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TRANSLATIONS
This is the beginning of the calendar of the daylight in Small St Petersburg Tablet (Q). A quick check against the other three parallel texts shows that - as before - there is no 'standard' for how these glyphs were written. Presumably it means that the 'readings' are more or less different too. After having followed in the 'steps' of the dream soul (kuhane) of Hau Maka two new ideas are growing: 1. How can we be sure that the geographical map with names created by the dream soul really is a kind of map for the yearly round of the sun? If it looks like a map for the yearly round of the sun, then it surely also must look like a map for the dayly round of the sun. In a magic world there is no need for more than one map to describe similar things. Why not have just a single map? That is more economical. In the world of science they also strive to simplify everything into as few explanations as possible. But whereas in the world of science the explanations tend to be more and more abstract, in the world of magic the evolving explanations tend to go in another direction. For example, the concrete geography on Easter Island may be used as an explanation not only for the yearly and daily courses of the sun but also for history lessons (how the island once was discovered, explored, populated etc) and other purposes. The concrete geography then becomes a kind of information store, a mnemonic help. Perhaps astrology too is a kind of mnemonic help. Maybe the path of the dream soul of Hau Maka is just that, an astrological 'map', not what would be produced as an answer to how the sun was moving currently over the year among the constellations. That would explain why the dream soul 'map' was 'locked in time' (to the era of the old Babylonians). 2. Given Te Kiore Uri and Pua Katiki as points of reference it should not be difficult to draw the rest of the lines from the stations along the path of the dream soul to the solar courses (yearly and daily). We should begin with that now. It is still an open question whether the Polynesians on Easter Island really were the originators of the rongorongo texts, quite possibly they could just have perpetuated them after having learnt about them from some original inhabitants from South America (or elsewhere). At any rate I have a suspicion that the full meanings of the rongorongo texts were lost even before the Europeans arrived. As the early ruins at Orongo probably include a solar observatory, we may, however, expect the rongorongo texts to contain much information about the sun. The first period (Qa5-40--42 and parallels), we have learnt, has as its subject the time when the presence of the sun in the east is making itself known by darkness gradually giving way to light. It is twilight time, the time of double 'rule' (both dark and light). The disc of the sun still remains below the horizon (inside Mother Earth) and he has not yet been born into this world of ours. The sun in the east 'is' (i.e. 'is mapped upon') the youngest son of Hotu Matu'a (Ref. Barthel 2): "The king went into his house and laid down. The first child of King A Matua, Tuu Maheke, came and went into the house. He came and kissed his father on the cheek. King Hotu A Matua asked, 'Who are you?' The royal child replied, 'It is I, the royal child, Tuu Maheke'. King Hotu A Matua said, 'Ah, I wish you luck, oh King, for your sand, very fine sand, fleas [in the sand]!' The fine sand presumably refers to the beach of Anakena and the word 'royal' implies that Tuu Maheke will take over as the new king. Those 'fleas' probably imply that King Hotu Matu'a wishes him to have much people around him (because 'flies' represent unborn souls). He went out, and the second child, Miru Te Mata Nui, entered into the house and kissed him on the cheek. A Matua asked, 'Who are you?' He answered, 'Miru Te Mata Nui'. A Matua replied, 'I wish you luck, oh Miru, oh Te Mata Nui, to protect your people!' He went out, and the third, Tuu Rano Kao, entered and kissed (his father). A Matua spoke: 'I wish you luck for your pebbles of Hanga Te Pau, for your (crater) Rano Kau!' That was all, and he went out. 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." "Ms. E does not give an account of the final activities and the death of Hotu Matua; so for this information we have to go to Englert's texts (TP:53-63). Early in October 1957, Leonardo Pakarati wrote down for me a RAP. version, which agrees on many points with the traditions orally transmitted by Arturo Teao in 1936." "The quarternary system, which divides the island into four quadrants, correlates the four royal sons with the path of the sun as it circles the island counterclockwise. The sequence of the sons is determined by their order of birth. To the first-born goes the region in which the noon sun reaches its zenith, a striking symbol for the highest ranking son; to the second-born goes the region of the setting sun. The name 'Miru' may have been connected to the central Polynesian concept of a region of the dead to the west and its guardian. The third son inherits the midnight region, and the last-born inherits the eastern section. Noon sun never reaches zenith on Easter Island as it lies too far to the south, not even at summer solstice will the sun reach zenith. But this argument is just of marginal interest. The point is that every day of the year noon is defined as that time when sun reaches its highest location in the sky. Since the last-born, a 'good and strong child' (poki rivariva, poki hiohio), was closest to the father, the region of the rising sun is alotted to him, which gives this region special value. While the successor of the king is like 'the sun at its highest point', the youngest son is like 'the rising sun'." The king kissed him on both cheeks, which I interpret as a sign, not just of extra affection but something more. The first phase of the rising sun should be connected with number two, as in twilight and the two 'arms' stretching up in the first glyph of a calendar for the daylight. "The first and third sons rule over important points along the northern and southern shores. Their domains can be said to represent the noon and the midnight sides of the island and, as such, are in contrast with each other. The pebbles of Hanga Te Pau are certainly mentioned as a contrast to the sand of Anakena. Hanga Te Pau is probably the same place as Hanga Pau Kura, mentioned (in Barthel 2) as located west of Te Piringa Aniva (station no. 6 of the dream soul journey).
I guess that Hanga-poukura in the map above is Hanga Te Pau. (Notice also the crater Puna Pau at top left.) What are the meanings of the words pau and pou? Te Pou is Sirius and this important star evidently is 'located' close to Te Kiore Uri (station no. 5 of the dream soul's journey). In old Egypt Sirius announced when the Nile should rise and also defined the new year = summer solstice = the time of (the heliacal rising of) Leo. The solstices might on Easter Island have been imagined as marked by two pillars (tu'u), which would explain the names Tuu Maheke ('summer solstice') and Tuu Rano Kao ('winter solstice').
