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THE D
TABLET
Glyph line Db6 carries 13 days:
In May 15-16 the Sun would rise with the Pleaides, which indicated the beginning of a new Pleiades year:
We can here see a continuation of sorts from the picture in Db6-3 to that in Db6-4, where the 'leg' has 'fallen on its face' (perished) but a new one (oriented ahead) will emerge, has been drawn in front:
... The correspondence between the winter solstice and the kali'i rite of the Makahiki is arrived at as follows: ideally, the second ceremony of 'breaking the coconut', when the priests assemble at the temple to spot the rising of the Pleiades, coincides with the full moon (Hua tapu) of the twelfth lunar month (Welehu). In the latter eighteenth century, the Pleiades appear at sunset on 18 November. Ten days later (28 November), the Lono effigy sets off on its circuit, which lasts twenty-three days, thus bringing the god back for the climactic battle with the king on 21 December, the solstice (= Hawaiian 16 Makali'i). The correspondence is 'ideal' and only rarely achieved, since it depends on the coincidence of the full moon and the crepuscular rising of the Pleiades ...
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