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TRANSLATIONS
Clearly we here, in the '5th' period, have reached noon. A fully grown person illustrates this. Also the sign of middle (Ha6-3) as a vertical central line has been 'underlined' by being 'encircled' by a cartouche-like oval. The name of a pharaoh was enclosed in a 'cartouch', e.g. Ptolemaios, Cleopatra, Alexantrs (Alexander):
Champollion used these cartouches to relate the hieroglyphic signs to sound values. (Ref. Lockyer) Cartouche is a French word with associations to cartridge and cornet (conical twisted paper, a 'little horn'). In Ha6-1 we could imagine the 'flame' at right as a little horn. Fact is that at solstices there might be reason to sound the horn, perhaps to give the sun a signal for returning, activate himself again, to wake up: "'horn ... bony excrescense (often curved and pointed) on the head of cattle, etc.; instrument made from or in imitation of this ... pointed projection ..." (English Etymology)
(Picture from Posnansky - figure blowing the horn at solstice.) Once again we need to look at the three versions of this type of glyph in H:
Considering that the present or future is in front, whereas the past is at the back, we may rest asssured that the 'spiky flame' in the '5th' period really represents something at noon. The same type of argumentation explains why in the 2nd period the 'flame' is like part of a moon sickle (darkness is still felt) and why in the '4th' period the 'flame' at right is rather fat (light has conquered the darkness). The three flames at bottom represent a.m. and we can see that the 1st one (bottom left from us seen) has been steadily growing during this time. We should not imagine that the flames are following the sun counterclockwise up and then left. They cannot turn into p.m.-flames. Though we can in the '5th' period see that the 2nd (bottom middle) flame has advanced counterclockwise (i.e. towards right because it is located below the midpoint of the glyph). In Ha6-2 we may study the fully grown person closer in a similar manner. But let us start by comparing how he is depicted in the three different texts:
The symmetric heads in H and P contrast against the profile head in A. The text A has located noon between the 5th and 6th period, regarding noon as a point in time, and we have no good reason to think that the writers of H and P thought otherwise. The presentation (in H and P) of a fully grown and symmetric person already in the 5th period must therefore be a 'looking forward' towards noon. In our minds noon is already here. The 'ears' probably illustrate the morning sun and the evening sun (it does not matter if we imagine the morning sun as located at right or at left, because the heads are symmetric). The middle of this type of head is pointed and marks noon. The arms are not quite symmetric. The left (from us seen) arm is hanging down a bit lower. 'On the other hand', the right (from us seen) upper leg is somewhat longer. The right side (from us seen) ought to be the future (beyond noon), which means that the left side (from this person seen) should be the future. But perhaps (and more probable) these directions are to be read exactly oppositely because it seems more reasonable to regard the morning upper leg as longer than the one after noon, and the afternoon arm longer than the one before noon. The bottom part should be a.m. and the upper part p.m. (as in the preceding glyphs). If so, then during a.m. right (from us seen) is the present and future, during p.m. left (from us seen) is the present and future. That way we also follow the motion of the sun. Disregarding these signs the symmetry is pronounced. At noon we can regard before noon and after noon as quite similar (as regards the light situation). The legs are creating an outline of a square (the earth) and the arms are creating an outline of a semicircle (the sky). Before noon earth dominates, after noon the sky. At Ha6-3 we should remember the drum located in the middle according to the Chinese: "Thus the body of a man is the image of a State. The thorax and abdomen correspond to the palaces and offices. The four limbs correspond to the frontiers and boundaries. The divisions of the bones and sinews correspond to the functional distinctions of the hundred officials. The pores of the flesh correspond to the four thoroughfares.a a He [Ko Hung in Pao Phu Tzu] is certainly thinking of the rectangular plan of many Chinese cities, where the ways from the four gates centre on the drum-tower ..." (Needham II) Shamans use a drum to make contact with the 'supernatural' world. Great kings all over the world also are 'mediums' located in the middle (and high up), between us ordinary people and the powers above. Metoro said rutu a te pahu (= sound of drums) at what I believe is summer solstice in Tahua (at the beginning of side b). Although there is no obvious sign of drums (or trumpets) at noon, we shouldn't be surprised if we heard them here. "trump ... card of a suit that ranks above all others ..." (English Etymology)
'Off with his head!' I remember that the Red Queen was shouting time and again. At the highest point the end is near. "The players all played at once, without waiting for turns, quarreling all the while, and fighting for the hedge-hogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting 'Off with his head!' or 'Off with her head!' about once in a minute. Alice began to feel very uneasy: to be sure, she had not as yet had any dispute with the Queen, but she knew that it might happen any minute, 'and then', thought she, 'what would become of me?' They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here: the great wonder is, that there's any one left alive! ... " (Carroll)