As to the word pau, there was a tendency on Easter Island to change the vowel 'a' into the vowel 'o', e.g. mouga instead of mauga, mogo instead of mago:
Though the word pau exists:
On the other hand, the words of the king to his second and fourth sons refer to contrasting types of behavior. It is Miru's task to watch over his people, while Hotu Iti is compared to a dangerous shark. My informant explained niuhi tapaka'i as 'como diablo' and called it an attribute for an 'hombre valiente'. Englert was not familiar with the word, but I suspect that it is related to TON. tapakaki 'to run swiftly', and I suggest the translation 'swift (?) shark', which seems an appropriate metaphor for a brave man." Running swiftly is also appropriate to the behavior of the sun at sunrise and at sundown (and also at the equinoxes). Perhaps this is illustrated in this kind of glyph (Eb8-35), which - judging by the hand sign - may relate to the west:
However, in the west there should be no quick movements because old persons move slowly - just like Miru. Here we have a kind of dilemma. Given a dual polarity (e.g. 'noon' / 'midnight'), problems will arise when an additional polarity (e.g. 'morning' / 'evening') is added. The first polarity is symmetric, even at its two midpoints ('the twilight times'), e.g. as regards the fact that 'time is running visibly fast', while the second polarity insists on difference - 'fast' at 'birth' and 'slow' at 'old age'. The glyph above seems to indicate that there is haste also in the west - which cannot be right. But possibly the glyph means 'equinoxes'. One part of the glyph (running leg) says east and the other (waving hand) signifies west, i.e. the reading should be both 'equinoxes' (or rather twilight times). The waving hand signifying west is a conclusion we may draw from the glyphs in the day calendars:
That running (or jumping) is associated with spring time is quite clear: "Spring. A. place of rising, as of a stream OE.; B. action or time of rising or beginning XIII; †C. young growth XIII; D. (repl. LENT) first season of the year XVI (earlier †s. of the year, †s. tide XVI, †s. time XV, †springing time XIV, Trevisa); E. rising of the sea to its extreme height XIV (s. tide XVI); F. elastic contrivance XV (fig. impelling agency)..." (English Etymology) In the Swedish language there is a word 'springa' which means 'to run', but also 'a slight opening' (in e.g. a door). Also, in the German language 'Springen' means 'to jump'. "The contrast between Miru and Hotu Iti could be summed up as (a) the contrast between the (north)western shore and the (south)eastern shore, (b) the contrast between the 'big tribe' (mata nui) and the 'small tribe' (mata iti), and (c) the contrast between the (peaceful) 'watching over the people' and the (warlike) 'behavior of the shark'. This contrast already foreshadows the later rivalries between the western and eastern tribal federations. No area is indicated for Miru, but it is well established that the traditional tribal territory of the Miru was on the (north and) western shore; so there can be no doubt that the area was given to Miru. The center of Hoti Iti's domain is inland from Hanga Nui - that is, the area between Ahu Tongariki and Rano Kau, which later became the center of the megalithic activities on Easter Island. His land is referred to as 'Motu Toremo Hiva'. Englert interpreted this as 'un islote en Hiva', but my informant rejected this interpretation categorically. Instead, he suggested that 'Motu Toremo Hiva' is a rock off the northeastern shore of Poike and that the area was notorious for its many sharks. Toremo may be the name of a large fish - Taremo [Polyprion oxigeneisos] (Knoche 1925:147). It is possible that the blessings addressed to the 'west-east pair' contain several wordplays (roou and rou 'small fishing hook'; compare TUA. rou 'to decline, sink as the sun', which may have been used to indicate the direction of the setting sun; RAP. toremo and PPN. *lemo 'to drown'; MAO. paremo 'to disappear, go down', which may have been used to indicate the direction of the setting moon?). The meaning of the wordplays may have been that the region of the setting sun belonged to Miru and the region of the setting moon to Hotu Iti."
Station no. 13 is Tama, the evil fish with a very long snout, and exceptional among the names of the stations of the journey of the dream soul as it has no reference to A Hau Maka O Hiva. This sign possibly means that station no. 13 belongs to the moon (night), or at least that the 'ownership' is disputable. And fishes should not walk on dry land. Tama is located 2/3 away from Te Kiore Uri and from there to Pua Katiki there remains 4 stations. Counting from Te Kiore Uri (station no. 5) to Pua Katiki (station no. 17) we get 12 stations. 13-5 = 8 and 17-13 =4. 8/12 = 2/3. This agrees fairly well with the number of periods from 'birth' to noon as documented in the daylight calendars. I have revised my earlier versions of the structure of these calendars and the current one looks like this:
According to P and A: 5 (noon) - 2 (birth) = 3 3 * 2 (doublehours) = 6 According to H and Q: '5' (noon) - 2 (birth) = 2 2 * 2 (doublehours) = 4 H and Q give the same result (4) as the difference in number between stations no. 17 and station no. 13), i.e. between 'noon' (Pua Katiki) and 'birth' (Tama). Maybe this is the answer to why period no. 3 is missing in H and Q; a way to make the day calendar structurally congruent with the dream soul's voyage around the island? But shouldn't Tama be 'twilight' time? No, because the rosy fingers of dawn are more similar to the 12th station, Roto Ire Are:
Seaweeds may appear (at least at low tide) as long fingers on the surface of the water. And 'to go up in a boat on the sea' is just what fits in with the start of the travel of the sun. I think we should connect Roto Ire Are with the first glyph in the day calendars. Another argument leading to the same conclusion is the 11th station, Hatinga Te Kohe, which presumably means that the 'bamboo rod' is broken there, i.e. that one henua is ending and another starting. Up to Pua Katiki ('noon') we have:
This seems promising. We should now proceed with the other side of 'noon':
