Two Systems of Symbolic Writing - The Indus Script and the Rongorongo Script of Easter Island

by Egbert Richter-Ushanas

III. Appendix: Rig Veda helps unravel Indus Valley secrets

Introduction

The Indus Script and the Rongorongo Script have several things in common, apart from the fact that both are still regarded as undeciphered. The most striking parallel is that some pictograms look identical, as was pointed out already by G. de Hevesy, though he relied on insufficient renderings of the signs. Moreover, signs that look identical or nearly identical in its form must not have the same meaning. It cannot be denied, however, that both writing systems make use of a similar method of rendering words by pictograms and word sequences by ligatures and fusions. Moreover, the number of basic signs in both scripts is about 100. It is known that the Rongorongo script was not used for ornamental purposes, but that the inscribed tablets called kohau rongorongo were recited publicly on special occasions with a religious purport. Many of the inscriptions of the Indus seals and tablets look too short for a recitation, but since they have amulet function they served for a religious purpose, too. This is also evident from the motifs. .

On the other hand, there are great differences. The Indus script was written on small seals, the average number of signs on a seal being only five, whereas the Rongorongo script was carved into wooden plates and sticks of considerable length in long lines of about 40, sometimes about 80 signs depending on the length of the tablet. The language that is expressed by the signs is known in the case of Rongorongo as being Rapanui, the language of Easter Island, called Rapa Nui nowadays, though not identical in grammar and words with the Rapanui that is presently spoken there.

Besides, the Indus script was used in big towns with a population of many thousands of people that had far reaching oversee and overland relations with other civilizations, the Rongorongo script was used by and known to a very small group of persons not exceeding five hundred, and it was developed in a tribal society that had very little and over several centuries no contact at all with other cultures.

Besides, the Indus script is one of the oldest writings that were conceived by the human mind going back to the era of the bull 3000 years before the beginning of our era. There are only the Sumerian and the Egyptian pictographic writings that are of equal age or even older. The Rongorongo writing is quite a new invention. It is certainly not older than 500 years. If the Easter Islanders had had obtained any knowledge of a script in their former homeland, it can either be a derivative of Chinese or one of the many branches of the Brâhmî script. Petroglyphs found in the Marquesas can be related to the Old Javanese Kawi script.The Kawi is based on the Brâhmî script, that retains several features of the Indus script.

But even if there would be a closer relation between the Indus script and Rongorongo, it would not be helpful in the decipherment of each of the two, because we do only compare the unknown with the unknown. A decipherment of one or both of them can only be afforded by studying the two scripts in their own surroundings. This has been done here in the case of the Indus script by comparing it with verses of the Rg- and Atharva-Veda, the oldest books of the Indian tradition. They have been transmitted orally until our time, but nonetheless they contain several words that can be related to writing and writer. The word for 'sign' is well known in the Rg-Veda already and is once even used in connection with word (RV X.71.2). In the Atharva-Veda, charms in relation with amulets are common.

A word script, with which we have to do in both cases, can be understood even by people who do not speak the same language, as is obvious from the Chinese script. It is not necessary to write grammatical forms, if the oral tradition is known to the writer and the reader alike. Even a letter script cannot dispense with the oral transmittance altogether, otherwise we could close our schools and universities. There is a great amount of disbelief and distrust, if somebody ventures to read these inscriptions as word scripts. In addition to those people who believe in the incomprehensiveness of all symbolic writings, there is another group who tries to mould them into a letter script under the influence of a way of thought that is associated for more than thousand years with letters.

The discussion of this issue should not be confined to the internet, but there should be held a symposium, where the protagonists of the different ways of deciphering can present the results of their investigations to each other and to an interested audience.

I. The interpretation of the Indus script in relation to the Rg- and Atharva-Veda

1. The historical setting of the Indus Script

Like the Sumero-Akkadian pictographic writing the Indus script has been engraved on seals. In Mesopotamia cylinder seals were used, whereas in the Indus Valley stamp seals prevail. Far more important for the reading is, however, that in case of the Indus Valley, there are only these seals and a few terracotta tablets and graffiti, there are no inscribed clay tablets of larger size as they have been found in Mesopotamia. Accordingly, the inscriptions on the Indus seals are very short, on an average they consist of only 5 signs. On account of their pictographic character the signs of the inscriptions can and must be read in a symbolic way. That a symbolic interpretation is subjective, can only be maintained to a certain extent: Symbols have to be regarded subjectively like old and modern art. One has to consider the cultural environment, however. Nearest or even contemporaneous to the Indus civilization is the Vedic tradition, whose oldest and holiest book is the Rg-Veda. It consists of about 1000 hymns addressed to different gods and goddesses. The Atharva-Veda, that is said to be of a younger age, has many hymns in common with the Rg-Veda. Its main subject are charms which are to be expected to be found on seals, too. The language of the Vedas is an ancient type of Sanskrit. Western science dates the origin of the Rg-Veda between 1500 to 1200 BC, but since some of the Vedic gods are mentioned in a Hittite contract of 1350 ante, the Aryan people, to whose tradition these gods belonged, must have lived in the area of the Indus Valley already at a much earlier time (Richter-Ushanas (2008; 13-18).

It is highly unlikely that the recollection of the Indus civilization and the script in particular was lost all of a sudden after the end of the Indus cities. Certainly, the production of seals stopped henceforward, but the Indus pictograms could be and were written or painted on pottery and bangles and also on perishable materials.Contrarily to the opinion of most of Western and Indian scholars, there are also words for to write and writer in Vedic times and in the Veda itself, they have only not been registered as such in the dictionaries.

Thus Rbhu, the name of three Vedic artisans, may mean writer, too. Its root rabh is related to Greek rhaptein, to knit together, and glyphein, to write, from which hieroglyph, sacred sign, is derived. Synonymous and homophonous with rabh is the Sanskrit root grabh corresponding to Greek graphein for to write. The root grabh is not used in this sense in the Veda, but we come across the roots rî, to let flow (the line of writing) and rsh, to pierce, which can mean to write, too. From the latter root rshi, seer, singer, is derived. It is synonymous with the root rad, to scratch, that was explained as to write by Geldner (Stuttgart 1901 III: 26). Another root that is used for to write is pish, to carve (in stone). It can hence be supposed that the early Vedic poets could, if not write themselves, at least understand the pictographic meaning of the Indus signs.

The signs of the Indus script may have been called cups after the most frequent pictogram that served as a marker for the end of a verse or a quarter (pada) of it. In the symbolical language of the Veda this sign may be compared to a cup or vessel. The grail of the Celtic mythology may have its origin here, too. In several hymns the Rbhus are said to have made the cup of the creator Tvashtr into four. This can be explained in relation to the quarters of the universe and the yugas, the cosmic periods, but it could also contain a hint to the development of the script that consisted of simple signs in the beginning as it is found on early Harappa graffiti and in neolithic cave paintings. In a second phase diacritic strokes were added to it. In fact, there exist cup-signs with one, two, three or four additional strokes.

Divine and urban origin is also ascribed to the modern Sanskrit script, the Devanâgarî, (the script) of the town of the gods, and the Brâhmî script that comes chronologically between the Indus script and the modern Sanskrit script. The Brâhmî is probably named after the daughter of the god Brahmâ, who is the creator of the world, whereas his daughter Brâhmî has invented all the sciences. Brahmâ is the successor of Tvashtr in later Indian tradition.

Many scholars believe that the Brâhmî alphabet is based on the Old Semitic script going back to the Phoenicians who are said to have developed it from the Egyptian script at a time when it was still pictographic. It is more likely, however, that it is based on the Indus script, whose geometric signs have much more similarity with the Brâhmî and the Greek and Latin alphabet than the Egyptian.

It can further be objected that it is not very likely that the Indus inscriptions or even some of them are contained in the Rg-Veda, since Sanskrit, its language, is Aryan, whereas the so-called priest-king illustrated at the left and other human figures excavated in the Indus towns have no Aryan features at all. The thick lips make the illustrated figure appear like a eunuch who had a leading function in the government and the army in Mesopotamia.

2. Bilinguals

The only name that is known in this field is Meluhha^ki, the Akkadian appellation for the land at the Indus river. In later time, the Assyrians called Egypt by this name. Likewise, the staple-place Makan at the Persian Gulf was identified by them with Nubia (Borger 1979). The name Meluhha^ki appears on an Akkadian cylinder seal that has been published in the exhibition-catalogue Vergessene Städte am Indus [Forgotten Towns at the Indus River]. From the Sumerian signs of the name written vertically on the seal we obtain, when they are written from left to right. The syllable ha is rendered here by the sign, that originally meant a fish. In the same position a fish is found in the second line of the inscription of the Failaka seal 9702 that is reproduced here as a drawing.

The inscription of the first line that belongs to the Indus script is rendered as in the Finnish Concordance II (read in the direction from right to left of the impression). Read in the direction of the normal sequence of the signs on the Indus seals we get The three pictograms of the lower line are most probably Sumerian. If they can be read as Meluhha, as is suggested by the fish-sign, a similar appellation in another language may be found in the upper line. Since the fish-sign renders ha, the first compound of the lower line should be read as me-luh.

The sign for me on the Akkadian seal is derived by Deimel from the pictogram of a mouth with a tongue and explained as language (Sumerian Dictionary, sign 889). The Sumerian sign for luh₂ is explained by him as to clean, to wash (no. 596). Both signs have no similarity with the compound on the seal. After long search I discovered that its equivalence is the sign for the wild bull, written in Akkadian as for rimu (Borger No. 170). The long strokes that can be explained as horns. Me can be written by the triangle over the left horn.

The bull is a motif not only on the Failaka seal, but on many Indus seals and sherds found in Mesopotamia and Baluchistan, because it is a synonym for the soma. Likewise the bull standing in front of a plant found as illustration on pots from the Mehi area is a rebus for its place of origin, the land of Meluh.

The most frequent motif of the Indus seals is not the bull, but the unicorn together with a standard. It has the body of a bull and the head of a horse. The lines on its breast look like the cloth that domesticated horses wear. Like a bull it has no mane. Recent finds confirm that the horse was extant in the Indus civilization and there is no reason to suppose that it was not domesticated. According to RV I.161.7 the Ribhus created the unicorn from a horse.

3. Short inscriptions (one to four signs)

To illustrate how this method of reading the Indus inscriptions works, we shall study at first several seals with one sign only. Apart from early Harappan graffiti and pot-marks where the script is still in a rudimentary stage, inscriptions with a single sign are rare. The most frequent singularity is the leaf-sign. On several seals it is inscribed over a gazelle or goat. Both these animals live on leaves as it is illustrated on tablet 2719,3 (cf. § I.5) and they are able to destroy the trees in this way. In RV X.95.15 the goat is like the she-wolf an image of the apsaras or water-woman, the tree of the men, whose potency they rob. But in RV I.161.13 the male goat is said to be an awakener like the dog. Generally, the leaf can be explained as an image of the soma-plant as on seal 1387 (cf.§ I.6). The soma is an awakener too like the Dawn. The seal with the motif of a gazelle or goat can hence have a awakening function or be used as a magic spell over this animal for a hunter.

The two aspects of creation are also illustrated by the initial compound of the inscription of the unicorn-seal 5030 that can be explained as a flower or plant and a hand. Its Vedic equivalence is found in X.101.3: The man shall sow the seed in the willing womb. The flower is identical to the womb, the hand renders to sow, the nose-sign is equal to the male member, the single stroke denotes the seed. In an abstract form this is contained in RV X.129.4: In the beginning it felt desire, this was the first seed of thought. The inclination of the male for the female is the first seed of thought. The reading of all these inscriptions is based on the cosmic principle of duality. It can be expressed in various ways.

4. A markhor-seal as a reference to the sacred marriage

5. The great seer Agastya

The motif of a seal or tablet can be helpful to a great extent in the understanding of the inscription. To demonstrate this we shall study the four-sided tablet 2719 (M-1431). The image of the fourth side is almost totally worn, but it can be deduced from the illustration in Kalyanaran, that it consists of three parts. On account of its short tail the animal at the left must be a markhor. It stands on a railing or in a boat. In the middle a kneeling man is sacrificing a vessel to a deity standing in an arch of pipal leaves as on seal 2430 (cf. § I.7). At the right a composite elephant is depicted as on the middle side of tablet 2734 that we shall study later on. On the third side the simplified soma pressing is illustrated as it is described in RV I.28.1,2:

Agastyah khanamânah khanitraih
prajâm apatyam balam icchamânah
ubhau varnâv rshir ugrah puposha
satyâ deveshva_âsisho jagâma

Agastya ploughed with (wooden) pegs,
desiring children, descendants and power;
both colours the mighty seer let bloom,
with the gods his desires became true. The man-sign in curved lines can be identified with Agastya reconciling the two colours of fertility and austerity by ploughing the land, the sign for the pipal or dhâk leaf can be rendered as to let bloom, the first cup-sign consisting of two hands folded together can be read as to desire, the second cup-sign can denote the truth and the gods. This renders: After the furrow-making seer Agastya let bloom the two colours, his desires became true with the gods.

