GIENAH (Wing) = γ Corvi (185.1), ε Muscae (185.2), ζ Crucis (185.4), ZANIAH (Corner) = η Virginis (185.9)

... After the great flood had at long last receded, Raven had gorged himself on the delicacies left by the receding water, so for once, perhaps the first time in his life, he wasn't hungry. But his other appetites, his curiosity and the unquenchable itch to meddle and provoke things, to play tricks on the world and its creatures, these remained unsatisfied. Raven gazed up and down the beach. It was pretty, but lifeless. There was no one about to upset, or play tricks upon. Raven sighed. He crossed his wings behind him and strutted up and down the sand, his shiny head cocked, his sharp eyes and ears alert for any unusual sight or sound. The mountains and the sea, the sky now ablaze with the sun by day and the moon and stars he had placed there, it was all pretty, but lifeless. Finally Raven cried out to the empty sky with a loud exasperated cry. And before the echoes of his cry faded from the shore, he heard a muffled squeak. He looked up and down the beach for its source and saw nothing. He strutted back and and forth, once, twice, three times and still saw nothing. Then he spied a flash of white in the sand. There, half buried in the sand was a giant clamshell. As his shadow fell upon it, he heard another muffled squeak. Peering down into the opening between the halves of the shell, he saw it was full of tiny creatures, cowering in fear at his shadow ...

CAPH (Hand) = β Cassiopeiae, SIRRAH (Navel of the Horse) = α Andromedae (0.5), ε Phoenicis, γ³ Oct. (0.8)

ο Oct. (1.3), ALGENIB PEGASI = γ Pegasi (1.8)

ALPHARD (α Hydrae)

... Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on 21 March (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on 20 March in most years) ...

... When the Pope rearranged the day for spring equinox from number 84 ('March 25) to number 80 (ºMarch 21) the earlier Julian structure was buried, was covered up (puo). At the same time the Pope deliberately avoided to correct the flow of Julian calendar days for what he may have regarded as 4 unneccesary leap days prior to the Council of Nicaea. Thus his balance sheet for days was in order. The day numbers counted from the equinox were increased with 4 and this was equal to allowing the 4 'unneccessary' leap days to remain in place. But he had moved spring equinox to a position which was 4 days too early compared to the ancient model ...

... The leap day was introduced as part of the Julian reform. The day following the Terminalia (February 23) was doubled, forming the 'bis sextum - literally 'double sixth', since February 24 was 'the sixth day before the Kalends of March' using Roman inclusive counting (March 1 was the 'first day'). Although exceptions exist, the first day of the bis sextum (February 24) was usually regarded as the intercalated or 'bissextile' day since the third century. February 29 came to be regarded as the leap day when the Roman system of numbering days was replaced by sequential numbering in the late Middle Ages ...