During a.m. sun 'eats' and grows 'quickly'. Luckily during p.m sun is slowing down: "Before the events that are related in this story the days were shorter than they are and the nights were longer. Maui, with the help of his brothers, altered this to man's advantage: HOW MAUI MADE THE SUN SLOW DOWN One day Maui said to his wife: 'Light a fire and cook some food for me'. She did so, but no sooner had she heated her cooking stones in the earth-oven than the sun went down, and they had to eat their food in the dark. This set Maui to thinking how the days might be made longer. It was his opinion that they were shorter than they needed to be, and that the sun crossed the sky too quickly. So he said to his brothers: 'Let us catch the sun in a noose and make him move more slowly. Then everybody would have long days in which to get their food and do all the things that have to be done.' His brothers said it was impossible. 'No man can go near the sun', they said. 'It is far too hot and fierce.' Maui answered: 'Have you not seen all the things I have done already? You have seen me change myself into all the birds of the forest, and back again into a man as I am now. I did that by enchantments, and without even the help of the jawbone of my great ancestress, which I now have. Do you really suppose that I could not do what I suggest?' The brothers were persuaded by these arguments, and agreed to help him. So they all went out collecting flax, and brought it home, and sat there twisting it and plaiting it. And this was when the methods were invented of plaiting flax into tuamaka, or stout, square-shaped ropes, and paharahara, or flat ropes; and the method of twisting the fibre into round ropes. When they had made all the ropes they needed, Maui took up the jawbone of Muri ranga whenua, and away they went, carrying their provisions with them, and the ropes. They travelled all that night, having set out at evening lest the sun should see them. When the first light of dawn appeared, they halted and hid themselves so that the sun should not see them. At night they resumed their journey, and at dawn they hid themselves again, and in this way, travelling only when the sun could not observe them, they went far away to the eastward, until they came to the edge of the pit from which the sun rises. On each side of this place they built a long high wall of clay, with huts made of branches at either end to hide in. There were four huts, one for each of the brothers. When all was ready they set their noose and saw that it was as strong as they could make it. The brothers lay waiting in the huts, and Maui lay hiding in the darkness behind the wall on the western side of the place where the sun rises. He held in his hand the jawbone of his ancestress, and now he gave his brothers their final instructions: 'Mind you keep hidden', he said. 'Don't go letting him see you or you'll frighten him off. Wait until his head and his shoulders are through the noose. Then when I shout, pull hard, and haul on the ropes as fast as you can. I will go out and knock him on the head, but do not any of you let go your ropes until I tell you. When he's nearly dead we'll let him loose. Whatever you do, don't be silly and feel sorry for him when he screams. Keep the ropes good and tight until I say.' And so they waited there in the darkness at the place where the sun rises. At length the day dawned, a chilly grey at first, then flaming red. And the sun came up from his pit, suspecting nothing. His fire spread over the mountains, and the sea was all glittering. He was there, the great sun himself, to be seen by the brothers more closely than any man had ever seen him. He rose out of the pit until his head was through the noose, and then his shoulders. Then Maui shouted, and the ropes were pulled, the noose ran taut. The huge and flaming creature struggled and threshed, and leapt this way and that, and the noose jerked up and down and back and forth; but the more the captive struggled, the more tightly it held. Then out rushed Maui with his enchanted weapon, and beat the sun about the head, and beat his face most cruelly. The sun screamed out, and groaned and shrieked, and Maui struck him savage blows, until the sun was begging him for mercy. The brothers held the ropes tight, as they had been told, and held on for a long time yet. Then at last when Maui gave the signal they let him go, and the ropes came loose, and the sun crept slowly and feebly on his course that day, and has done ever since. Hence the days are longer than they formerly were. It was during this struggle 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) There is another version of Maui slowing down the sun in which the ropes are burnt and cannot catch the sun: "... he gathered all the coconut husks of his land and rolled the fibre, and he plaited it into ropes of very great strength. But these ropes also were of no use, for the sun-god made them frizzle up. Therefore Maui took the sacred tresses of his sister Hina, he cut off lengths of Hina's hair and plaited it, to make a rope whose mana could not be destroyed by Ra. He took that noose of Hina's hair, he travelled eastward to the border of the sea; he placed his ropes around the pit from which the sun rises, waited there, he waited for the dawn. Then Ra came up, he came up from the spirit-world which lies in the east. Maui pulled the cord, he caught the sun-god by the throat! Ra struggled, kicked, he screamed against the sky. 'Then will you go more slowly if I turn you loose?' The sun then promised Maui, 'Let me go, and I will move more slowly, I will make longer days for your fishing'. Since that time, men have had longer days in which to go about their work." (Legends of the South Seas) Woman's hair has magic properties, it represents the night (black) side of the head; whereas a face is turned towards the sun. The emperor of China sat with his back oriented towards north.
(Legends of the South Seas)
(Soul catcher from Pukapuka, Van Tilburg) I cannot but notice that there are 6 double-circles in this snare. "Enmeshing, enfolding or otherwise entangling an individual's soul was part of black magic. In Tahiti and New Zealand, string figurers (called kaikai on Rapa Nui) were employed in the black arts. Priests involved with sickness/healing or with mortuary ritual were feared as threats to community wellbeing but also, on the more positive side, could perform the useful function of catching and holding an escaped soul and returning it to the body." (Van Tilburg)
These are the tresses on the back of the head of the old stone statue Pachamama (the Goddess of Earth) in Bolivia. There are 2 * 7 = 14 tresses, an indication of the moon. It is now time to start from the beginning again, with Qa5-40:
First we note that between the 'arms' there is no square (or rhomboid shape) as in H, instead they in Q delineate a hexagonal form (just as in P). Presumably we did not take notice earlier of the hexagonal form in P because we had not yet discussed the rhombic shape in H.
Why a hexagonal shape? Here, once again, we get assistance from Barthel 2: "Prior to his death, Hotu Matua distributes the various areas of the new land among his sons. The earliest reference (PH:527) mentions the assembly of a council, made up of the highest rankíng men, the regulation of the succession, based on primogeniture, and the following division of Easter Island among the six sons of the king (spelling corrected by me):
Based on its location, the local name 'Maunga Teatea' cannot refer to the side crater by the same name in the flank of Poike plateau but, rather, seems to refer to an elevation ot the east of Maunga Tere Vake [presumably Terevaka in the map below], since this is the area that becomes the property of Raa."
