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TRANSLATIONS
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4. To build
a canoe (to 'create life') you need dry planks. The perspective
given by comparing toa with tao leads naturally to
the thought that toa represents either 'a dead (broken) canoe'
or the kind of dried plank necessary for building a
canoe. Given the
wood shortage on Easter Island the planks of 'dead canoes' certainly
were reused in building new vessels. According to Fischer tahua
means 'board, plank' and Large Washington Tablet has its curious
form because it has been reused as planking in a fishing boat.
The Easter Island language is unique in having toa as a
word for sugarcane. The other islands have to:
"1. Moa
toa, cock. P Pau., Mgv., Mq., Ta.: toa, brave. Mq.:
toa, male. (But Mgv.: toa, female.) 2. Sugarcane. T Pau.,
Mgv., Mq., Ta.: to, id. (To., Niuē:
to, id. Sa., Fu.:
tolo, id.) This form occurs only
in Rapanui. In New Zealand, where the plant does not grow, the name
is applied to any similar haulm." Churchill.
Then, to investigate what meanings are adhering to the word to
proves to be illuminating:
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To
1. Particle sometimes used with the
article in ancient legends; i uto to te hau, the
ribbon was in the float. 2. To rise (of the sun) during
the morning hours up to the zenith: he-to te raá.
Vanaga.
1. Of. T Pau., Ta.: to, of.
Mgv.: to, genitive sign. Mq.: to, of, for.
2. This, which. Churchill.
Mgv.: To, to make a canoe of
planks. Mq.: to, to build a canoe. Sa.: to,
to build. Churchill. |
Not only do we find the planking for canoes but
also a genitive sign and the early morning rise of the sun. We
realize one reason why the cock could be called moa toa. He
could be a symbol
for raising the sky roof (to let in the 'morning' light). The hard
wood timbers needed for raising the roof are toa,
ironwood:
Toa
1. Moa toa,
cock. P Pau., Mgv., Mq., Ta.: toa, brave.
Mq.: toa, male. (But Mgv.: toa,
female.) 2. Sugarcane. T Pau., Mgv., Mq., Ta.:
to, id. (To., Niuē:
to,
id. Sa., Fu.: tolo,
id.) This form occurs only in Rapanui. In New
Zealand, where the plant does not grow, the name
is applied to any similar haulm. Churchill.
Mgv.:
Toa,
ironwood. Ta.: toa,
id. Mq.: toa,
id. Sa.: toa,
id. Ha.: koa,
id. Churchill.
Ta.:
Toa,
a gout of blood. Sa.:
to'a,
to coagulate. Toatoa,
a bad smell of the sea. Sa.:
to'ato'a,
to smell bad. Churchill.
T. Warrior, the
tree aito (Casuarina). Henry.
T. Toa,
rock , coral. Churchill.
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Ironwood means hard
as iron, and Mars is the rusty planet.
The meaning 'to coagulate' (Samoan
to'a) makes me think there is another myth involved (in addition to
raising the sky roof by means of pillars or building a canoe to escape the
Flood).
In the ultimate beginning sky and
earth must be forced apart to let in the light. In the beginning the water
has inundated the whole world - number 16 = 4 * 4 is absent. Recreating the
world begins with sun and moon and stars, only later will earth rise up
above the waves again.
While once more slowly rereading Hamlet's
Mill I happened to find the 4 'Bacabs' (corners of the square earth)
involved in the (re)creation. Planks in a canoe are horizontal, but the
poles holding the sky roof high are vertical:
"Prometheus
was a 'pramantha', as were Quetzalcouatl, Tezcatlicpoca, the four Agnis, and
very many more, drilling or churning with 'Mount Mandara', or with Möndull:
why not call him Mundilfoeri, the axis-winger?
We have indeed,
Altaic stories about one or the other Mundilfoeri 'begetting' Sun and Moon.
Uno Holmberg states (Die religiösen Vorstellungen der altaischen Völker
(1958), pp. 22, 65, 89f.):
In the myths of the
Kalmucks the world mountain - Sumeru, Meru, alias Mandara - appears as the
means of creation. The world came into being, when four powerful gods got
hold of Mount Sumeru, and whirled it around in the primordial sea, just as a
Kalmuck woman turns the churning stick when preparing butter. Out of the
vehemently agitated sea came, among others, Sun, Moon, and stars.
The same
significance has, doubtless, the story of the Dorbots, according to which
once upon a time, before Sun and Moon existed, some being began to stir the
primordial ocean with a pole of 10,000 furlongs, thus bringing forth Sun and
Moon.
A similar creation
is described in a Mongolian myth, where a being coming from heaven - a Lama
it is supposed to have been, see Holmberg, Finno-Ugric Mythology, p.
328 - stirs up the primeval sea, until part of the fluid becomes solid.
These 'creation
myths' are more or less deteriorated survivals of the Amritamanthana, 'the
incomparably mighty churn', in the course of which one constellation after
the other emerged from the wildly agitated Milky Ocean." (Hamlet's Mill)
To 'coagulate' (to'a) is to
'create land' in a fluid.
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