TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

Another example of an ingenious double focus is offered by the two notable pare glyphs, which should be possible to interpret both in a short and in a long perspective. Counting glyphs beyond winter solstice (at Hb7-40) the following results emerge:

			137
Ha3-10 (118)	Ha3-11	Ha3-12		Ha10-30	Ha10-31	Ha10-32 (534)
140 = 120 / 3 + 100				278 = 178 + 100

From Ha3-11 to Ha10-31 there are 533 - 119 = 414 glyphs. In other words, between them is measured out 14 * 29.5 = 413 glyphs, a number which suggests the reader can use the glyphs from the double Rei in Ha3-12 (where 3 * 12 = 36) up to and including Ha10-30 (where 10 * 30 = 300) to count a 'grand moon' cycle (where 14 lunar months is similar to the number of nights in a fortnight). But in Ha10-32 we can read how manu rere is delivering a new 'tamaiti' ('fruit'), cfr the difference compared with Ha10-30. Tama should be at 14 * 29.5 = 413 and we can therefore deduce that we should count days from Ha3-13 (from 3-13 to 413). A superficial reading will end here.

We should, however, notice that glyph number 118 (Ha3-10) obviously is related to Ha10-30, the one indicates 30 and the other 300. Furthermore, 118 days (we have just learnt) is the number of nights before the summer sun child will appear, according to the 'multiplication' (creation) pattern with 432 days. Pare in Ha3-11 clearly illustrates his arrival, although the counting has been done in glyphs (from Ha1-1) and not in days.

Moe in Ha3-10 is of the type which according to Metoro has 3 eyes (manu mata etoru). We can guess why - the bird's head is the first mata and it represents those 58 days at the beginning when no light existed. Then comes first moon and later sun (the two eyes which are visible as separate units outside the beak). Sun is the youngest of them and he is close to the tip of the beak. In pare the double eyes are formed like a horizontal 8, with the moon at left and somewhat larger (exactly as on the moe beak). It cannot mean moon is shining stronger than the sun, instead it should be interpreted to say that moon is older than sun. To the right of the 'staff' in Ha10-32 moon is returning we can see. 10-32 probably alludes to the completed 10 months of sun 'multiplication (32).

If we now try instead to count from the black mago (Hb9-63) and use 3 glyphs per day these numbers will emerge:


Hb9-63	Hb9-64	Hb9-65 (1125)	Ha10-30	Ha10-31	Ha10-32 (534)
1			236 = 58 + 178

236, we remember from the G text, and 8 * 29.5 = 236:


Gb1-6 (236)	Gb1-7

10 * 32 = 320 days and then remain 4 * 28 = 112 to add in order to reach 432:

sun	moon
*10 32**	*4 28**
320	112
432 days (= 1296 glyphs / 3)

Pare seems to indicate we should focus on sun present and sun abroad, but avoid diving down into the underworld.

We can then turn to the text of G to see if we can find those 58 incredibly dark nights at the very beginning of everything. In a way the year must begin again already from day 400, but several alternatives for a starting point for counting can be seen:


Gb6-17 (400)	Gb6-18	Gb6-19	Gb6-20	Gb6-21	Gb6-22	Gb6-23	Gb6-24

Gb6-25	Gb6-26 (409)	Gb6-27	Gb6-28	Gb7-1	Gb7-2	Gb7-3 (414)	Gb7-4

Earlier we have identified the honu without legs (he does not need any because he does not move) as positioned at winter solstice. From Gb6-26 to the end of side b there are 64 glyphs. I now suggest that even if winter solstice is observed at day 409 (counted from Gb8-30) the new calendar cycle will begin somewhat later (that is how our own calendar is constructed too).

We could for instance chose as a starting point tamaiti (Gb7-3), because he probably personifies the spring half of the new year. If we do so, we can find 58 days, from tamaiti to the last glyph on side b there are 471 - 413 = 58 glyphs. Gb8-30 has number 472 but it has already been counted in order to reach 414 at Gb7-3.

The consequences of this view must now be elaborated, so that there can no mistake. We must also rule out chance resemblances between H and G, e.g. the idea that the midwinter tamaiti at Gb7-3 just 'happens' to look like the midsummer tamaiti at Ha7-13:

	236
Ha7-13 (177)	236	Gb7-3 (414)

In Ha7-13 the day number is 177 (= 357 / 3 + 58) = 6 * 29.5 and 236 = 8 * 29.5. The 'bulge' is at left in the summer tamaiti, but at right in the winter tamaiti. Furthermore, the summer child has two 'eyes', one at left and one at right. The winter tamaiti has another sign at left, where an 'eye' normally is expected. But here nothing can be at left, because Gb7-3 is the first glyph in the cycle of 14 lunar months.

7 * 13 (in Ha7-13) is equal to a quarter (91 days). In Gb7-3 we can count 7 * 3 = 21. Both 91 and 21 are examples similar to 11 (which is 'one more' than 10) - 91 is 'one more' than 90 and 21 is 'one more' than 20. The idea of 'one more' naturally associates to a newborn child.

