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TRANSLATIONS
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2.
If the basic glyph type rima aueue has no 'knee', which I have guessed, then the visual impression is that
of a
fluid.
Undulations usually means there is a fluid of some sort. If, on
the other hand, what is illustrated was an arm or leg, there should be sharper bends (elbows, knees) than what
my suggested
basic glyph type evidently shows.
Possibly the supposed fluid is blood, toto.
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Toto
1. Blood; he-gaaha te toto mai roto
mai te haoa, blood gushes from inside the wound;
toto hatukai, coagulated blood. 2. Rust; to rust.
Vanaga.
Blood, bloody, to let blood, to make
bloody, to bleed, to dissolve, rust; ariga toto,
florid, ruddy complexion; hakatehe ki te toto, to
bleed; toto pine, to bruise; toto ohio,
iron rust. Mgv., Mq.: toto, blood. Ta.: toto,
blood, sap. Churchill |
At Aa4-36--37 Metoro mentioned totohu (whatever
he meant by that):
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Aa4-36 |
Aa4-37 |
| i tona
henua - kua oho te vae - ku totohu - i tona henua - e
mai tae kake hia |
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3.
In the text of G the 359th (counted from Gb8-30) glyph has at right
a sign of rima aueue integrated in tagata as if it was
an arm:
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Gb5-5 (359) |
Gb5-6 |
Gb5-7 |
Gb5-8 |
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Gb5-9 |
Gb5-10 |
Gb5-11 |
Gb5-12 (366) |
Then comes a tagata in standard form (Gb5-6) as day number 360. I guess
this peculiar arrangement of two tagata glyphs could
indicate that before the standard form can be presented the
body fluids
must escape:
"Embalming is known and
practised with surprising skill in one particular family of chiefs.
Unlike the Egyptian method, as described by Herodotus, it is
performed in Samoa exclusively by women.
The viscera
being removed and buried, they, day after day, anoint the body with
a mixture of oil and aromatic juices. To let the fluids escape, they
continue to puncture the body all over with fine needles.
In about two months,
the process of desiccation is completed. The hair, which had been
cut and laid aside at the commencement of the operation, is now
glued carefully on to the scalp by a resin from the bush. The
abdomen is filled up with folds of native cloth; the body is wrapped
up with folds of the same material, and laid out on a mat, leaving
the hands, face, and head exposed." (Turner and Stair according to
Bierbach)
In other words tagata - in its standard form without
additional signs - could be similar to the moai statues, they
represent forefathers, different individuals in the past exhibited
in a standard form - like mummies.
The stone statues are said to be ariga ora, living images.
Tagata glyphs of this standard kind are also presenting their
faces (en face).
Probably the eyes - in which life, ora, is located - are
expressed in tagata glyphs by the ovals where ears normally are
to be found, not only because of the sun symbols once adorning the ears of
the inhabitants of Easter Island, but mainly because in the
rongorongo system of writing no part of any entity can be drawn
inside the perimeter of its sign. |
Another explanation for two
tagata may be that it is because the season of Y requires two. The two
months of embalming could be from 10 to 12, and tagata at 359 could
refer to the 3rd quarter, the one at 360 to the 4th.
The 'elbow' at 359 possibly is the same kind of sign as that at left in
vaha kai (Gb5-10). And it could be a viri sign.
Number 1 stands for (tu'u) the first season of the
year, spring. Then comes the season of straw (Y), which means that our
figure 2 ought to give some clues. Like the Maya system of writing our
number symbols seem to be facing towards left (instead of towards right as
in rongorongo). Because 2 ought to be written with the horizontal
line at bottom first, followed by a sign of the turn at summer solstice. The
end of 2 comes at top left.
Viri has the general form of our figure 3. It ought to
illustrate another turn, i.e. basically indicating winter solstice.
If the arm at right in 359 has a viri sign it must be
reversed. Next pages:
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4.
Body fluids come in several varieties, not only blood. The inverted
toa sign at left in Gb5-5 suggests the fluid at right could
be a case of
'spittle':
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Gb5-5 |
In Popol Vuh, we have seen (at kava), how the maiden
Blood Moon received 'spittle' in her open 'hand', because she
insisted:
The state of the tree
loomed large in their thoughts, because it came about at the same
time the head of One Hunaphu was put in the fork. The Xibalbans said
among themselves: 'No one is to pick the fruit, nor is anyone to go
beneath the tree', they said. They restricted themselves, all of
Xibalba held back.