A number of seals and tablets have a motif or several motifs that can be read as an inscription as in the case of tablet 2719d. Sometimes it renders the name of Meluhha, as in case as of a round seal found in Dilmun and of a cylinder seal with Indian motifs found in Ur.

6. The standard as an image of the soma-press

A stylized tree with pipal or dhâk leaves and the protomes of two unicorns attached to its trunk is depicted on seal 1387 (M-296)/Franke-Vogt 267). The trunk with the pointed circle and the petals underneath can be identified as a fly agaric. Taken as the cosmic tree the motif is an image of the all-shaped car of the sun-daughter described in RV X.85.20. The car is also represented by the initial compound of the inscription that can be read according to RV X.85.13 quoted by Jacobi in his theory of the age of the Veda:

The five signs of the inscription can be read according to X.85.13:

7. Two seals with cosmogonic inscriptions

8. The parable of the elephant and the blind

When the Buddha stayed in Sâvatthi, he was told of monks and brahmins quarrelling with each other about what was the wrong and what was the right doctrine. Thereupon the Buddha said:
In a former life there ruled a king here in Sâvatthi who gave order to somebody to collect all the people in the town who were blind by birth. After they had been brought, the king said to this man: Show them an elephant! To some of them the man indicated the head, to some the ear, to some the tusk, to some the trunk, to some the belly, to some the leg, to some the back, so some the tail, to some the end of the tail, and each time he added, the elephant is like this. Then the king asked the blind that had touched the elephant, how the elephant was like. Those who had touched the head said that it was like a water-pot; those, who had touched the ear said that it was like a winnowing-basket; those who had touched the tusk said that he was like a peg; those who had touched the trunk said it was like a plough-beam; those who had touched the belly said that it was like a covering; those who had touched the leg said that it was like a post; those who had touched the back said it was like a mortar; those who had touched the tail said it was like a pestle; those who hat touched the tuft of the tail said it was like a broom. Then they hit each other and cried: The elephant is like this, the elephant is not like this. This amused the king.
In the same way those are blind who follow other teachings, they do not know what is to their benefit and what is not for their benefit, not knowing the law (dhamma), not knowing what is not the law. And because they do not know it, the quarrel with each other saying: The right law is like this, the law is not like this. And the Lord said the following sentence (udâna):
"Some brahmin recluses are attached to this or that (doctrine) and they quarrel with each other like the blind who have each touched only a part of the elephant."
(Cf. P. Masefield, The Udâna, Oxford 1994).

The blind saw after touching the snake,
the breaker of the crutches (the lame) walked away,
his joints having been fixed together (by touching the snake).

The banner-sign renders the female power of the seer who is illustrated in the second sign. Through it he becomes a perfect yogi, a siddha, a divine man as denoted by the following cup-sign. The man-sign with additional stroke between the legs is equal to an impotent old man here. Therefore it can be read as lame and blind, too. The stroke-sign denotes a crutch here, the following oblique sign renders to break, the triangle-sign can be read as to fix together, the two field-signs that can also represent a texture are equal to the joints (parva). The last cup-sign refers to the snake. It is identical to the Kundalinî-snake dwelling coiled up at the end of the spinal cord. Its power is attributed in this hymn to Indra though it is otherwise identified with the god Soma and even with his enemy Vrtra. The god Soma is represented by the cup-sign too. The first sign can also be read as the Dawn, the seer is the friend of the Dawn (Rg-Veda I.30.20). By looking on the radiance of the Dawn or the sun a man can become dazzled or blind, but when done with his inner eye, he becomes a seer. The compound ukhachid is a hapaxlegomenon. Ukha is otherwise a pot, but here it means the crutch that has the form of a pot at the end. The German equivalence Krücke is etymologically related to Krug, vessel.

9. Cross-Checking

Indra is the king of the moving and the staying,
of the striving and the satisfied, he, who holds the vajra in his arms;
indeed, he rules as the king over the peoples,
like the rim the spokes (of a wheel), he holds them together.

Here we meet with an exact explanation of the wheel-sign and that it is used to designate the king, because he encloses his people like the rim enclose the spokes. The vajra, the thunderbolt, is identical to the second sign. Indra's weapon is also called axe or hammer in the Veda as depicted on the Dholavira board. In I.32.5 Vrtra is said to have been hewn down by Indra's axe like a tree denoted by the third sign. The second wheel-sign renders to rule as a king. The country with its people going or standing is equal to the following three pictograms. The two wheel-signs at the end are used for the wheels of the car, whose spokes are hold together by the rim. The last sign renders to hold together, which agrees indeed with the pictogram. There is no equivalence for the beings with and without horn, but they can be identified with the moving and the standing on the level of the animals.

We cannot end our cross-checking here, however, since there are four other inscriptions with the sequence. Three of them have been inscribed on bronze weapons, one belongs to the broken zebu-seal 2119. All of them have an additional line. The four signs at the beginning of the inscription from Dholavira are replaced by the two signs in all other inscriptions.

The second line of the zebu-seal reads, the second line of one of the weapons reads, of the other . The zebu can be a symbol of Indra on account of its majesty, the weapons are related to Indra, too.

The initial compound is equal to a post and the step-sign and renders to stand and to move. The following field-sign replacing the wheel-sign in the Dholavira-board can be explained as an amulet or breast ornament of the king and renders to rule (the peoples).

The three signs of the zebu-seal can be affiliated to RV I.32.3: Greedy like a bull he chose the soma. The nose-sign can stand for greedy, since it can be looked upon as a phallus. The nose is also the sense-organ that plays the most important role among the senses for inciting greediness. The step-sign with additional lines meaning to run fast can stand for to choose, because Indra runs to the cups of soma with great speed (cf. RV I.28). The soma is written by the mortar-sign, because the soma-juice is won by pressing the twigs of the soma-plant. The two additional lines on the weapons can also be affiliated to this hymn. The strokes can be explained as the pieces into which the snake-demon Vrtra is crushed by Indra (I.32.7), the last sign of the dagger 2798 can be regarded as the vertebrae of a snake that are strewn all over the earth like the members of Vrtra's body. On the dagger 2796 it has been replaced by a single curve.The remaining two signs of the second weapon can both be explained as epithets of Indra that are most frequently used. The hand (or phallus) in the circle can be read as Vrtrahan, killing Vrtra, whose name literally means 'encloser'. The water-carrier can be read as maghavat, bringing goods or being generous. Here Indra has been invested with the attributes of the goddess of Dawn, who is the goddess of luck, too, and with the agricultural aspects of Varuna. On the ground of a syllabic reading I have formerly affiliated these inscriptions to the Soma-hymn IV.27, where Indra plays an important role, but this would not agree with the Dholavira board.

The crab-sign in triangular shape with an inscribed circle in the middle is also found on the motifless inscription 2301 (M-1262) .The two initial pictograms are rather conventionalized, so that their meaning is difficult to ascertain, but as they often occur together with the number-sign for seven, they can represent the sons of Aditi, the Adityas, who are identical to the seven planets. Their meaning may also be head. In this inscription they can be identified sun and moon. This directs us to RV X.85.18, a verse of the marriage-hymn:

Ahead and behind (each other) two boys go playing
around the (heavenly) way through their magic power;
one looks on all beings, the other,
who arranges the seasons, is born again (and again).

The triangle-sign with a circle can be read as the heavenly way the sun-daughter is going to her husband, the moon, i.e. the ecliptic. Ahead and behind is rendered by the sequence of the first two signs, the verb to play can be derived from the arrow under the signs, because to play means here that the heavenly bodies go in a certain direction. The equivalence for magic power and all beings (of the three worlds) is found in the diacritic cup-sign. For the one that looks on these beings, i.e. the sun, we get a single stroke. The hand with four short strokes renders to arrange the four seasons. If taken as a tree it can also mean to be born again and again. The compound triangle-sign can also symbolize the navel of a woman, which is equal to the daughter on seal 2430.

A variant of the first sign without the 'hairs' and the 'arrow' is found as a singularity on pots from Rahman Dheri. It may have served as a branding mark which indicated that it belonged to the chief, the head (of the clan). The main part of the sign can be read as a skull and as bald. The 'arrow' can also mean to decapitate. Sun and moon are both threatened with decapitation in the time of the eclipses. A head is also found in the motif of seal 2430.

Another important pictogram that can hardly be recognized is the sign. Certainly it depicts a plant or a tree, and it appears together with the leaf-sign on seal 3862, but there is no reason to explain it as the banyan tree only as I formerly did induced by Parpola. Since the sign follows twice a square sign and since the crab-sign is often placed in the middle of it and because of the form of the 'berries', it can represent the vibhîdaka tree, whose fruits were used as dice. The vibhîdaka tree belongs to the terminalia. The flower-cup of these trees is nearly identical to this sign, only the number of the pistils have been reduced from five to three. By cross-checking it was corroborated that several inscriptions with this sign can be affiliated to the die-hymn, RV X.34.

The inscription of the unicorn-seal 3006, illustrated in the beginning, is contained in X.34.11. Who in the morning (1) has yoked (3) the brown horses/the dice (2), sleeps (3) outside the house (4, 6) at the fire-place (5).

Since the ancient game of dice had to do with mathemathics and since the ancient seers were architects, too (cf. seal 1387), the inscription of this seal can also be read as the tenet of Thales: A rectangular (1) triangle (2) is obtained by drawing a demicircle (5) in the middle (4) of a line(3) and connecting the ends like a bridge (6). The bridge is the rainbow. The Indian mathematicians have always used a poetical language for explaining their laws.

The dice that have been found in Mohenjo Dharo (called Muñjavan in X.34.1) are cubic, have five or six numbers and are made from ceramic, a material which was not to be had in later Vedic times. The vibhîdaka nuts have oblong form like the leaves. They could have eyes or they were regarded as eyes as the Vedic word aksha, eye, for dice implies. Since they did not cost anything, they are probably the older dice and survived the cubic type. The signs for the cubic die areand.

The longest inscription with this sign is found on the unicorn-seal 7122 (K-15) reading. The two circle-signs which can be read as ducks direct us to Rg-Veda X.95.9. Here the vibhîdaka-sign stands for the banyan-tree and is a symbol of immortality:

Though crosschecking does not prove that the particular reading of a sign is correct as long as the basic meaning has not been ascertained, it is an indispensable for systematisation and the only way to arrive at a sign-list with lexical qualities (Richter-Ushanas 2008; 249). This method is particularly promising and necessary in the case of identical sequences. The longest identical sequence occurring in more than fifty inscriptions is. Since the first sign can be read as horse or hero, the whole sequence can be read as may we speak as heroes to the conference of the gods. This is called the family seal (Geldner) of the G²tsamdas, the authors of the second book of the Veda.

10. Conclusions

The Veda served as an ark, by which the wisdom of the Indus civilization was saved from its destruction in the Great Flood caused by an earthquake most probably. By the help of the Veda it is not only possible to read the signs of the Indus script even today, it also allows us to retrace the links between the cultures of the past and to discover the ultimate origin of the Indian philosophy and religion and of the ‘mythic mind’ of the Indian culture.

The rediscovering of the spiritual fundament of the ancient Indus civilization proves that the idea of sacrifice is stronger than the notion of egotism, that is at the basis of modern societies and makes them so aggressive that they do not only destroy themselves mutually, but also the natural environment to an extent never witnessed before. What are called human rights should be again examined in the light of this tradition, in order to arrive at a peaceful future of humanity.

Bibliographical note

Note on the transcription of foreign letters

II. The Rosetta stone of the Rongorongo script

Preliminary remarks

Part of the oral tradition are a number of popular songs that have been saved from oblivion by the ethnologist K. Routledge. The Rosetta stone of the Rongorongo script, as the Easter Island script is generally called today, is contained in these songs, in particular in those songs that deal with youth initiation.

