The Book of the Hopi & A Drowned Third World
In the 1977 "Book of the Hopi" by Frank Waters and Oswald White Bear Frederick, the authors relate a Hopi traditional story about the origin of the Hopi people. He relates that they came by boat from across the sea from a sunken homeland called Kásskara, which also appears in other sources transliterated / anglicized as Kusskurza.
In the 3rd Mesa dialect of the Hopi language, I believe we find, in the combination of several root words, a compound that obtains the meaning of Kusskurza as something relating to a catastrophic flood or perhaps figuratively a great purification by water.
kusi-, kuksi-, kusita
"rinsed:out"
kusi'y~ta / kusi'y-yungwa
"have something rinsed out, washed."
Example: Um ùutsaqaptay angqw kusi'y~ta? / "Do you have your pans rinsed out?"
kusi-'y-ta [rinsed:out-NR-POSS-DUR]
kúru
"spread:over"
kúruk-
"come to be spread out all over, distributed widely and thickly, as of plants and seeds. From kúru + k [spread:over-SGL-]... this root requires a suffix to extend the meaning.
Example: Koti huhukhoye' àasupoq kúruk~ngwu. / "When tumbleweeds got blown along by the wind, they cover everything all over." kúru-k- [spread:over-SGL-]
kúrukiw-ma / kúrukiw-wisa
"to be covering, filling, be getting bunched."
Example: Oo'omawt itamutsva kúrukiw~ma. / "The clouds are filling up the sky above us."
Angqw oo'omawt kúrukiw~wisa. / "The clouds are coming and filling the sky." kúru-k-iw-ma [spread:over-SGL-PROG]
Another Flood Account: Ancient Sumerian & Babylonian Accounts
There is a passage in the Atra-Hašis (𒀜𒊏𒄩𒋀), duplicated in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and other versions, that speaks volumes about potential reasons for why a lettered people might forget how to write and take to the high seas to seek survival--why the ancestors of the Austronesians and Polynesians first ventured into the depths of the Abyss. And this passage may also provide some insight into how the Hopi of North America may have been connected with Polynesians and, previous to a sojourn among Central and Eastern Polynesia, with Austronesians. Perhaps the original spark that set their migration by sea in motion began with a Protestant movement of sorts, a rejection of societal norms and corruption.
In the Atrahasis:
In the words of Enki himself: "[Enki] opened his mouth, and addressed his slave (Atrahasis)... Observe the message that I will speak to you: Wall (igâru) hear me, reed wall (kikkišu), observe all my words: 'destroy your house, build a boat, spurn property and save your life.'" (Old Babylonian Period, c. 1894– 1595 BCE)
In the Epic of Gilgamesh:
"Partition (of reeds), partition: Wall, wall, Partition listen, Wall reflect... tear down this house, build a ship, give up possessions, seek thou life.. Forswear worldly goods and keep the soul alive." (Neo-Assyrian period, c. 912-612 BCE)
"Destroy House/Temple, Build Ship, Abandon Materialism, Save Life"
Let's talk about two ideas in the story of Atra-Hasis. (I've highlighted them up above) First there is the idea of "giving up", of "abandoning" one's life. Second, the pursuit of life, keeping life, saving life, salvation without the trappings of civilization.
In a number of places in the Pacific, the phrase of greeting is generally some variation of : kia ora!
This would be a cognate of : 'Ia 'orana in French Polynesia / Tahiti. 'Ia 'ola in Sāmoa.
'Ora / 'ola means "life", "to live", "salvation", "savior", "to be saved", "to save", "to heal", "healing". When we greet each other in the Pacific, we literally tell each other "Live!", "Be Saved!", "We are saved!", "You are saved!", "To Salvation!", “May you live!”, “(I) wish (you) to live!”
At some stage of our prehistory, what if we abandoned the cities and high rising temples, the ziggurats, the competing empires, and chose instead a more pure life free from all the corruption--a life of austerity. This life would have required removal from the institutions of urban centers and impenetrable wastes for a true separation to be effected. This is not really an exceptionally unique idea. Population pressure always drives exploration. Europeans ventured across the Atlantic in search of "The New World." There was nothing "new" about the Americas, they would soon discover, which teemed with an indigenous population that largely existed in harmony with nature in a preserve-like sanctuary spanning the latitudes between the poles.
