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Joseph Campbell (The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology.):

... For the planting folk of the fertile steppes and tropical jungles ... death is a natural phase of life, comparable to the moment of the planting of the seed, for rebirth. As an example of the attitude, we may take the composite picture presented by Frobenius of the sort of burial and reliquary rites that he observed everywhere among the horticulturists of South and East Africa:

When an old kinsman of the sib dies, a cry of joy immediately fills the air. A banquet is arranged, during which the men and women discuss the qualities of the deceased, tell stories of his life, and speak with sorrow of the ills of old age to which he was subject in his last years. Somewhere in the neighorhood - preferably in a shady grove - a hollow has been dug in the earth, covered with a stone. It now is opened and there within lie the bones of earlier times. These are pushed aside to make room for the new arrival. The corpse is carefully bedded in a particular posture, facing a certain way, and left to itself then for a certain season, with the grave again closed.

But when time enough has passed for the flesh to have decayed, the old men of the sib open the chamber again, climb down, take up the skull, and carry it to the surface and into the farmstead, where it is cleaned, painted red and, after being hospitably served with grain and beer, placed in a special place along with the crania of other relatives. From now on no spring will pass when the dead will not participate in the offerings of the planting time; no fall when he will not partake of the offerings of thanks brought in at harvest: and in fact, always before the planting commences and before the wealth of the harvest is enjoyed by the living.

Moreover, the silent old fellow participates in everything that happens in the farmstead. If a leopard kills a woman, a farmboy is bitten by a snake, a plague strikes, or the blessing of rain is withheld, the relic is always brought into connection with the matter in some way. Should there be a fire, it is the first thing saved; when the puberty rites of the youngsters are to commence, it is the first to enjoy the festival beer and porridge.

If a young woman marries into the sib, the oldest member conducts her to the urn or shelf where the earthly remains of the past are preserved and bids her take from the head of an ancestor a few kernels of holy grain to eat. And this, indeed, is a highly significant custom; for when this young, new vessel of the spirit of the sib becomes pregnant, the old people of the community watch to see what similarities will exist between the newly growing and the faded life ... '

Frobenius terms the attitude of the first order 'magical', and the latter 'mystical', observing that whereas the plane of reference of the first is physical, the ghost being conceived as physical, the second renders a profound sense of a communion of death and life in the entity of the sib. And anyone trying to express in words the sense or feeling of this mystic communion would soon learn that words are not enough: the best is silence, or the silent rite.

Not all the rites conceived in this spirit of the mystic community are as gentle, however, as those just described. Many are appalling, as will soon be shown. But through all there is rendered, whether gently or brutally, an awesome sense of this dual image, variously turned, of death in life and life in death: as in the form of the Basumbwa Chief Death, one of whose sides was beautiful, but the other rotten, with maggots dropping to the ground; or in the Hawaiian tree with the deceptive branches at the casting-off place to the other world, one side of which looked fresh and green but the other dry and brittle ...

The powerfully drawn niu in day 59 alludes to the last glyph on side a of the tablet (number 229). In mythic time this Tree of Life was fully grown in the day after St John's Eve (heliacal view) or in the night after Christmans Eve (nakshatra view):

Ga2-28 Ga2-29 (59) Ga3-1
ρ Puppis (122.0), Heap of Fuel (122.1), ζ Monocerotis (122.3), Regor (122.7) Tegmine (123.3) Al Tarf (124.3)

Ras Algethi

He Anakena 21 22 23 (204)
ºJuly 17 (*118) 18 19 (200)
'St John's Eve 'June 25 (*96) 26 (177)
'He Maro 24 25 (176) 26
"June 10 (*81) 11 12 (163)
Shang Wei (305.2), θ Sagittae (305.4), Tseen Foo (305.6), ξ Capricorni (305.8) Tso Ke (306.3) Gredi (307.2), σ Capricorni (307.5), Alshat (307.9)
Tua Haro 20 21 22
ºJanuary 16 17 18 (383)
'Christmas Eve 'December 25 26 (360)
'Ko Koró 24 25 (359) 26
"December 10 11 (*265) 12 (346)

... This [ζ Cancri at Ga2-29] lies on the rear edge of the Crab's shell, and is known as Tegmine, In the Covering; but, if the word be allowable at all, it should be Tegmen, as Avienus is supposed to have had it. Ideler, however, said that Avienus was referring to the covering shell of the marine object, and not to the stellar ...

... The ancient Chinese used to drill holes in turtle shells and then place them in the fire to see what cracks developed. The cracks foretold the future:

Turtles can be associated with earth (the Middleworld) and earth is resistant to fire. The Polynesians had earth-ovens (umu) in which food was prepared. The heavenly firedrill had a turtle at the bottom presumably to isolate the earth from a general conflagration when at new year a fire must be ignited.

