Pa5-58 Pa5-59

This is the 8th period and the sun is now 'waving farewell'. The light is visibly diminished.

In Pa5-59 tapa mea has a vertical straight line at left, indicating that now we have reached a limit. This limit is the middle of the after noon period (6-10), just as Pa5-42 is dividing the fore noon period (1-5) into two. We can compare:

Pa5-42 Pa5-59
3rd period 8th period

Pa5-58 is composed of two parts, whereof the left one is a complex of sun and arm.

In text H there are two glyphs which correspond to Pa5-58, not one. The rays of the sun in H is a separate glyph. But presumably the author of P has tried to make clear that it is the light of the sun which is leaving us. We ought to understand this after having observed his sign, the sign of not having the glyph for the sun rays as a separate glyph.

As this type of hand is oriented outwards, i.e. in the opposite direction to the hand towards mouth (meaning 'eating' = increasing), the possibility must be considered that the hand outwards oriented is meaning decreasing. However, this type of hand then should appear in more periods in the afternoon than in the 8th.

This hand sign might be used in other ways too, for instance as a sign of 'handing over' to darkness (to the night). Sun is no longer as strong as before and he therefore ought to transfer the command to darkness (night). But then: shouldn't it be a sign of darkness (instead of sunrays) at right in Pa5-58?

This type of hand shows the thumb too. The three fingers and thumb are reminiscent of the foot of a cock (thumb = spur). But then it must be an upside-down cock - a cock severly ill of perhaps already dead. As the cock crows in the morning awakening us all to the new day, so the cock in the late afternoon should remind us about the ending of the day.

If the sun is a cock, then we will also understand why the flames of the sun are slightly bent:

A cock's comb is not standing straight up. To 'cock one's hat' means to have it askew.

If we compare Pa5-59 with the other similar glyphs in the after noon period, it will become apparent that there is an additional sign of middle in Pa5-59:

6th period 7th period 8th period 9th period 10th period

Midships of the 'canoe of the sun' there are two marks toward right separated from the rest, thereby marking that the middle is located in the 3rd period of the afternoon.