Some things are easier told for children than for grownups. At solstice the trumpet-blowing person (at Tiahuanaco) is holding - in his left hand - a head hanging down, who has been slain? "Across the bows connecting each double canoe was a floor, covering the chambers containing idols, drums, trumpet shells, and other treasures for the gods and people of Ra'itea; and upon the floor were placed in a row sacrifices from abroad, which consisted of human victims brought for that purpose and just slain, and great fishes newly caught from fishing grounds of the neighboring islands. They were placed upon the floor, parallel with the canoe, alternatively a man and a cavalli fish, a man and a shark, a man and a turtle, and finally a man closed in the line. Behind this grim spectacle stood two or three priests in sacerdotal attire, which consisted of a plain loin girdle, a shoulder cape reaching down to the waist and tipped with fringe, wide or narrow according to their grades, and a circular cap fitting closely to the head - all made of finely braided purau bark bleached white. Seated at the paddles were the navigators and warrior chiefs in gay girdles and capes of tapa and helmets of various shapes, and wise men in plain girdles, capes, and turbans of brown or white tapa. As this terribly earnest procession arrived, the canoes were quietly drawn up along the shore, and the guests were met at the receiving marae by an imposing procession of the dignitaries and warriors of the land grandly attired, and also unarmed, headed by the king, the two primates, Paoa-uri and Paoa-tea, and the priests of the realm, who greeted them in low, solemn tones. Then everybody alike set to work silently disposing of the sacrifices just arrived, combined with others of the same mixed kind prepared by the inhabitants of the land. They strung them through the heads with sennit, and act called tu'i-aha, and then suspended them upon the boughs of the trees of the seaside and inwards, the fish diversifying the ghastly spectacle of the human bodies, a decoration called ra'a nu'u a 'Oro-mata-'oa (sacredness of the host of Warrior-of-long-face)." (Henry) At winter solstice in Hawaii full moon was expected and then the grisly ceremonies ('breaking the coconut') could start: "...in the ceremonial course of the coming year, the king is symbolically transposed toward the Lono pole of Hawaiian divinity; the annual cycle tames the warrior-king in the same way as (e.g.) the Fijian installation rites. It need only be noticed that the renewal of kingship at the climax of the Makahiki coincides with the rebirth of nature. For in the ideal ritual calendar, the kali'i battle follows the autumnal appearance of the Pleiades, by thirty-three days - thus precisely, in the late eighteenth century, 21 December, the winter solstice. The king returns to power with the sun.7 7 The correspondence between the winter solstice and the kali'i rite of the Makahiki is arrived at as follows: ideally, the second ceremony of 'breaking the coconut', when the priests assemble at the temple to spot the rising of the Pleiades, coincides with the full moon (Hua tapu) of the twelfth lunar month (Welehu). In the latter eighteenth century, the Pleiades appear at sunset on 18 November. Ten days later (28 November), the Lono effigy sets off on its circuit, which lasts twenty-three days, thus bringing the god back for the climactic battle with the king on 21 December, the solstice (= Hawaiian 16 Makali'i). The correspondence is 'ideal' and only rarely achieved, since it depends on the coincidence of the full moon and the crepuscular rising of the Pleiades. Whereas, over the next two days, Lono plays the part of the sacrifice. The Makahiki effigy is dismantled and hidden away in a rite watched over by the king's 'living god', Kahoali'i or 'The-Companion-of-the-King', the one who is also known as 'Death-is-Near' (Koke-na-make). Close kinsman of the king as his ceremonial double, Kahoali'i swallows the eye of the victim in ceremonies of human sacrifice (condensed symbolic trace of the cannibalistic 'stranger-king'). The 'living god', moreover, passes the night prior to the dismemberment of Lono in a temporary house called 'the net house of Kahoali'i', set up before the temple structure where the image sleeps. In the myth pertinent to these rites, the trickster hero - whose father has the same name (Kuuka'ohi'alaki) as the Kuu-image of the temple - uses a certian 'net of Maoloha' to encircle a house, entrapping the goddess Haumea; whereas, Haumea (or Papa) is also a version of La'ila'i, the archetypal fertile woman, and the net used to entangle her had belonged to one Makali'i, 'Pleiades'. Just so, the succeeding Makahiki ceremony, following upon the putting away of the god, is called 'the net of Maoloha', and represents the gains in fertility accruing to the people from the victory over Lono. A large, loose-mesh net, filled with all kinds of food, is shaken at a priest's command. Fallen to earth, and to man's lot, the food is the augury of the coming year. The fertility of nature thus taken by humanity, a tribute-canoe of offerings to Lono is set adrift for Kahiki, homeland of the gods. The New Year draws to a close. At the next full moon, a man (a tabu transgressor) will be caught by Kahoali'i and sacrificed. Soon after the houses and standing images of the temple will be rebuilt: consecrated - with more human sacrifices - to the rites of Kuu and the projects of the king." (Islands of History) We have now acquired some new possible aspects on the nut in
But every day cannot be like winter solstice in Hawaii, or? "According to Alfred Patterson, the hare tongi were built on [the island of] Hare as places for people to hide from spirits (aitu) which came in from the sea. E hakamuni ni aitu takapo tai means 'to hide from spirit groups from the sea'. The idea evidently was that people could be seen in normal houses with open sides, whereas they could not be seen by the spirits when the roof came down to the ground. At [the island of] Touhou, according to Patterson, the people could be protected from the spirits by the ariki priest who resided there but at Hare they had no such protection. He also stated that the aitu came in from the sea during the middle part of the day, about 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Hence, women working in the puraka cultivations in the outer islands took care to return to Touhou before the dangerous period started." (Kapingamarangi) In Ha6-4 tapa mea has a straight vertical left part, once again a mark for middle:
5 rays towards right imply the presence of gods. Three of the marks point upwards, two downwards. Those pointing downwards are at the bottom part, which we should think represent a.m. "The two currents, Yang and Yin, in the earth's surface, were identified with the two symbols which apply to the eastern and western quarters of the sky, the Green Dragon ... of spring in the former case, the White Tiger ... of the autumn in the latter. Each of these would be symbolised by configurations of the ground. The former ought always to be to the left, and the latter to the right, of any tomb or habitation, which should preferably be protected by them, as if in the crook of an elbow. But this was only the beginning of the complexity, since high and abrupt escarpments were considered Yang, and rounded elevations Yin. Such influences ... had to be balanced, if possible, in the selection of the site, so as to obtain three-fifths Yang and two-fifths Yin." (Needham II) |
