TRANSLATIONS

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Is it Mercury which is depicted in the niu glyph type? How else can it be that niu appears in the middle of the week?

The E calendar starts at midwinter, while the G calendar and the parallel K calendar begin with the 2nd quarter (according to our own calendar). The ancient structure of the year seems to be a division into 'summer' and 'winter'.

Maybe the Polynesians and other peoples who journeyed far and wide, sometimes crossing the equator, felt a need to construct a calendar which could function both in the north and in the south.

A step in that direction may have been to compromise as regards what half of the year was 'summer' and what was 'winter' - by way of installing a calendar that did not begin at an equinox but at a solstice.

I therefore suggest that we should not try to see what unites Mercury and midwinter but instead see what unites Mercury and spring equinox. Whatever it is we can be sure that it is ancient and complex.

"In north Asia the common mode of reckoning is in half-year, which are not to be regarded as such but form each one separately the highest unit of time: our informants term them 'winter year' and 'summer year'. Among the Tunguses the former comprises 6½ months, the latter 5, but the year is said to have 13 months; in Kamchatka each contains six months, the winter year beginning in November, the summer year in May; the Gilyaks on the other hand give five months to summer and seven to winter. The Yeneseisk Ostiaks reckon and name only the seven winter months, and not the summer months.

This mode of reckoning seems to be a peculiarity of the far north: the Icelanders reckoned in misseri, half-years, not in whole years, and the rune-staves divide the year into a summer and a winter half, beginning on April 14 and October 14 respectively. But in Germany too, when it was desired to denote the whole year, the combined phrase 'winter and summer' was employed, or else equivalent concrete expressions such as 'in bareness and in leaf', 'in straw and in grass'." (Nilsson)

From the hyperlink 'Mercury and spring equinox' a chain of pages are reached:

 

We start the research by citing what 'correspondences', according to the Chinese (ref. Lindqvist), Mercury has:

Elements:

wood

fire

earth

metal

water

Cardinal points:

east

south

middle

west

north

Planets:

Jupiter

Mars

Saturn

Venus

Mercury

Sense organ:

eye

tongue

mouth

nose

ear

Taste:

sour

bitter

sweet

rank

salty

Crop:

wheat

beans

hirs (Panicum)

hemp

hirs (Setaria)

Animal:

sheep

hen

ox

dog

pig

Colour:

bluegreen

red

yellow

white

black

The coconut tree likes to grow at the margin of the salty sea, and Mercury is the planet which corresponds to 'salt' and 'water'.

To the cited seven Chinese correspondences must be added what kind of metal the planets allude to. Futhermore, Sun and Moon should be included and we can reorder the table so the 'planets' follow the order of the days of the week:

Elements:

 

 

fire

water

wood

metal

earth

'Planets':

Sun

Moon

Mars

Mercury

Jupiter

Venus

Saturn

Taste:

 

 

bitter

salty

sour

rank

sweet

Metals:

gold

silver

iron

quicksilver

tin

copper

lead

Quicksilver is the only liquid (like water) metal. It moves. It is not firm. It is 'quick', as if living. This unique characteristic makes Mercury into a questionable character: Is he really male? The firmness expected of a man is lacking.

Among the seaweeds where the churning sea meets land only the flexible survive. It is necessary to bend and follow the waves. We must find Mercury at the border between 'sea' (winter) and 'land' (summer'). That is his habitat, at equinox.

The description of Mercury according to the Polynesians:

Hawaiian Islands

Society Islands

Tuamotus

New Zealand

Pukapuka

Ukali or Ukali-alii 'Following-the-chief' (i.e. the Sun)

Kawela 'Radiant'

Ta'ero or Ta'ero-arii 'Royal-inebriate' (referring to the eccentric and undignified behavior of the planet as it zigzags from one side of the Sun to the other)

Fatu-ngarue 'Weave-to-and-fro'

Fatu-nga-rue 'Lord of the Earthquake'

Whiro 'Steals-off-and-hides'; also the universal name for the 'dark of the Moon' or the first day of the lunar month; also the deity of sneak thieves and rascals.

