CHAPTER I.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have

been placed at the end of the book.

A decimal fraction of a second, printed in very small font in the

original book, is denoted by =equalsigns=, for example 9.=34= secs.

A superscript is denoted by ^x or ^{xx}, for example N^2 or IV^{me}.

In the Footnotes a reference to a second or third edition of a book

is denoted by ² or ³, for example: Schrader, II³.

This book has many Greek words, which should display correctly on

most devices. Some other less common characters are also used. These

will display on this device as

ð eth character

Þ thorn character

ǫ o with ogonek

ȱ o with dot and macron

å a with ring above

ă a with breve

ā ī ō a, i, o with macron

ǎ č ř š ž a, c, r, s, z with caron

Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.

SKRIFTER UTGIVNA AV

HUMANISTISKA VETENSKAPSSAMFUNDET I LUND

ACTA SOCIETATIS HUMANIORUM LITTERARUM LUNDENSIS

I.

_MARTIN P. NILSSON_

PRIMITIVE TIME-RECKONING

PRIMITIVE TIME-RECKONING

A STUDY IN THE ORIGINS AND FIRST DEVELOPMENT

OF THE ART OF COUNTING TIME AMONG

THE PRIMITIVE AND EARLY

CULTURE PEOPLES

BY

MARTIN P. NILSSON

PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL ARCHÆOLOGY AND ANCIENT HISTORY

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LUND

SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY LETTERS OF LUND

MEMBER OF THE R. DANISH ACADEMY

[Illustration]

LUND, C. W. K. GLEERUP

LONDON, HUMPHREY MILFORD PARIS, EDOUARD CHAMPION

OXFORD, UNIVERSITY PRESS LEIPZIG, O. HARRASSOWITZ

1920

LUND 1920

BERLINGSKA BOKTRYCKERIET

PREFACE.

Although in the present study I devote only a few pages to the Greek

time-reckoning, and am engaged for the most part in very different

fields, yet the work has arisen from a desire to prepare the way for

a clearer view of the initial stages of the Greek time-reckoning.

In the course of my investigations into Greek festivals I had from

the beginning been brought up against chronological problems, and

as I widened the circle so as to include the survivals of the

ancient festivals in the Middle Ages, more particularly in connexion

with the origin of the Christmas festival, I was again met by

difficulties of chronology, this time in regard to the earlier

Germanic time-reckoning. In the year 1911 I published in _Archiv für

Religionswissenschaft_ an article on the presumptive origin of the

Greek calendar circulated from Delphi. These preliminary studies

led to my taking over myself, in the projected Lexicon of the Greek

and Roman Religions, the article on the calendar in its sacral

connexions. This article was worked out in the spring of 1914. In it

the emphasis was laid not on the historical chronological systems,

which have little to do with religion, but on the question of

origins, in which religion plays a decisive part. In order to arrive

at an opinion it was not enough to work over once more the extremely

scanty material for the origin of the Greek time-reckoning; I had

to form an idea from my hitherto somewhat occasional ethnological

reading as to how a time-reckoning arose under primitive conditions,

and what was its nature. This idea obviously required broadening

and correcting by systematic research. The war, which suspended the

continuation of the Lexicon at its very beginning, gave me leisure

to undertake this more extensive research. Certainly it has also

imposed some limitations on the work, since I could not make use of

the rich libraries of England and the Continent but had to be content

with what was offered by those of Sweden and Copenhagen. But I am

not disposed to regret this limitation too deeply. The material here

reproduced will probably strike many readers as being copious and

monotonous enough, and the numerous books of travels and ethnological

works which I have ransacked, often to no profit, seem to hold out

little prospect that anything new and surprising will come to light.

In this conviction Webster’s work has strengthened me.

