We leave Q here, because we should try to explain ariga erua in Thursday. The 9 glyphs (not an irrelevant number) can be arranged from the visual cues into the pattern 4 + 5:
The pair sitting back-to-back are contrasted with the single standing up and face-to-face tagata (ariga erua). I have suggested that the face-to-face position refers to midsummer. If at midsummer the normal head orientation for spring (face towards right, in front) should turn around, then the right head in the glyph - looking back instead of forward - ought to refer to autumn. Twisting the autumn head around, so that both spring and autumn will be looking at the center of summer, so to say, ought to mean the 'atumn head' must be turned right again later on, reasonably at winter solstice. In Hb9-40 the head is still looking back, but in Hb9-41 the normal forward orientation has been reestablished. Maybe the reason for the ariga erua glyph which follows the back-to-back sitting pair is to make the reader aware of what happens between Hb9-40 and Hb9-41, and why they are sitting back-to-back. The Y-formed hand in Hb9-40 (where 9 * 40 = 360) ought to represent the old (now barren) year, while in Hb9-41 the hand eating voraciously (fingers spread out) will be the new young vigorous and hungry year. |
