Turning a quarter
to the left five times successively makes more
than a cycle. That may be the correct
explanation why the creator of the day calendar
of Q quitted at noon.
But I suspect there is more
to it than that. In old Egypt the left eye of the sun
became the moon:
"According
to Wilkinson very early sun and moon were understood as
the eyes of the falcon god Horus. Later these eyes
became differentiated and sun became the right eye (the
eye of Ra), while moon became the left eye (the eye of
Horus).
At left
(from us seen) the eye of Ra, at right the eye of Horus
(pictures from Wilkinson)."
Only the morning sun was
thereafter the real sun, that is what I think, and I
also think that we
can find the two eyes in the sky depicted like this in the
rongorongo texts:
"... The
myth, therefore, I take it, simply means that the
rising sun destroys the circumpolar stars. These
stars are represented in the earliest forms of the myth
either by the crocodile or the hippopotamus; of course
they disappeared (or were killed) at sunrise.
Horus, the
bright ray on the horizon, is victorious by destroying
the crocodile and the hippopotamus, which represent the
powers of darkness." (Lockyer)
The important sun is the
one who lifts the darkness from earth, the morning sun.
Marduk he was called in old Babylonia:
"Marduk,
die Frühsonne des Tages und des Jahres, wurde eben wegen
dieses seines Charakters der Lichtbringer am Weltmorgen.
Marduk,
der die leblose, chaotische Nacht, die keine
Gestaltungen erkennen lässt, besiegt, der den Winter mit
seinem Wasserfluten, den Feind des Naturlebens,
überwindet, wurde der Schöpfer des Lebens und der
Bewegung, der Ordner des Regellosen, der Gestalter des
Unförmlichen am Weltmorgen."
"Die Sonne, die des
Morgens das Weltmeer durchschreitet und besiegt und das
Licht bringt, lässt aus dem Chaos der Nacht zuerst den
Himmel, dann erst die Erde hervortreten, spaltet das
gestaltlose Reich der Nacht in die zwei Hälften, den
Himmel und die Erde." (Jensen)
If we locate Marduk/Ra to a.m., then the center of their 'kingdom'
will be at dawn. The Rapanui equivalent power at
dawn surely is Tama the strong last-born son of
Hotu Matu'a:
"The fourth
child entered. Matua kissed him on both cheeks
and asked, 'Who are you?' He answered, 'It is I, the
last-born (hangu potu), Te Mata O Tuu Hotu Iti.'
The king was glad and said, 'You are a very strong child
(poki hiohio), oh last-born,
I
wish you luck! Swift (?) is the great shark of Motu
Toremo Hiva, of the homeland!' That was the end of
King Hotu A Matua's speech to his children."
(Barthel 2)
Tama
1. Shoot (of plant), tama
miro, tree shoot; tama tôa, shoot
of sugarcane. 2. Poles, sticks, rods of a
frame. 3. Sun rays. 4. Group of people
travelling in formation. 5. To listen
attentively (with ear, tariga, as
subject, e.g. he tama te tariga);
e-tama rivariva tokorua tariga ki taaku kî,
listen carefully to my words. Vanaga.
1. Child. 2. To align.
Churchill. |
Interesting
is the example tama tôa, shoot of sugarcane. If
we think about the 'stations' of the night as 'tôa'
(in Metoro's tôa tauuru), then we may
guess the meaning of the small 'baby appendices' at
bottom right in Ha5-47--48:
They could
be 'sugarcane' shoots (tama) of the new day. Are
sugarcane shoots very strong? Are the stems strong
enough to lift up the roof of the sky? Or is there a
wordplay hinting at to'a (warriors) forcing the
sky up under the leadership of their chief, the morning
sun?
The shoot
attatched to the ragi appendix (in Ha5-47) is
smaller than the shoot attatched to the nuku (?)
appendix (in Ha5-48). The sky is illuminated first, the
earth later - a little shoot is an earlier appearance
than a big shoot.
This Tama - strong
young son of Hotu Matu'a - probably may be called Tama Nui te Ra.
Hotu Matu'a may have
been a real person, but he was a solar king anyhow, and
the solar myths were drawn to him.
"... It was
during this struggle [of
Maui
and his men] with
the sun that his second name was learned by man. At the
height of his agony the sun cried out: 'Why am I treated
by you in this way? Do you know what it is you are
doing. O you men? Why do you wish to kill Tama nui te
ra?' This was his name, meaning Great Son of the
Day, which was never known before." (Maori Myths)
The secret
revealed may have
been
the name Ra, the Egyptian name.