Te Mata-pili-loa-ki-te-la 'Star-very-close-to-the-Sun'

Ref. Makemson

The Tuamotuan names for Mercury, Fatu-ngarue ('Weave-to-and-fro') and Fatu-nga-rue ('Lord of the Earthquake'), are two views of the same characteristic: Instability.

In the Society Islands they regarded Mercury as showing the undignified behavior of some-body close to the Sun. Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun, it is difficult to observe and its orbit appears to be without any order whatsoever. Like a thief the planet hides and sneaks around. Its strange orbit is like sea-weed or intestines, like a winding (sea) snake.

(Ref. Hamlet's Mill)

After returning to the main line of pages, we then have:

Snakes did not exist on Easter Island, instead the creature became an eel. Mercury and the eel are the same and their calendrical period is the 2nd quarter, as illustrated e.g. by the end glyphs for the beginning (period 7) and end (period 12) in the E calendar:
7 12 7 1
Eb3-25 Eb4-12 Eb3-22 Ga3-3

The uplifted hind legs are letting in the light - just as Rigi the mighty 'worm' was letting in the light by lifting the sky 'shell' up.

In Eb3-22 (also the 7th period) a worm-like appendage with a head at the end is attatched to niu. Presumably it is 'Rigi'.

Likewise - when we know what to look for - it is fairly obvious that in Ga3-3 the eel is alluded to in the form of the bird's sinous body.

Then follows:

There is a rejuvenation of nature in spring and the process is in some way caused by the raising up of the sky roof by the 'eel'. The 'eel' is working his magic by pressing hard against land and sky, forcing them apart.

The top of the niu glyph often has all 4 'limbs' (cardinal directions) 'open' (meaning 'spooky'), but in Eb3-22 the bottom right one is higly alive, forming the body of 'Rigi':

The cardinal directions seems to be are arranged so that the 2nd quarter is represented by the 'eel'. If the directions are ordered counterclockwise (which is reasonable if left corresponds to the past) then the 3rd quarter must be seen at top right.

The path of the body of 'Rigi' appears to go right through the cross, with autumn equinox (initiating the 4th quarter) at top left.

Here a hyperlink 'spooky' leads to the following linked pages:

Rongorongo glyphs are created according to a system where only contours are to be drawn. The single contour line as a rule is closed, it is in principle a deformed circle which has neither beginning nor end.

Presumably the origin of the system is the Cat's Cradle patterns (kaikai), where a string without ends is the instrument for exhibiting the moving figures.

When a glyph is 'open', i.e. the 'string' has ends (the contour line is broken), the glyph carries a message: 'not of this world' ('supernatural').

The principle of 'openness' meaning a being from the 'spirit world' is found not only in the rongorongo system, but also elsewhere in Polynesia and among the Indian cultures of South America:

"Figs. a, b and e are Peruvian spirit emblems painted or embroidered on the burial gifts formed like sails ... Figs. c and d are petroglyphs of a type common in the Marquesas and Society Islands ... This peculiar type of Polynesian petroglyph represent, like so many of the Peruvian spirit emblems, an anthropomorphic figure drawn in two parallel lines in such a way that the body is not joined at the hips. Fig. f is a petroglyph from Kauai, Hawaii, reproduced by Bennett ... who describes it as 'triangular body not joined at the hips.' He further says ... of the local anthropomorphic figures in Kauai petroglyphs: 'Two, three, and four toes are found, with three as typical.' Both the triangular body, gaping hips, crooked arms, and a strange number of toes and fingers agree remarkably well with spirit emblems in early Peru ..." (Heyerdahl 6)

The Eskimo (Inuit) peoples have myths about the 'Entrail Snatcher', in which a bottomless body (bereaved of its entrails) indicates an 'empty shell' (dead person, spirit).

