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6. A list is an instrument for thinking globally, to perceive the whole rather than the details.

The basic structural feature of life, which immediately will be discovered when thinking globally, is the cyclic nature of everything. The contrasts (light, darkness, up, down, in, out, etc.) always change periodically. Life moves in cycles, as dictated by time (by Moon).

If te was used for the time when Sun was present (exemplified in the names of the kuhane stations), it ought to have a contrasting opposite - to form a pair - similar to yet radically different from te. Possibly he served this function.

He

He, article, also verbal prefix. Hé, where? I hé, where; ki hé, whereto; mai hé, wherefrom. Vanaga.

Article. P Mgv., Mq.: e, the. Sa.: se, id. Churchill.

Pau.: He, false, crooked. Mgv.: hehe, crazy, to wander. Ta.: he, error. Mq.: he, confusion. Sa.: sesē, wrong. Ma.: he, a mistake. Churchill.

Mgv.: He, a locust pest of coconuts. Ta.: he, caterpillar. Mq.: he, grasshopper. Sa.: se, id. Ma.: whe, caterpillar. Churchill.

A sense of confusion apparently adheres to he. When light is poor it is easy to go astray.

Te could be combined with ka (fire) into the male 'fire stick', teka. At henua I quoted from Coe:

... one sign, very common in the [Mayan] codices where it appears affixed to main signs, can be read as 'te' or 'che', 'tree' or 'wood', and as a numerical classifier in counts of periods of time, such as years, months, or days. In Yucatec, you cannot for instance say 'ox haab' for 'three years', but must say 'ox-te haab', 'three-te years'. In modern dictionaries 'te' also means 'tree', and this other meaning for the sign was confirmed when Thompson found it in compounds accompanying pictures of trees in the Dresden Codex ...

There is a possibility of influence between the Maya and the Polynesians, which could have determined a common notion about trees and sticks for counting (and maybe also letters, as in ancient Ireland).

The straight sticks used for determining the positions of Sun and stars were not of any use when trying to measure the positions of Moon - her path changes seemingly erratically and is not 'straight'. She is 'crooked' (he). Therefore the letter U (or the glyph type hanga rave) is appropriate for her.

If 10 is looked upon as a picture we can see the straight stick followed by the bent path forming a cycle. By the way, Fornander surely would have found Greek déka (10) to be a relative of Polynesian teka.

Mathematical zero is a difficult concept, not in harmony with thinking globally, not a natural number. When 10 is reached it only means a new cycle will begin, and you cannot add it to the previous cycle because it is either the previous cycle which has returned or a cycle of another kind. The 2nd half of the year is different from the 1st half, and therefore you have to change the mode of counting and continue on your toes.

The meaning of kea could be the different (ke) light (tea) which comes in spring (after the tea light from Moon during winter). With pikea (at Ab6-84) we may have an allusion to the very first month of spring pi riuriu (when Sun has gone around his circle, π, 'dolmen'):

ko te pikea
Riu

Song which may be good and decent (rîu rivariva), or bad and indecent (rîu rakerake); the term rîu is often used for serious, sad songs: rîu tagi mo te matu'a ana mate, sad song for the death of a father. Vanaga.

Sa.: liu, liliu, to turn, to go backward and forward. To.: liu, liuliu, to return. Fu.: liliu, to return, to go over or come back. Niuē: liu, liliu, to turn, change, return. Uvea: liliu, to turn, to return. Ma.: ririu, to pass by. Ta.: riuriu, to go around in a circle. Mgv.: akariu, to come and go. Vi.: lia, to transform, to metamorphose. Churchill 2.

 

"The system of notation in the Bakhshali arithmetic [used in the Bakhshali manuscript written perhaps in the ninth century, but with contents composed 'no later than the fourth century AD'] is much the same as that employed in the arithmetical works of Brahmagupta and Bhaskara. There is, however, a very important exception. The sign for the negative quantity is a cross (+). It looks exactly like our modern sign for the positive quantity, but is placed after the number which it qualifies. Thus 

                      12                       7   +

                      1                         1

means 12 - 7 (i.e. 5). This is a sign which I have not met with in any other Indian arithmetic; nor, so far as I have been able to ascertain, is it now known in India at all. The sign now used is a dot placed over the number to which it refers. Here, therefore, there appears to be a mark of great antiquity.

The following statement, from the first example of the twenty-fifth sutra, affords a good example of the system of notation employed in the Bakhshali arithmetic:

                      l      1       1       1                                                                   

                      1       1       1       1    bha     32     phalam    108

                               3+     3+     3+ 

Here the initial dot is very much in the same way as we use the letter 'X' to denote the unknown quantity the value of which is sought. The number 1 under the dot is the sign of the whole (in this case, the unknown) number. A fraction is denoted by placing one number under the other without any line of separation; thus 

                      1

                      3

is 1/3, i.e. one-third. A mixed number is shown by placing the three numbers under one another; thus 

                      1

                      1

                      3

is 1 + 1/3 or 1 1/3, i.e. one and one-third. Hence 

                      1

                      1

                      3+ 

means 1 - 1/3 (i.e. 2/3). 

Multiplication is usually indicated by placing the numbers side by side; thus 

                      5                    32

                      8                    1      phalam     20 

means 5/8 * 32 = 20. Similarly 

                      1             1            1

                      1             1            1

                      3+           3+          3+ 

means 2/3 * 2/3 * 2/3 or (2/3)3, i.e. 8/27.  

Bha is an abbreviation of bhaga, 'part', and means that the number preceeding it is to be treated as a denominator. Hence 

                      1              1              1

                      1              1              1      bha

                      3+            3+            3+ 

means 1 : 8/27 or 27/8. The whole statement, therefore, means 27/8 * 32 = 108,  

                      l      1       1       1                                                                   

                      1       1       1       1    bha     32     phalam    108

                               3+     3+     3+ 

and may be thus explained - 'a certain number is found by dividing with 8/27 and multiplying with 32; that number is 108'."

"The dot is also used for another purpose, namely as one of the ten fundamental figures of the decimal system of notation, or the zero (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9). It is still so used in India for both purposes, to indicate the unknown quantity as well as the nought. With us the dot, or rather its substitute the circle (0), has only retained the latter of its two intents, being simply the zero figure, or 'the mark of position' in the decimal system.  

The Indian usage, however, seems to show how the zero arose, and that it arose in India. The Indian dot, unlike our modern zero, is not properly a numerical figure at all. It is simply a sign to indicate an empty place or a hiatus. This is clearly shown by its name sunya 'empty'."

The above is quoted from Midonick and I have redmarked the final relevant part. But we should also notice how the counting example connects 108, 32, and 8 (numbers of importance in rongorongo).