 

... the tortoise cannot be burnt ... a characteristic which is confirmed objectively by ethnography, since the wolf's trick [in M192] of trying to cook the tortoise while it was lying on its back is based on a method which may seem barbarous but is still current in central Brazil: the tortoise is so difficult to kill that the peasants cook it alive among the hot wood cinders, with its own shell acting as the cooking-dish; the process may last several hours, because the poor beast takes so long to die ...

The 'Brutes' (beasts) of early and quick growth later matured to become stable 'Men'. Each year the force of spring 'fought a tug of war' with the force of maturity, creating an oscillation over time:

In the rongorongo vocabulary niu represented the beginning of the new (ni-u, Mayan U means Moon), whereas the ariki type of glyph marked the end of the cycle:

ariki niu

The niu type of glyph has the head of the king down in the ground

whereas in the ariki type of glyph the head of the king is high up.

... The Inca kingdom was called Tawantinsuyu = 'the indivisible four quarters of the world' and the Inca himself was ruling in its center (Cuzco) ...

There was a Heap of Fuel lying there waiting but the Bright Fire did not occur until day 61, which in rongorongo times was in He Anakena 24 (*125 = 5 * 5 * 5):

Ga3-2 Ga3-3 Ga3-4 (63) Ga3-5
χ Cancri (125.2), Bright Fire (125.4) Avior (126.4), φ Cancri (126.8) ο Ursa Majoris (127.4)  Pushya-8
υ Cancri (128.1), θ CANCRI (128.2), η Cancri (128.5)
He Anakena 24 (*125) 25 26 27 (208)
ºJuly 20 (*121) 21 22 23 (204)
'June 27 28 (*465) 29 (*100) 30 (181)
'He Maro 27 28 29 30
"June 13 (*84) 14 (165) 15 16
Al Sa’d al Dhabih-20 / Ox Herd Boy-9 Okul (309.6), Bos (309.9)

Arneb

ο Capricorni (310.2), θ Cephei (310.5)

Alnilam

Rotten Melon, φ Pavonis (311.2), η Delphini (311.4), ζ Delphini, ρ Pavonis (311.7)

Phakt

DABIH (308.0), κ Sagittarii (308.1), Sadir (308.4), Peacock (308.7)
Tua Haro 23 (388) 24 25 (*310) 26
ºJanuary 19 (*304) 20 (385) 21 22
'December 27 28 29 30 (364)
'Ko Koró 27 28 29 30 (364)
"December 13 (*267) 14 15 16 (350)

The coco would come at the end of the 3rd quarter, where 'the Tree' was short and great sun was at the horizon, descending at the thigh:

... He [Eric Thompson] established that one sign, very common in the [Mayan] codices where it appears affixed to main signs, can be read as 'te' or 'che', 'tree' or 'wood', and as a numerical classifier in counts of periods of time, such as years, months, or days. In Yucatec, you cannot for instance say 'ox haab' for 'three years', but must say 'ox-te haab', 'three-te years'. In modern dictionaries 'te' also means 'tree', and this other meaning for the sign was confirmed when Thompson found it in compounds accompanying pictures of trees in the Dresden Codex.

The 4th quarter was ruled by a woman (Moon, U) handling a very long time stick, however without the 'necessary ability' to drill fire. With her sitting posture it would be impossible and her mouth is turned down.

In Ga3-5 the sitting figure appears to have generated fire - there are rising maro feathers in front. This was the last day of the month 'He Maro.

The last of this kind of 'fire-generating' figures in the G text is at Ga7-10 and at Ga7-13 (182) darkness had fallen over the Land (hatchmarks over te henua):

Ga7-7 Ga7-8 (177) Ga7-9 Ga7-10
 β Tr. Austr. (240.3), κ Tr. Austr. (240.4), ρ Scorpii (240.8) Iklīl al Jabhah-15 / Anuradha-17 / Room-4 ε Cor. Borealis (241.5), υ Herculis (242.3), ρ Cor. Borealis (242.4), ι Cor. Borealis (242.5), ξ Scorpii (242.7)

Schedir

16h (243.5)
ξ Lupi, λ Cor. Borealis (241.1), Zheng (241.2), VRISCHIKA (241.3), ε Cor. Borealis (241.5),  Dschubba (241.7), η Lupi (241.9) Acrab, Jabhat al Akrab (243.3), θ Lupi, Rutilicus (243.5), Marfik (243.7), φ Herculis (243.8)
Ko Ruti 16 (320) 17 18 19
ºNovember 12 (*236) 13 14 (318) 15
'October 20 21 (*214) 22 (295) 23
'Tagaroa Uri 20 21 (294) 22 23
"October 6 (*199) 7 (280) 8 9
Menkhib (57.6)

