By repeating a charm, she opened the two shells and slipped inside. She could see nothing, because the sun and the moon did not then exist; and then, she could not stand up because there was not enough room in the shellfish. Constantly hunting about she at last found a snail. To endow it with power she placed it under her arm, lay down and slept for three days. Then she let it free, and still hunting about she found another snail bigger than the first one, and treated it in the same way. Then she said to the first snail: 'Can you open this room a little, so that we can sit down?' The snail said it could, and opened the shell a little.

Old-Spider then took the snail, placed it in the west of the shell, and made it into the moon. Then there was a little light, which allowed Old-Spider to see a big worm. At her request he opened the shell a little wider, and from the body of the worm flowed a salted sweat which collected in the lower half-shell and became the sea. Then he raised the upper half-shell very high, and it became the sky. Rigi, the worm, exhausted by this great effort, then died. Old-Spider then made the sun from the second snail, and placed it beside the lower half-shell, which became the earth.

Old-Spider created Sun from the 2nd 'snail' - she created Moon first. Rigi, the 'worm', was discovered when Moon gave a little light. This powerful creature was there from the beginning and he on request pushed the sky roof very high. Maybe he used the force of a growing tree. Only after this had been accomplished could Sun be made, close to earth (presumably at the horizon in the east) from where he could follow the ecliptic path higher and higher in spring.

Sun should not die, he must continue to live and not sink into the sea:

... 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 ...

Is not the conclusion from this myth that Sun should not multiply like people, that he instead by some other method should return fresh as new in the morning? He ought to go by boat across the sea (cfr at Parehe):

Producing offspring can logically not be a task for Sun, instead this is the business of Serpent ('worm') and Moon. When the strong one dies at midsummer there will be room for offsping. There should be 3 'persons': Moon, the Serpent of growth, and the immortal Sun.

Of major interest are the arms of Adam and Eve - they are drawn to look like legs and therefore we should understand them as legs. Then we can count to 8 legs, which is a sign of Moon. We have entered the domain of night, therefore there should not be any arms.

Each of these 8 legs are divided by knees and the number of limbs is equal to 2 * 8 = 16, a sign for 16 * 29½ = 472 days. South of the equator is the cup part of the earth and most of it is sea, therefore it cannot be ruled by Sun. Instead Serpent and Moon rule as man and wife.

According to this map of time (determined by Moon) there seems to be a system of quarters, reading from top left to right (instead of from top right and down). The 1st quarter has Adam's head and the 2nd has the head of Eve. Immediately below their heads there are cap respectively cup signs (instead of leaves).

The 3rd and 4th quarters have legs without any hint of being also arms. I think the idea could be the same as in my glyph type nuku:

nuku

earth

We should remember how the Rain God is first climbing the Tree and then he is down in the earth:

Raingod, Tree, and Monster (head down) seem to be inseparable according to this version, where it is obvious that the following underground station is at the beginning, because Raingod and Monster are looking back.

Summary of nuku in my outline glyph dictionary:

The nuku sign indicates the season when sun is absent, when he has gone north to his 'wintermaid'. This can be concluded by studying the text of Q.

Presumably the absent arms in the glyph type is meant to convey the meaning absence of 'fire' (i.e. sun):

nuku

Arms are (like hands and fingers) called rima and rima is also used for number 5, the number of fingers on a hand. In the myth about Maui stealing fire from Mahuika the fire is lodging in the finger nails of Mahuika.

Maui is mischievous as always and soon the whole world is on fire:

... Looking round, he saw that the whole land would soon be aflame. So he changed himself into a karearea, a hawk, and tried to soar above the flames. But the fire pursued him there and scorched his feathers, which accounts for the colour of that bird. Seeing a lake, he plunged down into it, but found that it was almost boiling. All the forests then caught fire, the land everywhere was alight, and Maui came very near to death.

Then he called on his ancestor Tawhiri matea and all his offspring, to send down rain. 'Let water be given to quench this fire!' he cried, and spoke the appropriate chants. Great clouds appeared, and Tawhiri sent down first the small rain, and then the lasting rain, and everything was drenched, and the flames went out.

Even Mahuika herself almost perished before she could reach her place of shelter, and her shrieks were as loud as those of Maui when he was scorched. The waters rose all around her, and in this way Mahuika was deprived of her former power ...

From one extreme to the other our world is wobbling along.