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8. The descending bird (Maui as a pigeon) could refer to the sky and the little dog at the other (higher) end to land, in other words 'sky' has come down to 'earth', i.e. it is spring equinox. Once Gemini was the sign of this. Procyon and Sirius, the twin dogs, need land to walk on, they are quadrupeds. Maui became a man when was brought down to earth. The other straight line in Egyptian X is descending from Betelgeuze to Naos and we can imagine these stars as the entrance to respectively the exit (similar to Phaet at Ga1-21) from a black 'period' which really is not a period at all but only a void (sunya):
From Phaet (Ana-iva, the pillar of exit) to Naos there are 36 glyphs. From Betelgeuze to Naos there are 33 glyphs, equal to the ideal number of nights from the autumnal reappearance of Tauono (6 'stones') to winter solstice: ... the renewal of kingship at the climax of the Makahiki coincides with the rebirth of nature. For in the ideal ritual calendar, the kali'i battle follows the autumnal appearance of the Pleiades, by thirty-three days - thus precisely, in the late eighteenth century, 21 December, the winter solstice. The king returns to power with the sun ... From Phaet to Procyon there are 30 glyphs and Castor, the twin who died (like Te Ohiro A Te Runu) is at Ga2-20.
2 * 26 = 52 = 4 * 13 and 22 * 6 = 11 * 12. Among the 36 glyphs from Phaet to Naos there are 11 ('one more') of special interest, viz. those which begin with Canopus:
Hakaturou (with twin hooks) is at ω Gemini and the glyph number is 42. The 6th Pharaoh, Hor-Den, ruled for 42 years.
We should remember the assessors in the underworld (cfr in chapter 8): ... They tightly swathed the broken body in linen bandages, and when they performed over it the rites that thereafter were to be continued in Egypt in the ceremonial burial of kings, Isis fanned the corpse with her wings and Osiris revived, to become the ruler of the dead. He now sits majestically in the underworld, in the Hall of the Two Truths, assisted by forty-two assessors, one from each of the principal districts of Egypt; and there he judges the souls of the dead ...
There are 9 glyphs from ω Gemini to Castor. Mago in Ga2-14 is probably a Sign.
8 * 45 = 360. From mago in Ga2-14 to mago in Ga7-16 (Antares) there are 141 days. 3 'stones' at left and 3 at right in Den's label agrees with the sign in Eb6-1:
Possibly it refers to 6 months of winter (we assume there are 7 months of summer). Before the arrival of spring equinox winter could be described by 6 'stones', because anciently when counting periods circles of different sizes were often used. ... Among the Nahyssan of S. Carolina time was measured and a rude chronology arranged by means of strings of leather with knots of various colour, like the Peruvian quipos. The Dakota use a circle as the symbol of time, a smaller one for a year and a larger one for a longer period: the circles are arranged in rows, thus: OOO or O-O-O. The Pima of Arizona make use of a tally. The year-mark is a deep notch across the stick ... I suggest the general practice ought to have been to use sticks for the periods of summer and circles (or rather knots on strings) for the periods of winter. At the junction ('elbow') between winter and summer counting cannot be done. Instead the gap (sunya) was used to eliminate the troublesome inconsistencies and fractional numbers which otherwise would have 'cap-sized' the intricate clockwork. 472 glyphs in the G text can be divided into 460 + 12, where the last mentioned (from Canopus up to and including Muliphein could represent the great 'knot' tying up the winter season. Number 460 was certainly a measure in the overall great design. In Tahua (A) the number of glyphs is 1334 = 46 * 29.
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