Porrima

Zaurak (58.9) λ Tauri (59.3), ν Tauri (59.9) 4h (60.9)
no star listed (60)

Cor Caroli

Vaitu Potu 17 (137) 18 19 20 (140)
ºMay 14 15 (*54) 16 17 (136)
'April 20 (*30) 21 (111) 22 23
'Vaitu Nui 20 21 (111) 22 23
"April 6 7 8 (*18) 9 (99)
Ga7-11 Ga7-12 Ga7-13 Ga7-14 (183)
ψ Scorpii (244.6), Lesath (244.8) χ Scorpii (245.1), Yed Prior, δ Tr. Austr. (245.5) Yed Posterior, Rukbalgethi Shemali (246.6). δ Apodis (246.7), ο Scorpii (246.8) Heart-5
σ SCORPII (247.0), Hejian (247.2), ψ Ophiuchi (247.7)
Ko Ruti 20 (324) 21 22 23
ºNovember 16 (320) 17 18 (*242) 19
'October 24 25 26 27 (*220)
'Tagaroa Uri 24 25 26 27 (300)
"October 10 11 (*204) 12 (285) 13
no star listed (61) Beid (62.2)

Vindemiatrix

Al Dabarān-2 Hyadum II (64.2)
HYADUM I (63.4)
Vaitu Potu 21 22 23 24 (144)
ºMay 18 (*57) 19 20 21 (140)
'April 24 25 (*35) 26 (116) 27
'Vaitu Nui 24 (114) 25 26 (*36) 27
"April 10 (100) 11 12 (*22) 13

If my interpretation is correct, then sida a of the tablet is beginning with Sun arriving in spring as viewed from a point north of the equator.

With heliacal Antares a change from the northern viewpoint to the southern world should occur, which also appears to be illustrated in Ga7-19 (with fire down below):

Ga7-15 Ga7-16 (185) Ga7-17 Ga7-18 Ga7-19
ρ Ophiuchi (248.1), Kajam (248.3), χ Ophiuchi (248.5), She Low, ι Tr. Austr. (248.7), ζ Tr. Austr. (248.8) Al Kalb-16 / Jyeshtha-18

ANA-MUA

γ Apodis (250.1), σ Herculis (250.3), θ Tr. Austr. (250.6), τ Scorpii (250.7) Han (251.0) ζ Herculis, η Tr. Austr. (252.1), η Herculis, β Apodis (252.5)
ANTARES (249.1), Marfik, φ Ophiuchi (249.5),  ω Ophiuchi (249.8)
Ko Ruti 24 (328) 25 26 27 28
ºNovember 20 21 (325) 22 23 24 (*248)
'October 28 (301) 29 (*222) 30 31 'November 1
'Tagaroa Uri 28 29 30 31 (304) 'Ko Ruti 1
"October 14 15 (*208) 16 17 (290) 18
Net-19 no star listed (66) no star listed (67) ANA-MURI no star listed (69)
θ² Tauri, AIN, θ¹ Tauri (65.7) ALDEBARAN (68.2), Theemin (68.5)
Vaitu Potu 25 26 (146) 27 28 29
ºMay 22 23 24 (*63) 25 (144) 26
'April 28 29 (*39) 30 'May 1 (121) 2
'Vaitu Nui 28 29 30 (*40) 'Vaitu Potu 1 2 (122)
"April 14 (104) 15 16 17 18 (*28)
Ga7-20 Ga7-21 Ga7-22 Ga7-23 Ga7-24 (193)
Atria (253.9) Tail-6 ι Ophiuchi (255.3), Grafias (255.4) κ Ophiuchi (256.2), ζ Arae (256.5), ε Arae (256.8), Cujam (256.9) no star listed (257)
Wei, η Arae (254.3), DENEBAKRAB (254.7)
Ko Ruti 29 (333) 30 Ko Koró 1 2 3
ºNovember 25 26 (*250) 27 28 29 (333)
'November 2 3 4 5 (*229) 6
'Ko Ruti 2 3 4 5 6 (310)
"October 19 20 (*213) 21 22 23 (296)
no star listed (70) Tabit (71.7), π² Orionis (71.9) π4 Orionis (72.1), ο¹ Orionis (72.4), π5 Orionis (72.8) π¹ Orionis (73.0), ο² Orionis (73.4), Hassaleh (73.6), π6 Orionis (73.9) Almaaz (74.7), Haedus I (74.8)
Vaitu Potu 30 31 He Maro 1 (152) 2 3
ºMay 27 (*66) 28 29 (148) 30 31
'May 3 4 5 (125) 6 (*46) 7
'Vaitu Potu 3 4 5 (125) 6 (*46) 7
"April 19 20 (*30) 21 (111) 22 23

In Ga7-24 we can imagine how the spirit of the dead Old Lion (represented by the swarm of stars π and ο Orionis) has generated a descendant in front.