In Akkadian there are several words for "to save". One in particular stands out: mašā'u.
Written using the Sumerian cuneiform script it is: MAŠĀ'U (𒋼𒀀).... "to save." The characters for mašā'u are written with Sumerian KAR (𒋼𒀀), which is also found in Old Babylonian kas₄kar (𒁽𒋼𒀀)... from KAS₄ (𒁽) meaning "runner", "to run" and KAR (𒋼𒀀) "to flee".
(The alternative form of 𒋼 is GAL₅.LA₂ (𒋼𒇲) meaning "policeman", which I will relate shortly.) KASKAR
Sure, this sounds unlikely. Mesopotamian language in the New World? Here is another interesting surprise. The Hopi word for "to clear new land" is maalam~ma.
That Hopi word is identical to Mālama, the Polynesian word for "enlightenment", for "light", for "moon", and "sun" interchangeably. This New World was discovered long before the arrival of Europeans.
Hopi connection 1: MAŠĀ'U (𒋼𒀀) / Maasaawu'u
This is the name of the Hopi messiah, the Skeleton Man, the Guardian of the Way to the Land of the Dead.
#KAŠKARA (𒁽𒋼𒀀)... It appears this is the name reportedly ascribed by the Hopi to the long-ago sunken homeland that was destroyed by water in The Third World--the age just prior to the one we currently inhabit...at the behest of the Sun Spirit #TAWA.
It would seem that KAŠKARA, of which the meaning of the name has been forgotten to Hopi, means something along the lines of "Run to be saved!" in Sumerian/Akkadian. This is precisely the prevailing theme of the Hopi emergence story into the Americas and their transition to the Grand Canyon region after an epic journey through a "cave"... A journey through a "cave" is also mentioned in the story of Gilgamesh's descent into the land of the gods where #Utnapishtim was removed to by the gods as a reward for his role in the Great Deluge.
The word for "sea" is also the word for "hole", "window", "vent"... AB (𒀊), which is a root element in the Sumerian and Akkadian word for The Abyss, or Apsu (𒀊𒍪), the SU.AB / ZU.AB (𒍪𒀊)... and also in the word for "father" ABBA (𒀊) and as EŠ (𒀊) means "shrine", "sanctuary"... a holy district. SUAP is also the Middle Egyptian word for "purification" and is written using the symbol for "primeval waters"
Is this story telling us that The Abyss was a place of sanctuary--perhaps even a drowned former kingdom?
Here I believe the narrative of a long journey through "a cave" out of the watery Third World speaks of their journey up the Colorado River Delta and chain of cliffside and cavern domiciles after abandoning the Pacific through the Baja region. Their final emergence from the cave was their entrance through a hole into the sky through the Grand Canyon--the Sipapune, which sounds to the Samoan ear as if it means "to rise up/carry, to burst through, a hole, to lift": SI'I, PA, PŪ, NE'E
In Pacific languages the word for "cave" and of "times long past" is ANA. In Sumerian ANA is written UD.NA (𒌓𒈾)
ANA = UD.NA (𒌓𒈾) , which is a homophone of UD.NA (𒌓𒍣) the name of Noah in Sumerian/Akkadian.
UD (𒌓) means "SUN" and is written alternatively as UTU (𒀭𒌓), known as Šamaš in Akkadian, the origin of the Hebrew word for “sun” Shamash.
UTU in Sāmoan means “to draw water”, “the right of succession to royalty”… which in Sāmoan legends descended from heaven, and was conferred by … the Sun god Lā / Lāgi.
In Hawaiian, UKU (UTU) is “#reward”, “#compensation”, “#remuneration”, a debt paid. Noah / Utna / Utu was rewarded for heeding Enki’s advice in building a ship and abandoning all material pursuits. Eternal life achieved through a secret plant “under the water”… Maybe it was Canna, the root of the Hebrew word for “reed” qānê / qāneh (קָנֶה) a word that comes from Akkadian qan.
Solar Theme
Some questions:
Was Noah associated with the sun?
Was Tewa (Hopi) the Sun Spirit derived from DE.WA (𒉈𒉿); TE (𒉈) “fire” WA (𒉿) “understanding”—“fire (of) knowledge”, “knowledgeable in fire”?
