Ha6-5 Ha6-6 Ha6-7 Ha6-8

Now sun is turning around. His oval face is located closer to the three flames at top (p.m.) than those three flames at bottom (a.m.).

Though this (idea of reading the sign) is just an assumption without any substantial evidence. There are no glyphs of this type before noon in H and neither in A nor in P are there cases where the sun disc is dislocated upwards.

The cardinal point (noon which we just have passed) is illustrated by an arm holding up the sky (toko te ragi as I like to call this type of glyph).

 

1. Sky, heaven, firmament; ragi moana, blue sky. 2. Cloud; ragipuga, cumulus; ragitea, white, light clouds; ragi poporo, nimbus; ragi hoe ka'i cirrus (literally: like sharp knives); ragi viri, overcast sky; ragi kerekere, nimbus stratus; ragi kirikiri miro, clouds of various colours. 3. To call, to shout, to exclaim. Vanaga.

1. Sky, heaven, firmament, paradise; no te ragi, celestial. 2. Appeal, cry, hail, formula,  to invite, to send for, to notify, to felicitate, precept, to prescribe, to receive, to summon; ragi no to impose; ragi tarotaro, to menace, to threaten; tagata ragi, visitor; ragikai, feast, festival; ragitea, haughty, dominating. 3. Commander. 4. To love, to be affectionate, to spare, sympathy, kind treatment; ragi kore, pitiless; ragi nui, faithful. Churchill.

"The higher-ranked of the two largest political units on Rapa Nui was the Ko Tu'u Aro Ko Te Mata Nui. This literally translates as The Mast/Pillar/Post [standing] Before the Greater Tribes.

Toko te rangi, or Sky Propper, is named by Métraux in his corrected Miru genealogy as the thirteenth king of Easter Island and as one of the lineages or subgroups of the Miru. Although we have no record of the Sky Propper legend on Rapa Nui, other Polynesian legends of the Sky Propper are widely known, and they are formative elements in the basic cosmogenic theory of Polyesian beleif.

Sky (rangi) and Earth (papa) lay in primal embrace, and in the cramped, dark space between them procreated and gave birth to the gods such as Tane, Rongo and Tu. Just as children fought sleep in the stifling darkness of a hare paenga, the gods grew restless between their parents and longed for light and air. The herculean achievement of forcing Sky to separate from Earth was variously peformed by Tane in New Zealand and the Society Islands, by Tonofiti in the Marquesas and by Ru (Tu) in Cook Islands. 

After the sky was raised high above the earth, props or poles were erected between them and light entered, dispelling the darkness and bringing renewed life. One detail which is iconographically of interest is whether the god responsible for separating Earth and Sky did so by raising the Sky with his upraised arms and hands, as in Tahiti and elsewhere, or with his feet as in New Zealand.

The actual props, pillars or posts which separated the sky and earth are called toko in New Zealand, to'o in the Marquesas Islands and pou in Tahiti. In Rapanui tuu and pou are known, with pou meaning column, pillar or post of either stone or wood. Sometimes the word is applied to a natural rock formation with postlike qualities which serves as an orientation point.

The star Sirius is called Te Pou in Rapanui and functions in the same way. 

One monolithic basalt statue is called Pou Hakanononga, a somewhat obscure and probably late name thought to mean that the statue served to mark an offshore tuna fishing site.

The Rapanui word tokotoko means pole or staff. Sacred ceremonial staves, such as the ua on Rapa Nui, were called toko in Polynesia. 

Based upon the fact that toko in New Zealand also means 'rays of light', it has been suggested that the original props which separated and held apart Sky and Earth were conceived of as shafts of dawn sunlight. 

In most Polynesian languages the human and animate classifier is toko-, suggesting a congruence of semantic and symbolic meaning between anthropomorphic form and pole or post. Tane as First Man and the embodiment of sunlight thus becomes, in the form of a carved human male figure, the probable inspiration for the moai as sacred prop between Sky and Earth.

