The structure of the total Tahua text has now been somewhat clarified. At the end of side a the first glyph of this general type appears, Aa7-4, and then they are distributed all the way through side a.

On side b these glyphs appear already with Ab1-11 and then they continue - with a 336 (→ 48 * 7) day long gap between Ab2-83 (835) and Ab7-6 (1172) - all the way through side b. Although the last of these glyphs is Ab8-49 (1299), which will leave 35 days to the end of side b. 1299 + 35 = 1334 → 46 * 29.

This indicates that side a really is the first side to be read, as was suggested by whoever put that label on it.

Metoro, though, started to read on page b. Perhaps he didn't know better. But I suspect he might have done so in order to confuse Bishop Jaussen and that Metoro knew much more than he wanted to let Jaussen know. I get that impression from all the clues the readings of Metoro contain. Secrets were important on Easter Island.