TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

2. Toga also means winter, the dark season when sun is living with his other wife far out across the sea in the north. Furthermore, it is the name of a wooden platform for a dead chief.

In Van Tilburg's book is illustrated how such platforms can be constructed, using forked vertical poles:

Y-forms are in the rongorongo texts presumably meant to illustrate the season of straw (in contrast to the season of leaf).

3. On Tahiti toa (another spelling of toga) means 'south', and in the tropical belt the distinction between summer and winter breaks down - there are two seasons when sun is away. Yet, with southwest being the direction to the setting sun and northeast the direction to the rising sun north is closer to the beginning than south. Tahiti and most other Polynesian islands are located south of the equator.

The glyph type I have named toga could be a fusion between ihe tau and toa:


*ihe tau*	toga	toa

Furthermore, toga appears to be the opposite of hua:


hua	toga
new	old

In hua a left arm is fruitful, in toga a right arm indicates the opposite. In hua the 'path' runs from left upwards, then to the right and down again, in toga it leads from left downwards, then to the right and up again.

4. The following sequence of glyphs is referred to in Barthel 2 as an example of toga in the mening of a wooden platform for the dead:


Bb8-37	Bb8-38	Bb8-39
mai tae topa te Raa	ki to ua	ai ka topa te Raa

Bb8-40	Bb8-41	Bb8-42
i te hokohuki - ka hua ia	mai tae atu ki te tagata - hupee hia	ka tuu i te toga

We can see the arrival of rain (ua) which could explain why Sun (Raa) is descending (topa) - Sun drops down and the raindrops are falling. It is fall.

Topa

1. To bend down, to drop to the ground; to fall on a certain date. 2. To stop doing something, to drop; ina ekó topa taau aga, do not stop, keep doing your work. 3. To remain, to be left over, to be unfinished; he topa te kai, the food is not finished, there is some left. 4. To come to one's memory; i te aamu he topa te vânaga tûai, in the legends old words come to memory. 5. To remember, to reflect (with mana'u as subject); e-topa rivariva tokorua mana'u ki te me'e nei, let the two of you think carefully about this thing. Vanaga.

1. Wine; topa tahaga, id. 2. To fall in drops, to descend, to go down, to abdicate; topa iho, to fall; hakatopa, to knock down, to cause to fall; hakatopa ki raro, to knock down, to subjugate. 3. Childbirth, abortion; topa te poki, to lie in. 4. A feast, to feast. 5. To arrive, to result; topa rae, newcome; topa iho, to come unexpectedly; topa ke, to deviate; topa no mai, topa hakanaa, topa tahaga, mau topa pu, unexpected; topa okotahi, solitary; hakatotopa, to excite, to foment. 6. Bad, low, cheap, failure; igoa topa, nickname; ariga topa, sinister, sly, ill-tempered, to hang the head; hakatopa, to disparage; hakatotopa, irresolute. 7. (Of upward movement) topa ki raro, to scale, to surpass; hakatopa ki te ao, to confer a dignity; hakatopa ki te kahu, to spread a sail; hakatotopa, to make a genealogy. Churchill.

There is, though, a problem. Bb8-42 has what seems to be a reversed ihe tau sign at left, the glyph is saying something else than the normal. We can compare with the normal orientation in e.g. Bb10-35:


Bb10-35	Bb8-42

I imagine Bb8-40--42 - which is initiated with a glyph exhibiting a hua at right - could be talking about how important the autumn rains are for next generation (rather than the subject being a wooden platform).

If we compare what could be a toga with a reversed ihe tau with my normal toga we can see several differences:


Bb10-35	Bb8-42	toga

In Bb8-42 the Y-form at right seems to have been drawn with the intention to show a toa.

This straight toa forms the right side of a composition which may allude to haga rave:


haga rave	Bb8-42	toa

The straight right side of what could be a reversed ihe tau resembles the straight side of non-reversed ihe tau in Bb10-35. Both these straight sides could be signs of 'measurment strings'. In Bb10-35 the straight line is leaning forward - maybe saying the winter solstice (or similar) is ahead.

In the summary at ihe tau two glyphs are presented:


ihe tau	Ab1-37	Ca7-27	marama

The marama glyph type means 'night' and it shows a waxing moon crescent. If ihe tau is a picture of half a moon crescent, it is the half of a waning moon crescent. In Ca7-27 such half a waning moon crescent has been turned upside down - the waxing moon season has arrived. No, that cannot be correct. If we turn an ihe tau sign around (180°) it will be turned upside down and then the curved outside line will be at left, no longer at right. Therefore it is half a waxing moon crescent which has been turned around - the waning moon season has arrived.

At left in Ab1-37 the half waning moon crescent has been 'killed' by the gap in its circumference. At right the 'living' ihe tau sign is unusual - it shows a marama sign, I would say. The whole waxing crescent is at right and living, the half waning crescent is 'dead' at left.

In Bb8-40 the tao sign at left has also been 'killed' by the gap (here at right) in its circumference:


Bb8-40	Bb8-41	Bb8-42

The moon seems to define how a toga glyph should be read. The sun could therefore define how a hua glyph should be read. Sun has the waxing season of the year, moon the waning. This could be the basic rule, from which variations can be constructed.

There are two bends in Bb8-40, first in 'south' then in 'north'.