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TRANSLATIONS
... The overturn of the sun
'king' (cfr Gb4-9) seems to be an event connected with
every 100th day.
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A curious 8-feathered creature (haú)
bends over in the first glyph on side b, and from his 'beak' a new
one is rising:
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98 |
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98 |
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98 |
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Ga1-30
(31) |
Ga5-19 |
Ga5-20 |
Ga8-26 |
Gb1-1 |
Gb4-9
(330) |
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100 |
100 |
100 |
5 * 20 (in Ga5-20) = 100 is a sign
of confirmation that we have counted right - 100 days have elapsed.
The time is the ominous 19th period:
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19 |
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Ga5-17 |
Ga5-18 |
Ga5-19 |
Ga5-20 |
Ga5-21 |
A spear, vero, (Ga5-17)
threatens to kill the king. Maybe henua here - both at Ga5-18
and Ga5-20 - alludes to the wooden staff of the spear:
"A vestige
of the practice of putting the king to death at the end of a year's
reign appears to have survived in the festival called Macahity,
which used to be celebrated in Hawaii during the last month of the
year.
About a
hundred years ago a Russian voyager described the custom as follows:
'The taboo Macahity is not unlike to our festival of
Christmas. It continues a whole month, during which the people amuse
themselves with dances, plays, and sham-fights of every kind. The
king must open this festival wherever he is.
On this
occasion his majesty dresses himself in his richest cloak and
helmet, and is paddled in a canoe along the shore, followed
sometimes by many of his subjects. He embarks early, and must finish
his excursion at sunrise.
The
strongest and most expert of the warriors is chosen to receive him
on his landing. The warrior watches the canoe along the beach; and
as soon as the king lands, and has thrown off his cloak, he darts
his spear at him, from a distance of about thirty paces, and the
king must either catch the spear in his hand, or suffer from it:
there is no jesting in the business.
Having
caught it, he carries it under his arm, with the sharp end
downwards, into the temple or heavoo. On his entrance, the
assembled multitude begin their sham-fights, and immediately the air
is obscured by clouds of spears, made for the occasion with blunted
ends.
Hamamea
(the king) has been frequently advised to abolish this ridiculous
ceremony, in which he risks his life every year; but to no effect.
His answer always is, that he is as able to catch a spear as any one
on the island is to throw it at him.
During the
Macahity, all punishments are remitted throughout the
country; and no person can leave the place in which he commences
these holidays, let the affair be ever so important.'" (The Golden
Bough) |
The logic is not strict: Even if we allow
the 'spear' (Ga5-20) by reason of 5* 20 = 100 to have
this position (instead of 101) - and thereby being in
harmony with Gb1-1 (at a true position of 201) - the
last overturning (Gb4-9) is in reality at position 300
(not at 301).
Maybe this indicates that Ga5-20 (the
spear caught by the king in midair) is the new season to
be ruled by the king, not a death sign at all but a sign
of rebirth. And similarly at right in Gb1-1 a new season
is rising. Only at 300 is sun's rule definitely over. He
is reborn twice, but not thrice.
The 8th 'feather' in Gb4-10 is converted
into a very straight vertical arm with a fist at the
top, the bud of next generation - not yet to be born. It
is dark, this time mauga has no eye at right:
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Gb4-6 |
Gb4-7 |
Gb4-8 |
Gb4-9 |
Gb4-10 |
Gb4-11 |
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Gb4-12 |
Gb4-13 |
Gb4-14 |
Gb4-15 |
Gb4-16 |
Gb4-17 |
Next pages:
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140 days (equal to the number
of glyphs before Ga1-29 and beyond Gb5-5) is a number which
appears to be significant also in the Tahua text:
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A key to our understanding is
delivered by hanau in Aa4-55, 18 glyphs ahead:
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4 * 35 (in
Aa4-35) = 140, but it is not a 'statement' equal to 140
days. It can only mean 70 days, I think. Or it is
irrelevant. (More or less so, of course, because every
sign must be 'in order'.)
The very broad
henua in Aa4-34 has a rising tendency (higher at
right), and it surely means the season of growth. Aa4-35
is only an additional confirmation.
305 - 20 =
285, and Aa4-35 is glyph number 286 counted from the
beginning of side a. The beginning of side a is
located 144 days before rima aueue. 12 * 12 = 144
days for spring could be just a convention, without
referring to the true number of days.