The moai as Sky Propper would have elevated Sky and held it separate from Earth, balancing it only upon his sacred head. This action allowed the light to enter the world and made the land fertile.

Increasing the height of the statues, as the Rapa Nui clearly did over time, would symbolically increase the space between Sky and Earth, ensuring increased fertility and the greater production of food. The proliferating image, consciously or unconsciously, must have visually (and reassuringly) filled the dangerously empty horizon between sea and land, just as the trees they were so inexorably felling once had." (Van Tilburg)

The arm has a (solar type of) 'head' like a hand and a smooth round tapering off tail, which means that the glyph (Ha6-6) is of the hakaturu type.

The sun rays (Ha6-7) have shrunken and tapa mea (Ha6-8) has 6 marks to indicate p.m. That we have just passed noon is indicated by the vertical straight line in tapa mea (as in the preceding period).

The midpoint of the day lies between this period and the preceding one. Therefore it might seem strange to have the vertical line (in tapa mea) in the preceding period too.

The explanation is that as the exact midpoint does not belong either to this nor to the preceding period, there are two middle periods.

In order to evaluate the idea about Ha6-5 that the oval face of the sun is dislocated upwards (and also to check whether this oval is standing on its short end is a sign), we can compare with other similar lyphs in H (but outside the day calendar):

 

Ha6-5 Ha6-116 Hb2-47 Hb3-44 Hb5-56 Hb6-21

The sample is too small for drawing any firm conclusions (as always when trying to 'quantify' rongorongo glyphs). But there seems to be a general tendency in H to draw the oval higher than in the middle (excluding the two last glyphs which have so big ovals as to elminate such a dislocation).

Ha6-116 has the same 'oval standing on short end' sign as Ha6-5. Perhaps this is because p.m.-sun is still the subject, there are only ca 20 glyphs between these two glyphs.

In Tahua 'oval standing on short end' means a.m.-sun, but that deos not seem to be the meaning here in H.

Hb5-56 and Hb6-21 have not only very big oval faces but also a queer middle bottom flame.

Does this leave us with only two 'normal' suns, Hb3-47 and Hb3-44? Quantitatively such conclusions are impossible to draw, but qualitatively it is possible. Everything is possible qualitatively.

Ha6-6 is composed by two glyph types fused together, toki te ragi (GD32) and haga (GD36):

 

GD32 GD36 Ha6-6

Is there a sign too, the pointed 'jaw' in Ha6-6? Yes, presumably there is. I have drawn a qualitative (weak) conclusion based on the appearances in H of a few other composite glyphs, like these:

 

Ha3-40 Ha4-11 Hb12-43

Ha4-11 proves that the pointed 'jaw' in Ha6-6 does not need to be like that just because we have a combination with haga. Though we might still imagine the 'jaw' as a part from GD36.

Images like this (the 'jaw' as a part of haga) are normal ingredients of the written rongorongo texts, which fact makes the texts easier to read while at the same time they increase the possibilities in deciphering the texts: they are not definite but 'wavy' in character.

It is similar to the situation when one experiment determines that light consists of particles, while another will prove that light consists of waves. Readings are created, not out there in 'reality'.

I have leaned on other composite glyphs above because composite glyphs tend to have fewer signs than non-composite glyphs. But that is a conclusion which may be false of course, just something created in my mind.

My imagination also tells me that the 'head' in toko te ragi really is that (at the same time as this 'head' is a stylized hand). We should recognize the similarity between this type of head and the type of head of growing sun (a.m.-sun):

 

The sun disc does not need flames to be a sun.

And what does this 'jaw'-sign mean? We have evidence from Maui and the sacred jawbone, from Samson in the Book of Judges and we have the general conclusion that the day calendar describes the sun as if he was a human being: birth, youngster, initiation rites, fully grown, waning, dying.

At noon sun 'dies' to be reborn in a more 'bony' appearance. Old men become like women, old women like men. Woman is 'wood' and the 'jaw' sign might be read that sun now has become partly woman (yin).