1. The beginning of Rongorongo research

It even appears, as if Metoro was not interested in revealing the secrets of the script to a foreigner. It is also possible, however, that Metoro had a feeling of respect for the bishop, and that he only relied upon the method, by which he had himself learnt the script from his teachers on Easter Island. At any rate, the bishop saw only a bulk of words and short sentences quite similar to a dictionary. Already on account of the length of the chants he thought it inappropriate to publish them. Most likely he had objections against the contents, too, since he could not have failed to notice the sexual meaning of many words. This may be the reason, why he did not invite Metoro for a second session. In spite of these circumstances, he made his list, of which he believed that it would make Metoro's chants intelligible.

The ethnopsychologist W. Wolff tried in 1945 to read the first three lines of the tablet Aruku Kurenga on the ground of Jaussen's word-list (1973: 80-104) having access to Metoro's reading in a corrupted form only. Though his 'translation' - the first line is mainly based on Ray's - contains several mistakes and does not go much beyond simple word-renderings, it is obvious that Metoro's chants are not completely meaningless. Wolff regarded Metoro as a competent interpreter therefore (1973: 90), though on the other hand he deemed it possible that the natives were consciously misleading the ethnologists (1973: 62). That Metoro, just because he is a competent interpreter could make himself understandable to the bishop only in the frame of the latter's limits of thought, is not taken into consideration by Wolff.

Eight years later, P. A. Lanyon-Orgill tried to translate the tablets Atua Mata Riri (Small Washington Tablet) and Mamari after Wolff's example with the help of the Jaussen-list only. Metoro's chant of the tablet Mamari was unknown to him and his transcriptions of the tablets were quite insufficient. Hence he could not achieve verifiable results, though he looked on the matter from the right point of view.

Thirteen years after Wolff's and only five years after Lanyon-Orgill's rather fruitless attempts the renowned German ethnologist Th. Barthel published Metoro's four chants for the first time in total, but without a translation in his monograph on the Easter Island script in 1958. The list of about 700 signs that was published by him at the same place as an appendix has no explanations either. The translations from the tablets scattered in the monograph and his later attempts to read the script are confined to short quotations. In the sign-list of 1963 only 170 signs are explained, partly based on Metoro's readings, partly on arbitrary epigraphic suppositions. It is unrealistic to expect to obtain the meaning of whole tablets or of whole lines even by only translating short passages relying on a small number of signs. Such a method cannot be called scientific either. S. R. Fischer (1997: 228) looks upon Bathel's scientifically uncontrollable explanations as a house of cards built on sand, the sand being Metoro. But Metoro cannot be held responsible for Barthel's explanations, since they are mostly his own conjectures.

Independent of Barthel's publication of Metoro's readings Th. Heyerdahl studied Jaussen's manuscripts kept at Grottafera near Rome. Irritated by the fact that different signs can have the same and identical or nearly identical signs a different meaning he remarked that it would seem to be a direct disavowal of Metoro's abilities as tangata rongorongo man if one tried to read from his information intelligible stories (1965: 381).

It took nearly 30 years till Heyerdahl's verdict was confirmed by the detailed scientific investigation of Metoro's chants through the Russian ethnologist and expert of Rapanui, I.K. Fedorova (1986: 238-254). But in her 'evidence based on circumstances', by which she tries to show that Metoro's readings are deceitful, she has made several mistakes, which we shall discuss later. Besides, she has only given an interlinear translation of the first line of the tablet Aruku Kurenga like her predecessors apart from some examples taken from here and there of Metoro's readings. Moreover, she confines herself to the investigation of the realm of rational knowledge, as she admits herself (1986: 253). In a way, this is contradictory to her enthusiastic panegyric on the creative abilities of the Soviet researchers at the end of her article, since creativity cannot be confined to the realm of rationality. S.R. Fischer follows Fedorova in his judgement on Metoro's chants (1997: 53), without testing her arguments.

After considering that bishop Jaussen wanted to know the meaning of each single sign and making hence no demands contrarily to this preposition, Metoro's chants are the best means to study the Rongorongo script. Having undertaken the necessary efforts it will become clear that a coherent translation can be afforded without relying too much on fantasy, because each chant deals with a certain category. They are sometimes even composed according to the rule of tension, climax and balance found in all works of poetry and music. It can be assumed, therefore, that Metoro did his best to explain the meaning of the signs to Jaussen. We have to recognize, however, that he has often rendered them indirectly or metaphorically. It is unimportant in this regard, whether different signs have the same meaning and same signs a different meaning. This is the case with all symbolic systems of writing.

Metoro would not have deceived the bishop, even if he would have read the same tablet in a different way a few days later, he would have done it, however, if he would have read it exactly in the same way. At any rate, he reads a nearly identical sequence of signs on the tablets Keiti and Mamari nearly identical. Beyond doubt, he was competent to read the tablets, too, because he was taught in his youth by three teachers of Rongorongo (Fischer 1997: 49).

Metoro need not fear the consequences of violating the taboo connected with the tablets either, since after the year 1862, when most of the islanders and among them nearly all Rongorongo experts were brought as slaves to Peru and died there or on the way back of smallpox, nobody was there to punish him after his return to Easter Island. To read a syllabic writing is not more difficult than reading a letter script, if one is conversant with the oral tradition and the symbolic conception behind the pictograms. Therefore, even boys were taught to read and write the Rongorongo script.

In 1886, W.J. Thomson, the paymaster of an American warship, was able to persuade the native Ure Vaeiko to read photographs of the tablets that had been brought by him to the Island as a loan of bishop Jaussen. Ure Vaeiko had been a cook of Ngaara, the last independent king of Easter Island, who died around 1850, and had learnt the script from the king directly. But Ure Vaeiko's readings did not promote the understanding of the tablets at all, since they were apparently not related to them. Moreover, the transcription of the original language of Easter Island and its translation into English is full of mistakes. Many words were misunderstood by Thomson's translator A. Salmon, a Tahitian of Jewish origin, who owned a sheep station on Rapa Nui at that time.

Another source that could be helpful in understanding the script is the oral tradition in general, but besides the names of some tablets only the beginning of a tablet called he timo te akoako has been recorded apparently. It was quoted by the natives, whenever they were asked to recite the contents of the tablets and was even given as a name to all tablets (Fischer 1997: 272). A traditional song going under this name has been recorded by Routledge in several versions (Fischer 1994: 415-417) and a short rendering of it is contained in manuscript A in Latin writing collected by Heyerdahl (1965: Fig 127), but the text is regarded as being unintelligible (Fedorova 1965: 401). Other manuscripts that have been written in Latin (B to F) have been translated, but had no effect on the understanding of Rongorongo.

The at first sight promising attempt to compare the Easter Island script with the outwardly similar-looking Indus script undertaken by de Hevesy (1933) does not find the approval of modern scholars anymore, mostly on account of many faults in his transcription of the Indus signs. At any rate, it is not helpful for the decipherment of each of the scripts, because he has compared the unknown with the unknown. S. R. Fischer admits, however, that de Hevesy opened up a whole new era of scientific interest in Rongorongo (1957:153). Scholars who criticise de Hevesy often do not notice that in the title of his lecture held on this topic he has spoken of 'paraissant', appearing, in relation to the similarity of the two writings. The most important point of objection is, however, that even if the signs of the Indus script were similar to Rongorongo signs, they need not have the same meaning. The same can be said of the similarities between the Indus script and the Hittite script discovered by Meriggi (1938).

De Hevesy, for instance, compares the Rongorongo sign for sky with the Indus sign for the leaf of the pipal (fig)-tree with additional strokes that lend it the appearance of a maple-leaf, but need not change its basic meaning. The tree represented by the leaf and the sky can be related to each other, if the tree is regarded as the world tree, but this concept is unknown to the oral tradition of Easter Island. The elements of the Rongorongo sign for sky are the sign for white and for hibiscus that cannot be regarded as a candidate for the world tree.

In view of these failures, the greatest hope to read the Rongorongo script is still resting on the discovery of similarities between the oral and the written tradition. Although the oral tradition is unreliable, as is pointed out beforehand by many ethnologists and linguists, eventually by S.R. Fischer (1997: 268), it can be said with security, that what is written in the tablets is known at least to a certain extent from the oral tradition. If anywhere, the Rosetta stone of Rongorongo lies in the discovery of such similarities. Fischer mentions the song-tradition in his monograph too (1997: 304). Only on the ground of the oral tradition a complete reading of the tablets can be afforded, which was also called for by Barthel (1958: 224), without he himself being able to do it. Induced by Ure Vaeiko's chant Atua Mata Riri Fischer discovered a cosmogonic formula on the Santiago-staff and other tablets, rendered by him as X¹YZn. This may be a breakthrough, as he calls it, from the point of view of his structural method, even the most important after Barthel's monograph, but it is not more than a contribution to the decipherment, not the decipherment itself. Fischer speaks himself of a second breakthrough after the first discovery (1997: 260). There are many further breakthroughs necessary, before one can say that the script of Easter Island can be called deciphered.

One thing, however, has been confirmed by Fischer's explorations: The Easter Island signs form a script. They are not merely mnemonic devices nor lists of ancestors nor purely ornamentic. Nor are they reproductions of constellations, as it is maintained by the hobby-astronomer and designer M. Dietrich (1998; 1999). The Jaussen-list does contain signs for star(s) and the Milky Way, but the only constellation named there is that of the Pleiades. Besides, the Belt of Orion is mentioned by Metoro several times. The Pleiades and Orion are spring-constellations on Easter Island and they are related to youth initiation therefore.

Generally, the Rongorongo signs can easily be recognized as men, animals and plants, implements and geographica. This would not be sufficient to call them a script, however. For this the ability of rendering grammatical constructions at least in a rudimentary form is required, that cannot be afforded by cloth patterns or constellations. This condition is fulfilled by the reading of the Rongorongo signs through Metoro and Ure Vaeiko. Therefore it is justified to call Rongorongo the only script that exists in the huge Pacific area.

Beside the tablets, of which 21 have been retained in a more or less good condition, there are a four other objects incised with Rongorongo script, the breast ornament Rei Miro 1 (with two signs), the breast ornament Rei Miro 2 (with 43 signs), a snuff-box (Fischer 1997: 429) and the figure of a birdman. Except the snuffbox all artefacts were published by Barthel in his monograph in the transcriptions of the americanist B. Spranz. Fischer's new transcriptions (1997: 403-508) display a great number of improvements, because they are based on the originals and not on photographs and plasters that were used by Spranz. Fischer did not numeralize the signs, however. This means that Barthel's numeralizations have still to be used, as Fischer himself does.

Before I ventured to approach the comparatively long texts of the tablets, I thought it recommendable to study the shorter material. For this purpose, the single line of the breast ornament Rei Miro 2 is especially suitable. Its study yielded a meaningful result to me at the very beginning, though several details remained unintelligible. Meanwhile, the former translation has been proved to be wrong in many aspects, its formal criteria have been retained until now, however. After translating the breast ornament I looked for identical passages in the recitations of Ure Vaeiko and of Metoro. Eventually, I discovered the model of Ure Vaeiko's Love Song (Thomson 1889: 526) with the help of the sign for woman in the tablet Tahua. This discovery led to a provisional translation of the tablets Keiti and Aruku Kurenga on the ground of the Jaussen-list. The comparison with Metoro's readings made it clear, however, that much better results can be obtained by translating them directly from the Rapanui text. Even Fischer admits that these readings are not Metoro's invention, but that they are based on the oral tradition (1997: 52). Barthel has indeed discovered Bruchstücke echter Tradition [parts of genuine traditions] therein (1958: 210).

Therefore I read these 'fragments' in the light of this tradition, dim as it may be, to find a common ground either philological or epigraphical, through which the category of a line can be ascertained. Fischer relates the category to a complete tablet, but it can be affiliated to a line as well. Line and tablet can consist of several categories. The tablet can be named after the main category of the first line. When the meaning of a number of signs has been ascertained, the rest of the line can be translated in accordance with it. In this way, the fragments or the signs and words of a line are becoming notes of a melody, as it were. Harmony was explained by the Greeks already as the putting together of sherds. Metoro's chants require the same hermeneutic endeavour that is given to the interpretation of texts of the ancient literature, but hitherto it was not believed that they deserve the same attention. Hermeneutic means here as well as there to discover the hidden meaning. There remains a 'heuristic rest', no doubt, that is inexplicable, but such a rest is even found in mathematics. The underestimation, and even disregard of Metoro's chants is partly due to the fact that they do not coincide with our conception of sound and melody, that means with our conception of what is logical. This requires even more philological endeavour and consistent examination of the results. And as in the case of other cultures it is necessary here to study the language as well as the oral tradition of the people, to which the texts belong. This includes the whole Polynesian culture here.