The threat
to kill him implies that the scene of action was noon.
At midsummer solstice the sun moves slowly and therefore
his speed at noon should also be slower.
Having identified the
dawn with Tama Nui te Ra, we may easily guess
what the name of dusk could be:
"... 'Look
over there', said Makea, pointing to the ice-cold
mountains beneath the flaming clouds of sunset. 'What
you see there is Hine nui, flashing where the sky
meets the earth. Her body is like a woman's, but the
pupils of her eyes are greenstone and her hair is kelp.
Her mouth is that of a barracuda, and in the place where
men enter her she has sharp teeth of obsidian and
greenstone.' ..." (Maori Myths)
I suggest the name of dusk
to be Hine
Nui te Po.
The Y-sign
in
should be
pronounced 'po'; remember that we interpreted
Aa1-26:
as the sun
at Poike (with ike = tapa-beater).
Hina Grey
or white hair. Korohua hina tea, ruau hina tea, hoary old man,
hoary old woman. Hinarere, great-grandson. Vanaga.
Mgv.: White, gray hair. Ta.: hina-hina, id.
Mq.: hina, id. Sa.: sina, id. Ma.: hina, id.
Churchill.
It is a matter of no slight interest to find that a
stem which in Polynesia serves to designate the lesser luminary is used
in Melanesia to denote the sun. In this connection our linguistic
material has left two records. One that la, the general
Polynesian word for the sun, was not carried in the Proto-Samoan
migration, for it has left no trace in the Melanesian halting-places.
The other is that masina, the general Polynesian word for the
moon, was brought into Polynesia, in its present derivative form, by the
Tongafiti migration, for it is only in Sesake that we find masina
as moon. Our Polynesian records show us that sina was a sun name,
i.e. the shiner. Churchill 2. |
The melody in saying Tama Nui
te Ra is the same as that in Hine Nui te Po.
These presumably are two of the four cardinal points.
There is probably no good
reason to search for an Egyptian last name alternative
to Po (in the same way as Ra was applied
as a last name for Tama Nui). But according to
D'Alleva there is another name for the dark goddess:
"The
back-to-back motif reappears in a Tongan suspension hook
carved of ivory.
Wooden
hooks, sometimes painted with images but not figurally
carved, were used in households to suspend bags of food,
safeguarding them from rodents.
Both the
material and the figural decoration of this hook suggest
that it had a ceremonial function.
'... in
fact, [on Fiji] images of animals or humans could be
reproduced on religious artefacts only ...'
Single
female figures of similar form are thought to represent
ancestors or possibly Hikule'o, goddess of the
afterlife."
Searching for the meaning
of the word Hikule'o I find the following items:
Hiku
Tail; caudal fin. Hikukio'e, 'rat's tail': a plant (Cyperus
vegetus). Vanaga. |
Rekoreko
1. The softer, juicier part of the sugarcane; puku
rekoreko is the juicy part between two knots (puku). 2.
Straight, directly, as used in the expression ka-oho rekoreko-nó koe,
go straight home (without a detour, without taking anything on the
way). Vanaga. |
The 'tail'
(hiku) of the day must lie in the period
between dusk and midnight, I suggest.
The rat (kio'e)
makes me think of Kio'e Uri (and also of
those rodents who couldn't reach the food suspended
above their heads).
Vanaga must have made a mistake here,
however, because
Cyperus vegetus should be named Hikikio'e
(not Hikukio'e) according to Barthel 2:
Hiki To flex the knees lightly, as used to do the youths
of both sexes when, after having stayed inside for a long period to get
a fair complexion, they showed themselves off in dances called te
hikiga haúga, parading on a footpath of smooth stones, with their
faces painted, lightly flexing their knees with each step. Vanaga.
Tail fin G (? hiku). Churchill.
Hiki kioe (Cyperus vegetus), a plant whose
roots were eaten during times of famine and the stems of which were used
for medicinal purposes. Barthel 2. |
In
Barthel's table over important plants hiki kioe
is located in the 2nd row and 3rd column, which
means that it is useful for 'constructions' (however
that may be harmonized with 'medicinal purposes' or
'eaten during times of famine').
My own
idea about the structure of these 28 plants as being
organized according to the week leads me to identify
hiki kioe with Monday. At least that give us the
right associations - by thinking about the night (the
'queendom' of the moon).
Anyhow, we
once again bump into sugarcane: '... The softer,
juicier part of the sugarcane; puku rekoreko
is the juicy part between two knots (puku)
...'