In two or three instances I have derived material of great value

from personal communications. For very interesting details of the

time-reckoning of the Kiwai Papuans I am indebted to Dr. G. Landtman

of Helsingfors, and Prof. G. Kazarow of Sofia has sent me valuable

information as to the Bulgarian names of months. Dr. C. W. von Sydow

of Lund has communicated to me details of the popular time-reckoning

in Sweden.

An exhaustive examination of all the material obtainable would

doubtless lead to a more exact conception of the details of primitive

time-reckoning. Above all, large districts with similar peculiarities

in time-reckoning could be more accurately defined. The Arctic

regions form a district of this nature. South America again differs

characteristically from North America; Africa, the East Indian

Archipelago, and the South Sea Islands all have their peculiarities.

The borrowings which have undoubtedly taken place on a very large

scale would be at least in part pointed out. This working up of the

material is however the task of the ethnological specialist; my

object is simply and solely to attain the above-mentioned goal of a

general foundation.

The observation of chronological matters varies greatly in the

ethnographical literature; I have gone through many books without

result, and in other cases my gains have often been small. It is only

in quite recent times that attention has been paid with any great

profit to this side of primitive life. Among the English authors

Frazer has drawn up a list of ethnological questions (printed in the

_Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 18_, 1889, pp. 431

ff., and also separately), paying due attention to time-reckoning,

which has had a lasting and happy result, as can be seen especially

in many papers in the _JRAI_ of succeeding years.

Of the works of my predecessors only one has had any more elaborate

aims--the ninth chapter of Ginzel’s handbook, which deals with the

time-reckoning of the primitive peoples, divided up according to the

different parts of the world. The significance of the time-reckoning

of the primitive peoples for the history of chronology seems to

have been only gradually grasped by the author in the course of

his work, since it is not until after he has touched occasionally

upon the question of primitive time-reckoning in the course of

his account of the chronological systems of the Oriental peoples

that he inserts the chapter in question between the latter and the

chapters on the chronology of antiquity. Ginzel has in many respects

a sound view of the nature of primitive time-reckoning, and makes

many pertinent remarks, but on the whole his treatment, as is not

seldom the case, is lacking in exactness and depth. I have gratefully

made use of the material collected by him, going back, wherever

possible, to the original sources. Of other previous works must be

mentioned the essays of Andree and Frazer on the Pleiades,--the

latter especially distinguished by its author’s usual extensive

acquaintance with the sources and by its abundance of material--and

the dissertation of Kötz upon the astronomical knowledge of the

primitive peoples of Australia and the South Seas, an industrious

work which however only touches superficially upon the problems here

dealt with, and in regard to the lunisolar reckoning adopts the view

of Waitz-Gerland:--“We can here discover nothing accurate, since

these peoples have conceived of nothing accurately” (p. 22). I think

however that we may fairly say that this is to estimate too meanly

the possibility of our knowledge. Hubert’s paper, _Étude sommaire de

la représentation du temps dans la religion et la magie_, is composed

throughout in the spirit of the neo-scholastic school of Durkheim.

The present work, on the other hand, is based upon facts and their

interpretation.

The book was ready in the spring of 1917, but could not be published

on account of the war. Later I have only inserted a few improvements

and additions. As I was putting the finishing touches to my work,

there came into my hands, after a delay due to the circumstances of

the time, the _Rest Days_ of H. Webster, whose _Primitive Secret

Societies_ has gained him fame and honour. This work deals in detail

with a subject akin to mine, but not from the calendarial and

chronological standpoint here adopted. Only upon the origin of the

lunisolar calendar does the author make a few general remarks (pp.

173 ff.), which however do not advance the subject very far. In the

chapters entitled _Market Days_, _Lunar Superstitions and Festivals_,

_Lunar Calendars and the Week_ he has brought together abundant

material which also concerns some of the phenomena treated by me;

part of this information will not be found here, since it is compiled

from sources inaccessible to me. For the same reason, because I

could not collate it for myself, I have not thought it advisable to

introduce this material into my book, especially since it adds no new

principle of knowledge and does not affect the conclusions I have

drawn. Moreover anyone who wishes to go farther into these matters

must in any case approach Webster’s careful work.