To learn the native idiom of Rapanui I had to my disposal the vocabulary attached to his book on Easter Island by W. Churchill (1912), J. Fuentes' grammar and vocabulary, Pater S. Englert's Rapanui grammatica y diccionario (1978), Stimson's Tuamotu-dictionary (1964), the Tahiti grammar and dictionary of bishop Jaussen (1949), the Marquesan grammar and dictionary of Dordillon (1931) and the grammar of modern Rapanui by V. Du Feu (1996) that contains a small vocabulary, too. Quite helpful were the grammatical notes in Fedorova's articles (1965; 1986). Sometimes the comparison with other Polynesian languages can deliver interesting results, as was shown by Bierbach/Cain. The proto-polynesian word list, compiled by Biggs and Walsh (1966), can sometimes be used as an additional dictionary. The passive voice that is said to be historical by Du Feu (1996: 150) is frequently used by Metoro.

In this paper, we shall confine us to the single line of the breast ornament Rei Miro 2, the seven short lines of the wooden figure of the New York birdman and the first two lines of the tablet Aruku Kurenga. All of them have to do with the initiation of boys and girls. Barthel's opinion that girls are almost never mentioned in the tablets (1958: 322) has been proved as wrong.

2. The settlement of Easter Island
and the war between the long-ears and the short-ears

The island was discovered by king Hotu-matua, who came from the land in the direction of the rising sun, with two large double canoes and three hundred chosen followers. They brought with them potatoes, yams, bananas, tobacco, sugarcane, and the seeds of various plants, including the paper-mulberry and the toromiro trees. The first landing was made on the islet of Motu Nui, on the north coast, and there the first food was cooked that had not been tasted for one hundred and twenty days. The next day the queen started in one of the canoes to explore the coast to the Northwest, while the other canoe, in charge of the king, rounded the island to the Southeast. At Anakena Bay the two canoes met and, attracted by the smooth sand-beach, Hotu-matua landed and named the island te pito o te henua or the navel of the deep. The queen landed and immediately afterwards gave birth to a boy, who was named Tuuma-heke. The landing place was named Anakena in honor of the month of August, in which the island was discovered. All the plants brought in the canoes were used for seed, and the people immediately began the cultivation of the ground. For the first three months they subsisted entirely upon fish, turtle, and the nuts of a creeping plant found growing along the ground, which was named moki-oone.

The second part of the name of Hotu-matua means father, the first part is not listed in the dictionaries. Barthel renders in his second sign-list (1963: 430) the sign B 37 (J 111, J 205), two small circles above each other hanging on a line, as hotu, without translating it. In the article going along with the sign-list, he explains it as 'bearing fruit' (1963: 388)and relates it to Hotu-matua in a note. The word hotu does not occur in the Jaussen-list. In line Ab6,60 where it occurs as annexe of the sign for water (B 70) Metoro reads it as hotu, however, where it can be translated as to flow or to swell. This would also agree with Metoro's frequent reading kovare, afterbirth (J 205). Mostly, the sign B 37 is fixed to the sign B 5/J 136 for hibiscus or follows it. From the botanical point of view it could be explained as a branch of the hibiscus. This could be referred to as ira, creeper, in J 111, which is not used by Metoro, however. In the lines Er9 and Ca1 he reads it as an image for the heaped up white sand, out of which the god Make-make created Hina, the first woman. With regard to the Make-make-myth and in connection with water the name Hotu-matua can be explained as 'the father whose seed (abundantly) flows'. This is indeed related to fertility, for which the god Make-make and the king were responsible.

The directions are not stated correctly, Motu-nui lies in the south-west of Easter Island (Métraux 1940: 8,60). Hotu-matua steered from there to the right along the north-west coast, as it is stated by Métraux's informant Tepano, but wrongly translated by Métraux. This means that Hotu-matua came from the west. Heyerdahl argues on the ground of the main draft of the sea (1969: 204), that the two boats must have come from the opposite direction, but then they would have arrived at the east of the Island.

The two double canoes are nowhere mentioned on the tablets that were recited by Metoro. The sign B 100, that Barthel explains as such (1963: 433), is read by Metoro in line Bv3 of the tablet Aruku Kurenga as (two) sticks, on account of the feather that is attached to it. The name of Hotu-matua is read by him in line Br1 of the tablet Aruku Kurenga, where the birth of his eldest and youngest son are mentioned too. The fruit moki-oone is unknown today. Oone means sand. Perhaps it was a cactus or peanut. With regard to the sign V48 on the breast ornament it could be the pod of a mimosa or a gourd.

According to Thomson, Hotu-matua arrived on the island with 67 inscribed tablets or sticks (1889: 514). Instead of 67, however, six or seven were meant probably (tae atu instead of te kau-atu) and not tablets, but sticks are told of, since tablets were only used in later times. Though the number may be exaggerated, there is no reason to attribute the origin of the script to another source than that of the first settlers. If the script was only invented after the visit of the Spanish ship in the year 1770, as is maintained by S.R. Fischer (1997: 367), the inventor of the script would certainly be known by his historical name and there would be no need to replace it by a legendary name like Tuu-ko-Iho. Moreover, there are no similarities between the Easter Island script and the European, as is admitted by Fischer (1997: 375). Above all it is not a letter script. History renders no example for a true symbolic writing having developed from a letter script. This would mean to roll back the cycle of history. And why is it supposed that only the script is dependant on a European origin, why not the works of art, too?

Though no European influence on the script can be maintained, there are strong arguments for a contact of the Polynesians with the Indo-Javanese Madhajapahit-culture. By this reason, it can also be explained that the signs the Maoris of New Zewland wrote under the treaty of Waitangi (Fischer 1997: 5) have certain similarities with the Javanese Kawi script. Moreover, the number of the signs is identical and the Maori signs were arranged in three columns of twice of 13 and once of 11 signs like an alphabet. The final swastika has also been borrowed from India. Signs and tattoos in relation to youth initiation have been found as petroglyphs on the Marquesas (Gell 1993: Fig. 4-5; Linton 1925: Plate XIII-XV). They did not lead to the development of a script, however, as it happened with the Rongorongo script. The Indo-Javanese Kawi script can be regarded as its ultimate cause, because it has retained some features of a word script like the Brâhmî script. The purpose of tattoo, to protect the bearer against evil spirits (Gell 1993: 192), similar to the purpose of the Indus and Mesopotamian seals. To protect means pa/pale in Proto-Polynesian like Sanskrit pâ/pâla. The Maori name Papa for the mother earth can be translated as 'double (i.e. strongly) protecting'. Moreover, the redoubled Kawi sign for pa is identical to the structure of the most frequent Marquesan tattoo-motif.

Metoro mentions in line Ab8 of the tablet Tahua the names of the two tuhungas Kahui and Kahui Manava and the kings Hira-kau-te-hito, Horo-ka-rua and Riri-ka-tea. The latter two are rendered in all geneologies (Wolff 1973: 16) as the greatgreatgrandfather and the greatgrandfather of King Ngaara. If we suppose that these names refer to the time of the invention of the script, it would mean that tablet Tahua, that is held to be one of the youngest tablets, because it is incised on a European oar, was incised at the time of the English buccaneer Edward Davis at least 100 years earlier than the arrival of the Spaniards. The oar can be from his ship, too. Hira-kau-te-Hito lived several generations earlier than Horokarua, but only three generations after the tuhungas mentioned in all geneologies, who are separated from Hotu-matua by nine or ten generations of kings. This means that they must have lived approximately 200 years after Hotu-matua. Most likely they gave the script, invented by Tuu-ko-Iho already in the time of Hotu-matua's father Riri-ka-tea, its present form. It is certainly not only accidental that the name of Hotu-matua's father is identical to the name of the greatgrandfather of Ngaara.

The remembrance of the former country is still extant in the readings of Metoro and Ure Vaeiko, but it is wrapped in the form of the events that happened on the island itself. This is especially true for the youth initiation, that belonged to the most important events in the life of the natives. Therefore it occupies an important place on the tablets and the Santiago-staff, too. This is corroborated by Barthel's list of the frequency of the signs (1958: 165). On the mountain of Orongo, where it took place, the warriors assembled too, as it is reported by Ure Vaeiko in the tablet called Apai by Thomson. Here the great wars started, that originated mostly in the violation of a taboo. One of the most important taboo was the virginity of the secluded girls called neru. Only the Timo, the leading shaman of the Island, who was also in charge of the circumcision of the male youths, of making rain, of announcing blood vengeance and of the mummification and burial of the death, had the duty of the first intercourse for making rain, as it is reported in the tablets read by Metoro.

The development of the script in the time of the tuhungas would also explain, why there are several signs in the script whose counterpart does not exist on Easter Island, notably the frigate-bird and several plants. This view is not contradicted by the fact that certain petroglyphs have been incised only after the contact with the Europeans, on the contrary, it proves that the tradition remained alive even after this historical date. That the most complicated signs are found on the staff of Santiago, can also be explained by the work of the tuhungas. These signs were forgotten after some time. That may be the reason, why Ure Vaeiko could not read some of these old signs (Fischer 1997: 93).

As the greatest war on the island, Thomson (1889: 528-29) reports the fight of the short-ears (hanau moko - the thin ones) and the long-ears (hanau-eepe - the big ones):

Many years passed after the death of Hotu-matua, the island was about equally divided between his descendants and the long-eared race, and between them a deadly feud raged. Long and bloody wars were kept up, and great distress prevailed on account of the destruction and neglect of the crops. This unsatisfactory state of affairs was brought to an end, after many years' fighting, by a desperate battle, in which the long-ears had planned the utter annihilation of their enemies. A long and deep ditch was dug across Hotu-iti and covered with brushwood, and into this the long-ears arranged to drive their enemies, when the brushwood was to be set on fire and every man exterminated. The trap was found out, and the plan circumvented by opening the battle prematurely and in the night. The long-ears were driven into the ditch they had built, and murdered to a man.

The reason of the war, not mentioned by Thomson, is stated by Métraux's informant Tepano (1940: 69):

He ki te Hanau-eepe ki te Hanau-momoko: "Ka oho mai korua ki amo tatou i te maea ki kaho[kaho] ki te tai." He hakahoki te Hanau-momoko ki te Hanau-eepe: "Ina eko amo te maea mai [ma i] runga mai [ma i] te henua nei, hakarere no mo te kai, mo te rau, mo te maika, mo te tao, mo hakamamae ana tupu." He hakarere, ina kai amo. He haka rere ro avai. He noho. He manau te hanau-eepe mo te Hanau-momoko o te tae hauu i te [h]angai te ahu. He Hanau-eepe ana te [h]anga tahi i te ahu oira i riri ai roto te manava mo te Hanau-momoko.

The long-ears said to the short-ears: "Come, let us carry stones to the shore of Kaokao." The short-ears answered the long-ears: "We do not want to carry the stones to that place there above, we want to leave them here for the food, for the plants, for the bananas, for the sugarcane, for those, who suffer, when they have grown up." They left them there, they did not carry them away. They left them there for ever. They stayed. The long-ears were angry with the short-ears, because they did not help them to erect the tomb (ahu). The long-ears were enraged in their stomach, because they had to erect the tomb alone.

Those, who suffer, when they have grown up, are certainly not the plants - why should they suffer? -, but the adolescents who were going to be tattooed in the course of initiation. The stones that the long-ears want to make use of to erect their tombs, are taboo, because they are inscribed with vulva-signs that secured the fertility of the land according to the belief of the short-ears, as can be deduced from the inscription of the breast ornament. Therefore they are against using them for a tomb of the long-ears. In the following war fertility wins the victory over death. As a result, the vulva-signs were incised on the rocks as before. The ditch that was dug by the long-ears is a symbol of the devouring vulva.

There is neither a sign for long-ears nor for short-ears in the script, there is only a sign for a long-necked bird. The circles on both sides of the head of the signs B 200-299, that are explained by Barthel as ears (1958: 259), are more probably symbolizing a feather-hat. At any rate, they are not long ears, as it is maintained by Esen-Baur (1983: 314). There are numerous great statues with long ears, however. This corroborates that the script got its present form only after the end of this war. The erecting of the statues stopped in the 15th century (Bellwood 1978: 370). Certainly not all of the long-ears were killed then, since Cook met many of them in 1774 (Métraux 1940: 73). The long-ears had only lost their ruling position. The custom of the elongation of the ears died out only after the contact with the Europeans in the 1850ties.

The burning of the long-ears is archaeologically confirmed by a layer of ashes found in the ditch that separates the peninsula Poike from the rest of the island (Murril 1965: 316). According to this discovery the war ended around 1676 ± 100. If we take the earlier date, it would mean that the script was given its present form at the end of the 16th century, i.e. 100 years before the arrival of Davis. That there were not found any remnants of a conflagration by recent Chilean investigations of the area (Van Tilburg 1994: plate 6), proves that the people who have told this story have exaggerated a great deal.

