Once again. The beginning of the text on side a of the C tablet seems to have been arranged in order to have 5 'days of creation' before heliacal Algorab in JULY 23 should be translated into the Sun date September 22 (equinox).
It was probably well known that when the ordinary Egyptian year with 360 days had ended there were 5 extra days for giving birth and this ancient pattern should then of course be followed: ... Nut, whom the Greeks sometimes identified with Rhea, was goddess of the sky, but it was debatable if in historical times she was the object of a genuine cult. She was Geb's twin sister and, it was said, married him secretly and against the will of Ra. Angered, Ra had the couple brutally separated by Shu and afterwards decreed that Nut could not bear a child in any given month of any year. Thoth, Plutarch tells us, happily had pity on her. Playing draughts with the Moon, he won in the course of several games a seventy-second part of the Moon's light with which he composed five new days. As these five intercalated days did not belong to the official Egyptian calendar of three hundred and sixty days, Nut was thus able to give birth successively to five children: Osiris, Haroeris (Horus), Set, Isis and Nepthys ...
... Menkaure was allegedly a much more benevolent Pharaoh than his predecessors. According to legends related by Herodotus, he wrote the following: This Prince (Mycerinus) disapproved of the conduct of his father, reopened the temples and allowed the people, who were ground down to the lowest point of misery, to return to their occupations and to resume the practice of sacrifice. His justice in the decision of causes was beyond that of all the former kings. The Egyptians praise him in this respect more highly than any other monarchs, declaring that he not only gave his judgements with fairness, but also, when anyone was dissatisfied with his sentence, made compensation to him out of his own purse and thus pacified his anger. The Gods however ordained that Egypt should suffer tyrannical rulers for a hundred and fifty years according to this legend. Herodotus goes on: An oracle reached him from the town of Buto, which said 'six years only shalt thou live upon this earth, and in the seventh thou shalt end thy days'. Mycerinus, indignant, sent an angry message to the oracle, reproaching the god with his injustice - 'My father and uncle,' he said 'though they shut up the temples, took no thought of the gods and destroyed multitudes of men, nevertheless enjoyed a long life; I, who am pious, am to die soon!' There came in reply a second message from the oracle - 'for this very reason is thy life brought so quickly to a close - thou hast not done as it behoved thee. Egypt was fated to suffer affliction one hundred and fifty years - the two kings who preceded thee upon the throne understood this - thou hast not understood it'. Mycerinus, when this answer reached him, perceiving that his doom was fixed, had lamps prepared, which he lighted every day at eventime, and feasted and enjoyed himself unceasingly both day and night, moving about in the marsh-country and the woods, and visiting all the places he heard were agreeable sojourns. His wish was to prove the oracle false, by turning night into days and so living twelve years in the space of six ... 2 * 150 = 300, and presumably 60 days ('years') came before that, which means 60 + 300 + 6 = 366. ... The story of Rip Van Winkle is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War. Rip Van Winkle, a villager of Dutch descent, lives in a nice village at the foot of New York's Catskill Mountains. An amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglect, he is loved by all but his wife. One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife by wandering up the mountains. After encountering strangely dressed men, rumored to be the ghosts of Henry Hudson's crew, who are playing nine-pins, and after drinking some of their liquor, he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep. He wakes up twenty years later and returns to his village. He finds out that his wife is dead and his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere else. He immediately gets into trouble when he hails himself a loyal subject of King George III, not knowing that in the meantime the American Revolution has taken place. An old local recognizes him, however, and Rip's now grown daughter eventually puts him up ... And then Mycerinus changed his rule so it would end in the 'year' 372 = 60 + 300 + 12. 372 = 12 * 31 and 13 * 31 = 403 (= 372 + 31):
