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584
4 From the nest of the Kingfisher
... At the winter solstice, in the same ancient epoch, the Pleiad culminated at nightfall in mid-heaven ... This culmination, between three and four months after the heliacal rising of the Pleiad in Autumn, was, I conjecture, symbolized as the nesting of the Halcyon. Owing to the antiquity and corruption of the legend, it is impossible to hazard more than a conjecture; but that the phenomenon was in some form an astronomic one I have no doubt. ... It culminates on the 31st of December ... - with its 7 oval eggs - there is only a short leapfrog for the imagination to move to rounded potatoes - not visible because they are hidden below the surface of mother earth: ... Once upon a time there was an old woman who owned a great potato field (mara) where she planted her potatoes in spring and harvested them in autumn. She was famous all around for her many varieties of wonderful potatoes, and she had enough of them to sell at the market place. She planted her potatoes 7 in a row, placing her foot in front of her as a measure from one potato to the next. Then she marked the place with a bean - which would also give nourishment to the surrounding potatoes. Next she changed variety and planted 7 more followed by another bean, and this was the pattern she followed until all her 214 varieties [the Neck] had been put down in their proper places. She had drawn a map which she followed and from where each sort of potato could be located at the proper time for its harvest ... ... Day 214 ↔ 2-14, February 14 ↔ *214 (October 21) ... Why should we count thus? Because the Julian equinox was defined as day 84 counted from January 1 and by adding 16 in order to reach the corresponding day in ancient times - when they waited late at night for the return to visibility of the relevant star - the sum will become a nice 100. In other words 216 (= 316 - 100) + 84 = 300 ↔ 300 + 16 = 316 ... ... The Hawaiian woman who was interviewed chuckled because the assassination of Captain Cook coincided with the day we have named All Hearts' Day - when in February 14 (2-14) the war-god Kuu returned to power ... ... George Smith inferred from the tablets that it might be the Star of the Flocks; while other Euphratean names have been Lu-lim, or Lu-nit, the Ram's Eye; and Si-mal or Si-mul, the Horn star, which came down even to late astrology as the Ram's Horn. It also was Anuv, and had its constellation's titles I-ku and I-ku-u, - by abbreviation Ku, - the Prince, or the Leading One, the Ram that led the heavenly flock, some of íts titles at a different date being applied to Capella of Auriga. Brown associates it with Aloros, the first of the ten mythical kings of Akkad anterior to the Deluge, the duration of whose reigns proportionately coincided with the distances apart of the ten chief ecliptic stars beginning with Hamal, and he deduces from this kingly title the Assyrian Ailuv, and hence the Hebrew Ayil; the other stars corresponding to the other mythical kings being Alcyone, Aldebaran, Pollux, Regulus, Spica, Antares, Algenib, Deneb Algedi, and Scheat ...
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