I suggest that the hexagonal shapes in the first glyphs in P and Q reflect the division of the 'land' into six parts, according to the earliest tradition of how the 'sun', Hotu Matua, divided the land among his six sons. Here the thought arrives: Are the earliest traditions still sun-oriented (6), whereas the younger traditions have been influenced by the typical moon calendar thoughts of the Polynesians? Remember that 4 is not only the number of the earth (east, north, west, south), but also the number of the moon (4 * 7 = 28). As to the different type of 'arms' in the first glyph in A, I would first like to point out that we have in A these p.m.-sun glyphs:
The top middle 'flames' in 6 and 8 are converted into similar types of Y-signs (they are not exactly alike, the top flames in 6 and 8 above, one 'pointing' towards left and the other 'pointing' towards right), and these two Y-signs are similar to those we find at the top in the first glyphs of H, P and Q:
Perhaps these Y-signs (in H, P and Q) in some way correspond to the two in p.m. A? The meaning of this type of Y-shape is to indicate night (and also 'night'). In A the night begins to show her power already at noon - how else could we explain the retreating light from that point and onwards until midnight? In H, P and Q the first period of daylight seems to be depicted as if the sun was still inside the 'night'. In the calendars of the night typical glyphs look like this (close to midnight):
There are double Y-signs in A (periods 6 and 8) and also in the first glyphs of H, P and Q. If we think of Tane pushing the sky up with his two legs then we have one explanation of course (two legs) - though not for the two signs of Y in p.m. A. Already in old Egyptian thought we find doubles:
The picture is from Lockyer and he explains: “It would seem that it was not very long before the Egyptians saw that the paths of the sun and the stars above the horizon were extremely unequal: in the case of the sun, at different times of the year; in the case of the stars depending upon their position near the equator or either pole. In this way, perhaps, we may explain a curious variant of the drawing of the goddess Nu-t, in which she is represented double, a larger one stretching over a smaller one.” Nut means the goddess of night and t is a sign of the female: e.g. Rāt = the wife of Rā. Note that both words (Nut and night) begin and end in the same way: n - t, hardly a coincidence. If we accept that this kind of similarity may be relevant, we will find a golden mine of ancient ideas, a very useful stimulation for creative thoughts. By the way: The night is the opposite to the day, like a temporary death. It is a world of NoT (being alive); i.e. day means living. Sun gives life. I disagree with Lockyer's opinion. The double Nut (those two females with hairstyles like streaming lightrays) are not representing the sky-domes for the path of the sun on one hand and for the paths of the stars on the other hand. Instead I can see this: The bent woman at center bottom represents the Earth. There are 4 stars inside her as a sign of this and she has her face towards these. She is inwards oriented, just as a female 'on the other side of the earth' from us seen is regarded. We in the modern western civilisation are exceptional, we strive to equalize man and woman, young and old, poor and rich etc. But prior to that, in the ancient world, there was equality in value in the different roles and functions. Females 'inside' were not inferior to males 'outside' (rather the opposite). She is thereby equivalent to the Polynesian aspect uta. And like the Polynesian Papa she has her face downwards (as seen from the outside, tai). Whereas men who fall on their faces do this because they die. Possibly the strange positions of her arms - one straight up (seen behind the feet) and one straight down - indicate the flat surface of the earth (papa). But together with her circular bodyshape it is better to read her as a total: Ω. Alpha comes first (male), and therefore the females must be omega. In the Orient the wife always walks after her husband, never in front, never at his side. The composition in the picture has feet at left and hands at right. The rolled up earth woman has - quite naturally because of her gymnastics - her center dislocated leftwards (also a sign of the 'female'). There are 4 stars outside her legs and yet another set of 4 stars outside the next pair of legs. Together with the 4 inside her we then get 3 * 4 = 12 stars, which I suspect represent the night side. Drawing an imaginary straight vertical line through the Earth woman's sharply bent waist we get (immediately outside and above her) 6 stars at left and 6 stars at right. And then we find an additional little vertical group of 2 stars at right bottom. Possibly these 2 stars represent 'twilight time' (when sun has gone down but some light still remains). The 6 stars at left represent (I guess) the 6 'a.m.-hours' while those 6 at right are the 'p.m.-hours'. Then, outside these 4 + 6 + 6 + 2 = 18 stars, we have the first Nut sky-dome with 26 'buttons' arranged in a horizontal straight line. She probably represents the sky-dome of the Moon, because the Moon is closer (and also 'closer') to the Earth than sun and the other stars. 26 fortnights makes a year (364 nights) and the third, largest and outermost Nut-woman therefore ought to represent the solar year. We find two winged sun-discs on her body (= the two halfyears?). Above the back of the Moon Nut-woman we find 6 stars (lunar double-months?) and then we have, above an additional winged sun-disc, yet another set of 6 stars (solar double months?). And above a strange flying object (at left), this time probably the moon, there are 2 more stars. The shape of the disc is divided into three parts, possibly Waxing, Full, and Waning moon. This little horizontal group of 2 stars at the upper left (directly opposite to those 2 stars presumably marking 'evening twilight' at bottom right) may mean the 'dawn twilight' ('spring equinox'). Continuing with this kind of reasoning we may guess that the two horizontally ordered stars at upper left, which are very close to the 'flying moon', represent its two major phases - Waxing and Waning Moon. Whether the two vertically ordered stars at bottom right also represent moon phases is uncertain. We need an answer to that question before we can explain the two signs of night (moon) in the afternoon sun in A. In A the night calendar arrives after the day calendar, and possibly the two 'stars' therefore represents the situation with a dying moon together with a new one - not yet born. The two stars at right bottom are located close to the ground - i.e. in a location where death and birth occur. At the same time as the sun is being born in the east, the moon might sometimes also be seen in a cardinal phase - it might e.g. be dying in the east. "The meaning of the wordplays may have been that the region of the setting sun belonged to Miru and the region of the setting moon to Hotu Iti." However, we have here more questions to answer: If Sun is being born in the east, should then the Moon really be watched in the east too? Wouldn't it be more natural to watch for her in the west? Remember that the Scorpion people in the west watched the sun being born in the east. If we wish to watch the Moon in the east, shouldn't we look in the evening then, because at that time the Sun is 'dying'? Moon and Sun should be opposites. The astronomers talk about 'opposition' (but also about 'conjunction'). I guess, though, that the two groups of 2 stars - one group high and one group low - possibly may indicate something else: the concepts which the Polynesian name i nika and i raro:
But there are many possibilities. If we once again return to the double-Nut picture, we may imagine a straight line drawn from the sharply bent waist of the Earth-woman up towards right, passing through the two breasts of the two Nut-women. If we do this, then we may also draw an additional straight line through the Earth-woman's sharply bent waist - this time 90o away from the first straight line - and going through the two pelvises (Latin: pelvis = 'basin') of the two Nut-women. The triangular area created between (and above) these two imagined straight lines do represent - that I am convinced of - the 'a.m.-time' (the time between 'sunrise' and 'summer solstice'). And the 'p.m.-time' (from 'noon' to 'autumn equinox') is represented by the bent back (tua) of the Earth-woman.
