Ahau

“ For then they would denote the 13th Ahau-Katun, which extends from the day 1,366,560 (page 24) to 1,480,440 and which contains the two large numbers on page 70, left, top, while the two lower numbers in the first and second columns of that page belong to the 12th Ahau-Katun, and the two in the third and fourth belong to the 14th Ahau-Katun. The 13th would be the present and the 12th and 14th the past and future; but all this could only be confirmed by further research. At all events, the signs for beginning in 17b and for end in 18a refer to past and future. ”

“ It is true that "Ahau Katun" is sometimes used as equivalent to "Ahau," but this is very rarely, if ever, found in the few Maya documents that remain to us. The true rendering appears to be "Grand or Great Cycle," as given in the 9th line of Nahau Pech's prophecy. If this interpretation, which is that given by Abbe Brasseur, is the correct one, we then find here the number of one of the great cycles. To suppose that the number here refers to the Ahau will carry this prophecy back to the year 1470-'71, which is improbable. ”

“ Goodman’s Chronological Calendar would show that 1 Ahau 3 Zip is the first day of the 10th Ahau of the 16th Katun of the 9th Cycle of the 54th Great Cycle. [Pg 263]
The third example of an inscription given on the plate shows four squares of picture-writing from Stela D at Quirigua [12] . It seems probable that in these pictures, which are found only on two monuments at Quirigua and on one at Copan [13] , we have a survival of a form of writing which antedated the more conventional hieroglyphs. ”

“ Turning to our text again, the student will have little difficulty in recognizing the first part of this date, the day 8 Ahau, in B5. The numeral 8 appears clearly, and the day sign is the profile-head h' or i', the second variant for Ahau in figure 16. The significance of the element standing between the numeral and the day sign is unknown. Following along through A6, B6, A7, B7, the closing glyph of the Supplementary Series is reached in A8. The glyph itself is on the left and the coefficient, here expressed by a head variant, is on the right. ”

“ There is still another, perhaps the strongest reason of all, for believing that Zoömorph G dates from 9.17.15.0.0 5 Ahau 3 Muan rather than from 10.0.0.0.0 7 Ahau 18 Zip. If assigned to the former date, every hotun from 9.15.15.0.0 9 Ahau 18 Xul to 9.19.0.0.0 9 Ahau 18 Mol has its corresponding marker or period-stone at Quirigua, there being not a single break in the sequence of the fourteen monuments necessary to mark the thirteen hotun endings between these two dates. ”

“ Here, too, we have a Tonalamatl, and one beginning on an especially ceremonial day I Ahau, which seems to play the same role in celestial affairs as IV Ahau does in terrestrial matters. On the sacrificial stone we read the days Ahau, Eb, Kan, Cib and Lamat, and I think it likely that the same days occur in the passage of the Cortes. referred to above; the passage evidently contains some errors. The subdivisions of this Tonalamatl are not known to us, for here the manuscript is somewhat confused. I propose to read it as follows:—
but Cyrus Thomas, "Aids," p. 294, has
Either reading is dubious. ”

“ The numbers given the grand cycles are (for the present, at least) arbitrary, given simply as a means of reference. We see from this table that the year 935 would fall in the grand cycle numbered 2, and, as before stated, in the 11th Ahau. Referring to this manuscript again, we see that Mayapan is first mentioned in the 7th paragraph, where it is stated that "the 2d Ahau, 13th, 11th, 9th, 7th, 5th, 3d, 1st, 12th, and 10th Ahau, 200 years, they [the Tutul Xiu] governed in Uxmal with the governors of Chichen-Itza and Mayapan." ”

“ The next or the 11 Ahau would commence in the year 10 Cauac, which combination in its rotation would happen after a lapse of twenty-four years. The third or 9 Ahau would begin in 8 Cauac twenty-four years later, in illustration of which we follow out the rotation of the four names of the years, Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac, through the indictions of thirteen years each, until we have noted the numerals accompanying them during twenty-four years. Our starting point will be the commencement of the second Ahau Katun on the second day of 10 Cauac. ”

