TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

2. On the other hand, the double maitaki glyphs could represent the Pleiades:

"The Rapa Nui ethnographers say that 'old men' watched the stars on Poike, from a cave on the west coast or from near an ahu where six boulders represented the Pleiades …" (Van Tilburg)

According to Van Tilburg 'six stones', Tauono, is one of the names of the Pleiades.The Polynesians regarded the constellation Matariki (another name for the Pleiades) as having six stars (not seven as is customary with us).

Ancient times most peoples regarded summer and winter as two different 'years' and saw spring equinox - defined by the heliacal rising of the Pleiades - as the start of the summer 'year'.

In more modern times, and for people living north of the equator like the Hawaiians, the Pleiades were looked for in the evening, and when they appeared again - late in autumn - it was regarded as an announcement of the arrival of the new year. The Pleiades was once again in the night sky, Matariki i nika, after having been below the horizon, Matariki i raro.

South of the equator stars were observed preferentially in the early morning ('heliacal rising', rising together with the sun), not in the evening. The constellation could therefore serve the same purpose as north of the equator and announce the beginning of new year at the same time (winter) as on Hawaii - it is just a matter of choosing the right time for looking. However, new year was mostly defined to begin in late Novermber - early December anyhow:

... In the Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan, Society, Marquesan, and some other islands the new year began in late November or early December with the first new Moon after the first appearance of the Pleiades in the eastern sky in the evening twilight. Notable exceptions to the general rule are found in Pukapuka and among certain tribes of New Zealand where the new year was inaugurated by the first new Moon after the Pleiades appeared on the eastern horizon just before sunrise in June. Traces of an ancient year beginning in May have been noted in the Society Islands, but there is some uncertainty about the beginning of the year in native annals generally, at least as reported by missionaries and others, due perhaps to the desire to make the Polynesian months coincide with the stated months of the modern calendar ...

For Rapa Nui, as for the Maori, the Mangarevans and the rest of the people of the Southern Hemisphere, the rising of the Pleiades is almost simultaneous with the Austral June solstice ... it is probable that the Rapa Nui ritual calendar, as that of the Maori, Mangarevans, Samoans, Tongans and other Polynesians began in July following the rising of the Pleiades ...

The ritual calendar on Easter Island was, it seems, beginning in July (following the heliacal rising of the Pleiades), but the new year probably began in summer (following the rising of the Pleiades in the evening sky).

If the constellation Tauono was watched for in the morning, then double maitaki glyphs could refer to winter solstice (= summer solstice on Hawaii), if watched for in the evening they could refer to summer solstice (= winter solstice on Hawaii).

"Savage tribes knew the Pleiades familiarly, as well as did the people of ancient and modern civilization; and Ellis wrote of the natives of the Society and Tonga Islands, who called these stars Matarii, the Little Eyes: The two seasons of the year were divided by the Pleiades; the first, Matarii i nia, the Pleiades Above, commenced when, in the evening, those stars appeared on the horizon, and continued while, after sunset, they were above. The other season, Matarii i raro, the Pleiades Below, began when, at sunset, they ceased to be visible, and continued till, in the evening, they appeared again above the horizon.

Gill gives a similar story from the Hervey group, where the Little Eyes are Matariki, and at one time but a single star, so bright that their god Tane in envy got hold of Aumea, our Aldebaran, and, accompanied by Mere, our Sirius, chased the offender, who took refuge in a stream. Mere, however, drained off the water, and Tane hurled Aumea at the fugitive, breaking him into the six pieces that we now see, whence the native name for the fragments, Tauono, the Six, quoted by Flammarion as Tau, both titles singularly like the Latin Taurus. They were the favorite one of the various avelas, or guides at sea in night voyages from one island to another; and, as opening the year, objects of worship down to 1857, when Christianity prevailed throughout these islands." (Allen)

"It is true that the accurate determination of the risings and settings of the stars does demand scientific work, but not so the observation of the visible risings and settings. Primitive man rises and goes to bed with the sun. When he gets up at dawn and steps out of his hut, he directs his gaze to the brightening east, and notices the stars that are shining just there and are soon to vanish before the light of the sun. In the same way he observes at evening before he goes to rest what stars appear in the west at dusk and soon afterwards set there.

