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TRANSLATIONS
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Now only two
glyphs remain to study in H, both with tahana as a sign at
right and integrated with the main figure:
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Among all the possible numerical
cues this type carries much weight, when counting ordinal numbers gives a
result equal to the multiplication of line number with ordinal number in the
line. What more 'proof' can be given? Answer: when we have 'deciphered' all
glyph types and all added types of signs, then the definite proof can be
given by reading the text from the beginning to its end and then comparing
the result with what all the other rongorongo texts are saying.
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Reviewing what we
have seen in H it can be stated that tahana glyphs have to do
with the cycle of the sun, and to be more precise, his comings and
goings. He is born at winter solstice and changes his habits at
summer solstice. From a season of 'leaf' he changes into 'straw'.
Furthermore,
tahana glyphs tend to come in pairs (like the two hulls of a
canoe). And a construction involving hakaturou is following
in the first of the pairs:
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Possibly what is rising is vapour, because sun is heating up the
earth in spring. Beyond midsummer water is coming down in rain form,
and even a little child understands that the rain water must first
have been uplifted into the sky.
The
normal form of pu glyphs suggests two 'water pools', but there
is a variant without such:
If
sun in spring is drawing up all water from the pools on the surface
of the earth, then the variant without 'holes' naturally would tend
to appear before midsummer (when there is no more water to 'suck
up'). And at - or immediately after - midsummer there would be a
tendency for (waterfilled) 'holes' to once again appear on earth and
in the rongorongo texts. St John the Baptist is located at
midsummer.
Fingers (and toes) were fire symbols in Polynesia (cfr how Maui
played tricks on his ancestress Mahuika), and in the rongorongo
system of writing fingers may have been used also to indicate water,
possibly in such glyphs as these:
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Db1-103 |
Pa2-42 |
Ab7-59 |
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Da3-108 |
Na4-101 |
Aa1-74 |
This
explanation of the sign at right in Ha7-38 (meaning that the time of
water reversal has been reached because the 'pools' on earth are
dried up) carries implicitly with it the assumption that it is a
variant of henua which is used in the pu glyphs.
In
Hawaii one of the names of Saturn was Dripping Water, and in
Saturday we can first see droplets in Hb9-54 and then, in Hb9-55,
the resulting waterfilled holes:
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Hb9-51 |
Hb9-52 |
Hb9-53 |
Hb9-54 |
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Hb9-55 |
Hb9-56 |
Hb9-57 |
Hb9-58 |
(Henua
in Hb9-57 is a variant of the 'midnight henua', and the
preceding Rei indicates a new 'season' is beginning, a season
which we ought to identify as next week. Saturday is the day both of
ending and a new beginning. From the water rises a new 'earth'.)
Furthermore, the explanation of the sign at right in Ha7-38 also
'casts light' on another phenomenon, viz. how to understand the name
Ohiro for the first night when the new moon is visible.
| Hiro
1. A deity invoked when praying for
rain (meaning uncertain). 2. To twine tree fibres (hauhau,
mahute) into strings or ropes. Vanaga.
To spin, to twist. P Mgv.: hiro,
iro, to make a cord or line in the native manner
by twisting on the thigh. Mq.: fió, hió,
to spin, to twist, to twine. Ta.: hiro, to twist.
This differs essentially from the in-and-out movement
involved in hiri 2, for here the movement is that
of rolling on the axis of length, the result is that of
spinning. Starting with the coir fiber, the first
operation is to roll (hiro) by the palm of the
hand upon the thigh, which lies coveniently exposed in
the crosslegged sedentary posture, two or three threads
into a cord; next to plait (hiri) three or other
odd number of such cords into sennit. Hirohiro,
to mix, to blend, to dissolve, to infuse, to inject, to
season, to streak with several colors; hirohiro ei
paatai, to salt. Hirohiroa, to mingle;
hirohiroa ei vai, diluted with water. Churchill.
Ta.: Hiro, to exaggerate. Ha.:
hilohilo, to lengthen a speech by mentioning
little circumstances, to make nice oratorial language.
Churchill.
Ohirohiro
Waterspout (more exactly pú
ohirohiro), a column of water which rises spinning
on itself. Vanaga. |
A
fresh new moon is rising from having bathed in the Living Water
of Tane:
... when the new
moon appeared women assembled and bewailed those who had died
since the last one, uttering the following lament: 'Alas! O
moon! Thou has returned to life, but our departed beloved ones
have not. Thou has bathed in the waiora a Tane, and had
thy life renewed, but there is no fount to restore life to our
departed ones. Alas'...
Moon
is rising by some force similar to a waterspout (ohirohiro).
The heat of Tane is the cause. Boiling will make the
steam rise, flames always rise, the force of rising is heat.
Cooling in the night will cause water to come down and form dew
on the ground.
At full moon the process of rising is completed, the name
Omotohi ('End-of-Sucking') is in complete agreement.
I.e., full moon and midsummer are structurally related - they
are points of turning around from waxing to waning, from
'sucking' to 'spewing':
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Cb14-17 |
Aa6-66 |
Ca3-7 |
Nb2-112 |
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