“ These commence at the bottom of the page and increase toward the top, every other number in the series being a multiple of the first, or beginning number. One example of this class will suffice to illustrate all the others.
In the lower right-hand corner of plate 31 a series of this kind commences with the day 9 Ahau. [25] Of this series the number 8.2.0 just above the 9 Ahau is the first term, and the day 9 Ahau the first terminal date. As usual in Maya texts, the starting point is not expressed; by calculation, however, it can be shown to be 1 Ahau [26] in this particular case. ”

“ XIII Oc stands below this number as the beginning of the series. The first column has 30 as an encircled number and below it the normal day IV Ahau.
The large number must have been formed as follows:—
The point of departure was 230, the interval between IV Ahau and XIII Oc, to this was added 98 × 260 = 25,480, the sum being 25,710. The result of this number added to 11 Ahau-Katuns = 1,252,680, was 1,278,390, which number is not revealed in the Manuscript. It is concealed in XIII Oc 3 Mol (2 Muluc) . But 1,278,390 = 42,613 × 30, i.e., it is divisible by the interval XIII Oc-IV Ahau. ”

“ And for the first time in our lives, in this lonely deserted spot we listened to the celestial caroling of those lovely flying organisms, English skylarks, which our old friend, Governor Cleghorn, now dead, first imported from New Zealand. Ainahau, auwe and ever auwe, had been broken up into town lots, and was become the site of a boarding-house! Never, once, did Jack or I, in passing along Kalakaua Avenue, glance that way. Too sorrowful and indignant we were, that the home of Likelike and Kaiulani should not have been held inviolate. ”

“ These wooden columns were hewn out of the forest on the banks of the Ohau, which in those days ran into the Waikawa, forming one large stream. The trees were felled in the bush, floated down the river {326} to the sea, and thence dragged along the coast, one native standing on the tree with pole in hand to guide it through the surf, while a string of stalwart men tugged at the heavy tow-ropes, as they marched along the sandy beach. ”

“ Awu had men friends in every town she visited, but she never stayed long with any of them, being what is called a “walking woman.”
At last she conceived, and when she was about eight months gone with child she happened one day to go into the forest to gather firewood to cook her morning food. While she was thus engaged a branch fell from a tree and hit her on the belly, this immediately brought on her confinement, and she gave birth to twins in the forest. The first born was a girl, to whom she gave the name of Aro, and the second was a boy, whom she named Agbor. ”

“ This was Iowa, as it was first seen by white men, and no more enchanting land ever met the gaze of explorers. For six days the Frenchmen remained with their Indian friends, traversing the valley of the river, hunting elk, buffalo and prairie chickens, fishing and bathing in the pure waters, feasting on the choicest of the products of the fields, forests and streams. The natives exerted themselves to provide every entertainment possible for their white visitors, and urged them to prolong their stay. ”

“ It was about seven o’clock at night, of the 15th, when Hagi Saleh was much alarmed by a number of armed men at his door; and his surprise was still greater upon seeing Ayto Aylo, who, as far as I know, was never in the Moorish town before, descend from his mule, and uncover his head and shoulders, as if he had been approaching a person of the first distinction. I had been reading the prophet Enoch, which Janni had procured me at Adowa; and Wemmer’s 200 and Ludolf’s dictionaries were lying upon it. ”

“ Auwae's father repeats a legend handed down through generations of his family. "More than four hundred years ago," he says, "not far from this very spot, there lived a great chief. His home was not Hawaii, but he came from a distant land to fight and win honour under the king of this island. He became powerful, and was much loved by the people. ”

“ During the unnumbered years of their occupation, the land has set a stamp upon its people—so long on Ahu Ahu that they have forgotten whence they came. Hardy, hospitable, and turbulent, they are true children of the islands, and yet a family apart—ruder and less languid than the people of Samoa or Tahiti, and speaking a harsher tongue. And, more than any other island folk, they live in the past, for 66 ghosts walk on Ahu Ahu, and the living commune nightly with the old dead who lie in the marae. ”

