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TRANSLATIONS
Preliminary remarks
The parallel glyphs on this page describe the beginning of the day
(or rather: time of light).
The
preceding glyphs, on the two previous pages, describe the night
(or rather: time of darkness).
In the parallel text in Tahua the order is the opposite:
first light, then darkness.
The time of light is divided into 10 periods and the two first of these
are shown in this page.
However, the texts in H and Q do not include all these 10 periods, they are found only in A and P. In H there are 9 periods; period no. 3 not being described. That is the case with the text in Q too, and then the afternoon is not described at all; there are only 4 periods in the Q text.
Each such period is defined by a variant of tapa mea
(GD55) ending the period. (This method is not used for the night,
because then it is dark and tapa mea (= 'red hue/count' would be
wrong.)
That there are 10 periods of light described in A and P does not
mean that this time of 'red light count' has a duration of 10 hours. Instead
we should regard only 6 of these periods as belonging
to the 'hours of the day' and then we should count each of these 6
central periods as 2 hours. By this method we reach 2 * 6 = 12 hours for
'the plain, full day'.
"The Polynesians mingle the time-indications based on the position of the sun with others which are derived from the life of men and nature. We are told that the Hawaiian day was divided into three general parts, 1, breaking the shadows, 2, the plain, full day, 3, the decline of the day... The lapse of night, however, was noted by five stations: 1, about sunset; 2, between sunset and midnight; 3, midnight; 4, between midnight and sunrise; 5, sunrise. A native Hawaiian [Malo] writes: - 'When the stars fade away and disappear, it is ao, daylight; when the sun rises, day has come, la; when the sun becomes warm, morning is past; when the sun is directly overhead it is awahea, noon; when the sun inclines to the west in the afternoon, the expression is wa ani ka la. After that come evening, ahi-ahi (ahi, fire), and then sunset, napoo ka la, and then comes po, the night, and the stars shine out..." "In Tahiti the day has six divisions which are fairly accurately determined by the height of the sun. Names are given for midnight, midnight to daybreak, daybreak, sunrise, the time when the sun begins to be hot, when it reaches the meridian, evening before sunset, the time after sunset." "For the Marquesas are given: - daybreak, twilight, dawn, ('the day or the red sky, the fleeing night'), broad day - bright day from full morning to about ten o'clock -, noon ('belly of the sun'), afternoon ('back part of the sun'), evening ('fire-fire', the same expression as in Hawaii, i.e. the time to light the fires on the mountains or the kitchen fire for supper)." (Nilsson) |