Here the 'balls' are changed into rhombs, meaning three lunar double-months. Wheareas the solar double-months have 2 * 30 = 60 days, the lunar double-months have 30 + 29 = 59 nights.

There is no vertical straight line in the middle of the glyph. 59 is an odd number and cannot be divided into twins. Also there is no measurement, the moon is a 'clock' in itself.

The four corners in the rhomb marks where periods of 14 nights are completed. 4 * 14 = 56 = the number of nights in a two-month period when the moon is visible.

In a rhomb the 14 nights when the moon is waxing may be seen as the upwards going line at left, the apex being the time of full moon. The waning moon will then be represented by the downwards sloping line at right. At the time of new moon we turn the rhomb 180º similar to when we start to read a rongorongo tablet (though here clockwise instead of counter-clockwise), and after that we can start once again with the waxing moon of the new month.

Moon and sun are complementary. And the texts on the rongorongo tablets turn counter-clockwise only every odd turn, the even turns are clockwise. Right and left alternate, just like sun and moon. The sun is right, the moon is left.

The counter-clockwise movement seems to be connected with the sun (south of the equator) and the clockwise movement therefore with the moon. Consequently, the waning moon should be the downwards sloping line at right.

"The 'second list of place names' appears for the first time in Ms. E. The sequence of the places named runs opposite to Hau Maka's 'first list of place names'. Commencing on land at a point 'that can send signals' out to sea, the path turns to the right along the coastline so that the ocean is always on the left.

On the other hand, proceeding from the land of origin with the description of the route to the new land, Hau Maka's place names are intended to provide a route that starts from the ocean and along which the ocean is always to the right.

We seem to be dealing here with two possible inversions; turning 'toward the sea' vs. turning 'toward the land', while maintaining the same general direction, which is described by the common Polynesian contrast pair tai vs. uta, or turning 'toward the right' vs. turning 'toward the left', facing in the same direction at the start." (Barthel 2)

The 'first list of place names' (sun) seems to have been handed down in writing, the 'second list of place names' (moon) presumably was passed on with kaikai:

"While the 'first list of place names' is supposed to have been handed down explicitly in writing (ta ki runga ki te kaka), the 'second list of place names' was passed on with the aid of a mnemonic device in the form of recitations (patautau) accompanied by the string-figures (kaikai)." (Barthel 2)

... In Nilsson's book I found many strange pieces of information, e.g.: '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...'

About the Ibo-speaking tribes' in Africa: ...they seem to be singularly incurious about heavenly bodies and occurrences; however names were got for the following constellations: - The Pleiades ('Hen and Chicken'), the belt of Orion ('Three and Three')... But Tautoru is the belt of Orion. 'Three and Three' is more like the Pleiades, Tauono. I guess that first was the belt of Orion named Tautoru and after that the Pleiades were named Tauono. Even the three great pyramids in Gizeh were connected with the belt of Orion, as shown by their locations in relation to each other on the ground.

The concept of two 'years', summer and winter, could then result in the belt of Orion being seen as a mark between those two 'years'. Moving then to the idea of three double months in each such 'year', they could identify the belt of Orion with a 'year'. And as the last step in this logic the Pleiades - about two thousand years later when the equinoxes had moved away from Orion - would have taken over the role of mark between the two half-years of three double-months ...

... 3 months from rise 'soon after sunset on November 20' the Pleiades are at the meridian 'at sunset' and then 'towards the end of April' - after another 2 months - they 'set in the rays of the setting Sun'. The movement of the Pleiades from the meridian to the west horizon takes an equal amount of time, I think, i.e. ¼ of the complete 12-month-cycle. But sun makes affirming observations impossible.

... If both early evening and late night were used for the observations, the Pleiades could be seen in ca 11 months. During the 12th month (of invisibility) the Pleiades perhaps went through 'recycling' (death and rebirth). But 'nika' probably was defined as the time of visibility given a certain observation point (just after sunset or just before sunup) ...

... If we think of Tauono (the Pleiades) as having 'six stones' (tau-ono) and associate each stone with a 'season' corresponding to one month, then 6 could be understood as those 6 months when they in principle would be 'above' (in the night sky).

If we think of the Pleiades as having 7 'stars', that could instead mean those 7 'months' when it is not practically possible to see them. Perhaps 7 indicates 'Moon' (nighttime) because the little 'suns' in the Pleiades do not shine during 7 'months'? Maybe those 7 'months' are refleced in Aa7-14 etc:

Year (ta'u), he-hoa ite ta'u, to confess to a crime committed long ago, by publishing it in the form of a kohau motu mo rogorogo (rongorongo tablet). Vanaga.

1.To hang (tau), to perch  (said of chickens on tree branches at night);  rock on the coast, taller than others so that something can be deposited on it without fear of seeing washed it away by the waves; hakarere i ruga i te tau, to place something on such a rock; tau kupega, rope from which is hung the oval net used in ature fishing. 2. Pretty, lovely; ka-tau! how pretty! Vanaga.

1. Year, season, epoch, age. 2. Fit, worthy, deserving, opportune; tae tau, impolite, ill-bred, unseemly; pei ra tau, system. 3. To perch. 4. To hang; hakatau, necklace; hakatautau, to append. 5. Anchor; kona tau, anchorage, port. 6. To fight; hakatau, challenge, to defy, to incite; hakatautau, to rival. Churchill.

The Malay word for 'year' is taun or tahun. In all Polynesian dialects the primary sense is 'a season', 'a period of time'. In the Samoan group tau or tausanga, besides the primary sense of season, has the definite meaning of 'a period of six months', and conventionally that of 'a year', as on the island of Tonga. Here the word has the further sense of 'the produce of the year', and derivatively 'a year'. In the Society group it simply means 'season'. In the Hawaiian group, when not applied to the summer season, the word keeps its original sense of 'an indefinite period of time', 'a life-time, an age', and is never applied to the year: its duration may be more or less than a year, according to circumstances. So far our authority (Fornander, I, 124; cp. 119). It seems however to be questionable whether the original sense is not the concrete 'produce of the seasons', rather than the abstract 'period of time'. It is significant that on the Society Islands the bread-fruit season is called te tau, and the names of the other two seasons, te tau miti rahi and te tau poai, are formed by adding to this name. Nilsson.

At the risk of invoking the criticism, 'Astronomers rush in where philologists fear to tread', I should like to suggest that Taku-rua corresponds with the two-headed Roman god Janus who, on the first of January, looks back upon the old year with one head and forward to the new year with the other, and who is god of the threshold of the home as well as of the year... There is probably a play on words in takurua - it has been said that Polynesian phrases usually invoke a double meaning, a common and an esoteric one. Taku means 'slow', the 'back' of anything, 'rim' and 'command'. Rua is a 'pit', 'two' or 'double'. Hence takurua has been translated 'double command', 'double rim', and 'rim of the pit', by different authorities. Taku-pae is the Maori word for 'threshold'... Several Tuamotuan and Society Islands planet names begin with the word Takurua or Ta'urua which Henry translated Great Festivity and which is the name for the bright star Sirius in both New Zealand and Hawaii. The planet names, therefore, represent the final stage in the evolution of takurua which was probably first applied to the winter solstice, then to Sirius which is the most conspicious object in the evening sky of December and January, and was then finally employed for the brilliant and conspicious planets which outshone even the brightest star Sirius. From its association with the ceremonies of the new year and the winter solstice, takurua also aquired the meaning 'holiday' or 'festivity'. Makemson