According to Métraux (1940: 71-74), the long-ears and the short-ears were not two different races, as Heyerdahl supposes (1969: 76), but arrived together with Hotu-matua and lived side to side with the short-ears on the island in the beginning. Only in later time they occupied a separate area in Poike.

It is recorded in an oral tradition that there were people on the island before the arrival of Hotu-matua (Barthel 1974: 14). According to the archaeological investigations the settlement of the island took place between the 7th and the 8th century of our era, linguistic investigations state the 3rd century even (Fischer 1997: 366). The settlers were Polynesians, at any rate. Though Easter Island is far away from any other settled island, more than one settlement in the course of 1000, if not 1500 years is quite imaginable and with regard to the sea-worthiness of the Polynesian boats even likely. Barthel sticked unto his last days to his opinion that Hotu-matua arrived at the island in the 14th century (Fischer 1997: 642, n. 18). The opinion that the Island was settled twice is also advocated by H.-M. Esen-Baur with god reasons (1989: 107; 1993: 151).

The homeland of Hotu-matua called Hiva is said to be a rich country and inhabited by ghosts. It is reported of being situated in the west of Easter Island. Hiva is a name for the Marquesas, too, that are rather poor islands, however. In Marquesian the word means 'far away' and may have been given to the new living place in memory of the earlier homeland of the Marquesians (being in the West, too). The original homeland of the ghosts and the country of affluence can be the Society Islands or Samoa with the greatest likeliness. This would also agree with the time of 120 days for the voyage that is stated by Thomson, since the Polynesian double canoes had an average speed of 100 miles per day (Best 1924: 36). The Rapanui meaning 'foreign country' for Hiva and its affiliation to the small islands of Sala y Gomez that are only inhabited by birds is of late date (Bierbach/Cain 1988: 402). Nowadays Hiva is identified with South America. Through this shift of meaning the Europeans can be related to the ancestors, as it is done in the cargo cult.

3. The breast ornament Rei Miro 2

1. [607:3] frigate-bird (take), feather-stick - 2. [607:71] frigate-bird, plant(poporo) - 3. 66 sugarcane (J 96) - 4. V71 plant (for hanging up) - 5. 2 good (thing) - 6. 306s.3 man, feather-stick - 7. 2 earth/sacrifial ground - 8. 376 eating (grasping) man (J 225) - 9. 4 niche, rock - 10. 780 prostrated girl - 11. V71 plant (toromiro) - 12. V48 gourd (J 74a/J 102d) - 3. V48 - 14. V48 - 15. 1.10 earth/stick (to cultivate) - 16. 380.V48 eating man, gourd - 17. 216s man with lifted hands: to work (J 216)/to do the particular thing - 18. V124a blooming gourd - 19. V124b blooming toromiro-tree - 20. 545.678a cool (J 45)/small; beak hanging down [be ready to let be seen, to show (hakarava J 198)] - 21. 430 sooty tern (J 61) with egg - 22. V408° sooty tern with feather sitting on an egg - 23. 400° young bird with feather - 24. V193° young bird with a cross and feather designating initiation - 25. V607 frigate-bird [Timo] sitting on the head of a small bird - 26. V700 fish - 27. 115 = 51:48 vulva/rock - 28. V670 bird with feather and long neck: let be seen/let be grasped - 29. 115 - 30. V470 - 31. 51t birdman with head bowed down [for inspecting a vulva] - 32. 2.678a good (thing), beak hanging down [be ready to let be seen] - 33. 51 - 34. [545:51] cool/small vulva - 35. 700 - 36. 51 - 37. 20.10 rocky place, stick: incise (J 133 and J 118) - 38. 51 - 39. 11 land with navel [Te Pito Te Henua] - 40. 51 - 41. 11 land with crater - 42. 51 - 43. 48 - 44. 51.

The take-bird carries the feather-stick,
the take-bird carries the poporo-plant,
the sugarcane is hung up (at the entrance of the house)for the good thing.
The man with the feather-stick/the Timo comes to the sacrificial ground,
he goes to the girl lying prostrated on the rock.
He plants the toromiro tree and the gourds on the earth with the stick, he eats the gourd.
The man with the red string/the Timo does the particular thing,
he goes to the blossoming plants [like the god Make-make to the gourd],
he goes to the cool girl, [the girl, whose vulva is small], when she sleeps.
When the sooty tern has come, when it sits on the egg,
when the young bird with the feather-hat flies to the rock for initiation,
the frigate-bird/the Timo will sit on the young bird.
After the incision of the fish,
after the vulva has been inspected,
after the vulva has been pierced,
after the good thing (the vulva)has been grasped, the fish and the vulva are carved on the rock.
If the vulva is small, they incise the (sign of the) vulva on the rock.
The girl's vulva is the navel of the earth,
the girl's vulva is the navel of the earth,
the girl's vulva on the hill, the girl's vulva.

Lanyon-Orgill's supposition, that on account of the plant-signs and the bird-signs the text of the breast ornament describes a vegetation-ceremony (1953.1: 85), is principally correct. It must be added, however, that the ceremony deals with youth initiation (take). The adolescents partaking therein were also called take or taka or poki manu, bird child (Routledge 1919: 267), moa, cock/hen, and tamaiti, child. Moa, cock or hen, is also used in Ure Vaeiko's lamentation song of the father for his child (Thomson 1889: 525). In the Jaussen-list we find moa rikiriki, hen with chickens (J 65).

For the girls the initiation ritual started with the examination of their vulva. For this purpose they went up to the hill of Orongo, climbed on a rock there and presented it to two Rongorongo-men, who ascertained whether it was small (teketeke), i.e. whether the girls were still virgins (Métraux 1940: 105; Barthel 1958: 282; Fischer 1997: 295, 334). Both, the hill of Orongo and the rock, are rendered by the sign of the hill on the breast ornament. The sign B 470 is equal to J 54 and J 198. The elongated neck or beak indicates the readiness of the girl to let her vulva be grasped, to let it be examined by the stick of the Rongorongo-men. This is expressed by the verb taha, be ready, or by the causative form hakarava, to let be known, to show. Metoro renders this ceremony in Br10 as e tangata hanga era ki te mea ke - the man does the particular work. The man is the Rongorongo-man here. When the vulva was found to be small, its sign (B 51) was carved in the rock, on which the girl was standing.

In the end of the inscription of the breast ornament, the girl's vulva is compared to the navel of the earth, te pito te henua, which is also the poetical name given to Easter Island by the natives. It refers to the craters of the island, particularly to the great crater Rano Kao at Orongo, that was seen by Haumaka, the tattoo-master of Hotu-matua, in a dream, before the discovery of the island (Métraux 1940: 57). The name Easter Island was probably derived from the variant Pito te Rangi, navel of the sky (Br1). That the island was discovered at Easter, is not sufficient to explain its name. Salmon's explanation of Te Pito te Henua in Thomson's report of the arrival of Hotu-matua is philologically untenable. The political name Rapa Nui is explained by Fuentes (1960: 835) as a loan-word from Tahiti being given to Easter island by Tahitian visitors. Its meaning in Tahitian language is 'flat board' and may have been given to Easter Island in comparison with the much higher hills of Tahiti. But rapa nui means great paddle in Rapanui and may refer to the paddles painted with the head of Make-make being found in a house of Orongo (Routledge 1919: Fig.105; Métraux 1940: 203).

From the modern point of view the ceremony of inspecting the girl's virginity may appear degrading, but the Polynesian notion of human individuality is different from ours on account of another conception of the human soul (Käser 1977: 31). On Samoa, too, the girls were deflorated manually on a public, i.e. sacred place (Gell 1993: 83). The virgin possessed great power (mana) in the Easter Island society. Therefore one wanted to make sure that she was virgin indeed. For this examination it would have been sufficient to look at her vulva, because no girl would have dared to show it to a Rongorongo-man, if she was not a virgin any more. But it is written in the tablets and confirmed by the oral tradition, that a stick was taken for this purpose. The Rongorongo-men were only in charge of the examination of the girl's vulva and the defloration. Some selected virgins were sent to the Timo for the first sexual intercourse. The pubescent girl plays a prominent part in fertility and self-realization also in the Indian cosmogony and in the Euleusian mysteries of the Greek.

Like on other Polynesian islands a great feast was celebrated together with the ceremony of initiation, in which the warriors participated, too. At this opportunity kava was drunken, the pepper methysticum of the Polynesians. It must have been brought to the Island by Hotu-matua. How long it survived there is unknown. In later time, it was replaced by the poporo-plant (solanum nigrum).

The third sign of the breast ornament can either be read as sugarcane and refer to the custom of hanging up a twig at the door when the girl in the house is grown up that is also mentioned in Ure Vaeiko's love song, or it can be read as dead enemy (rau hei) according to J 77. The literal meaning of rau hei is entwined (hei) with leaves (rau). The dead warrior was entwined with threaded ti-leaves that made him taboo. Barthel reads the sign as warrior (ta'o), because it is homonymous with the word for sugarcane. When the sign is read as dead warrior we obtain: The dead warrior wrapped in ti-leaves was carried to the place of sacrifice. This may refer to a human sacrifice. Sign no. 17 can be read as warrior, too. The occurrence of warriors in the song is also related to the aim of initiation: To obtain courage. The competition for the first egg of the sooty tern (Métraux 1940: 331) is a form of a courage test and is therefore closely related to initiation. The competition was also carried out in spring, but it was invented in later times.

Only a Rongorongo-man could have the necessary knowledge to present the ceremony in this way. This can be attributed to the Timo in particular, who according to Metoro's readings was the most important man in the Easter Island society after the king, though he must have lived generally outside the society on the hill of Orongo. Therefore it is likely that such a man has manufactured this breast ornament and that he has worn it too. It was communicated by two islanders that the breast ornament was worn by a woman (Fischer 1997: 494), but women could not read the Rongorongo-signs. The Timo can be regarded as a woman, however, because his hair was arranged like that of a woman, as it is explained by Metoro several times.

The author of this line combines the categories of take(youth initiation) with the category of rangi (heaven, gods). The main category, however, is take, because the inscription starts with a sign referring to it and because it takes the largest space. The feather-hat is a symbol of power and fertility, that were both secured by the initiation. It is a symbol of divinity, too. Ure Vaeiko mentions the god of feathers in the tablet Apai (Thomson 1889: 519), where he calls him Nuku. The correct writing would be Ruanuku. The king and the Timo wore a big feather-hat, the participants in the initiation a smaller one. In the script, both are rendered by the sign B 59f. In addition, feather-sticks were carried that correspond to the sign B 3.

There were two main gods on Easter Island, Make-make and Tangaroa, his brother. Make-make was engaged in making the earth fertile like the Timo and the king. Tangaroa was the god of the netherworld and of death. In the script and as petroglyph Tangaroa is represented by the shark and the seal (B 720-730), Make-make by the frigate-bird and by two eyes in the form of a mask corresponding to the signs B 510-519. There are many rocks on Easter Island inscribed with the motif of the big eyes together with that of the vulva and the fish (Lee 1989: 114; Englert 1970: 24). Another symbol of fertility is the skull from which Barthel derives the signs B 510-519 (1958: 249). The symbol of the skull can be interpreted as the victory of fertility over death. The eyes are - like that of the Christian God - a symbol of inspection. The Polynesians believed to enter heaven through tattooing and to live there for some time for their own benefit and for securing fertility for their people like the virgin who assisted the Timo in making rain.

The stalk that is carried by the second bird-child is part of the poporo-plant that is also found as a tattoo-motif on the thighs of a woman (Métraux 1940: 248). It is generally written by the sign B 34. The plant shall guard against bad ghosts like the night-shade in European countries. Therefore it is also carried by the warriors who climb up to the hill of Orongo. The berries of the plant are slightly poisonous and were eaten only in case of famine (Métraux 1940: 160)as was the case at the time of the settlement of the Island. The sap of the plant was used for tattooing together with that of the charred leaves of the ti-plant (Métraux 1940: 238). Barthel explains sign B 34 as sweet potato, because he thought that a small plant like the night-shade does not fit the requirements of the Easter Island tradition (1958: 234). The apotropaeic use of the plant seems to have been unknown to him. Contrary to Barthel's opinion this plant is referred to in the first line of Ure Vaeiko's song of creation called Atua Mata Riri, because it served on Easter Island as substitute of the kava plant.