The pair Ga1-17 and Ga1-21 had me worried, because a sign of maro hanging down in front should mean 'finished' and if so the order between these 2 glyphs ought to be the opposite - with the young one coming before old one. Time moves from young to old:
But now the mystery has vanished, because I have remembered that life implies an old one has to die in order to make room for a young one. ... When the man, Ulu, returned to his wife from his visit to the temple at Puueo, he said, 'I have heard the voice of the noble Mo'o, and he has told me that tonight, as soon as darkness draws over the sea and the fires of the volcano goddess, Pele, light the clouds over the crater of Mount Kilauea, the black cloth will cover my head. And when the breath has gone from my body and my spirit has departed to the realms of the dead, you are to bury my head carefully near our spring of running water. Plant my heart and entrails near the door of the house. My feet, legs, and arms, hide in the same manner. Then lie down upon the couch where the two of us have reposed so often, listen carefully throughout the night, and do not go forth before the sun has reddened the morning sky. If, in the silence of the night, you should hear noises as of falling leaves and flowers, and afterward as of heavy fruit dropping to the ground, you will know that my prayer has been granted: the life of our little boy will be saved.' And having said that, Ulu fell on his face and died. His wife sang a dirge of lament, but did precisely as she was told, and in the morning she found her house surrounded by a perfect thicket of vegetation. 'Before the door,' we are told in Thomas Thrum's rendition of the legend, 'on the very spot where she had buried her husband's heart, there grew a stately tree covered over with broad, green leaves dripping with dew and shining in the early sunlight, while on the grass lay the ripe, round fruit, where it had fallen from the branches above. And this tree she called Ulu (breadfruit) in honor of her husband.
The little spring was concealed by a succulent growth of strange plants, bearing gigantic leaves and pendant clusters of long yellow fruit, which she named bananas. The intervening space was filled with a luxuriant growth of slender stems and twining vines, of which she called the former sugar-cane and the latter yams; while all around the house were growing little shrubs and esculent roots, to each one of which she gave an appropriate name. Then summoning her little boy, she bade him gather the breadfruit and bananas, and, reserving the largest and best for the gods, roasted the remainder in the hot coals, telling him that in the future this should be his food. With the first mouthful, health returned to the body of the child, and from that time he grew in strength and stature until he attained to the fullness of perfect manhood. He became a mighty warrior in those days, and was known throughout all the island, so that when he died, his name, Mokuola, was given to the islet in the bay of Hilo where his bones were buried; by which name it is called even to the present time ... Or in a nutshell: Ashes will generate new growth.
... Nuku Keku was ... in charge of the feather garlands (maro), which served to mark the boundaries of the royal residence. He had pounded (the staffs with the feather garlands) into the ground. The middle (te tini) was located in front of the bay of Hanga Rua [A misprint: the correct name of the Bay of Leaves was Hanga Rau]. The feather garlands went up, continued, and reached Puku Parari. They went up again and reached Puku O Heha. From Puku O Heha they formed (a line) to the side, to Aro Huri. From Aro Huri they turned again toward the sea and reached Maunga Koua, went down, went their way, and reached Hira Moko. (He) made a second line (? he rua taupa) of feather garlands ...
The Phoenix constellation was not far after the upside down ('dead') Southern 'Fish' - a Land which would come alive again through the sweet (living) water running down from the Urn of Aquarius: ... When the new moon appeared women assembled and bewailed those who had died since the last one, uttering the following lament: 'Alas! O moon! Thou has returned to life, but our departed beloved ones have not. Thou has bathed in the waiora a Tane, and had thy life renewed, but there is no fount to restore life to our departed ones. Alas ...
At the time of Gregory XIII ºJune 30 had been the day (*101) when Sirius and the Sun had risen together with e.g. ω Gemini (at the navel of Castor).