472 is more than 1296 / 3 = 432, 40 more (which suggests 'one more' than 400).

The distance from winter solstice to those incredibly dark nights is 414 - 409 = 5 days, maybe to indicate 'fire' or maybe to indicate 365 - 360, or maybe both. Or maybe neither. Those 5 days correspond to 42 'imaginary' nights in H. It is not important to know their exact number. Unless we should count from winter solstice to some later date.

When we in H arrive at day 236 we have counted from the dark mago in Hb9-63:


Hb9-63	Hb9-64	Hb9-65 (1125)	Ha10-30	Ha10-31	Ha10-32 (534)
1			236 = 58 + 178

When we in G have found 236 as a day beyond which sun seems to be vanishing, we have not counted with any 58 dark days before Gb8-30:


Gb1-6 (236)	Gb1-7

If we try to add those 58 dark days (from tamaiti at day 414 up to and including day 471 at Gb8-29), day number 236 will come earlier and on side a:

31
	Ga7-5	Ga7-6	Ga7-7 (177)	Ga7-8	Ga7-9	Ga7-10
	233	234	235	236	237	238

58 + 178 = 236 and 6 * 29.5 = 177. The period number is 31, the last of them. Half 236 is 118 (= 4 * 29.5) and if we locate this day we will find the glyph in period number 1:

1
	Ga2-27	Ga2-28	Ga2-29 (60)	Ga3-1	Ga3-2	Ga3-3	Ga3-4	Ga3-5
	116	117	118	119	120	121	122	123

By using the 58 dark days at the beginning of the calendar round, the creator of the text has accomplished reaching 4 * 29.5 at Ga2-29. By adding 2 * 29 to 60 (which has been counted from Gb8-30) the sum will be equal to 4 * 29.5.

The strange variant of niu in Ga2-29 (alluding to 2 * 29 = 58) enables the counting of lunar months to be coordinated with a beginning in absolute darkness.

Furthermore, we can imagine the newborn midwinter child to be like a little black shark (mago):

		... to the east, there is Tama, whose addition 'an evil fish with a long nose' is explained by Juan Tepano to mean 'a shark' ... and may be connected with the youngest son of Hotu Matua ...
Gb7-3 (1)	Hb9-63 (1)

Niu is a word which may have been in the head of the creative person who gave the name niuhi to the hammerhead shark.

Niuhi

Niuhi tapaka'i. Hammerhead shark (symbol of fierceness). Vanaga.

Shark. T (ninki T). Mq.: niuhi, a large fish resembling the shark. Churchill.

Ga2-29 (118)

Why is there a shark in Hb9-63 and not a tamaiti (or the reverse: why is there not a shark at Gb7-3)?

Following the moon (in G) does not invite to thinking about what sun is doing those 5 dark days outside 'law and order'. Moon continues as usual and does not care. But the child is important for her. Therefore tamaiti must be mentioned in the text, he has a station for himself. Which automatically excludes a shark image.

The text of H seems to be more preoccupied with sun than moon, with even mentioning those 42 nights when sun goes deep. When the new sun child miraculously is born, he is on his way upward like a shark from the depths of the sea. Later he will walk on land. A shark on land must be introduced when he is in the sea.

The shark in G first is rising straight up and depicted as vaha mea, then half a year later the shark makes a turn and becomes mago:

open jaws
	180
Ga1-4 (5)		Ga7-16 (186)
vaha mea		mago
182

In G we do not need to think in triplets of glyphs, and changing the counting from Gb8-30 to tamaiti at Gb7-3 does not change the distance between the two sharks. They will remain half a year apart.

If we try in H to do the reverse operation, to begin with mago and go forward to vaha mea, it is rather obvious that we must go to the white (waning) vaha mea:

open jaws
	181
Hb9-63 (1123)		Ha7-31 (375)
mago mea ke		vaha tea
1		183
182

The first 180 days (counted from the black mago) stretch up to and including Ha7-22:

363
363	*Ha7-20	*Ha7-21	*Ha7-22 (366)
121 days	day number 180 = 366 / 3 + 58

Vaha tea (so to say) belongs to the 2nd half of the year, and reading Ha7-31 together with the following tagata hau tea naturally induces us to think vaha tea:


*Ha7-23	Ha7-24	*Ha7-25 (369)	*Ha7-26	*Ha7-27	*Ha7-28
181			182

*Ha7-29	*Ha7-30	*Ha7-31 (375)	*Ha7-32	*Ha7-33	*Ha7-34
183 = 375 / 3 + 58			184

*Ha7-35	*Ha7-36	*Ha7-37	*Ha7-38	*Ha7-39	*Ha7-40
185			186

In G we have 472 - 182 = 290 days which lie outside the mea season, 10 times 29 indicates a dark season.

In H we have 1296 - 3 * 58 - 375 = 747 glyphs outside the mago season. 747 / 3 = 249 nights. We should probably take away 42 of them: 249 - 42 = 207 = 9 * 23 (32 reversed). In Ha7-39 tapa mea is reversed. Twice 207 = 414 (= 9 * 46), there we have the reason. 183 days in the sun and 207 in moon = 390 in all.