If we leave the dusk
and the period between dusk and midnight, we should
perhaps return to Poike and add that as a third
cardinal point to our list:
Po
1. Night; to get dark, to
fall (of night): he-po, it is getting
dark. Formerly used, with or without raá,
in the meaning of a whole day: po
tahi, one day; katahi te kauatu
marima po, fifteen days; po tahi raá,
first day of the week; po rua raá, po
toru raá, second, third day, etc. 2.
Alone or as po nui, used to express
the idea of good luck, happiness.
He-avai-atu au to'ou po, I wish you good
luck (when taking leave of someone). Very
common was this parting formula: aná po
noho ki a koe! good luck to you!
Po-á, morning; i te po-á, in the
morning; i te po-era-á, very early in
the morning. Po-ará, quickly,
rapidly, swiftly: he-iri po-ará, go
up quick; he-ta'o itau umu era po-ará,
he cooked it quickly. Po-e-mahina,
formerly used of sleep-walkers (haha a po).
Vanaga.
1. Darkness, night, late;
po haha, dark night, gloom. P Tu.
po-tagotago, darkness. Mgv., Mq., Ta.:
po, darkness, night. 2. Calendar day;
po e rua, Tuesday; po o te tagata,
life. P Pau., Mgv., Mq., Ta.: po,
calendar day. Churchill. |
Ike
Pau.: Tapa beater. Mgv.:
ike, id. Ta.: ie, id. Mq.: ike,
id. Sa.: i'e, id. Ma.: ike, to
strike with a hammer. Ikeike,
gracious, pleasant. Ta.: iéié,
elegant, vain, gracious. Mq.: iéié,
id. Ha.: ieie, dignified,
vainglorious. Churchill. |
The use of
po in the expression po-á (morning) may be
the reason why we find Y-signs at the start of the day,
e.g. in (Qa5-40):
To wish
somebody good luck with the words po nui feels
strange, but perhaps the idea is to say: 'I wish you
will survive the night!'
The fourth cardinal point
would be the one at midnight, probably
henua lying down, maybe a threshold:
'... It is
indeed 'the king standing in a gateway' and Soothill
(5), p. 62, makes the suggestion that it refers to the
emperor's station on the threshold between one room of
the Ming Thang [Bright Palace, 'the
mystical temple-dwelling which the emperor was supposed
to frequent, carrying out the rites appropriate to the
seasons'] and another when an intercalary month
intervened in the normal cycle of his perambulation.'
I guess we could call the
cardinal midnight point
(it must be female if it is horizontal) Papa Tua
Nuku.
The flat horizontal plane
surely is papa. And we find this flat surface
straight down under our feet, at the 'back' (tu'a)
of our place of living (nuku).
Papa
1. Underground rock;
motionless; rocky sea bottom; large flat
stone; figuratively: tagata papa
important man, author of great works. 2.
Wooden plank currently used much like a
surf-board in the sport called garu ;
it was formerly called papa gaatu mo te
garu, because it was made from dry
totora leaves woven into the shape of a
plank. 3. To line up things side by side on
a flat surface, for instance, to line up
fish on top of a flat stone. Vanaga.
Shoulderblade. Papapapa,
a chill, to shiver, to tremble, to shudder.
Churchill. |
Tu'a
1. Back, shoulder, tu'a
ivi, shoulder blade; tu'a ivi more,
lumbago; moa tu'a ivi raá,
'sun-back chicken': chicken with a yellow
back which shines in the sun. 2. Behind (a
locative adverb, used with i, ki, a, o,
etc). Tu'a-papa, pelvis, hips.
Vanaga.
1. Behind, back, rear;
ki tua, after; o tua, younger;
taki tua, perineum. 2. Sea urchin,
echinus. The word must have a germ sense
indicating something spinous which will be
satisfactorily descriptive of the sea urchin
all spines, the prawn with antennae and thin
long legs, and in the Maori the shell of
Mesodesma spissa. Tuaapapa,
haunch, hip, spine. Tuahaigoigo,
tattooing on the back. Tuahuri,
abortion; poki tuahuri, abortive
child. Tuaivi, spine, vertebræ,
back, loins; mate mai te tuaivi,
ill at ease. Tuakana,
elder, elder brother; tuakana
tamaahina,
elder sister. Tuamouga,
mountain summit. Tuatua,
to glean. Churchill. |
Nuku
Mgv.: land, country, place.
Sa.: nu'u, district, territory,
island. Churchill. |
The story which Q possibly
relates (in the day calendar) is ending when sun is
standing at his peak (Poike).