From Fomalhaut in ºFebruary 23 (Terminalia) to Sirius there were 181 - 54 = 127 days. But from heliacal Sirius to the nakshatra position of Fomalhaut at Full Moon in ºAugust 25 the distance was only 54 + 183 - 181 = 56 days (8 weeks). 181 + 56 = 237 (= 8 * 29½ + 1). Thus, at the time of rongorongo there were 56 + 4 = 60 days to nakshatra Fomalhaut in August 29. And the star Fum al Samakah (Mouth of the Fish, β Piscium) had taken over the role from Fomalhaut (Mouth of the Fish, α Piscis Austrini), which at the time of the Bull had risen in day *347 - 64 = *283 (DECEMBER 29) and 5 days after Situla (κ Aquarii at *342 - 64 = *278) - the star at the outflow of water from the Urn. There were 6 days from Situla to Fum Al Samakah, because this star rose 1 day after Fomalhaut. The southern of the pair in fishes in Pisces had evidently taken over the role from the single Southern Fish.
Alkes (the dry and empty crater) at right ascension day 165 at the time of rongorongo would at the time of the Bull have risen with the Sun 64 days earlier, i.e. significantly together with the upright tree (rakau) at Sirius. *165 + 80 = 245 (September 2) = 181 (JUNE 30) + 64.
... The canoes of Ava Rei Pua and of Hotu were seen near the (off-shore) islets. On the fifteenth day of the month of October (tangaroa uri) the canoe of Hotu and the canoe of Ava Rei Pua landed. On the fifteenth day of the month of October (tangaroa uri), Nonoma left the house during the night to urinate outside. At this point Ira called out to Nonoma, 'Look at the canoe!' Nonoma ran, he quickly went to Te Hikinga Heru (a ravine in the side of the crater Rano Kau) and looked around. There he saw the double canoe way out near the (offshore) islets, and the two (hulls of the canoe) were lashed together. He ran and returned to the front of the house. He arrived and called into the house: 'Hey you! This canoe has arrived during the night without our noticing it!' Ira asked Nonoma, 'Where is the canoe, which you say is lying out there (in the water)?' Nonoma's voice came back: 'It is out there (in the water) close to the (offshore) islets! There it lies, and the two (hulls) are lashed together.' The four of them (corrected for 'the six of them') went out and picked up leaves (on branches) to give signals. They picked them up, went and arrived at Te Hikinga and saw the canoe. Raparenga got up, picked up the leaves, took them in his hands, and waved, waved, waved, waved ...
October 15 is day 288 which coincided with the date for the birth of the new calendar launched by the Pope Gregory XIII. ... Gregory dropped 10 days to bring the calendar back into synchronisation with the seasons. Accordingly, when the new calendar was put in use, the error accumulated in the 13 centuries since the Council of Nicaea [325 A.D.] was corrected by a deletion of ten days. The Julian calendar day Thursday, 4 October 1582 was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October 1582 (the cycle of weekdays was not affected) ... So the shift in the date of the equinox that occurred between the 4th and the 16th centuries was annulled with the Gregorian calendar, but nothing was done for the first four centuries of the Julian calendar. The days of 29 February of the years AD 100, AD 200, AD 300, and the day created by the irregular application of leap years between the assassination of Caesar and the decree of Augustus re-arranging the calendar in AD 8, remained in effect ... Gregory dropped 10 days to bring the calendar back into synchronisation with the seasons. Accordingly, when the new calendar was put in use, the error accumulated in the 13 centuries since the Council of Nicaea was corrected by a deletion of ten days ... Converted to a year oriented not after the current winter solstice but to the pair of equinoxes we have to reduce 288 with 80 (March 21).
At the time of Bharani (41 precessional days earlier than the time of rongorongo) day 288 - 80 = 208 was "July 27, to which place precession had moved Zosma and Coxa since the time of the Bull - when they had been in day 185 (JULY 4) and 13 days after the solstice.
... From a religious point of view, the high regard for flies, whose increase or reduction causes a similar increase or reduction in the size of the human population, is interesting, even more so because swarms of flies are often a real nuisance on Easter Island, something most visitors have commented on in vivid language. The explanation seems to be that there is a parallel relationship between flies and human souls, in this case, the souls of the unborn. There is a widespread belief throughout Polynesia that insects are the embodiment of numinous beings, such as gods or the spirits of the dead, and this concept extends into Southeast Asia, where insects are seen as the embodiment of the soul ...
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