 

In the beginning were Rangi and Papa, Sky and Earth. Darkness existed. Rangi adhered over Papa his wife. Man was not. A person arose, a spirit who had no origin; his name was Rangitokona, the Heaven-propper. He went to Rangi and Papa, bid them go apart, but they would not. Therefore Rangitokona separated Rangi and Papa, he thrust the sky above. He thrust him with his pillars ten in number end to end; they reached up to the Fixed-place-of-the-Heavens.

After this separation Rangi lamented for his wife: and his tears are the dew and the rain which ever fall on her. This was the chant that did the work:

Rangitokona, prop up the heaven! // Rangitokona, prop up the morning! // The pillar stands in the empty space.

The thought [memea] stands in the earth-world - // Thought stands also in the sky.

The kahi stands in the earth-world - // Kahi stands also in the sky.

The pillar stands, the pillar - // It ever stands, the pillar of the sky.

Then for the first time was there light between the Sky and the Earth; the world existed.

When he had finished this work Rangitokona heaped up earth and of it he made man, he created Tu. This was his chant:

Stem heaped up, heaped, heaped up. // Stem gathered together, gathered, gathered together.

Heap it in the stem of the tree, // Heap it in the butt of the tree, // Heap it in the foundation of the tree.

Heap it in the fibrous roots, // Heap it in the thick root of the tree, // Heap it together, it grows; // Heap it together, it lives.

The heaven-stem lives, it is living, E!

Stem heaped up, body heaped up - // Let the heaven stand which lives.

Heap it in the flower of the tree, // Heap it in the leaf of the tree, // Heap it in the swaying of the tree!

Heap it in the spreading branches of the tree, // Heap it in the pattern of the tree, // Heap it in the finishing of the tree!

Heap it, it grows! // Heap it, it lives! // The heaven lives - E!

Stem heaped up, stem heaped up. // Let the heaven stand which lives, // Let Tu remain.

This was the forming of the body of Tu. Then the spirit was gathered in. And this was the chant for that work:

Let the spirit of the man be gathered to the world of being, the world of light. / Then see. Placed in the body is the flying bird, the spirit-breath. / Then breathe! / Sneeze, living spirit, to the world of being, the world of light. / Then see. Placed in the body is the flying bird, the breath. / Be breathing then, great Tu. Now live!

Then man existed, and the progeny of Tu increased: Rongo, Tane, Tangaroa, Rongomai, Kahukura, Tiki, Uru, Ngangana, Io, Iorangi, Waiorangi, Tahu, Moko, Maroro, Wakehau, Tiki, Toi, Rauru, Whatonga - these were the sons. Ruanuku, Motu ariki, Te Ao marama, Tu mare, Ranganuku, Matariki, Wari, and Ro Tauira the pattern-maid - these were the females. These were Rangitokona's descendants born of heaven and the earth. The last, Ro Tauira, being made, the children of Rangi and Papa went forth their ways, they went out to the world of being.

Then Te Ao marama had her son, his name was Rongomai whenua. He was the first man of this land; he was the land.

From this time grew the tribe of men, until the time of Marupuku and Rongopapa, whose tribe was called Te Hamata. These people dwelt in this land here, before the coming of the canoe Rangimata, and the rest. Those ancient ones were hiti, they were giants. The long bones of their thighs lay formerly at Te Awa patiki, showing that giants lived formerly in this land; but the flood of that lagoon swept all away.

Ro Tauira the pattern-maid brought forth her son Tahiri mangate, who took for his wife Ranga maomao, 'Mackerel Sky'. As children of these two were born the winds.The east wind was the first-born child, he came from where the dawn is seen. The West wind was the last.

The other sons were Wairehu, the warm month, and Tuhe a Takarore, the month before. These two kept counting and disputing when their season should begin.

It was Wairehu, that is January, who prevented Rehua, heat-of-February, from turning and devouring men by drying all things up. Mihi torekao and Rongo, they are March and July. They were incited by Tahiri the father of winds to fight agains man, and thus they do, with cold rain and the southerly, with sleet.

Tu matauenga, Tu-of-twisted-face, was a son of the rough West wind. It was he who placed strength in the fishes and birds and trees to injure man.