"peak1
pointed extremity; projecting part of the brim of a cap
... pointed top of a mountain ..." (English Etymology)
"peak2
... fall, tumble ... shrink ... " (English
Etymology)
The word
tu'amoúga means mountain summit. But 'summit'
presumably means 'sun-middle' and moúga is used
also for 'last': e.g. in vânaga moúga o te Ariki O
Hotu Matu'a, the last words of King Hotu Matu'a.
The story begins with
the generation of the sun/son and tell us how he evolved into a
vigorous child or 'shoot' (tama) - or fruit (hua)
- in
the empty dry carcass of his father (who died at dusk - like
the father in the Hawaiian story about Mokuora,
the Living Island).
It is a very old
story that has echoed up through the ages, e.g. in old
Egypt:
"The basic
myth of dynastic Egypt was that of the death and
resurrection of Osiris, the good king, 'fair of face',
who was born to the earth-god Geb and sky-goddess Nut.
He was born together with his sister-wife, the goddess
Isis, during the sacred interval of those five
supplementary days that fell between one Egyptian
calendric year of 360 days and the next. He and his
sister were the first to plant wheat and barley, to
gather fruit from trees, and to cultivate the vine, and
before their time the races of the world had been savage
cannibals.
But Osiris's evil
brother, Set, whose sister-wife was the goddess Nephtys,
was mortally jealous both of his virtue and of his fame,
and so, stealthily taking the measure of his good
brother's body, he caused a beautifully decorated
sarcophagus to be fashioned and on a certain occasion in
the palace, when all were drinking and making merry, had
it brought into the room and jestingly promised to give
it to the one whom it should fit exactly.
All tried, but, like the
glass slipper of Cinderella, it fitted but one; and when
Osiris, the last, laid himself within it, immediately a
company of seventy-two conspirators with whom Set had
contrived his plot dashed forward, nailed the lid upon
the sarcophagus, soldered it with molten lead, and flung
it into the Nile, down which it floated to the sea.
Isis, overwhelmed with
grief, sheared off her locks, donned mourning, and
searched in vain, up and down the Nile; but the coffin
had been carried by the tide to the coast of Phoenicia,
where, at Byblos, it was cast ashore.
A tamarisk immediately
grew up around it, enclosing the precious object in its
trunk, and the aroma of this tree then was so glorious
that the local king, and queen, Melqart and Astarte -
who were, of course, a divine king and queen themselves,
the local representatives, in fact, of the common
mythology of Damuzi and Inanna, Tammuz and Ishtar,
Adonis and Aphrodite, Osiris and Isis - discovering and
admiring its beauty, had the tree felled and fashioned
into a pillar of their palace.
The bereaved and
sorrowing Isis, meanwhile, wandering over the world in
her quest - like Demeter in search of the lost
Persephone - came to Byblos, where she learned of the
wonderful tree. And, placing herself by a well of the
city, in mourning, veiled and in humble guise - again
like Demeter - she spoke to none until there approached
the well the handmaidens of the queen, whom she greeted
kindly.
Braiding their hair, she
breathed upon them such a wondrous perfume that when
they returned and Astarte saw and smelt the braids she
sent for the stranger, took her into the house, and made
her the nurse of her child. The great goddess gave the
infant her finger instead of breast to suck and at
night, having placed him in a fire to burn away all that
was mortal, flew in the form of a swallow around the
pillar, mournfully chirping.
But the child's mother,
Queen Astarte, happening in upon this scene, shrieked
when she spied her little son resting in the flames and
thereby deprived him of the priceless boon. Whereupon
Isis, revealing her true nature, begged for the pillar
and, removing the sarcophagus, fell upon it with a cry
of grief so loud that the queen's child died on the
spot.
Sorrowing, then, the two
women placed Osiris's coffer on a boat, and when the
goddess Isis was alone with it at sea, she opened the
chest and, laying her face on the face of her brother,
kissed him and wept.
The myth goes on to tell
of the blessed boat's arrival in the marshes of the
Delta, and of how Set, one night hunting the boar by the
light of the full moon, discovered the sarcophagus and
tore the body into fourteen pieces, which he scattered
abroad; so that, once again, the goddess had a difficult
task before her.
She was assisted, this
time, however, by her little son Horus, who had the head
of a hawk, by the son of her sister Nephtys, little
Anubis, who had the head of a jackal, and by Nephtys
herself, the sister-bride of their wicked brother Set.
Anubis, the elder of the
two boys, had been conceived one very dark night, we are
told, when Osiris mistook Nephtys for Isis; so that by
some it is argued that the malice of Set must have been
inspired not by the public virtue and good name of the
noble culture hero, but by this domestic inadventure.