Haga is a sign of wood, but that is not enough, because hakaturu needs haga to show the reversal - haga primarily means turning around. To indicate the new 'personality' of sun haga is extended to influence the 'jaw'.

The 'jaw' is similar to a toki. Toki is an instrument for working in wood, a male instrument. The sexual overtones are there. And we could also relate this train of thought to Ha6-3:

"In reference to your question, 'How do the natives of Easter Island obtain fire?' I [Mr. Croft] have to answer that they cannot tell. Their forefathers, like the ancient Romans, had their 'vestal' fires, preserved from ancient times; but the 'Vestal Virgins' of Easter Island were gray-headed and gray-bearded old heathen priests. It was a part of their duty, sacredly attended to, to guard the eternal fire, which was neutral, together with its guardians, in all wars.

From this sacred fire the whole community - at one time a large one - could obtain that useful 'element' from time to time, as they needed it, for culinary and other purposes. This custom is still kept up by a portion of the community, while another portion rely on the matches of Mr. Dutrou-Bornier for their supply.

Another portion of the community have learned from Gambier Islanders (who were sent there by the Catholics, to assist the priests) how to make fire: not by rubbing two sticks together, as you ask in your letter, but by rubbing the point of one stick on the side of the other, until it makes a hot groove and eventually fire - a work generally of from five to ten minutes. In order to illustrate this, I have had a photograph taken for you, showing you the natives in the very act of producing fire, and have also sent you the identical sticks used on that occasion.

You will notice that the wood is of a soft and spongy nature. It grows abundantly on these islands, and is a variety known as the Hibiscus tiliaceus, and called by the natives 'Purau' and 'Fau', pronounced 'Purow' and 'Fow', 'ow' being sounded as in the word 'how'. You can, if you wish, obtain large quantities of it, by going on board the vessels carrying oranges from these islands to San Francisco; the orange crates are mostly made of it. And you could also get one of the Tahitian or other islanders, sailors on board of such vessels, to make fire for you by the aid of these sticks, and thus practically or ocularly answer your own question, as they are all experienced in the art." (Churchill)

There is an old Egyptian picture which surely must be telling some similar story. Here the instrument is not an adze (or a jaw) but a kind of agricultural tool (henen). We start by showing how this henen looks in another picture and also how it looks as a hieroglyph:

Then to the more mythic picture which caught my attention:

All three pictures are from Wilkinson, who talks about burials and the ancient custom to hoe the earth at those times. He thinks that possibly the two circular shapes (in the larger circle) are suns. It reminds us - I think - about the rongorongo glyph type GD24:

8 stylized sun men (I think) dig in Mother Earth. The heads of these men are bigger at bottom than higher up. Also their penises show differences depending on season.

There are two streams of water on each side, from the two goddesses. Between the two holes (or suns as Wilkinson suggests) there are 9 streams of water too, and even the two 'mountains' giving birth to the sun at the top of the picture is watery in character.

Those 9 streams are like the 9 months of pregnancy. If we regard each month as having 28 days (when moon is visible), then we will have 9 * 4 = 36 weeks in such a period, quite in harmony with those 360 days in a solar year.

In old Babylonia they thought that it was the sky which had two holes ('doors') through which sun entered in the morning and left in the evening. The Egyptian picture above seems also to have a circular sky with holes in it. On the other hand the two mountains through which sun is born in the morning implies that he comes from the underworld, i.e. through some hole in the earth.

The male instrument might vary and so the female. Hatchet is a small axe, the egg needs to be hatched.

Not only fresh wood but also water is female. At sea the canoes are paddled and at that time the male instrument is the paddle, remarkably also called hoe:

 

1. Paddle. 2. To wheeze with fatigue (oeoe 2). 3. Blade, knife; hoe hakaiu, clasp-knife, jack-knife; hoe hakanemu, clasp-knife; hoe pikopiko, pruning knife. Churchill.

T. Paddle. E hoe te heiva = 'and to paddle (was their) pleasure'. Henry.

Perhaps the reason why elderly men become more womanish, and elderly women more manish is that they influence each other. After reaching maturity they live together.

