On side b of the tablet Rehua - the star (or planet) who ripens the fruit and who has one broken wing - may have corresponded to Alcyone (the 2nd in the flock of 10 Sun stars): ... Rehua has been variously identified with Jupiter by Tregear, with Sirius by Stowell, and with Antares by Best, and there can be no doubt that the name was applied to different objects in various sections of New Zealand. An old native declared: 'Rehua is a star, a bird with two wings; one wing is broken ...
We can count 80 + *56 = 136 as the day when the Sun would have reached Alcyone, in May 16. But at the time of rongorongo, 3 precessional days later, the Sun had to move 3 more days further ahead in order to reach Alcyone, in May 19. Alcyone was the daughter of the Queen of Sailing and at the beginning of summer Vainömöinen needed 3 more words in order to complete his boat. ... another Alcyone, daughter of Pleione, 'Queen of Sailing', by the oak-hero Atlas, was the mystical leader of the seven Pleiads. The heliacal rising of the Pleiads in May marked the beginning of the navigational year; their setting marked its end when (as Pliny notices in a passage about the halcyon) a remarkably cold North wind blows ...
South of the equator the corresponding season should have begun in November 15, when Alcyone was close to the Full Moon. Possibly this sailing season would then have ended in January 18 (383) north of the equator and in July 21 (202) south of the equator. 383 - 202 = 181 (= 365 - 184).
... The first god's house in the temple was the body of Ta'aroa's own person, and it became a model for all other god's houses. One day Ta'aroa let himself go into a trance and his spirit stood away in space while his body floated in the sea, then he said to his daughters: 'Oh, girls! How many canoes are there at sea?' And the daughters replied: 'It is like one, it is like one!' Then Ta'aroa's spirit said: 'Who can it be?' And they answered: 'It is thyself assuredly!' ... ...After the food supplies had been brought on land, the two rulers, the king and the queen said, 'Drag the canoes on land and take them apart (so the wood can be used) to build houses and cover the roofs!' They dragged the two canoes on land and took them apart. After they had finished disassembling the canoes, Nuku covered all the houses ... [Manuscript E: p. 84]
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