Then it becomes obvious that the double sets of two stars (at left above the winged moon-disc (?) and at right below the hair of the Moon-Nut) are not so different, one set is not horizontal and the other not vertical as we first regarded them. Now we realize that both are leaning towards 'noon' and that they are mirror images of each other. We should turn the picture counterclockwise 45o, and then will we find the direction to zenith - or the meridian - being vertical. Whatever these two double stars may mean, fact is that they are close to the Moon respectively close to the ground (horizon). They are therefore 'shady' in character and quite possibly they may be connected with the Y-shapes we are investigating. If we think of i nika and i raro, then clearly the group above the moon represent i nika and the two below i raro. Those above (i nika) are close to the orbit of the sun, those below (i raro) is a matter for moon and earth together. Perhaps the first glyphs of the day calendar also are leaning towards noon? And so we return to Qa5-40, but now enriched (or confused?). Yes, both. I have to add one more thing, though. The Black Rat (Kiore Uri) we have tentatively identified as the constellation Leo as seen (or rather as visualized - in astrology the constellations do not move) from a point south of the equator, the big yellow cat turned into a little dark rat. In the rongorongo texts very probably this dark rat is illustrated with this type of glyph:
I have based my judgment on mainly the following points: 1. The possible identification of the left figure as a cat, and Bishop Jaussen's idea that instead it is a rat: "The supreme god Makemake was also carved at Orongo as a feline figure. Thomson thus said of some Orongo rock carvings which he estimated to antedate all others: 'the most common figure is a mythical animal, half human in form, with bowed back and long claw-like legs and arms. According to the natives this symbol was intended to represent the god Meke-Meke... ' He claimed it bore a 'striking resemblance' to a form he had seen in Peruvian art. A feline figure with arched back, drawn-up abdomen, tall legs, and a round head with gaping mouth is commonly found incised with bird-men on the Easter Island tablets. Bishop T. Jaussen's much quoted theory that this animal is a 'rat' is as farfetched as at all possible and solely dictated by the fact that rats were the only animals on Easter Island and, what is more, feline animals do not exist on any Pacific island. Yet felines were present in America and dominated the religious and symbolic art all the way from Mexico to Peru since Tiahuanaco times, and, in Mesopotamia and Egypt, consistently as a symbol of the creator god." (Heyerdahl 2) 2. That the straight vertical henua, implying sunlight, reasonably should have at left (the dark side) its opposite - a figure which is bent (the opposite of straight). The idea that 'light' is illustrated with straight lines and 'darkness' with bent lines I think is verified by very many instances, e.g. in the form of hakaturu at 'noon':
The picture with the double Nut fits in with these ideas about what the Dark Rat means. Because easily we may identify the Egyptian concepts of the plane (and 'egg') of the earth under the dome of the sky in the form of the body of the night goddess. The earth woman has both her arms straight, one above and one below her head, in contrast to her curved bodyshape. Presumably this illustrate the plane of the earth (= henua), and with that also the idea that this plane is illuminated by the sun. Limbs (e.g. her arms) may be straight and then we read illuminated by the sun, or limbs may be curved and then we read illuminated by the moon. That is a possibility. Furthermore, hands terminating in fingers illustrate the rays of the sun, whereas the shorter toes illustrate the fainter rays from the moon. On Easter Island the night goddess Nut has been converted into the night god, Te Kiore Uri. The night constellation of Leo personifies the night. Possibly, therefore, the heads in e.g.
should be identified with the solar disc; no flames signifying 'night'. Anyhow, I am now inclined to regard the primary concept as 'darkness' (and 'light' - henua - as its opposite), not 'darkness' as the automatic response to 'light'. First comes 'darkness' and then 'light' - exactly as the Polynesians in general imagined how cosmos came into being. And as the texts of H, P and Q (in contrast to A) first present the night and then the day. Out of 'nothing' came 'something'. "Chang Tung-Sun cites a famous chapter of the Tao Tê Ching: 'Existence and non-existence mutually generate each other, the difficult and the easy complete each other, the long and the short demonstrate ... each other, high and low explain ... each other, instrument and voice harmonise with each other, before and after follow each other.' as typical of the Chinese tendency to dialectical logic, or, as he significantly calls it, 'correlative' logic. 'The meaning of the term', he says, 'is completed only by its opposite'. At any rate, Chinese thought, always concerned with relation, preferred to avoid the problems and pseudo-problems of substance, and thus persistently eluded all metaphysics. Where Western minds asked 'what essentially is it?', Chinese minds asked 'how is it related in its beginnings, functions, and endings with everything else, and how ought we to react to it?" (Needham II) After now having documented this potentially important new idea about what the dark rat means, it is time to add also a piece from Barthel 2 about what the sign of Y might mean: "... the placing of the mother-of-pearl ornaments [cfr earlier about how Ira drilled holes for 4 ornaments, at Ruhi Hepii, at Pu and 2 at Apina Iti A Rapa Kura] on artificially created abutments [= lateral support of a building (English Etymology)] is most unusual. The two stones, Ruhi Hepii and Pu, which flank the pair of figures 'on the right and on the left', function as beacons emitting their signals toward the sea. Late in the afternoon or toward evening, when the sun is in the west, the rays strike the ornaments and the reflected light can be seen by canoes approaching the shore. To this day, the Easter Islanders have a well-developed system of fixed points along the shore that helps fishing boats determine their positions. Perhaps the 'beacons' of Ruhi Hepii and Pu were intended to focus on a point out at sea to the west of Apina, since this is the best landing site for (European) ships. However, this explanation is unsatisfactory primarily because the shining ornaments were intended as guides to voyagers from Polynesia. I would rather suspect that Ruhi Hepii and Pu were designations for two stars, which were essential in determining the proper sea route from the land of origin to Easter Island. The information, which was projected westward by the two 'beacons', only had to be applied to the proper season, and, with the help of the (heliacal) pattern of the rising stars, the route across the sea became fixed in the memory of the immigrants. Since 'adornment' (rei) is sometimes part of the name of a star (RAP. tuhi rei and rei atanga, Barthel 1962b:3), it could be considered a likely astronomic indicator." I think we may 'translate' the sign of Y as two stars leading the way, at least sometimes, e.g. in the first glyphs in the day calendars of H, P and Q. And with that conclusion dawn at last breaks the shadows of my mind: The Y-signs mark the west here too! Because the light from the sun comes from the east, which must be at the bottom of these glyphs, and reaches far in all directions: at right - north, at left (the dark side) south, and also across the diagonal of the earth to the west, marked with the two Y-signs.