Is Tawa (Hopi) the Sun Spirit from TA (𒁕) “to build” WA (𒉿) “understanding”—knowledge of building”?
Any connection to DEVA (देव) “divine”, “god”?
Sumerians called the Sun god #UTU (𒀭𒌓). In the logographic borrowing to Akkadian the symbol is read as Šamaš, ūmu, immu... The root #UD (𒌓) can also mean “to dry up”, “to dry water”.
In Te Reo, Sāmoan , etc. UTU can mean “to draw water” as with a calabash, or ipu. In the Pacific an UMU is a native oven (which is hot!) akin to one of the Akkadian renderings of UD (𒌓). Things from which water is drawn or stanched up tend to become dry. In Māori and Hawaiian, UTU/UKU also means “reward”, “repayment”. Contemporary usage tends to limit the usage of UTU / UKU to its retributive meaning as "revenge", but it more broadly can mean something that has been earned, a just dessert, the fruits of one's own actions or beliefs, a consequence of some prior action. In the 1800s when Edward Tregear collected cognates in his comparative dictionary of Maori and Polynesian words, UTO meant "revenge" and it appears to have converged with UTU since the 19th century. This is worth noting since a key phase of the Utnapištim story (Atrahasis, Ziudsura) is that he was conveyed to the land of the gods and granted immortality as a reward for the role he played in saving life at the time of the great flood. So, UTU Sumerian UD (𒌓) also possesses several other phonetic values. #LAH (𒌓) means “to beat, to kill, to thrash, to burn”. The summer heat can feel like it is burning, thrashing, beating. As a Sāmoan I can attest that after I receiving well-earned fa’asamoa (traditional Sāmoan) discipline in little kid times my muli, tua and mata felt on fire. Our “father” the sun god Lā must have been perceived as such by our ancestors in olden times, for in the Pacific, chiefly lineages trace their descent from the Lord of the Sea, Tagaloa.
It so happens that #LĀ in Sāmoan means “to beat down with heat”, “intensely hot”. Same in Hawaiian. LĀ also means “the #sail” of a ship. In Te Reo Māori, Rā is also the sail. Curious coincidence that the Egyptian sun god Rā had a sailboat… a barque (pronounced #baka)… and every day he sailed through the hidden paths of night to do battle with the sea serpent Apep. And another interesting coincidence is that #LAAK (LĀK) in the Hopi Indian language means… “to #dry”.
These appear to be really old (prehistoric) resilient linguistic roots.
I think I'll pause here for today. Please, excuse me while I kiss the sky. There is a linguistic and religious rabbit hole opening up right below me and my ears are ringing something fierce right now.
References:
Les Missionaires Maristes. Dictionnaire Toga-Français et Francais-Toga-Anglais. Ch. Chadenat, Libraire-Éditeur, Paris. 1890.
Rabone, Rev. S. Vocabulary of the Tonga Language. Wesleyan Mission Press, Neiafu, Vava'u. 1845.
Churchward, C. Maxwell. Tongan Dictionary (Tongan-English and English-Tongan). Oxford University Press, London. 1959.
Pratt, Rev. George S. A Grammar and Dictionary of the Samoan Language. 1st Ed. London Missionary Society Press, London. 1862.
Pratt, Rev. George S. A Grammar and Dictionary of the Samoan Language. 2nd Ed. Trübner & Company, London. 1878.
Tregear, Edward. Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Lyon & Blair, Lambton Quay, Wellington, N.Z. 1891.
Tregear, Edward. Paumotuan Dictionary. Whitmore & Tombs, Ltd. Wellington, N.Z. 1895.
Tregear, Edward. Mangareva Dictionary, Gambier Islands. New Zealand Institute, Wellington, N.Z. 1899.
Tregear, Edward. A Vocabulary and Grammar of the Niue Dialect of the Polynesian Language. John Mackay, Wellington, N.Z. 1907.
Williams, William. A Dictionary of the New Zealand Language. Williams & Norgate, London. 1852.
One Amongst Them. Fijian-English Dictionary. A.M. Brodziak & Co., Suva, Rewa, Labasa and Navua. 1903.
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