A significant epigraphical hint is given through the fusion B 545:678a in the middle of the line, whose components occur again in other ligatures. Sign B 545 is explained by Jaussen in J 46a as hupee, fresh air, hoarseness. In a love-song taken down by Métraux (1940: 356) fresh air and dew (hupee-hau) are mentioned. Hoarseness and slime given by Fuentes as the meaning of the word are related to fertility, slime is contained in the name of Make-make (Bierbach/Cain 1988: 407) who represents the male aspect of fertility. Make-make creates man by copulating with Hina, the sand piled up and formed by him (Métraux 1940: 314). Therefore the sign may also refer to female fertility and designate the cool or small vulva. Epigraphically the sign looks similar to J 194, to come back, to draw back (huri) being related to the incision of the young men. This ritual is also affiliated to fertility. Barthel explains the sign as a pandanus tree, because he interprets the appendix as an airy root being characteristical for it. The pandanus grows at the sea-side and from this reason it may symbolize the fresh air.

The cross upon the head of the fourth cock is difficult to explain. Jaussen renders the cross-sign as scaffold (J 122), Barthel explains it (B 14) as a sign of prohibition (1963: 429). Here it may indicate that the initiates were taboo, even though their head was torn off, since this is a metaphor for defloration and incision.

Sign B 2, that corresponds to the signs J 30, J 183 and J 184, has many connotations. Barthel who always gives one meaning only, renders it as uri, black, referring to Tahitian inoino, bad (1963: 392). Metoro reads the sign generally as maitaki or inoino in the sense of beaming. This is related to the Pleiades. Good (or fertile) is an attribute of the earth that is rendered in J 30h,i as the meaning of the sign. The three circles can be explained as the three craters of the island. In several cases Metoro reads the sign as hatu huri, to draw back the foreskin, which he calls a good thing.

Sign B 2 is often used in connection with the sign for javelin or stick, vero (J 132), since both were regarded as something good, the stick, because it promoted fertility in various ways. Therefore the sign B 20 that is missing in J, is read by Metoro as good, too, or as javelin (mataa). On the breast ornament the sign B 20.10 stands for to incise (the rock).

The stick can also be used for inscribing Rongorongo signs. Hau-maka, the master, who tattooed Hotu-matua and led him to Easter Island after he saw the place in a dream, was probably a Rongorongo-man, too, since the motifs of tattooing were also used as signs in the script and to tattoo means also to write in Rapanui. In accordance with this, there are several signs identical to tattoo-motifs, as for instance sign B 17 that can be explained as fish-scales, the sign B 50 for earth and the sign B 51 for vulva. The motif of the paddle reappears with a pointed head as sign B 87 and B 88. The paddle is a symbol of Make-make, as we have mentioned already. The fish is a symbol of Tangaroa. The sign B 2 can be related to writing too, because it resembles a string figure that is the origin of the Easter Island script according to Wolff (1973: 55). By the tattoo patterns and the string figures only very few signs can be explained, however.

Sign B 51 that occurs ten times on the breast ornament alone, but otherwise only on the Santiago-stick and once on the third Honolulu-tablet, is generally explained as vulva on account of its form. Fischer believes that the sign B 50 has developed from the sign B 51 (1997: 546), Barthel interprets the signs B 23 and B 24 as vulva (1958: 228, n. 7; 281), which is epigraphically justified. Metoro reads the signs B 23 and 24 generally as water, probably because he did not want to hurt the ears of the bishop by telling him the correct meaning. Jaussen explains in J 81 the sign B 24 as Rapanui pure, which he translates as snail, but the correct translation is shell. Since the sign B 51 was used until modern time as petroglyph (Fischer 1997: 373, n. 35), it is quite unlikely that the sign B 50 developed from it, whose meaning has more connotations and which was used as a motif of tattoo in former times already.

Since there are two or even three signs for vulva, it can be supposed that each sign has an additional meaning, as it is the case with the signs B 23/24 and B 50 that can also mean shell or earth. Sign B 51 can be interpreted in connection with the ceremony of defloration as 'small vulva' (teketeke), vulva of the girl. This is also corroborated by the Santiago-staff, where the ligature B 379.51 in I12 refers to the Rongorongo-man inspecting the vulva. On the third Honolulu-tablet (V) the sign B 51 is also used in connection with youth initiation. Defloration becomes a holy act for the Polynesians, when it is carried out publically.

4. The New York birdman

The relation to the ceremony of initiation of the girls also follows from the two small fishes incised on the neck and two vulvae incised under the stomach of the figure that are not part of the inscription. Barthel has transcribed the lines of the birdman under the letter X:

X 1: Neck: 4 small - [28:V14] engraved vulva - 4 rock - 99 rongorongo-man - [470?] inclined bird: to let be grasped, to let be inspected - 1 earth - 14 taboo: cave (of the neru)- 545 three stars [Orion] - 400 take-bird - 1 earth: Hiva
X 2: Occiput: 381 reading man - 1 tablet
X 3: Beak: [71] kava-root - 59f feather-hat - 22f yams-root/phallus (taboo) - 22f yams-root
X 4: Chest: 515 Make-make - 40h moon - ? - ?
X 5: Flank: Two lines with illegible signs.
X 6: Stomach: V205 man climbing up (the sky)/Timo - 22f vulva - D380 sitting man - 8 fire
X 7: Thigh: 400 take-bird - 546 to tear off the head

The small vulva is engraved on the rock,
after the rongorongo-men have inspected
the inclined bird on the sacred earth.
The cave is open under the Orion for the take-birds from Hiva,
The Rongorongo-men read the tablets,
when the bearer of the feather-hat come with poporo-plants and yams-roots
to adore Make-make, when the moon has risen.
The Timo climbs up (the sky), when he enters the vulva,
he kindles the fire, when he tears off the head of the young bird.

Since the first part of the first compound of the neck, of which only the upper part is left, represents the poporo-plant as on the breast ornament, the feather-hat in the second part can either refer to the initiate or to the warrior. From the following two signs symbolizing a red yams-root it is clear that the initiates are meant here, for the sign can also mean taboo, as it has the form of a phallus (or vulva).

The sign of the torn off head can also be related to initiation. Metoro reads it in line Br 9 of the tablet Aruku Kurenga in the sense of defloration or the first sexual intercourse. Sign B 4 is explained in J 148 as tau avanga, a stone for depositing a corpse. Barthel (1963: 429) renders it as ahu, stone formation, but the proper meaning of avanga is niche of the ahu, in which the bones of the deceased were buried eventually (Métraux 1940: 115). The sign for niche can also be read as vulva, since woman is related to life and death. For the examination of their vulva the girls stood on a rock whose form is similar to the sign turned by 90°. Metoro reads the sign generally as huki, stick, thorn. These are both tattoo implements (J 118; Métraux 1940: 241). The thorn is an attribute of Make-make, too, who is called Tarahoi, he who appears in the thorn. He is written by the sign B 515 here. The eyes often appear as a petroglyph for the god. Ihe (B4) can also mean peak or rock depending on the direction, in which the sign is read.

The content of these lines is contained in three take-songs that were written down by Routledge already, but were published only recently by Fischer (1997: 296,297). The inscription of the birdman can hence in particular be regarded as a Rosetta stone of Rongorongo. Fischer renders the songs:

Kia … te hiva
te Manu ko te hiva. Katoo no koe ehuru oké
a umu ko marié he manu haka ohiohi o …
"Maherenga" o tabooa ara tahé o te iva.
Matai épa hoki te monu turé hau
maru na te ragni na te wero wero na te rere
na te hohoku nui he atu hereri ai agnaroi
Katuu mai e te Také na Kahu par ravarava
Také Koai to Tua agnakopé komata
mahoré. Apero ta a mée o korua. E akaaka
no ena e mitimiti ena.

After the elimination of the orthographic mistakes their translation runs as follows:

1. Kia [Maherenga] o te hiva,
te manu te hiva.
Ka tuu no koe e huru oka e.
Aa umu komari he manu
hakahiohio maherenga,
o te pua ara,
take o te hiva.

2. Mata(h)i epee ku riri hoki,
he motu tureme hau,
maro ma te rangi
ma te verovero na te rere,
ma te hoko nui he hatu,
here ria ia gnaroa.

3. Ka tuu mai, e te taka e,
ma kahu pua ravarava, taka e,
to tua gnakope,
ko mata mahore.
Apero-ta-a-Mee o korua,
e akoako no ena,
e mitimiti no ena.

1. For Maherenga from Hiva,
the bird from Hiva:
Stand (on the rock), the fence is open!
Like the earth oven is the vulva for the bird(man).
He gives (his) strength to you, Maherenga!
on the way to the vulva,
take from Hiva.

2. The big old man climbs up with the stick,
he cuts tureme-grass and hibiscus,
he holds up the stick against the sky
to make fire (by lightning).
By the big stick he is the lord
of the bound ones, they fear to hear him.

3. Line up, Taka,
let the vulva and the hymen be grasped, Taka!
The young men go to the old man.
For him are the eyes of the Mahore-fish.
Apero-taa-Mee has sung
this song for you
and clicked with his tongue.

Stand on the rock refers to the custom just mentioned, according to which the girl had to climb up a rock for the inspection of her vulva. The examination was done by a plant-stick that was also used for setting plants and putting seed in the earth (Fuentes, Englert). The vulva is the earth (cf. Br1) and the earth-oven (umu). Similarly it is said that the men sow their seed in the womb of the woman in the marriage-hymn of the Rg-Veda X.85.37.

In many societies the blood of defloration is regarded as dangerous for the man. According to the marriage-hymn of the Rg-Veda only the brahmin was not contaminated by it. Therefore, on Easter Island the girls were brought to two old Rongorongo-men for defloration. Routledge noted, that some beautiful virgins went to the Timo for the first sexual intercourse (Fischer 1997: 335). The Timo is the bird(man) here.

Here, bound, is used by Metoro in line Bv1 of tablet Aruku Kurenga in relation to the fish and the fruit, both metaphors for the youths imprisoned in a cave. Kahu means cloth and skin, in connection to the vulva (pua) it refers to the hymen. Kahua auroauroa - when the dress is ready/when the girl is mature, is supplemented by Metoro in line Br2 of tablet Aruku Kurenga (cf. the following paragraph).

Routledge has also noted (ibid.) that the girls brought presents and food to the old men. The eyes of the mahore-fish that are mentioned here as presents brought by the boys to the old man (the Timo) may have been particularly tasty. The name of the singer Apero-taa-Mea contains the word taa, to write. That means that he was a Rongorongo-man. Metoro reads sign B 45 (rapa) on line Bv9 of tablet Aruku Kurenga as clicking of the tongue. The sign can symbolize a tongue, but rapa is the paddle used by the Timo in dancing. The clicking of the tongue may have indicated the rhythm of the song like the movement of the paddle. Perhaps it is also used to express admiration as we do. The relation to the first settlers is pointed out by the name of Hiva here. The incision of the male youths is not contained in the three take-songs, because they only deal with the initiation of the girls, though in song 3 the young men are mentioned in relation to the Timo. In the inscription of the birdman the incision of the boys is not mentioned either, but possibly it was related in the illegible signs of line X5.

5. Line Br1 and Br2 of tablet Aruku Kurenga

Ray has understood the particles mai tae as the Tahitian verb tae, to come, perhaps induced by Jaussen's wrong explanation of the ligature J 219. Fedorova reads them like Jaussen in J 234 as 'not' (1986: 251). The grammars of Englert and Du Feu contain 'before', but Churchill gives 'as far as, until' as equivalence of tae atu ki, and 'not' only for the single tae. It seems to be likely that the meaning 'before' and 'as far as, until' can be used alternatively. Metoro uses the two particles often in the beginning of a subordinate clause like tae ai in modern Rapanui (Du Feu 1996: 54). This indicates a basic meaning of 'not yet' corresponding to the Marquesan comparative of inferiority (Dordillon: 47). For the simple negation tae would have been sufficient. In the script, normally neither the sub-clause nor the negation are expressed, the negation can be written by a cross, however (cf. Br2, sign no. 1). The sub-clause, mostly used paratactical in Polynesian languages, can be deduced from the sequence of signs. After much consideration, I decided to translate these particles by the simple negation 'not' or the qualified negation 'not yet', 'not at once', according to the context. Often a subordinate clause occurs together with it. Sometimes oho, to go, is inserted after mai tae.

