The place names of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) still keep many secrets. Several such names are decoded below.
1. Five place names - Renga atini, Renga havini, Renga marere, Renga mata and Renga reirei (Barthel 1962: 107) - are associated with the solar cult. Really, Rapanui renga signifies 'yellow (colour)' (1), ra'a tini - 'noon', ki te tini te ra'a - 'zenith', Maori ma - 'white, pale,, clean', whakama - 'to make white', rere 'to rise or to set, as heavenly bodies', Rapanui rere - 'to fly', mata - 'face; eyes' and Maori whakarei - 'canoe with elaborately carved figure-head, bust and arms'.
Interestingly, in accordance with the Rapanui folklore text "Apai", the sun god by the name Matenga 'The Face' and the moon goddess float into the sky in a canoe (Rjabchikov 1993: 132-4). On the other hand, the petroglyphs 'face' and 'canoe' are presented together in the Easter Island rock art (Lee 1992: 50, fig. 4.8; 123, fig. 4.130), and sometimes the latter petroglyph is replaced by a petroglyph depicting a rei-miro pendant (Lee 1992: 71, fig. 4.45; 102, fig. 4.97).
Parara'a Matahiti, a Tahitian feast, is connected with December, the time of the Summer Solstice (Beckwith 1976: 36), cf. Maori para 'to shine clearly; to come out from the clouds', Tahitian para 'ripe', Rapanui para 'to warm; to heat; ripe', mata 'face; eyes' and hiti 'to rise (of the sun)'. The term para is included in some Rapanui place names, too (Rjabchikov 1997a: 207).
The term havini of the second place name is comparable with Maori hawiniwini 'to shiver with cold; to shudder'. This result requires the special study. I believe that it is a reflex of a period known as the "Little Ice Age" (Grove 1988; McCall 1993). The same word havini is registered in the name of a Rapanui king, Havini-koro (Métraux 1940: table 2) 'To shiver with cold - December (the time of the Summer Solstice)'. According to a chronology based on the dates of solar eclipses and of appearances of Halley's Comet (Rjabchikov 1994), this king reigned in ca. A.D. 1597. So the "Little Ice Age" is calibrated to A.D. 1597. Maybe it was a reason of the famous war between the "Short Ears" and "Long Ears".
2. The place name Te topaanga o te ei o hina kauhara (Barthel 1962: 107) means 'The rain of Hina Kauhara's storm', cf. Rapanui topa 'to drop' and Maori heihei 'storm'. Hina Kauhara is a variant of the moon goddess' name in the Rapanui "Creation-Chant" (Métraux 1940: 321, 323). My interpretation coincides with T. Barthel's (1978: 261) idea that the moon goddess provides the rain. Moreover, the place name corresponds to a Rapanui myth (Métraux 1940: 315).
3. I suppose that two place names - Kere mea and Te tuke hiva hakataha (Barthel 1962: 105, 107) - describe solar eclipses. Indeed, Rapanui kerekere signifies 'dark; black' (a sign of a eclipse) and mea - 'red' (a sign of the sun in eclipse); besides, tuke means 'shine' and hiva hakataha corresponds to the name of the rain deity Hiva Kara Rere.
I think that the place name Koreha a viriviri ngao (Barthel 1962: 105) means 'The Eel (or the initial condition Kore) - the peak/the ball (the sun) - the sign', cf. Mangarevan gao 'sign; mark'. This name corresponds to the Rapanui mythical name Riri-Tuna-Rai 'The Evil-Eel-Sun' (Rjabchikov 1997b: 47) from the "Creation-Chant" and can describe either the initial darkness of the Universe or a solar eclipse.
A kai-kai song (Campbell 1971: 400-1) contains the similar construction:
A Hua Mahomea (the place name/deity) Hua Mahomea - ko te koiro the Eel (the condition Kore); A Mata Tokitoki (the place name/deity) Mata Tokitoki - ko te koreha the Eel (the condition Kore),
where Hua Mahomea and Mata Tokitoki are the sun god's epithets (Rjabchikov 1996a: 24; 1996b: 257).
1. Its figurative meaning is 'the sun', see (Rjabchikov 1999).
Barthel, T.S., 1962. Easter Island Place-Names. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 18: 100-7.
Barthel, T.S., 1978. The Eighth Land. The Polynesian Discovery and Settlement of Easter Island. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Beckwith, M., 1970. Hawaiian Mythology. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Campbell, R., 1971. La herencia musical de Rapanui. Santiago: Editorial Andres Bello.
Grove, J.M., 1988. The Little Ice Age. London: Methuen.
Lee, G., 1992. The Rock Art of Easter Island. Symbols of Power, Prayers to the Gods. Los Angeles: The Institute of Archaeology Publications (UCLA).
McCall, G., 1993. Little Ice Age: Some Speculations for Rapanui. Rapa Nui Journal, 7: 65-70.
Métraux, A., 1940. Ethnology of Easter Island. Bishop Museum Bulletin 160. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1993. Rapanuyskie texty (k probleme rasshifrovki). Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, 4: 124-41.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1994. Khronologiya rapanuyskoy istorii. Krasnodar: DENOS.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1996a. Tayny ostrova Paskhi. Vol. 5. Krasnodar: Torgovo-promyshlennaya palata Krasnodarskogo kraya.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1996b. Easter Island Place-Names: Myths and Reality. Beiträge zur Namenforschung. Neue Folge, 31: 255-9.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1997a. A Key to Mysterious Easter Island Place-Names. Beiträge zur Namenforschung. Neue Folge, 32: 207-10.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1997b. Rongorongo versus Kai-kai: A Second Look at Themes Linking Easter Island's Mysterious Script with Its String Figure Repertoire. Bulletin of the International String Figure Association, 4: 30-55.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1999. Astronomy and Rongorongo. Rapa Nui Journal, 13: 18-9.
Copyright © 1999 by Sergei V. Rjabchikov. All Rights Reserved.