"It is related of a man and his wife that they began to beat each other. At last, while they were beating each other, he stabbed his wife in the foot-soles with a knife. Now she would no longer stay in the house, but fled from her home as a mountain walker, crawling along in the moonshine.

When she had got up into the country, she sat down there in the bright moonshine, and there she now remained. At last she began to say: 'Moon, come down to me!' And the she again remained sitting for some time. To be sure, it now began to darken. The Moon was darkened, it began to grow quite dark.

At last she could begin to hear a tremendous rumbling, something that rumbled tremedously. It was the Moon coming down to her, the great man in the Moon. He began to open his great sledge-skins, beautiful, large bear-skins. Only the lower one he left where it was. Then he said to the poor beaten woman: 'Please, now only sit down here.'

She sat down on his sledge, and when she had sat down, he covered her with the other skins. Then they drove off. The Moon carried her away with him. They drove and drove. After some time, the sledge ceased making a noise; it could be heard no longer to have firm ground under it. When she realized that, she discharged her spittle. When she had done so, it did not last long before they could again be heard to make a noise. But now the Moon said to her: 'For the time being thou must let be spitting!' 

Then again they drove for a little while, and it did not take long, before they could again be felt not to have firm ground under them, because the sledge now made no noise. Thus they kept on driving along. At last they seemed to have stopped, and the Moon began to open the many sledge-skins, and when he had removed them all, she indeed opened her eyes wide. On the large meat platform she could see the animals moving; they were alive, both bears and other great animals.

When she now came up beside him, he, the Moon, invited his (new) wife to enter, saying: 'Please enter, but take care not to look into the side-house, for my little sister is apt to singe all that is strange to her!' Thus the Moon said to her. She now went in, and she was on the point of glancing towards the side-house, but alas one side of the border of her hood was singed.

Then she sat down on the sleeping platform and for the time being remained sitting there. At the front wall of the house she caught sight of some poor human beings, their faces were one broad grin - they had no entrails. Thus she now sat there. At last, after some time, the Moon entered, and he now said: 'Look at those poor fellows there without entrails, they are those my cousin has deprived of their entrails!'

He had given one of them something to chew, but as usual it fell down through him, where the entrails had been removed. Whenever they swallowed something, they had chewed a little, it fell right through them. The Moon now said to her: 'Look here! My poor cousin, the entrail-snatcher, he will surely come in to take away thy entrails, but now listen how to act. Thou must begin to blow and at the same time to thrust thy hands in under the front flap of thy fur coat, holding them so that they resemble a bear, then he must take himself off. Do thus, whenever thou art on the point of smiling!' Thus he told her to act.

Finally, at one time, he could really be heard to enter to them, he, the poor cousin of the Moon, the entrail-snatcher, carrying a dish and a large knife, in order to try to snatch the entrails of the human being. And look! At the window his wife stood and kept on saying: 'She smiles!' The entrail-snatcher began to dance a drum dance, with ridiculous movements, and they only looked at him, while he sang:

My little dogs, I get them food, / My little dogs, I get them food, / ha-ahing, ha-ahing, ha-ahing.

While he acted thus, his poor wife all along stood at the window saying: 'She smiles, she smiles, she smiles!' She was tremendously busy telling her husband that she smiled. At last she could hardly let be smiling when looking at him, but she placed her hands under the front part of her fur coat and blew violently, as the Moon had told her to do. And indeed he took himself off, the entrail-snatcher, over there, saying: 'One with blubber (i.e., a bear) is heard!' 

Then he disappeared, and the Moon took his dish and flung it violently into the window platform. There it now lay, while the entrail-snatcher took himself off. When he had taken himself off, it did not last long before he attempted to send for it. 'His dish, it is said, can he have it?' 'He may fetch it himself', said the Moon. 'Let him fetch it himself!' 'His dish, it is said!' Thus they continued for a long time. But when the Moon only kept on saying that he himself should fetch it, then the other one said at last: 'The entrail-snatcher is going to overturn the great mountain, it is said!'