J. Guy (1982: 445-447) has presented a structural analysis for the first half of this line that I have indicated it by paragraphs in Metoro's reading:

1. 595 ka tuu i te rangi - he arrives in heaven; 2. 1 - 3. 50.394s ki te henua e rua - on the two areas; no Hotu-matua - of Hotu-matua; 4.4 -5.2 ka haka nohoa - he takes his seat/he lives (J220);
6. 595.1 ki te hito o te rangi - with Hito (Hiro), (the god) of heaven; 7. 50 ki te henua - on the earth; 8. 301s te atariki - the eldest son; 9. 4 ki te henua - on the earth; 10. 2 ki tona henua - on his earth; 11. 40 kua tere te vaka - the boat comes ashore; 12. 211s ki tona tahina - to his youngest son; 13. 91 mai tae atu ki te tamaiti - not to the child; 14. 200 koia - he;
15. 595.2 e hiri ki te rangi - ki te henua - he attains to heaven; on this earth (J 154); 16. 50.394.4t - 17. 2 mai tae atu ia ki te henua - he does not come to the earth [of Hotu-matua];
18. 595.2 koia kua koakoa ki te rangi - he enjoys heaven (J 157); 19.50 kua oho ia ki te henua - he goes to the (sacred) place; 20. 301s e tangata era e - the man/the god there; 21. 4 - 22.2 ka oho koe - you go; ka noho au - I stay; 23. 211s:42 ko te matua i runga o to pepe - the father on his seat (J 156); 24. 91 mai tae atu ki tona tamaiti - he does not come to his child;
25. 595s e kua koakoa ia ki te rangi - he enjoys heaven; 26. 600 kua rere te manu - the (Take)-bird flies; 27. 50 ki runga o te henua - on the earth; 28. 381 mai tae atu ki te tangata mea kai - it does not come to the man, who eats the thing; 29. 4 -30.2 i te henua - (he stays) on the earth; 31. 306 ko te tangata hangai - the man feeds; 32. 325 i te moa - the cock/the child (J 65); 33. 430 kua tuu - he/it comes; 34. 53 [te ua] - the rain; 35. 430 ki te moa - to the cock; 36. 17 kua koti ia - he digs up (the earth)/he cuts up the skin; 37. 430 e te moa e - the cock; 38. 4 [22] ka vero koe - you beat; 39. 2 mai tae atu ki te maitaki - he does not come to the good [thing]; 40. 208 mai tae atu ki te Ariki e noho mai - they do not go to the king, they stay here/with the Timo; 41. 200 ka rere ia - he [the Timo] flies; 42. 2 koia kua rere ki te maitaki - he flies to the good [thing]; 43. 22 ka vero ia- he beats; 44. 305.74f ki te hua rae - the first fruit/the child (J 11); 45. 95 [ki te tamaiti] - to the child; 46. 1 o te henua - on the earth; 47. 770b koia kua hakahiri ia -he [the Timo who tears off the head] has braided his hair.

Before we can make a whole of these apparently incoherent parts, we must ascertain, to which category the line belongs. As already mentioned, this is indicated by the first significant word of a line, i.e. rangi, heaven, that Jaussen has even written in capitals. The category rangi is classified by Fischer together with ranga, sacrifice (1997: 291). This seems to be justified, because the sacrifice goes to heaven. Generally, the category rangi deals with the gods or with a man in relation to a god. The name of the god in question here is Hiro, the god of rain. He could be identified with Metoro's reading hito of the compound 595.1 (sign 6), since the added log can better be explained as a phallus than a navel (pito), but then we have difficulties to translate the following sentences. At any rate, the human being that had to entreat this god and who like the shaman went to heaven for this purpose, was the Timo again, since he was responsible for making rain.

If it would be correct that the name of Hotu-matua was brought to the Island at the time of the arrival of the first missionary Eyraud from Mangareva in the year 1866, as is postulated by Fischer (1997.3: 109), this would mean that Metoro learnt the name from this source and inserted it in the text only for the sake of pleasing the bishop. But the name occurs in the genitive here. Hotu-matua is not the real subject. We remember that his first son was born just after the boat of the queen landed at the shore. The place where this happened has obviously been referred to in this line as the second place. The other place is Orongo, where the boats of the king arrived first. It was so sacred to king Hotu-matua that he went there to die. The place where the king landed is called Anakena, meaning august, because it was august, when he arrived at the island. The youngest son is known in the oral tradition as the dearest son of Hotu-matua (Routledge 1919: 280). This may be the reason, why he is mentioned here together with the eldest son.

If the line only dealt with historical events, it would belong to the category ta'u, but its main subject is the Timo. It describes how he climbed up to heaven to obtain rain from the god of rain. This purpose is mentioned by Metoro in his explanation of the sign no. 15 (B 595.2). There is still another category in this line that bears the name hakiri. Fischer is not able to explain this word (1997: 282), his note is not helpful either in this matter. There is little doubt, however, that it is a contraction of haka iri, which has the meanings to climb up and to braid the hair. The binding of the feather-hat and the erecting of the polished stones for the priest-houses in Orongo can also be designated by this word. Firstly, it refers to the Timo who had braided hair and whose feather-hat was woven, and who went up to the hill of Orongo, but there was, as we know already, the ascent of the warriors and of the youths, too, who climbed up the hill for the purpose of initiation (cf. Br2).

The participants of this initiation are rendered by the sign of the frigate-bird again (B 600/J 26), that is explained by Jaussen as taha. As on the breast ornament they are also called moa, which literally means cock, hen or fowl, but which can also mean child. At the end of the ceremony the initiated were given a stick with Rongorongo signs (Fischer 1997: 298), but the stick mentioned in this line can also have had other functions. Van Gennep (1986: 85) mentions that on the Salomon Islands and on the Bismarck Archiple the male initiates were beaten with a stick. The ritual was carried out there by a birdman, too. Such rites have been mentioned by Jensen in regard to initiation (1933: 165). Something similar might have happened on Easter Island, in particular in the case of resistance against the ceremony. Most probably, Metoro took part himself in an initiation rite and remembered it very well.

We can conclude from this investigation that in this line the categories rangi, timo, hakiri and take are combined by the intermediate of the category ta'u. As we have seen already, there is nothing extraordinary in the combination of categories. Fischer, too, points out to this possibility (1997: 286). If we translate the line on this ground, we get the following result:

He [the Timo] goes to heaven,
he comes to the two places of Hotu-matua.
He who lives with the god of heaven, with Hiro, the god of rain.
He goes to the place of the eldest son [of Hotu-matua].
He [Hotu-matua] stayed at the place, where the boat landed,
(until) his youngest son was born.
He [the Timo] does not come to the child,
before he has arrived in heaven on the sacred earth [of Orongo].
He does not come to the earth [of Hotu-matua],
before he has enjoyed heaven, after he has entered the (sacred) place.
The god there [says]: You go! [He answers]: I stay.
As long as the father [the Timo] stays on his seat, he enjoys heaven.
The take-bird flies up to the (sacred) earth.
The bird does not want to go to the man, who eats the thing.
The father, who stays on the (sacred) earth, feeds the children,
he gives rain to them when he digs up the earth/when he tattoos them.
He gives them the stick when they do not want to do the good (thing).
They do not go to the king, they stay here/with the Timo,
he gives the stick to the first fruits.
Of the child who has climbed up to Orongo [he tears off the head].

On the ground of the five categories timo, rangi, hakiri, ta'u and take we obviously arrive at a coherent reading for this certainly not easy text. The initiation rite is traced back to the arrival of king Hotu-matua. This is done for the same reason as by referring it to Hiva in the take-songs. The initiation rite is called the good thing here or the particular work in Br8 and elsewhere. Other metaphors for initiation are he digs up (the earth) and he tears off the head that we know already from the birdman figure. It can be understood as defloration or the first sexual intercourse or as incision or circumcision. Cohabitation is also described by the metaphor he eats the thing, often used by Metoro in this sense. The Timo goes to the child (or youth) only after he has arrived in heaven, that means, when he is in a state of ecstasy. That he enjoys heaven in the course of this rite is not to be understood in the modern hedonistic sense. The rite is not celebrated for fulfilling personal desires, but for obtaining fertility for the land and in order to bring the initiate on a higher level of existence. The shaman does not exploit the child as it is done today by pederasts and by employers and leaders who compel them to do heavy work for small wages and even force them to partake in wars. Metoro says that the Timo is like a father to the child and to the land and feeds both of them by the rain that is produced by this sacred act. This recalls the Indian relation between guru and disciple. Not even the god of rain himself can throw the Timo out of heaven, as is hinted at in the little inserted dialogue. From the point of view of cosmology the activities of the Timo serve to associate heaven and earth, god and man in a way similar to the sacred marriage in the ancient cultures. It is referred to in other tablets, too.

In his structural analysis, Guy divides the first half of this line in four parts of almost equal length:

The five times repeated bigram 4/2 is read by Metoro mostly as noho, to stay, to live, as stated in J 220. Here the places are referred to, where the Timo or Hotu-matua lived. One of them, Orongo, became the place of sacrifice (marae) later on. The reading 'to stay' for the two signs only occurs in this line. The sign B 4 is often read by Metoro as niche, needle or stick, as was mentioned already, and the sign B 2 as earth or good (thing). The meaning 'to stay' can be derived from the fact that the niche was used for the burial of the bones. It is hence a good place to stay for the ancestors and consequently for the living, too. This reading of the two signs can be added in the other cases too, where it has not been done by Metoro. To stay can also be rendered through the sign B 208, whose literal meaning is tuhunga, tattoo-master. The sign no. 38 is not B 4, as is stated by Barthel, but B 22. From here onwards, Metoro reads the sign B 2 as good (thing), which is an attribute of the earth and of initiation in its various forms.

The sign B 211s (H) is read by Metoro in no. 12 as 'youngest son', in the fusion B 211s:42 in no. 23 (H1) as 'father on his seat', however. The 'seat' has the form of a boat that is repeated in the fundament of the Rapanui houses. In this case the vulva is meant. The contradiction is solved by remembering that the rock of Orongo is the place, where the Timo lived.

The translation of the second half of the line starting with the fifth repetition of the sign B 595 depends on the interpretation of the sign that Metoro reads as stick (vero) here. The ligature of this sign with the sign for rat representing the Rongorongo-man on the tablets Keiti and Mamari shows that it can also stand for the Rongorongo stick. But here it refers to the tattooing or the beating of the youths by the Timo. Besides, the stick is a symbol of the male organ, the more so as the youths were lying half-sleeping on the earth during the painful procedure of tattooing. After the tattooing was finished they went to the house of the king for examination of the motifs (Métraux 1940: 134), which is also recorded in the inscription of the birdman figure. The king gave his opinion on the tattoos and the Rongorongo sticks (Fischer 1997: 341). This is especially known of king Ngaara. In case the youths did not go to be initiated nor to the king after tattooing, the fertility of the land was in danger. This led to the immediate interference of the Timo.

Barthel infers from the occurrence of the name of Hotu-matua that this line deals with the arrival of the king on the Island (1958: 211). The two places would then be the former homeland of the king and Easter Island, the bird in the second half would correspond to the cock of Ariana that cried before the king died according to the oral tradition. But such an interpretation, in which I believed myself formerly, cannot be justified through Metoro's reading. It would also mean that this line would mainly belong to the category of ta'u, which does not correspond to its contents and to its first significant word. A translation under this aspect is possible, but it does not lead to a satisfying result.

