There are 471 glyphs on the tablet and each glyph represents a day. But the first day in the text is not represented by a glyph, because time flows and the first day cannot be incised in the wooden tablet before all its 24 hours have been measured out in full. It is like the signs for the hours on the face of an old-fashioned clock:

The numer of days ('nights', po) on the tablet is thus not 471 but 472, and 472 / 8 = 59.

The length of a month measured from one Full Moon to the next is approximately 29½ nights, and 59 nights corresponded to a pair of such synodic months. It was convenient to count months in pairs to avoid the fraction ½.

So the text measures out 8 pairs of synodic lunar months. Basically time was governed from the phases of the Moon.

There was noise at night at Marioro, it was Hina beating tapa in the dark for the god Tangaroa, and the noise of her mallet was annoying that god, he could endure it no longer. He said to Pani, 'Oh Pani, is that noise the beating of tapa?' and Pani answered, 'It is Hina tutu po beating fine tapa.'

Then Tangaroa said, 'You go to her and tell her to stop, the harbour of the god is noisy.' Pani therefore went to Hina's place and said to her, 'Stop it, or the harbour of the god will be noisy.' But Hina replied, 'I will not stop, I will beat out white tapa here as a wrapping for the gods Tangaroa, 'Oro, Moe, Ruanu'u, Tu, Tongahiti, Tau utu, Te Meharo, and Punua the burst of thunder'. So Pani returned and told the god that Hina would not stop. 'Then go to her again', said Tangaroa, 'and make her stop. The harbour of the god is noisy!' So Pani went again, and he went a third time also, but with no result. Then Pani too became furious with Hina, and he seized her mallet and beat her on the head. She died, but her spirit flew up into the sky, and she remained forever in the moon, beating white tapa. All may see her there. From that time on she was known as Hina nui aiai i te marama, Great-Hina-beating-in-the-Moon.