The younger, but true
son, Horus, on the other hand, had been more fortunately
conceived - according to some, when Isis lay upon her
dead brother in the boat, or, according to others, as
she fluttered about the palace pillar in the form of a
bird.
The four bereaved and
searching divinities, the two mothers and their two
sons, were joined by a fifth, the moon-god Thoth (who
appears sometimes in the form of an ibis-headed scribe,
at other times in the form of a baboon), and together
they found all of Osiris save his genital member, which
had been swallowed by a fish.
They tightly swathed the
broken body in linen bandages, and when they performed
over it the rites that thereafter were to be continued
in Egypt in the ceremonial burial of kings, Isis fanned
the corpse with her wings and Osiris revived, to become
the rule of the dead.
He now sits majestically
in the underworld, in the Hall of the Two Truths,
assisted by forty-two assessors, one from each of the
principal districts of Egypt; and there he judges the
souls of the dead. These confess before him, and when
their hearts have been weighed in a balance against a
feather, receive, according to their lives, the reward
of virtue and the punishment of sin." (Campbell)
We should note that Isis
gave the baby her finger instead of her breast to suck
and that there was fire involved:
'...
The great goddess gave
the infant her finger instead of breast to suck and at
night, having placed him in a fire to burn away all that
was mortal, flew in the form of a swallow around the
pillar, mournfully chirping ...'
Possibly I
have been influenced by this in coming to believe that
the infant morning sun is being fed flames to grow, e.g.
in (Qa5-43):
The boat with Isis
and the dead Osiris in a coffin landed in the
delta of the Nile and it was presumably night and full
moon, when Set (a symbol for the dark forces)
used his powers to destroy Osiris once more:
'... The myth goes on to tell
of the blessed boat's arrival in the marshes of the
Delta, and of how Set, one night hunting the boar by the
light of the full moon, discovered the sarcophagus and
tore the body into fourteen pieces, which he scattered
abroad; so that, once again, the goddess had a difficult
task before her ...'
"sarcophagus ... stone reputed by
the ancient Greeks to consume corpses and hence used for
coffins ... stone coffin ... Gr. sárx flesh +
phágos -eating ..." (English Etymology)
Marduk won his fight against Tiamat, but
Osiris seems rather helpless without his females.
Set is male, Tiamat is female - like
Hine Nui.
But king Hotu A Matu'a was also rather feeble:
"The
ancestors of the present inhabitants came, it is said,
from two neighbouring islands known as Marae Renga
and Marae Tohio.
Here, on the
death of the chief, Ko Riri-ka-atea, a struggle
for supremacy arose between his two sons, Ko Te
Ira-ka-atea and Hotu-matua, in which Hotu
was defeated. (RM:277)" (Routledge according to Barthel
2)
Osiris went into the
sarcophagus, the coffin traveled on the water and became
a tamarisk, and then the tamarisk became a pillar in a
palace, and from that pillar the coffin emerged again.
During the return voyage the coffin was opened
and Osiris emerged to life again. This is the
main story, how the sun temporarily dies to emerge in
the east full of life next morning. Certainly we should expect some echo of this grand
old myth in the rongorongo day calendars.
"Tamarix
can spread both vegetatively, by
adventitious roots or submerged stems,
and sexually, by seeds. Each flower can
produce thousands of tiny (1 mm
diameter) seeds that are contained in a
small capsule usually adorned with a
tuft of hair that aids in wind
dispersal. Seeds can also be dispersed
by water. Seedlings require extended
periods of soil saturation for
establishment.
Tamarix species
are fire-adapted, and have long tap
roots that allow them to intercept deep
water tables and exploit natural water
resources. They are able to limit
competition from other plants by taking
up salt from deep ground water,
accumulating it in their foliage, and
from there depositing it in the surface
soil where it builds up concentrations
lethal to many other plants." (Internet
- Wikipedia)
Maybe the little night canoe at bottom
right in Qa5-28
is a reflection of the
'flesh-eating' coffin floating away?
The return voyage seems to
be more stately and like that of a true king (Qa5-37):
In Qa5-30
the little canoe may have changed into a nut (the
dry stage prior to tama, the shoot).
The 'nuku' (GD69) appendix has two
'eyes' and maybe therefore is the reflection in the
middle of the night of the noon fully grown 'man'
(GD15):
The 'peak' of the head is higher in GD15
than in this variant of GD69, and the missing lower part
of the body in GD69 may signify sun is in its dark period
('night').
At dawn the kuhane of Hau Maka
trampled the bamboo staff of night under her feet so it
broke. Feet appear when light is returning.