It isn't
clear which is the head of One Hunaphu; now it's exactly the same as
the fruit of the tree. Calabash came to be its name, and much was
said about it. A maiden heard about it, and here we shall tell of
her arrival. And here is the account of a maiden, the daughter of a
lord named Blood Gatherer.
And this
is when a maiden heard of it, the daughter of a lord. Blood Gatherer
is the name of her father, and Blood Moon is the name of the maiden.
And when he heard the account of the fruit of the tree, her father
retold it. And she was amazed at the account: I'm not acquainted
with that tree they talk about. It's fruit is truly sweet! they say,
I hear, she said. Next, she went all alone and arrived where the
tree stood. It stood at the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice. What?
Well! What's the fruit of this tree? Shouldn't this tree bear
something sweet? They shouldn't die, they shouldn't be wasted.
Should I pick one? said the maiden.
And then
the bone spoke; it was there in the fork of the tree: Why do you
want a mere bone, a round thing in the branches of a tree? said the
head of One Hunaphu when it spoke to the maiden. You don't want it,
she was told. I do want it, said the maiden. Very well. Stretch out
your right hand here, so I can see it, said the bone. Yes, said the
maiden. She stretched out her right hand, up there in front of the
bone. And then the bone spit out its saliva, which landed squarely
in the hand of the maiden.
And then
she looked in her hand, she inspected it right away, but the bone's
saliva wasn't in her hand. It is just a sign I have given you, my
saliva, my spittle. This, my head, has nothing on it - just bone,
nothing of meat. It's just the same with the head of a great lord:
it's just the flesh that makes his face look good. And when he dies,
people get frightened by his bones. After that, his son is like his
saliva, his spittle, in his being, whether it be the son of a lord
or the son of a craftsman, an orator. The father does not disappear,
but goes on being fulfilled. Neither dimmed nor destroyed is the
face of a lord, a warrior, craftsman, an orator. Rather, he will
leave his daughters and sons. So it is that I have done likewise
through you ...
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5.
At the end of the old year a new must be generated, a son formed
in the sp(l)itting image of his father. But in between there must be a
female, a receptacle which is capable of decreasing entropy, to
rebuild a fresh 'baby'.
A toa sign is formed like Y, a receptacle. Henua ora
is also formed like a receptacle, and its use in the rongorongo
system has made me rename it (half jokingly) 'the recycling station'
to make it more understandable. I quote Ogotemmêli:
"... In the upper part
of the façade, as a pendant to the calabash on the right which
represents the sun, it is a drawing of the moon, either full or as a
crescent. This is a reminder, on the left-hand side, of the
celestial regions. In the remaining space on the wall there are
various ritual objects and animals in no particular order: the
priest's forked staff, which is a symbol of both masculinity and
femininity; the shaft itself, which is breast-high, is male, the
female part is the fork in which the priest rests his forefinger,
itself a symbol of the male ..."
In one instance only is henua ora inverted (like toa
in Gb5-5):
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Gb5-5 |
Kb4-19 |
It should mean the opposite of entering the recycling station (to
die), viz. to be born again. The head in Kb4-19 is separated from
the rest of the body, like the skull of One Hunaphu.
I conclude that one way the rima aueue glyph type was
used, was to represent an
exchange of body fluids.
Keeping this in mind, it will presumably be more easy to
understand such glyphs as Ga8-7, where the gaping tail of waning
moon at right is connected to a flame of the sun extended lengthily
into a sign of rima aueue:
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Ca8-7 |
| ko te ahi kua ka i
te rima aueue |
Moon
has her life (light) restored by bathing in the living water of
Tane, and the women they shout aue:
"... In
a very high degree, then, a-u-e is represented by a
common English interjection 'oh my!' in which oh = a, my
= u, and e = !" (Churchill)
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Mayan u
means the moon.
We ought to understand why Metoro
said kava at some rima aueue glyphs, e.g.:
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Ca7-21 |
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te kava |
Kava
is prepared by the women, who mix their saliva with the root they
are chewing. In order to close the cycle of fluid
exchange it seems that woman must first chew the 'old root' and give to the man
before he can return.
Maybe the 'knee'
is to be understoodas a joint - the place where the two 'bones' (old and
new) connect.
In Ca7-21 the
old waning moon (left) is located higher than the waxing new moon (right).
The fluid will run from the old one to the new - without any involvement of
sun. At winter solstice (presumably identified with the time of full moon)
there cannot be any flow of 'living water'. The surface is flat. Therefore,
the normal presentation (in the Mamari moon calendar) of the flow cannot be used at full moon:
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Ca7-21 |
Ca7-22 |
Ca7-23 |
Ca7-24 (36) |
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