I would like to begin this investigation with a special case of ariki, viz. the one who is looking straight ahead at us (en face). There are not many such ariki glyphs, and I think the en face position indicates a position of equilibrium - one eye looking back and one in front (like Janus). In the G text there is only one example of this variant:
There are 9 ariki glyphs in all, and only 2 of them on side b, which may indicate that ariki glyphs are connected with the sun. Counting feathers, we find 3 in a forward position on the pair Ga1-5 and Ga1-13. These two ariki belong together also by cause of being close in the text. Then there is a triplet (Ga5-24, Ga6-3, and Ga7-6) which has another feather pattern, viz. 2 (at the back) + 3 (in front). (Ga7-6, though, possibly has one more feather at the forward point of his headgear.) Together this triplet carries 3 * 5 = 15 feathers. Gb7-11 is a special case, with 3 + 4 feathers, which presumably indicates the moon. Its ordinal number is 58 + 422 = 480 = 8 * 60 = 20 * 24, and its location is in Tama. |