But the Moon only answered: 'All right, let him overturn it!' And indeed the other answered: 'All right, it is said, let them only look on!' The great Moon went outside, and there the entrail-snatcher sat, facing the mountain and beginning to move his feet. The large mountain indeed began to move a little. 'Give it him, give it him!' the Moon said at last. 'Give it him, give it him.' Finally he gave it him, and then the entrail-snatcher took himself off for home.

When he had now returned home, and evening fell, the Moon and the woman went to bed, but they had difficulty in sleeping. All along she could hear something groaning. Then the Moon took it and threw it away from the platform - it was the thigh-bone of a seal. His little wife - she was very jealous indeed. He only threw her away.

Thus she now lived there, and the Moon at last began to go out hunting and always stayed away long. One day when cleaning the house, she caught sight of the shoulder-blade of a reindeer behind the lamp. She removed it, and what did she see? A large hole, deep, deep down. Thus they now lived there.

Sometimes, it is told, when the Moon was out hunting and stayed away long, the Sun used to come and peep in. It wore men's kamiks, and its hams were bleeding violently. One day it said to her: 'I have wounds on the hind parts of my thighs, because thy children make string figures, while the Sun shines, at the time of the year when it rises higher in the sky!'

At last, one day, it is told, the Moon opened the reindeer shoulder-blade over there at the wall behind the lamp and said to the woman: 'Peep down there!' It was dark. 'They are down there, thy relatives!' And then he closed it again. And thus they now lived there all along. One day the Moon began to whittle a walrus tusk; he whittled violently at it, and at last he let his whitting fall down through the hole and closed it again. After some time he opened it again a little, and he again said to her: 'Peep down there!'

She again began to peep down, and now she saw her family, her two children, who were out in the open. Her husband stood at the entrance of the store-house with his hands in his sleeves, looking at his two children playing. When she saw him standing thus, looking with his hands in his sleeves (because it was cold), she pitied them. Then the Moon again closed the hole and said to her: 'If there is anything special thou desirest to eat (during thy pregnancy), then I will bring it thee!' And she ever remained there.

Then at long last she really became pregnant. She really became with a child, the Moon having her as his wife. Then one day they went on a visit to the entrail-snatcher: 'Let us go to pay a visit to my cousin!' The poor dogs of the entrail-snatcher were crawling on the floor and in under the sleeping platform: they were quite hairless. She looked at them: 'How horrible they are!' When they had been there for a little while, they left them again and went out. Thus she now lived there, while the Moon ever went out hunting.

At last she had become pregnant indeed, and the man in the Moon made up his mind to take her away. When she began to be desirous of eating special things, because she was with child, he brought her down to her relatives, and when he had taken her home, he said to her: 'I will always provide thee with food!' The Moon took her home on his sledge. Now at last she was again at home with her relatives. When he had brought her down from up there, she immediately went to see her little children, and from then onwards she remained at home with her husband.

Indeed, she sometimes heard something falling down, and being now very near her time, she used to go out in order to take the things which were meant for her to eat. Also her lamp was always amply provided with blubber, coming down from the drying frame. Of what her husband caught she never ate. Then, at last, she gave birth to a large boy. Her husband said that she should eat from what he had caught, but she kept on eating from what the Moon dropped to her, never wanting to eat from what her husband had caught.

However, her large boy now began to grow older. At last an old woman once gained a march upon her and took that which had fallen down outside the house, and then the Moon ceased to drop things. Neither was her lamp any more provided with blubber. Thus she was at last obliged to eat from what her husband had caught. Her large boy now grew fast, and having once begun to go out hunting, he soon became a very able hunter. All kinds of animals he caught which were sent to him by the generous man in the Moon. Whenever he drove on a sledge towards the icebergs, a large bear used to emerge from them. Her large son often caught bear, when he grew older, and thus he ever went on." (Told by Amaunalik as recorded by Erik Holtvid, 1951 - Arctic Sky) 

 

We should notice how the 'head' in GD71 resembles the heads of one of the Polynesian variants of 'spirits':