Aa4-36 and
Ab4-36 - both referring to 4 * 36 = 144 - strengthens my
assumption. And then we should remember from earlier (hanau
in the glyph dictionary):
Manu rere
in Kb3-3 (at day 140) is flapping his front wing. In
Aa4-56 (where 4 * 56 = 8 * 28) manu rere flaps
both his wings (likewise - presumably - in Gb1-4 and
Gb1-12).
Flapping both
wings indicates the same condition both at left and at
right, probably a sign of solstice. Manu rere
with both wings flapping is a strong sign, because it is
not a frequent sign. It does not occur anywhere else in
G (and never in K).
In Tahua
only Aa4-56 has a 'true' manu rere double
'flapper':
Aa5-28 is a composite bird, but both it
and manu rere in Aa4-56 has a joke at right - it
is not a flapping wing but a toki sign.
I have included Aa3-55 because of its
very clear front flapper. Maybe it corresponds to Kb3-3,
I thought:
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Aa3-48 |
Aa3-49 |
Aa3-50 |
Aa3-51 |
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112 = 4 * 28 |
113 |
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Aa3-52 |
Aa3-53 |
Aa3-54 |
Aa3-55 (230) |
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114 |
115 |
Let us return
to Aa4-34--35 with surrounding glyphs:
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Aa4-31 |
Aa4-32 |
Aa4-33 |
Aa4-34 |
Aa4-35 |
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ki te tagata amo
hia |
i te henua |
ko te tagata kua ui |
i tona henua |
kua moe ia kua huru
ia |
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Aa4-36 |
Aa4-37 |
Aa4-38 |
Aa4-39 |
Aa4-40 |
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i tona henua - kua oho te vae
- ku totohu - i tona henua - e mai tae kake hia
- ki te henua - ki uta ki te pito o te henua |
ko te henua - ma to rima |
At Te Pei,
we remember, it is possible that they went downhill (pei-âmo):
| Amo, âmo
Amo.
To carry on one's shoulders: O Yetú
i-amo-ai te tatauró ki ruga ki-te maúga
Kalvario. Jesus carried his cross up to
the Calvary. Amoga, bundle; to tie in
a bundle: he-amoga i te hukahuka, to
tie a bundle of wood. Vanaga.
1. A yoke, to carry;
amoga, burden, load. 2. To bend, to
beat a path. Churchill.
Âmo.
1. To clean, to clean oneself: he-âmo i
te umu, to clean the earth oven;
ka-âmo te hare, ka haka-maitaki, clean
the house, make it good; he-âmo i te
ariga, to clean one's face wetting it
with one's hand. 2. Clear; ku-âmo-á te
ragi, the sky is clear. 3. To slip, to
slide, to glide (see pei-âmo).
Ámoámo, to lick up, to lap up, to dry;
to slap one's body dry (after swimming or
bathing): he-âmoâmo i te vaihai rima.
Vanaga.
Amoamo.
1. To feed, to graze. 2. To spread, to
stretch (used of keete). Churchill. |
But
midsummer could also be a time for cleaning out the
oven, and the event of cleaning out the fires was
probably connected with 'binding' the old year:
...
Behold what was done when the years were bound -
when was reached the time when they were to draw the
new fire, when now its count was accomplished. First
they put out fires everywhere in the country round.
And the statues, hewn in either wood or stone, kept
in each man's home and regarded as gods, were all
cast into the water.
Also (were) these (cast away) - the pestles and the
(three) hearth stones (upon which the cooking pots
rested); and everywhere there was much sweeping -
there was sweeping very clear. Rubbish was thrown
out; none lay in any of the houses
...
They bound
Hercules at midsummer.
A bundle
of wood is like a pack of 'sticks' (henua),
the bunch of periods ('limbs') constituting the
tagata of the past season. What is left after
the fluids have left the body.
And
Homer made clear signs:
... He
bore a grievous weight of dry wood, which he cast
down with a din inside the cave, so that in fear all
fled to hide. Lifting a huge doorstone, such as two
and twenty good four-wheeled wains could not have
raised from the ground, he set this against the
mouth of the cave, sat down, milked his ewes and
goats, and beneath each placed her young, after
which he kindled a fire and spied his guests
...
22
probably indicates half a cycle (i.e. one eye). The
grievous weight of dry wood is a confirming sign -
the growing season is over, now it all has turned
into 'straw'. The giant threw it down, an abrupt
movement resulting in everybody hiding - none out in
the light anymore. The abrupt downward crash is what
happens to spring sun at midsummer.
As to
huru, which has no obvious corresponding sign in
Aa4-35, it makes me remember the golden fleece:
| 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. |
The moe
glyph type, we found, could be indicating the glow
before rising.
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