“ Auwae loves her Sunday school; she delights in the music of the organ and the songs she learns there. Every three months there is a grand celebration in the church. It is called "Quarterly Review." All the children in the country for miles around come flocking into [39] Auwae's village. It is such a pretty sight, as the boys and girls come marching over the hillsides! The girls are dressed in white, and everybody wears a wreath and festoons of bright flowers. Sometimes they sing as they march along. ”

“ Here come some of Auwae's schoolmates to join them. They are swimming down the stream. Each carries her clothing in a small bundle in her hand; she holds it out of the water as she paddles along. It is such a common matter that Auwae is not in the least surprised.
The schoolhouse is soon reached. It has but one large room, as there are but thirty [48] children in the village. Much of the time the gentle schoolmaster sits with his pupils under the large tree near by. Auwae likes that much the best. She can never get used to the close air inside the house. ”

“ The scene of this idyl is laid in the district of Waialua, Oahu, but the poet gives his imagination free range regardless of the unities. The chief subjects of interest that serve as a trellis about which the human sentiments entwine concern the duties of the fisherman, who is also a farmer; the school for the hula, in which the hero and the heroine are pupils; and lastly an ideal condition of happiness which the lovers look forward to tinder the benevolent dispensation of the gods Ku and Ahuena. ”

“ A prominent chief of Oahu, whose territory had been ravaged by Kaupeepee, traced the retiring fleet of the plunderers to the coast of Molokai, when it suddenly disappeared. He landed and paid his respects to the venerable Kamauaua, then at Kalaupapa, and craved his assistance in discovering and punishing the spoilers, who must have found shelter somewhere on the island. The old chief smiled grimly as he replied: “It is not necessary to search for your enemies. You will find them at Haupu, near the ocean. They are probably waiting for you. ”

“ I love these expressions of good will from bright, intelligent, pure-minded men. May peace go with him, and I know it will.
Chapter 11.
On Oahu Again.—John Hyde's Apostasy.—I Meet Him in the Presbyterian Church.—At Waialua.
On October 6, 1856, all the Elders of the mission met in conference at Wailuku, island of Maui. Here I met my brother Franklin W. and John Brown, an old playmate. They had just arrived from Zion. Our conference was a truly happy one. I was appointed to labor on Oahu, under the presidency of Edward Partridge. ”

“ Yes, Auwae shall see, not only this, but [99] many wonders beside. She shall ride through the streets with neither man nor animal to carry her. She shall talk with people miles away by placing her mouth to a tube. She shall see how her white cousins live and dress.
But her father does not doubt that she will be glad to come home again to this little grass house with the quiet and the peace of the village life. ”

“ Along with Saul and his six hundred men, there was also Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, the (elder) brother of Ichabod, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest at Shiloh, and therefore a great-grandson of Eli, wearing the ephod, i.e., in the high priest's robes. Ahiah is generally supposed to be the same person as Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub (1Sa 22:9.) , in which case Ahiah (אחיּה, brother, i.e., friend of Jehovah) would be only another form of the name Ahimelech (i.e., brother or friend of the King, viz., Jehovah) . ”

“ On approaching the Hawaiian group from the north, the first land which is sighted is the island of Oahu, and soon after we pass along the windward shores of Maui and Molokai, doubling the lofty promontory of Diamond Head, which rears its precipitous front seven hundred feet above [Pg 14] the sea. We arrive at the dawn of day, while the rising sun beautifies the mountain tops, the green slopes, the gulches, and fern-clad hills, which here and there sparkle with silvery streamlets. ”

“ Things which seemed rubbish at first slowly acquire significance; one begins to wonder if, after all, there may not be varieties of knowledge lost to us in the complexities of civilization.... I've seen some queer things myself.
"My wife's mother lives on Ahu Ahu, where her ancestors have been hereditary rulers since Maui fished the island out of the sea. I've known the family a good many years, and long before I married Apakura the old lady was kind enough to take a 71 motherly interest in me. I always put up with her when we touched at Ahu Ahu. ”