Experience teaches him that these stars vary throughout the year and that this variation keeps pace with the phases of Nature, or, more concretely expressed, he learns that the risings and settings of certain stars coincide with certain natural phenomena. Here, therefore, there lies ready to hand a means of determining the time of the year, and one which is ideed much more accurate than a method depending on a reference to the phases of Nature."

"To create constellations in which terrestrial objects, animals, and men are arbitrarily seen requires no considerable degree of imaginative power. The Pleiades however form themselves into a group without any aid from this imagination, and can without difficulty be recognized as such.

It is because they are easy to recognize immediately that the observation of these stars plays so important a part. A similar case is that of the Magellanic Clouds, which, where they are visible, belong to the best known phenomena of the heavens, and we may also compare the dark starless patches which so largely occupy the attention of primitive peoples, although neither of these two phenomena is used in determining time, since neither can be observed at the favourable moment, viz. the twilight."

(Nilsson)

I have earlier had great difficulty in getting a grip on where Matariki should be looked for in the calendar, but now - at last (?) - I have realized that the main difficulty is due to the difference between a new year and the beginning of a ritual calendar (I automatically had thought it was the same point in time):

heliacal rising	June	Matariki i raro
rising in the evening	November	Matariki i nika

When they rose with the sun the Tauono stars couldn't be seen of course. This phenomenon happens at the same time both north and south of the equator, but it is winter on Easter Island and summer on Hawaii.

Even if looked for both in the early morning and in the early evening they cannot be observed at all times. Makemson says that 'thirty or forty days' after their disappearance 'in the rays of the setting Sun toward the end of April' the Pleiades 'are visible on the eastern horizon just before dawn'. The rays from the sun 'kills' a part of the constellation. The stars are there, but cannot be seen.

invisible 30-40 days	April/May	Matariki i raro
heliacal rising	June	Matariki i raro
rising in the evening	November	Matariki i nika

Matariki i raro means the Pleiades cannot be seen during the night. They appear in the evening sky in the east in November and they are visible in the night sky until April/May, they are i nika (above). Before they disappear to become i raro (below), they have gradually changed position in the evening from the horizon in the east to the horizon in the west, and i nika ends when they are going down with the setting sun.

Matariki i nika	from rising in the evening at the eastern horizon to setting (after the sun) in the evening at the western horizon
Matariki i raro	from setting (in the evening) with the sun at the western horizon to rising at the eastern horizon (in the evening) in November

To determine if the Pleiades are i nika or i raro, you have to look in the night sky. When they cannot be found in the night sky, it is because they are above the horizon during the day. When the Pleiades are becoming visible again in the early evening night sky you must look towards east. When they have appeared, a new year can be determined (depending on the appearance of the moon).

When the Pleiades are becoming invisible again in the evening night sky, it happens when you look towards west in the early evening - and find that they have disappeared before the light from the sun has disappeared. The time is April/May.

When the Pleiades are rising heliacally in the early morning sky (June) they cannot be seen, but we know they have reappeared. It is time for the ritual calendar to begin:

30-40 days invisible	April/May	*Matariki i raro*
heliacal rising	June
start for ritual calendar	July
rising in the evening	November	Matariki i nika
new year	November/December	Matariki i nika

If you are looking for the Pleiades in the early morning sky, before sun 'destroys' them, the possible scenarios are bascially the same - the winter stars are different from the summer stars (though of course the summer stars south of the equator should be called winter stars north of the equator and vice versa). The Pleiades cannot be seen in the night sky more than during half the year, the other half they are not seen because it is day.