In H we can see the four cardinal points of the square earth, in P and Q the reading should instead be that light illuminates the six parts of the sky. In A, on the other hand, there is no obvious sign of these cardinal points. Has the text in A not been influenced by the story about Ira and his 'beacons'? His 'beacons' were oriented towards the west, exactly as the glyphs in P, H and Q above. However, even in A we certainly can see that east is at bottom of the glyph. Also we can read that the observation of this rising sun in the east is done south of the equator, because there is more light at right (= north), that is shown by the more muscular right top flame. And, we shouldn't forget that the middle top flame of the sun has been converted into two, which presumably indicates Y and the west in a more subtle way than in P, H and Q. As to the two Y-signs in p.m. A nothing seems to be added by our new understanding of the first glyphs in the day calendar. These Y-signs still point at the darkness in the west. Or should we perhaps suspect that the glyph between the two 'Y-suns'
is an expression for the two mother-of-pearl ornaments at Apina Iti A Rapa Kura? White light and two 'eyes' indeed might have some such meaning. More important is that a new conclusion about how to read rongorongo texts may be drawn from our new reading of the first glyphs in the day calendar: We should always (?) orient ourselves so that we have the noon sun in front of us, we should never (?) turn our back towards the mature sun. Like the emperor of China we should have our faces (mata) towards the midday sun. Earlier we have considered the figure of the mature noon sun, standing firmly in the middle of the day, as having one ear (the right one?) towards east (?) and with his other ear in the opposite direction, these ears being symbols for the morning and evening suns, and with a pointed head marking the cardinal point of noon. Now we find the early morning sun with north at right and south at left. At that time of the day noon lies straight ahead. What we see at right and left is not the same thing as when we stand at noon time. Presumably we in the evening look back towards a more sunny time, once again changing the meaning of right and left. Old people need no teeth, they live on memories. There are more signs in Qa5-40 to be considered:
We can now understand why the right 'arm' (from us seen) is somewhat longer than the left one - because in the north the day is longer than in the south. Perhaps we may even guess that the missing part of the hexagon (in the west) represents the hole through which the sun will descend. But the three 'flames', are they really flames? I suspect that the fact that the left one (from us seen) is larger than the right one may be interpreted to mean that the 'shadows' are larger in the south than in the north. These two 'flames' would then not be flames but perhaps the shape of the moon, one part at left and the other at right. Close to the equator the moon sickle is like a boat, either right side up or upside down. If it happens to be upside down, then it looks like a hare paega:
"It is certainly true that the exterior form of the hare paenga, when the superstructure and thatch are intact, resembles an overturned boat, with the form established by the foundation. However, it is equally true (and perhaps equally important) that the configuration of the foundation is otherwise most like the Rapa Nui vulva design called komari. The komari is the quintessential female symbol which is everywhere prominent in Rapa Nui art, often carved in rock and wood, incised on human crania, and painted on the human body. In the hare paenga foundation form, the komari is cut in stone and embedded in the earth, the cosmologically female realm. Spanning above, over and virtually into this komari foundation is the ridgepole 'backbone' and curved rafter 'ribs' of what I surmise to be a symbolically male form. In short, we have a shelter which may be metaphorically understood as 'the sky father enclosing his progeny as he embraces the earth'. Those progeny entered and departed this male/female, earth/sky form through a low, dark tunnel which may be logically compared to the birth canal. This postulated symbolism does not, of course, negate the 'overturned boat' comparison, since Polynesian canoes were often likened to the bodies of great ancestors or to Tane as First Man. The canoe which transported the first exploratory voyage to Rapa Nui was said to have been called The Living Wood, a reference to Tane. Indeed, it is likely that the 'overturned boat' concept and its relationship to home, hearth and lineage, which is so graphically visible, was commonly understood (hence its retention in the oral literature), while the more esoteric godly connections, perhaps along the lines of those explored here, were known only by spiritual leaders." (Van Tilburg) There is, though, another explanation for the shape of the overturned 'boat', it might be the earth itself, and inside there is then a kind of enormous hollow (filled with water): "Da ferner sofort nachgewiesen werden wird, dass sich der apsū unter der Erde ihrer ganzen Ausdehnung nach befindet und ein Höhlung unter der Erde nur verursacht werden kann durch eine Wölbung der Erde, werden wir nicht umhinkönnen, diese Vorstellung von dem apsū wieder gespiegelt zu sehen in dem Bericht des Diodor, dem gemäss die Erde von den Chaldäern in der Gestalt eines umgestülpten Bootes vorgestellt wurde." (Jensen) If we once again compare the first glyphs in the day calendars
we can see that in H the left and right (bottom) 'flames' are similar to those in Q (left one larger than the right one). But the shape of this 'moon boat' is not clear, the impression is more like the petals of a flower bitten by frost (the 'flower of the sun'?). There is a certain similarity in shape between these 'flames' in H and Q, but probably the intentions of the writers are different. In A we clearly also may perceive that the left bottom part of the glyph is larger than the right bottom part, and we therefore should read the same message as in H and Q, that in the south the 'shadows' are larger. In P this message is difficult to perceive. In H and Q it is perhaps the intention of the artist to show the 'conjunction' of two entities, male and female, where the male part is the upper one and the female lies below, just as suggested by Van Tilburg about hare paega. In A and P, on the other hand, it seems that only the sun himself is there. In A and P we count to 7 (whereas in H and Q we count to 4 (male!?) + 3 (female!?). The week has 7 days (= the number of 'planets') but that certainly is not the origin of what 7 stands for. Instead 7 probably means 'the (w)hole': "On the day when Tîstar produced the rain, when its seas arose therefrom, the whole place, half taken up by water, was converted into seven portions; this portion, as much as one-half, is the middle, and six portions are around; those six portions are together as much as Khvanîras ..." (Sacred Books of the East according to Jensen) I suggest that what they meant was this shape:
The six 'flames' equals the middle hexagon in area, which implies that the 'middle' is 'one-half'. Moreover, I suggest that the middle hexagon is a region of 'water', whereas the six triangular forms represent 'land' (the triangles illustrate mountains). Consequently the earth should have an equal area of sea and land. This ancient idea still governed the travels of Captain Cook. So much sea had been discovered that there must be a continent somewhere in the south. He didn't discover the Antarctic continent, but had he done that and mapped it there still would not have been enough land. Perhaps there was an equal amont of sea and land during the ice age, when the sea level was lower than today? The hexagonal shape inside the 'arms' of the not yet born sun in P and Q possibly might allude to the 'sea'. Because if we consider the 6-pointed star above with its 7th interior 'sea' area, then it becomes obvious that we could use this shape as a map grid for the sky. The northern sky could then be divided into 6 equal triangular areas (with base = the equator and with apex = the north pole), and the southern sky would be equal to the hexagon. Evidence points to there once having been only 6 constellations in the zodiac. I quote from Lockyer: "If my suggestion be admitted that the Babylonians dealt not with the daily fight but with the yearly fight between light and darkness - that is, the antithesis between day and night was expanded into the antithesis between the summer and the winter halves of the year – then it is clear that at the vernal equinox Scorpio setting in the west could be watching the sunrise; at the autumnal equinox rising in the east, it would be watching the sunset; one part would be visible in the sky, the other would be below the horizon in the celestial waters. If this be so, all obscurity disappears, and we have merely a very beautiful statement of a fact, from which we learn that the time to which the fact applied was about 3000 B.C., if the sun were then near the Pleiades. Jensen ... suggests that not all the zodiacal constellations were established at the same time. The Babylonians apparently began with the easier problem of having six constellations instead of twelve. For instance, we have already found that to complete the present number, between Scorpio Capricornus [the Goat-fish] Pisces [the Fish] we must interpolate Sagittarius Aquarius [the Amphora] Aries and Libra seem also to be late additions according to Jensen, who writes: ‘We have already above (p. 90) attempted to explain the striking phenomenon that the Bull and Pegasus, both with half-bodies only, ήμίτομοι, enclose the Ram between them, by the assumption that the latter was interposed later, when the sun at the time of the vernal equinox was in the hind parts of the Bull, so that this point was no longer sufficiently marked in the sky. Another matter susceptible of a like explanation may be noted in the region of the sky opposite to the Ram and the Bull. Although we cannot doubt the existence of an eastern balance, still, as already remarked (p. 68), the Greeks have often called it χηλαί ‘claws’ (of the Scorpion), and according to what has been said above (p. 312), the sign for a constellation in the neighbourhood of our Libra reads in the Arsacid inscription ‘claw(s)’ of the Scorpion. These facts are very simply explained on the supposition that the Scorpion originally extended into the region of the Balance, and that originally α and β Libræ represented the ‘horns’ of the Scorpion, but later on, when the autumnal equinox coincided with them, the term Balance was applied to them. Although this was used as an additional name, it was only natural that the old term should still be used as an equivalent. But it also indicates the great age of a portion of the zodiac.’ Let us suppose that what happened in the case of Aries and Libra happened with six constellations out of the twelve: in other words, that the original zodiac consisted only of six constellations.
The upper list not only classifies in an unbroken manner the Fish-Man, the Goat-Fish, the Scorpion-Man, and Marduk of the Babyloniana, but we pick up all or nearly all of the ecliptic stars or constellations met with in early Egyptian mythology, Apis, The Tortoise1, Min, Serk-t, Chnemu, as represented by appropriate symbols. 1 I think I am right about the Tortoise, for I find the following passage in Jensen, p. 65, where he notes the absence of the Crab: ‘Ganz absehend davon, ob dasselbe für unsere Frage von Wichtigkeit werden wird oder nicht, muss ich daran erinnern, das unter den Emblemen, welche die sogenannten ‘Deeds of Salè’ häufig begleiten, verschiedene Male wie der Scorpion so die Schildkröte abgebildet gefunden wird’." Easter Island is located south of the equator and the proper way to suggest 'sky' would there be a hexagon (according to this complex of ideas). Now - at last - I think we are ready for next glyph, Qa5-41:
This strange composition consists of two parts, whereof the right clearly is a variant of henua. The bottom short line of henua is not straight, but inwards bent. Probably this alludes to the fact that the start of the period is down in the dark. As to the meaning of the left part, we could reasonably start with the idea that we see a vertical straight line, similar to what we have earlier discovered as signifying 'middle'. But why 'middle'? And what is that strange object at bottom? I think that (after having compared with the parallel glyphs in H and P):
we should identify the left part with a missing henua (not sun-ray as in H and P). Because henua implies 'earth' (in the light from the sun), reasonably we should expect the left part of this glyph to signify 'water' (i.e. 'darkness'), this period is only half in light. In P the horizon is suggested (I guess) in the short horizontal staight line at bottom. In Q the horizon might be implied in the vertical long straight line in the left part of the glyph. At least that is a probable explanation of the straight line in Qa5-42:
We should (presumably) read the long vertical straight lines at left in Qa5-41 and Qa5-42 as signifying the same thing: viz. the horizon as marking the middle (between 'water' and 'earth' / 'darkness' and 'light'). The strange vertical object hanging down at left in Qa5-41 reaches lower than the right henua. That is a sign worth noting. "... there are to be found, among the writings of the philosophers of the Warring States and Han periods, numerous analogies between law in human societies, and the carpenter's square, the compass and the plumb-line." (Needham II) I suggest we connect (in our minds) the carpenter's square with 'earth', his compass with the northern sky, and his plumb-line with the southern sky. 'Earth' is what the horizon defines, but initally there was only 'up' and 'down' as opposites. Further investigation and sharpness of mind then found the horizon ('earth') Lead is a heavy metal, searching for 'down' just like water. Presumably what we see at left in Qa5-41 is a plumb line. The 'plumb' is depicted as a little henua with a short crossing straight line in the middle. In Qa5-49 the middle is also marked with a line extending outside:
