My sudden insight that the
henua type of glyph (GD37) probably has as its
origin the fact that trees all over the world marked
time not only by illustrating the seasons through their
visible changes (flowering, leaves budding, fruits
ripening, leaves being dropped etc), but also - more
subtly - by some
species being picked out as seasonal markers regularly
located over the year (e.g. 13 kinds of trees each
'governing' 28 days), may explain the occurences of e.g.
these types of glyphs:
 |
 |
 |
|
Ab6-42 |
Ab4-23 |
Aa7-74 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Qb6-128 |
Kb3-15 |
Eb3-19 |
Metoro normally
said henua when referring to GD37 glyphs. That
word does not mean 'tree' or 'wood', but is an
expression which describes what the GD37 glyph
symbolized, viz. the 'land' (which changes in its cycles
over the year):
| Henua Land, ground, country; te tagata noho i ruga i te henua the
people living on the earth. Placenta: henua o te poki. Vanaga.
1. Land, country, region; henua tumu, native land. 2. Uterus. 3.
Pupuhi henua, volley. Churchill.
M.: Whenua, the Earth; the whole earth: I pouri
tonu te rangi me te whenua i mua. 2. A country or district: A e
tupu tonu mai nei ano i te pari o taua whenua. Tangata-whenua,
natives of a particular locality: Ko nga tangata-whenua ake ano o
tenei motu. Cf. ewe, the land of one's birth. 3. The
afterbirth, or placenta: Ka taka te whenua o te tamaiti ki te moana.
Cf. ewe, the placenta. 4. The ground, the soil: Na
takoto ana i raro i te whenua, kua mate. 5. The land, as opposed to
the water: Kia ngaro te tuapae whenua; a, ngaro rawa, ka tahi ka
tukua te punga. Text Centre. |
We have here an example
showing that Metoro might have 'translated' the
rongorongo glyphs not by explaining the picture but
by explaining what the picture meant. We must remember
that.
At the start of the X-area
we do not find henua (Gd37) but niu
(GD18), although much points at these niu glyphs
are standing at the exact beginning of the new year:
 |
 |
|
Aa1-13 |
Pa5-67 |
How may that be explained?
Is a picture of a tree too trivial? The halo around the
head of a holy 'person' would be difficult to picture in
a rongorongo glyph (because such glyphs show only
outlines). Radiating light in all directions would be
easier drawn (as in niu).
The picture
is from Wikipedia: 'Madonna and Child' by Ambrogio
Lorenzetti. I searched for 'swaddling', with the idea
that I would find some picture of how Polynesians
swaddled their newborn babies. However I did not find
any such information.
Newborn
babies do not show their arms and legs, because they
have been swaddled. That could explain the shape of
Pa5-70 (and similar glyphs):
"The child has hardly
left the mother's womb, it has hardly
begun to move and stretch its limbs,
when it is given new bonds. It is
wrapped in swaddling bands, laid down
with its head fixed, its legs stretched
out, and its arms by its sides; it is
wound round with linen and bandages of
all sorts so that it cannot move …
Whence comes this
unreasonable custom? From an unnatural
practice. Since mothers despise their
primary duty and do not wish to nurse
their own children, they have had to
entrust them to mercenary women. These
women thus become mothers to a
stranger's children, who by nature mean
so little to them that they seek only to
spare themselves trouble. A child
unswaddled would need constant watching;
well swaddled it is cast into a corner
and its cries are ignored …
It is claimed that
infants left free would assume faulty
positions and make movements which might
injure the proper development of their
limbs. This is one of the vain
rationalizations of our false wisdom
which experience has never confirmed.
Out of the multitude of children who
grow up with the full use of their limbs
among nations wiser than ourselves, you
never find one who hurts himself or
maims himself; their movements are too
feeble to be dangerous, and when they
assume an injurious position, pain warns
them to change it." (Wikipedia citing
Jean Jacques Rousseau - Emile: Or, On
Education, 1762.)
Barthel
suggested that 'no-legs-visible' might
indicate 'a god' (gods do not
need to move):
"Für das Zeichen 290,
[the type of glyph which I have here
exemplified by Hb8-136 - maybe 'a
swaddled person' with winglike arms]
das den
Götternamen 'mata viri' bzw. 'ruanuku'
vorangeht, wurde die Lesart 'atua' noch in
weiteren Textzusammenhängen geprüft."
"Im
Tafeltext Gr5 folgen die Zeichen 20 [he means the right
part of Ga5-10] und 79 [Ga5-11] als 'mata -
viri' aufeinander. Es liegt nahe, das vorangehende
Zeichen 290 [the left part of Ga5-10] als 'atua'
zu deuten. Zeichen 290, mit seinem massigen Leib und den
fehlenden Beinen, könnte möglicherweise ein Idol aus
Stein oder Holz darstellen und den Begriff der Gottheit
symolisierien."
 |
 |
 |
- |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Ga5-10 |
Ga5-11 |
Ga5-12 |
Ga5-13 |
Ga5-14 |
Ga5-15 |
Ga5-16 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
... |
|
Kb1-12 |
Kb1-13 |
Kb1-14 |
Kb1-15 |
Kb1-16 |
As to
ruanuku he refers to Ab6-82:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Ab6-76 |
Ab6-77 |
Ab6-78 |
Ab6-79 |
Ab6-80 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Ab6-81 |
Ab6-82 |
Ab6-83 |
Ab6-84 |
Ab6-85 |
Neither of these two examples
convinces me that we should read atua (mata
viri respectively ruanuku). Ga5-10--16
(and the parallel text in K) has as its subject
matter the
period when sun turns around at midsummer and
the right part of Ab6-82 may symbolize the 'double
faces' as seen in Ab6-47 and Ab6-54 (possibly Mars
respectively Venus).
Though of course Barthel may
still be right - given that there are gods representing
midsummer respectively the double 'faces' of Mars /
Venus.
'No legs' may also be a way of making
threatening 'persons' harmless. In ancient times
they used to bury (dead) people with legs and arms
immobilized by ropes. Which reminds me of an image
of
'Oro (a war god):
"The war god Oro. Oro was worshipped
all over Polynesia, but in Tahiti not represented by
a carved human figure. Instead he was a bundle tied
up with cords over a wooden core; limbs and facial
features can, however, be recognized. Pleaded sinnet
cloth on wood. Tahiti." (Larousse)
"Vermutlich können in der
Osterinselschrift unter den Vorkommen von Zeichen
290 noch weitere Götternamen ausfindig gemacht
werden. Auch das Zeichen 1 [i.e. henua, GD37]
in seiner begrifflich verwandten Rolle kann hierfür
als nützlich gelten. Mit 'toko'
wurden auf Neu-Seeland die holzgeschnitxten
Götterstäbe, auf Tahiti pfostenartige Figuren der
groβen Gottheiten
bezeichnet. An diese übertragene Bedeutung sollte
man bei der Beurteilung des Stabzeichens denken. In
den Tafeltexten scheint jedenfalls das Zeichen 1 an
einigen Stellen direkt für das Zeichen 290 eintreten
zu können, d.h. 'toko' für 'atua'
gesetzt worden zu sein."
He gives no
examples, though, of where in the rongorongo
texts his number 1 is equivalent to his number 290,
and I cannot remember any parallel texts by means of
which this conclusion may be drawn.