3. Evidently, beyond midsummer and counted 12 weeks from Spica a cardinal point arrives (Ga7-19). After another 77 days comes autumn equinox, and then day number 168 (where 2 * 12 = 24) has a canoe glyph, as if it were time for Sun to leave.
Fire (5) days (glyphs) are at the beginning (suggesting Spring Sun) and at the end there are 2 days (glyphs) which presumably should refer to Moon - autumn has arrived. The idea of Sun having only 1 limb (arm) can perhaps ultimately be based on the 5 dark nights between the regular 360-day long years in which new fires are alighted (and gods are born). Counting these 5 nights you will use all fingers on your right hand, and the fingers on your other hand are not needed. The 'canoe' glyph (tao) has a slight depression in front center, creating an image with 2 halves, which we can guess illustrates the 'person with 2 faces' (Moon). Therefore tao in Gb2-12 should refer rather to a Moon canoe arriving than to a canoe of Sun leaving. Tao are signs of 'hot' ('newborn'). Therefore the mountain Terevaka could hardly have been written with a tao sign. Tao glyphs should come 243 ('one more' than 242) days after a rau hei glyph, e.g.:
If we count 243 days back in time from Ga2-12 we will reach atariki in Ga1-24, appropriately a day of Saturn:
The 'canoe' in Gb2-12 seems to represent the newborn 2nd season of the year, a season which ends with the 'shadow king' (atariki) followed by the rebirth of the 1st season:
230 + 230 = 460, and 472 - 460 = 12, viz.:
Although it certainly is more complicated. We have earlier, at The Place Aloft, discussed the meaning of the tao glyphs, and there we found other structures:
Tao in Gb7-17 has the same numbers as Ga7-17, and looking closer we can identify Ga7-15 (at day number 185) as a final ('rau hei') day, because after 242 + 1 glyphs a tao appears:
And then we can look at the preceding glyph with new eyes. It has a tao sign in front. But this tao should imply a 'rau hei' 243 days earlier - everybody has a father. And, indeed, glyph number 413 is the last glyph in our well-known lunar period 14 * 29½:
A rau hei glyph ('father') can also be followed immediately by a 'tao' ('child') glyph - cfr Ga1-24 followed by Ga1-25 - and clearly tamaiti is a 'child' glyph. Moving forward 229 glyphs will lead to another 'rau hei', we can guess:
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