Here, however, there is a vertical arrangement, in the 'plumb' of Qa5-41 the arrangement is horizontal, i.e. contrast. There seems to be some kind of strange 'land' down there in the deep. A henua with a line across might mean a 'shadowy land'. Easily we could here quit examining the first period of the day calendar in Q. But we should avoid taking such easy routes. Only by efforts will new territory be gained. Birth and death belong together, 'existence and non-existence mutually generate each other'. What, e.g., lies below the 'surface' defined by the earth-womans straight long arms (in the double Nut picture)? It is invisible that part of cosmos. But on Easter Island they lived down there - south of the equator. One explanation for what lies down below the long straight 'white' arms of the earth-woman is that there is nothing there, perhaps what the (double Nut) artist thought. You go to sleep in the evening and then without any sense of time passing you wake up in the morning. Death and birth are close in time. At birth, therefore, death still lingers. To understand the mind of the Q-artist I therefore think we should return to Hotu A Matu'a on his death-bed. According to Barthel 2 the following happens after his speech to his four children: "The king arose from his sleeping mat and said to all the people: 'Let us go to Orongo so that I can announce my death!' The king climbed on the rock and gazed in the direction of Hiva, the direction in which he had travelled (across the ocean). The king said: 'Here I am and I am speaking for the last time.' The people (mahingo) listened as he spoke. The king called out to his guardian spirits (akuaku), Kuihi and Kuaha, in a loud voice: 'Let the voice of the rooster of Ariana crow softly. The stem with many roots (i.e., the king) is entering!' The king fell down, and Hotu A Matua died. Then all the people began to lament with loud voices. The royal child, Tuu Maheke, picked up the litter and lifted (the dead) unto it. Tuu Maheke put his hand to the right side of the litter, and together the four children of Matua picked up the litter and carried it. He and his people formed a line and went to Akahanga to bury (the dead) in Hare O Ava. For when he was still in full possession of his vital forces, A Matua had instructed Tuu Maheke, the royal child, that he wished to be buried in Hare O Ava. They picked him up, went on their way, and came to Akahanga. They buried him in Hare O Ava. They dug a grave, dug it very deep, and lined it with stones (he paenga). When that was done, they lowered the dead into the grave. Tuu Maheke took it upon himself to cover the area where the head lay. Tuu Maheke said, 'Don't cover the head with coarse soil (oone hiohio)'. They finished the burial and sat down." "The last political deed of Hotu Matua is the division of the island among his sons; his last words are directed to the homeland. For this he goes to the southwest cape of Easter Island (to Orongo, 'to the cliffs where the edge of the crater is narrowest,' RM:280, i.e. to Te Karikari).
This is the same place where he was greeted by the explorers [when he arrived to the island]. The following description of the death scene was given to Routledge by her informants: ... and he looked over the islet of Motu Nui towards Marae Renga and called to four aku-aku in his old home across the sea, 'Kuihi, Kuaha, Tongau, Opakako, make the cock crow for me', and the cock crew in Marae Renga, and he heard it across the sea; that was his death signal. (RM:280) His gaze is fastened on the offshore islet where the double-hulled canoe had anchored after the voyage from Marae Renga. Thus the cycle closes." Hotua Matu'a is a solar king. Even if he once was a real person, legend has transformed him into a god and the solar cycles (day, year) imprint on him so that he has to conform - therefore it all must end where it once began. "The dead Hotu Matua is not taken to the royal residence at Anakena but to his last substantial land holdings along the middle segment of the southern shore. His burial place is not associated with an ahu, as might be expected, but is called 'Hare O Ava'. The description suggests that he was buried in a stone-lined grave in the shape of a box."
"By linking 'Akahanga', where he had the wells dug "Among Hotu Matua's last accomplishments were his attempts to dig wells (anga i te vai, TP:53) along the shore of Akahanga. My informant did not mention these endeavors, but since Easter Island has neither streams nor wells, the supply of fresh water, aside from the three crater lakes, presents a real problem (HM:281-292). Recent trial excavations in the area of Akahanga have shown that this area was ideal for the establishment of wells. The dying king has his foster child bring him his last drink of water (vai maunga mo unu) from neighboring Huareva, a sure indication of the success of his last efforts to better the lot of the settlers (TP:55). After leaving the residence at Akahanga, Hotu Matua goes to the northern rim of the volcano Rano Kau."
and was later buried, and 'Huareva', where his last drink of water came from, with the death of the island king we get August ('Hora Iti') in the time-space scheme of the months and a lunar age of between 10 and 12 in the time-space scheme of the lunar nights as the time of death. Since the traditions mention no date, we have no way of verifying the realiability of the proposed calendrical allocations. The traditions do indicate that the island king and the island queen died at different times and were buried in separate locations." The awareness of the solar cycle of the day certainly originated before the solar cycle of the year - even my dogs are aware of the differences between night and day - and presumably at some prehistoric point in time the cycle of the day began to be compared with the cycle of the year. From that point on they were inseparable (avahiga kore). Studying the solar cycle of the day, we therefore should study the solar cycle of the year. Barthel has connected the sacred geography of Easter Island with the solar and luncar cycles, as understood by the inhabitants during the last centuries. How did he arrive at August as the time of death of king Hotu A Matua? Reviewing the facts about the voyage of the dream soul of Hau Maka we can see that Hua Reva and Akahanga are stations nos. 9-10:
Easily we then can connect the stations nos. 9-10 of the dream soul with the month August by using the translation table:
And we can furthermore note that Hatinga Te Kohe (breaking 'the bamboo staff of henua') occurs immediately after Akahanga, a sign that a new era will now begin. The king is dead, long live the new king. There is no time-space between two kings, because being without a king is dangerous; a dark time with no guiding light. I think I now have made a case for the first morning light being 'just around the corner' from the last evening light. We should also notice that both late in the evening and early in the morning we are close to the water level. Hotu Matua dug wells at the end and the morning sun is born out in the east where the waters of the ocean and the sky meet (maybe symbolized by Y). At both times a boat should be necessary. I think we now can understand why there is a hare paega on the back of the voracious sunfish (Tama Nui te Ra):
He is as all young creatures hungry and must grow quickly. The a.m.-sun is illustrated by the front of this fish. He has just arrived out from the water. The watery region is the night-side of the earth, like the inside of a hare paega, like a boat turned upside down. Like inside mother earth. Certainly the grave of Hotu Matua was lined with stones (he paenga). There might be a suggestion of boat shape in Qa5-42:
Let's compare the different shapes of tapa mea in Q:
6 marks identify the 1st period as belonging to the sun, a confirmation of the hexagonal shape in the first glyph of P and Q. The new day has begun, Tama is there, though still half a fish. The curved vertical line of tapa mea in the 1st period may indicate that the head of the fish is at top and the tail at bottom. |
