turn along the ground, they glanced them off a mound and each one tried to make the longest throw.

One day while Vakafuhu was sleeping off a kava-drinking those boys were playing their game outside, and Tu'i Tofua threw his sika. Then indeed the enormous strength of Tu'i Tofua made that sika fly over the fences into his father's place.

It landed where the women were and they all began to giggle, those girls, and shriek and laugh. They did this because they wanted that handsome youth to come among them, they desired him. More than his father they desired him.

They fell with joy upon the sika of their master's son, and snapped it. When he came inside to get it back they called out things that made him embarrased. 'Haven't you got another long thing there, Tu'i?' those women said. 'This one's broken.' And they put their hands across their faces and they laughed ..." (Legends of the South Seas)