TRANSLATIONS

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Next part of niu in the dictionary contains an introduction to the K calendar (parallel with the G calendar) and shows how the instrument of counting glyphs is a useful tool to unravel the tangled structures:

The 1st period in the G calendar (and in the parallel K calendar) confirms how niu should stand at the beginning of the 2nd quarter:
1
Ga2-27 Ga2-28 Ga2-29 Ga3-1 Ga3-2 Ga3-3 Ga3-4 Ga3-5
1
Ka3-15 Ka3-16 Ka3-17 Ka3-18 Ka3-19 Ka3-20 Ka3-21
7
Eb3-20 Eb3-21 Eb3-22 Eb3-23 Eb3-24 Eb3-25

The number of glyphs and the details vary to a rather great extent between the texts, but that should not worry us - it is typical of parallel rongorongo texts. The writers allowed themselves liberty not only as regards how the glyphs were designed but also in what messages to deliver.

Redmarked are significant similarities, which - together with earlier findings regarding the calendrical identity of period 1 in G with period 7 in E - makes the parallel between the cited sequences of glyphs definite.

The ordinal numbers of the three niu examples (29, 16, 21) are also in a way 'parallel'. 29 indicates the fallow time between the last moonlit night (28) and the first (1 as in Ga3-1) moonlit light of next month, while 16 and 21 indicate other cardinal points (in the cycles of moon respectively sun).

The order in which the two hyperlinks ('the parallel K calendar' and '29, 16, 21') are presented implies that the reader is supposed to follow the chain of pages devoted to the structure of the parallel K calendar to its end before trying the last mentioned hyperlink. Here, on the other hand, I prefer the opposite order:

The numbers are important indicators of the subject matter of a rongorongo text. The cycles of moon and sun are similar: darkness, new light, waxing light, maximum light, turning around, waning light, last light, darkness.

Therefore the glyphs easily distinguish between these phases. But whether the subject matter is moon, sun or something else (the life cycle of some other 'person') is harder to determine. Counting saves the situation. We have earlier seen how the system works:

moon
Ca8-27 Ca8-28 Ca8-29 Ca9-1 Ca9-2
Ga2-27 Ga2-28 Ga2-29 Ga3-1
Ka3-15 Ka3-16 Ka3-17
sun
Ca5-17 Ca5-18 Ca5-19 Ca5-20

28 is the number of moonlit nights in a month, 15 is the night when moon is full. 18 is the number of decades (10) in a 'year'.

G and K tell about the moon in the 1st period of the calendrical year - 29 and 16 point at the dark new moon phase respectively the end of waxing moon - while in E the parallel glyphs do not 'mention' the moon. But in E we see the 7th period, not the 1st period of the calendar. Probably moon is important in the 1st period of a calendar.

Similarities in form between the glyphs tell about similarities in meaning. In Ga3-1 the top part is similar to the top part in Ca5-20. Both glyphs presumably tell about a new light.

Ka3-17 (which, we can conclude, informs about the new moon light) is designed similar to Eb7-6, which we know means the moon.
Sun Jupiter
Eb7-3 Eb7-4 Eb7-11 Eb7-12
Moon Venus
Eb7-5 Eb7-6 Eb7-13 Eb7-14
Mars Saturn
Eb7-7 Eb7-8 Eb7-15 Eb7-16
Mercury
Eb7-9 Eb7-10

The interpretation of Eb7-6 and Ka3-17 as the 'moon bird' support each other, because the conclusions are arrived at separately and independently.

Eb7-6 'must' represent the moon according to its place in what I earlier have guessed is a calendar for the week, while Ka3-17 (the new evidence) is deduced to represent the 1st night of waning moon by way of the pattern of the numbers (16 = the 'dark' phase when waxing moon has disappeared).

16 is similar to 29 (dark new moon) and both are then comparable with the vero number for the sun (19). Or to be more accurate: 29 (moon) and 19 (sun) imply 'the dark cloth', while 16 (moon) and 11 (sun) relate to the point of changeover from growth to decline:

moon sun phase
15 10 apex
16 11 vero 1
28 18 final
29 19 vero 2

The 11th period in the E calendar can now clearly be understood as the 'death' of waxing sun:

Eb4-2 Eb4-3 Eb4-4 Eb4-5 Eb4-6
te vero te henua toko tokoga te henua - e rima te kiore - te henua

The 11th kuhane station is Hatinga Te Kohe (breaking the 'bamboo'), which I already early guessed meant the end of a great time period. I thought it meant 'daybreak' = the time when 'night' was 'broken' and there is no obvious reason to change that interpretation. Numerical reason suggests 'death' at 11.

However, Mayan number 10 means 'death' (I have suggested in the honu chapter of the dictionary):

20 glyphs in the 1st period in a way predicts how after 10 periods sun will reach 'harbour' (henua ora). Maybe 2 glyphs corresponds to 1 period? That is probably not so, because 20 presumably represents 20 periods - 10 up to the midpoint and 10 after the midpoint. Or to be more precise: the 10th period has passed the midpoint and the 20th period has passed the end of the next half.

10 means one more than full, which of course is true if we regard 9 as the measure for full - there are no higher digits. 20 means that the limit has passed once more, and as there are two 'years' in a year 20 is the proper symbol.

The Mayan number symbol for 10 has a fleshless jawbone - a sign of death:

Maybe the difference (between the assumed Mayan concept and the rongorongo concept) is that the Mayan concept is focused on counting (there are no single digits above 9), while in rongorongo the life cycles of the celestial bodies is what matters.

As it happens, the weekly calendar in E returns in view after the detour in order to describe the structure of the K calendar:

We have seen another example of the niu glyph type in Wednesday (the day of Mercury):
Sunday Thursday
Eb7-3 Eb7-4 Eb7-11 Eb7-12
Monday Friday
Eb7-5 Eb7-6 Eb7-13 Eb7-14
Tuesday Saturday
Eb7-7 Eb7-8 Eb7-15 Eb7-16
Wednesday The days of the week and the planets are inseparable.
Eb7-9 Eb7-10

What has Wednesday to do with the beginning of the 2nd quarter of the year (or with new year)?

We should notice how 10 in Eb7-10 coincides with niu, a possible indication of niu as representing the 'coal sack' in which fire is hidden.