1. At this point of our investigation I wish to return to the kuhane station Te Pei, which was given number 4 in our latest version of my overview table (cfr at Te Varu Kainga):
... The small piece of 'land' is like the small 'eyes' of the Pleiades (Mata-riki) the sign of a new generation, and Saturn is the creator ... Writing in my outline glyph dictionary I once used much time and effort to create a 'map' of the text on side b (of G) working with the kuhane stations as a guide. Then, trying to extend my map also to side a I failed, which I came to interpret as a kind of 'proof' that Moon did not rule side a but instead it was a description of the 'land of Sun', so to say. The kuhane of Hau Maka moved in the night and not in the daytime. In my map I had found it not only reasonable but even probable to have Te Pei at the beginning of sid b. After Spring Sun (on side a) had climbed to the top of his 'tree' there was no way back. At Te Kioe Uri I have told about the South American 'bird nester' myths which have the common theme of a person being tricked into climbing a steep cliff or a tree in order to fetch bird eggs, but then being abandoned with no possibility to get down, or only by being helped by some bird: ... There was once an Indian who was married and the father of a boy and a girl. The Trickster, who wanted to appropriate his fine garments and his wife, persuaded him to go and fetch eaglets from the top of a high peak. The Indian took off his clothing and started to climb up the cliff, which he found quite an easy task, since the way to the nest was like a stairway. But the Trickster commanded that the peak increase in height. He made the sides completely smooth so that the Indian was unable to come back down and remained stranded at the top. The Trickster did not attempt (as in Salish mythology) to assume the outward appearance of his rival. He related what had happened but said nothing of the part he himself had played, and claimed that the hero, before disappearing, had told him to take care of his wife and children. The wife consented but it was not long before her new husband started to scold his stepchildren without cause or reason. Such is the feeling with the stepfather or stepmother for children. The woman, who loved her children and was unhappy to see them being ill-treated, decided to divulge the suspicious circumstances in which her husband had disappeared. Everybody went to the foot of the peak which was strewn with beads; these were the tears shed by the hero who had wept for days and nights. They called upon the wild geese to help: they flew to the top, put the man on their backs and landed him safely. He was at once comforted and cared for; he recovered his health and strength. He then set off to look for his wife and children; he found them again and gave them food, for his rival had deprived the children of food in the hope that they would quickly die of hunger. The hero then hid in a meat sack, jumped on the Trickster and killed him. The corpse was cut up and the pieces scattered. However, the Trickster came back to life. He went away and stopped to rest by a lake, and meditated on death: should death be final or not? On seeing that a stick, then a buffalo turd, and lastly a piece of pith remained afloat after he had thrown them into the lake, he opted for resurrection. However, when a pebble sank, he reversed his decision. It was better that people should die, he concluded, otherwise the earth would quickly become overpopulated. Since that time, people only live for a certain period and die for ever ... We should also remember the Stromberg mountain from which the flaming wheel of Sun rushed down into a river (cfr at The Weak One): ... The idea of Sun making a sudden plunge from a high point down into a 'land of water' (where of course he must die immediately) is deeply embedded in the mind of man: ... needfire ceremonies usually take place near the summer solstice (the Feast of St. John) ... but they occur in several other seasons as well. The summer date of the rite and its accompanying festival have to do, among other things, with fertility, as can can clearly be seen in a variant from the valley of the Moselle preserved for us by Jakob Grimm. Each household in the village was constrained to contribute a shock of straw to the nearby high place, Stromberg, where the males went at evening while the females went to a spring lower down on the slope. A huge wheel was wrapped with this straw. An axle run through the wheel served as the handles for those who were to guide it on its downward plunge. The mayor of a nearby town kindled the straw, for which office he was rewarded with a basketful of cherries. All the men kindled torches and some followed the burning orb as it was released downhill to shouts of joy. The women at the spring echoed these shouts as the wheel rushed by them. Often the fire went out of its own accord before it reached the river, but should the waters of the river extinguish it, an abundant vintage was forecast for that year ... The great 'plunge' coincides with turning from the 'front side' to the 'back side' ... My outline of a map for side b began with Te Pei, which I was convinced corresponded to the place down in the 'water' into which Sun had plunged. But I struggled with where exactly it was located and my solution became a set of locations which depended on the length of the month:
With Gb8-30 appearing as 16 * 29.5 = 472 (i.e., twice in the last table), the game seems to be finished - there are 4 ways to measure in the G text, by using 29.5. 30, 30.5, or 31. Though since then I have learnt that also 8 * 32 = 256 is an important measure:
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