For comparison I shall now give the English version of Fedorova's Russian translation. She divides the text in three parts (a,b,c). Her substitution of the sequence of the signs in c is indicated by me through the numbers given in brackets:

(a) 1. 595 ka tuu i te rangi - he comes to heaven; 2. 1.50 ki te henua e rua - to the two places; 3. 394s no Hotu-matua - of Hotu-matua; 4.4 -5.2 ka haka nohoa - he stays there;
(b) 6. 595.1 ki te hito o te rangi [-]; 7. 50 ki te henua - to the earth; 8. 301s te atariki - the eldest son - of the king; 9. 4 ki te henua - to the earth; 10. 2 ki tona henua - to his earth; 11. 40 kua tere te vaka - the boat goes; 12. 211s ki tona tahina - to his youngest (son); 13. 91 mai tae atu ki te tamaiti - he does not unite himself with the child; 14. 200 koia - he;
(c) 15(34). 595.2 e hiri ki te rangi - he runs, he runs to heaven; 16(35) ki te henua - to the earth; 16(36). 50.394 - 17(37). 2 mai tae atu ia ki te henua - he does not unite - on the earth; 18(38). 595.2 koia kua koakoa ki te rangi - he enjoys himself in heaven; 19(39).50 kua oho ia ki te henua - he goes to the earth; 20(40). 301s e tangata era e ka oho - he goes; koe - you; 21(41). 4-22.2 ka noho au - he is located; 23.(42) 211s:42 ko te matua i runga o to pepe - the father on his throne; 24(43). 91 mai tae tona tamaiti - he does not unite himself with the child;
25(15). 595s e kua koakoa ia ki te rangi - he enjoys himself in heaven; 26(16). 600 kua rere te manu - the bird flies; 27(17). 50 ki runga o te henua - over the earth; 28(18). 381 mai tae atu ki te tangata mea kai - he does not unite with the man, who eats something; 29(19). 4-30.2 i te henua - to be on the earth; 31(20). 306 ko te tangata hanga - the man does; 32(21). 325 i te moa - the cock; 33(22). 430 kua tuu - he arrives; [34. 53]; 35(23). 430 ki te moa - at the cock; 36(24). 17 kua koti ia - he breaks up (the earth); 37(25). 430 e te moa - the cock; 38(26). 4 ka vero koe - you throw the javelin; 39(27). 2 mai tae tuki te maitaki - he does not unite himself with the beautiful; 40(28). 208 mai tae tuki te ariki e noho mai - he does not unite himself with the king;: 41(29). 200 ka rere ia - he runs; 42(30). 2 koia kua rere ki te maitaki - he runs to the good (thing); 43(31). 22 ka vero ia - he throws the javelin; 44(32). 305.74f ki te hua rae - to the first fruit; [45. 95]; 46(33). 1 o te henua - of the earth; [47. 770b].

Fedorova did not undertake a structural examination as it was done by J. Guy. Her substitution of the last part by the middle part does not lead to a better understanding of the text. This could only have been achieved by inserting the translation 'rain' for sign B 53. The words atu ki are transformed by her several times into tuki, to unite (in a sexual sense), which is philologically wrong, but gives a good suggestion of the meaning of the text. That some words like vero, stick, and moa, cock, are used in a metaphorical sense is not noticed by her either. Two phrases she does not translate at all. For ka oho koe (20/40) she gives the meaningless translation he goes, you, though she has translated it in her otherwise very helpful grammatical notes on the foregoing page (252) correctly as you go. In the following sentence ka oho au (21/41) she replaces the first person by the third. Hotu-matua she renders in the nominative.

Fedorova did not even try to form a consistent reading out of the whole line as it was done by I. Alazard (Heyerdahl/Ferdon 1965: 353). His rendering does not agree at all with the philological data, however:

May it rain from the sky on the two earths of Hotu-matua! May he sit high in the sky and on the earth!
The oldest son is on the earth, on his own earth: his canoe has sailed towards his younger brother, right up to the child.
For him, whether he be in the sky or on the earth, may he come to the earth, he who enjoyed himself in the sky!
He keeps the earth in his hand. Man, go away. I will remain on my earth.
Father, you who sit on your throne, go to your child. He enjoyed himself in the sky.
The bird has flown from the earth, coming to the man who eats on earth.
The man feeds the hen, he has put the hen under water, he has taken its feathers.
Hen, take care of the spear, go to the good place, go right up to the king to his house, fly:
it is flown to the good place, far from the spear: flying towards the children of the earth it is flown into safety.

The preposition ka is always translated by may or by the imperative, kua only by the past. A word or sign for rain does only occur in the second half of the line. Obviously, Alazard has interpreted the name of the rain-god Hiro in the sense of rain. 'From the sky' should be read as 'to the sky. 'His canoe sailed to his younger brother' is meaningless. The object is ki tona henua, to his earth (of the elder brother). Mai tae is left untranslated. 'Whether… or' is grammatically possible, but does not give any meaning here. 'He keeps the earth in his hand' is not found in the text. The translation of the two imperative forms 'go away, I will' renders no meaning. 'From the earth' is not found in the text, but 'above, on'. The particular work (mea ke) after 'who eats' is not translated. Like Fedorova Alazard does not realize the metaphorical meaning of moa (cock, hen) and vero, stick. 'Under water' is not found in the text. The correct meaning for the sign is rain or simply water. 'He has taken its feathers' is not found in the text, but 'he digs up the earth'. 'Take care' is not found in the text either. 'Good' is better read as 'good thing' instead of 'good place'. 'Far from (the spear)' and 'it is flown into safety' is not found in the text. 'Into safety' is an unfitting rendering of the sign 'man without head'. Alazard commits these mistakes, because he like Fedorova did not understand the category of the line. From this reason he would not have translated the line correctly, even if he had not committed grave philological mistakes as Federova's translation shows.

Let us now study line Br2 of this tablet. It starts with the last word of the foregoing line, haka hiri, to climb up (to Orongo), though in the negative. Through the initial word it belongs to the category hakiri. Since the most frequent sign is B 59f, the feather-hat, we can suppose, that those who wear it, climb up for initiation. According to the oral tradition, Hotu-matua climbed up the hill of Orongo before his death. We shall study this ascent here for comparison. There are two versions of the story. The first reads (Barthel 1974: 239):

The king rose from the sleeping mat and said to all people: Let us go to Orongo, so that I can announce my death. The king climbed upon a stone and looked in the direction of Hiva, in the direction of the (sea-) route, on which he had come. Then the king said: Here I am and deliver my last speech. The people (mahingo) listened when he spoke. The king said loudly to his spirits (akuaku) Kuihi and Kuaha: Let the voice of the cock of Ariana softly crow, for the trunk with many roots [the king] enters! The king fell back and Hotu-matua died.
[translated from German].

In a somewhat different way the same story is related by Métraux (1940: 69):

[The king] left his house, and went along to the cliff where the edge of the crater is narrowest, and stood on it by two stones, 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, Opapako: 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, so he said to his sons: Take me away! So they took him back to his house, and he died.

It is clear from both texts that marea-renga was situated in the West Pacific. The metaphor trunk with many roots is missing in the second version. On the other hand, the two names Tongau and Opapako are added, whose correct spelling would be to ngau and o papaku (Barthel 1974: 257). Ngau means to chew, papaku is the corpse, both suitable names for ghosts or aku-aku. Kuihi and Kuaha can perhaps be derived from kuhane, soul. The epithet heuheu for Hotu-matua, that is translated as trunk with many roots, occurs in the simple form heu in line Br2, where it means lobster and is a metaphor for the female energy that is related to fertility like the potency of the king, be he Hotu-matua or any other king.

1. 220.D68? (J 219) mai tae atu ki te haka hiri ia - he does not come to the climbing (of the rock); 2. 59f o tona hau - of his feather-hat; 3. 630 koia kua (h)iri - it (the take-bird)climbs up; 4.59f ki te ona o te hau - with his feather-hat; 5. 400 ka rere te manu kura - the red bird flies; ka rere ki to manu kahua auro aroa - he flies to the young bird, when its dress is ready/when it is mature; 6. V670 kua haka (h)iri - he climbs up; 7. 59f ki tona o te hau - with his feather-hat; 8. 600 kua rere koe, e te manu e - you fly; the bird; 9. 208.73f ki te tangata hakanganangana - to the dancing man; koia kua mau i te tapa mea - he takes the yams-root (J 158); 10. 430 mai tae atu ki te moa - he does not come to the cock/the child; 11. 59f hau ia - he wears the feather-hat; 12. 600 - 13.26 ko te manu haka umu - the bird is tattooed; hakahoki - he leads him back (to the tribe); 14. 6 ko te rima kua oho - the hand goes; 15. 430 ki te moa - to the cock; 16. 59f e kua hau ia - he wears the feather-hat; 17. 600 i atu manu rere - to the flying bird; 18. 300.22 ko te tangata kua mau - the man takes; i te tao hia - the sugarcane at the right time; 19. 430 ko te moa - the cock; 20. 59f kua hau i tona hau - he wears his feather-hat; 21. 600 e te manu e - the take-bird; 22. 17 ko koti koe - you break up(the earth); 23. 22 mai tae vero hia - he is not beaten; 24. 430 ki te moa - the cock;
25. 200s.3 ku hukahuka kia ia - he kindles the fire for him; ki te maro - who carries the feather-stick; 26. 40.95 ko te marama o te nuku - the moon for the group; 27. 59f.95x kua hau i te hau o te nuku - he wears the feather-hat of the group (J 161); 28. V64.70.10f kua tuu i te hau o te heu - he comes to the water/the dew of the lobster; 29. 205 e tangata era e - the man there; 30. 360.2 ka unga koe - you bring/you order; ki to maitaki - for the good (thing); 31. 59f - 32. 95x mai tae hahau ia - he does (not wear the feather-hat; i te nuku roa - in the big group; 33. 26 ma te humu - for tattooing; 34. 6 kua oho te rima - the hand goes; 35. 208.73f ki te ariki - to the king; kua tere ko te heu ia - the lobster runs; 36. V95x kua hanu - he brings forth/fertilizes; 37. 17 ki te kotia ia - the dug up (earth); 38. 22 kua vero - he beats; 39. 430 koia ki te moa - he (beats) the cock; 40. 300.63 e kua rere ki te toki - he flies to the stone-adze.

That bird does not come to climb up the hill,
though he wears a feather-hat,
this bird climbs up (to Orongo) with his feather-hat.
The red bird [the Timo] flies to him when the dress is ready,
then the young bird climbs up (the hill) with its feather-hat.
You fly to the dancing man, who carries the yams-root(in his hand),
he does not come to the young cock with the feather-hat.
He who tattoos them, leads him back to the tribe.
He holds his hand over the young cock with the feather-hat,
over the bird, who is fledged.
He seizes her, when the time of the sugarcane has come.
That is the young cock with the feather-hat.
Like the dug up earth you tattoo the young cock, you do not beat him.
The group kindles the fire for the man, who wears the feather-stick, [the Timo],
the group, that wears the feather-hat, when the moon has risen.
He comes to the water/the dew of the lobster.
He brings those (against their will), who do not wear the feather-hat.
He tattoos them and brings them to the king,
The lobster runs to him, he fecundates the earth after he has dug it up.
He gives the stick to the cock, [he tattoos him],
then he runs back to the stone-adze.

That Metoro really knew what he read and did not pretend to read only as Fedorova maintains (1986: 244), can be seen in particular from the fusion V64.70.10f (no. 28) that is rendered by him as kua tuu i te hau o te heu - he comes to the water/the dew of the lobster. The water or dew is a synonym for the vaginal fluid, the lobster stands for the mature girl, the sign for 'he comes' is a variant of the stick that can also represent the male member. The fusion of the signs is a symbol of their sacred union. Heuheu that is explained in Englerts dictionary as 'hair of the body except the pubic hair', can be translated as lobster, too. The trunk is his body, the roots are his feet. Here it is a symbol of the male potency, however. It should be noted that these animals undergo a metamorphosis.

Barthel reads a Hau-maka-chant here, by identifying hau, the feather-hat, follwoing his 'principle of partial phonetical rendering´, with this name (1963: 417). But such a principle has no basis in Metoro's readings. He always uses a complete word as synonym, for instance ihe for rock and thorn. Barthel's other readings like counsellor (630), dream-bird (V670), noble-man (600) are his inventions. After having investigated them carefully, the whole interpretation breaks down like a house of cards, to use Fischer's expression, but to the sand, on which it has been built in Fischer's opinion, Metoro, Barthel refers only in case of the sign for humu, tattoo, because it fits in his concept of Hau-maka's tattooing of Hotu-matua, but Hau-maka is not mentioned by Metoro at all.

In the same way as these two lines, all the four tablets that were read by Metoro can be translated. The main reason, why the previous endeavours to do this failed seems to be the incapability of the modern mind to make himself familiar again with the symbolic way of thought. That the modern mind has lost this capacity is due to his involvement in letter scripts. In the same way, the grown up man loses the memory of his childhood. It requires considerable training of the mind to regain this capacity. If we do not succeed in reading the pictograms of a remote writing system, we are not entitled to hold this system and those who have developed it, responsible for it. Such a behaviour is equally foolish as that of the fox against the grapes in Aesop's well-known parable. If we believe that such pictograms are unreadable at all, we are still on the track of the fox: we make our own inefficiency the measure-stick of our judgment.

The fox is more intelligent, however, than Aesop thought. Having noticed that the true (and sweet) grapes are difficult to obtain, he has started to produce artificial fruits and earns a lot by selling it.

Appendix: Rig Veda helps unravel Indus Valley secrets

By PRASUN SONWALKAR

The Times of India News Service

Additional remarks by Egbert Richter-Ushanas

http://www-user.zfn.uni-bremen.de/~ushanas/

E-mail: ushanas@uni-bremen.de

Latest revision 3-9-2008