What is there to say about Ha6-7? It is time to compare the different appearances of the sun rays in this calendar:

 

...
Ha6-17 Ha6-13 Ha6-10 Ha6-7
-
Ha5-50 Ha5-54 Ha5-58 Ha6-3

Is it not perfectly obvious by now why the p.m.-rays are smaller? They have come under female influence!

Not quite. There are alternative explanations. I have the experience that the weather changes around noon time. Often sun is shining brightly in the morning and then just when we are ready for a picnic it is getting cloudy. Seldom it is cloudy in the morning and nice weather after noon.

At an initiation rite the youngster is 'pruned' (as with a hoe pikopiko), cut down to a more moderate size.

 

1. To twist (vi); twisted, bent. Haga piko, bend formed by part of the coast. 2. To hide (vi); hidden; kahi piko, tuna fish meant as a gift for someone, and which is kept hidden away from others. 3. Slip knot (used with fishing lines). Vanaga.

1. Post; moa tara piko, cock with long spurs. 2. Crooked, tortuous; piko mai piko atu, sinuosity; hakapiko, pliant, to bend; pikopiko, crooked; hoe pikopiko, pruning knife; veo pikopiko, arrow that flies ill. 3. To hide oneself, to lie in wait, to set a trap, to take refuge, to withdraw, to beat a retreat, security, ambush, padlock; piko reoreo, false security; piko etahi, to withdraw one after another; pikoga, asylum, receptacle, refuge, retreat, snare. Churchill.

H. Umbilical cord. Hawaiians are connected to ancestors (aumakua), as well as to living kinsmen and descendants, by several cords emanating from various parts of the body but alike called piko, 'umbilical cord'. Islands of History.

 Ha6-8 has 2 marks below the middle and 4 above:

In H the sum of 6 marks indicates p.m. In A the normal tapa mea also has two groups of 6 marks grouped 2 + 4, though differently located, and while discussing that I proposed an aversion against odd numbers as the reason. Here in H the same tendency is visible.

As sun also is characterized by number 6 the writer of H presumably was of the opinion that it is primarily the p.m. sun which is the 'real' sun. That would also explain why not the Tahua location pattern of 2 + 4 was used.

In Tahua the day calendar is followed by a similar night calendar, while in H/P/Q night comes first. This also harmonizes with the two different location patterns (in A and H).

"Ta'aroa, the Creator, was self-begotten, for he had no father and no mother. He sat in a shell named Rumia, shaped like an egg for countless ages in endless space in which there was no sky, land, sea, moon, nor stars.

This was the period of continous, countless darkness (po tinitini) and thick impenetrable darkness (po ta'ota'o).

At long last Ta'aroa cracked the shell to hatch himself. He stood on the shell and called in various directions, but no sound answered from the void.

He retired within Rumia into an inner shell termed Tumu-iti (Lesser-foundation), where he lay torpid for a further untold period.

At last, he determined to act. He emerged and made the inner shell of Rumia into a foundation for the rock and soil of the world, and the outer shell he made into the dome of the sky which was low and confined.

He breathed into the rock foundation the essence of himself and personified it as Tumu-nui to be the husband; likewise he personified the rock stratum as Paparaharaha to be the wife. Both, however, refused to obey the command of Ta'aroa to approach each other, for each had a fixed appointed place in the earth structure from which they would not move.

Then Ta'aroa created rocks, sand, and earth. He conjured up Tu, the great craftsman, to help him in the task of creation, and together they formed the myriad roots.

The dome of Rumia was raised on pillars, and thus space beneath was extended. The space was termed atea and pervaded with a spirit personified as Atea. Land and space were increased and the underworld was set apart. Forest trees and food plants grew, and living things appeared on the land and in the sea.

At the back were the mountains, personified as Tu-mou'a, with land, springs, and rivers. In front was the ocean and its rocks ruled by the ocean lord, Tino-rua. Above was Atea (Space) and below was Rua (Abyss). The land was Havai'i, the birthplace of other lands, gods, kings, and man." (Buck)