4. If we count the front side of the text from Gb8-30 then we can imagine not only a pair where side b turns to side a but also a pair in the middle of side a:
I believe the cardinal points where one quarter turns to the next is marked by pairs. We have seen the phenomenon earlier, for instance:
Here the distance is determined by Sun and September 22 indicates the view north of the equator. Day 266 in our calendar is where Raven takes command. South of the equator Sun arrives 6 days earlier, in day 260. In the G text the time before September 16 should therefore be 'ruled by Moon'. It is the time when the Lion (Sun) is absent and north of the equator. Measuring time by Moon should be done in the night, by looking at the stars when they cross the meridian at midnight, when they culminate. If we count 229 nights backwards from the heliacal rise of 93 Leonis we therefore ought to reach the position where the Lion left Easter Island. 229 - 179.0 = 50 and 408 - 50 = 358, but at first I made a mistake and thought I would reach 378:
Tagata in Gb5-27 seems to allude to day 364 (= 52 * 7). There is a logic in hakaariki ('creating a king') in the season of 'needfire': ... 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 ... (cfr at The Weak One) |
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