For the popular month-names of the European peoples I have made

use of the well-known extensive collections of Grimm, Weinhold,

Miklosisch, etc. In this chapter my object has not been to make

contributions to our knowledge of the popular months, but only to

bring out, by means of numerous examples, the parallel between the

popular names of the Julian months and the names of the lunar months

among the primitive peoples. More isolated and disputed names are

therefore omitted, and the names are given chiefly in translation. I

have made only one exception, namely in the case of the Swedish lunar

months, which really hardly belong to my subject since they are a

popular development from the ecclesiastical calendar of the Middle

Ages. I hope however to be excused for this, in the first place on

patriotic grounds, and secondly because little attention has hitherto

been paid to the matter. In another place I have dealt fully with the

Swedish names of months, which are in the majority of cases not of

popular origin.

I have made out a list of authorities so that in the foot-notes

reference may be made simply to the name of the author; where an

author is represented by two or more works, the work in question is

denoted by an abbreviation. This list is to be regarded not as an

exhaustive bibliography, but merely as an aid to the quotations.

Where so many quotations have been made it has been thought advisable

not to use inverted commas, except in a few special cases. The fact

that the quotations are nevertheless given as far as possible in

the author’s own words must be held to excuse a certain apparent

inconsistency in the use of tenses.

Since I was obliged to include in my work the preliminary stages

of the time-reckoning of the culture peoples, I had to deal with

languages with which I was altogether unfamiliar, or only imperfectly

acquainted. I have therefore often availed myself of the expert

advice which has been readily given me by friends and colleagues.

For help in the complicated questions belonging to the domains of

the Semitic languages and Anglo-Saxon respectively I am especially

indebted to my colleagues Professors A. Moberg and E. Ekwall. For

occasional advice and information I have to thank Docent Joh.

Pedersen of Copenhagen (for the Semitic languages), Prof. Emil Olson

of Lund, and Prof. H. Lindroth of Gothenburg (for the Scandinavian),

and Docent S. Agrell of Lund (for the Slavonic).

The English translation is the work of Mr. F. J. Fielden, English

Lector in the University of Lund, who has also read the proof-sheets.

I am greatly obliged to him for his conscientious performance of a

lengthy and by no means easy task.

Lund, _May_ 1920. _Martin P. Nilsson._

CONTENTS.

PAGE

PREFACE V

INTRODUCTION 1

Foundation of the inquiry--Units of time-reckoning--Risings

and settings of the stars--Phases of climate, of plant and

animal life--Modes of time-reckoning.

CHAPTER I.--THE DAY 11

The day of 24 hours not primitive--Counting of days or

nights--_Pars pro toto_ reckoning--Indications of the sun’s

position--Indications by means of marks etc.--Names for the

parts of the day--Names derived from occupations--Lists of

names--Homeric expressions--Greek and Latin expressions--

Parts of the night--Night measured by the stars--Measures

of time.

CHAPTER II.--THE SEASONS 45

Seasonal points--Small seasons--Winter and summer--Dry and

rainy seasons--Wind-seasons--Four or five seasons--

Sub-division of seasons--Greater seasons--Cycles of seasons

--Agricultural cycles of seasons--Artificially regulated

cycles of seasons--Indo-European seasons--Seasons of the

Germanic peoples--The division of the Germanic year--The

Scandinavian division of the year--The old Scandinavian

week-year--Smaller wind-seasons.

CHAPTER III.--THE YEAR 86

Half-years--Shorter years--The empirical year--_Pars pro toto_

reckoning--The period of the vegetation and the year--

Ignorance of age--Relative age--Designation of years after

events--Series of years designated after events--Designation

of years in Babylonia and Egypt.

CHAPTER IV.--THE STARS 109

Inaccuracy of time-reckoning--The stars in Homer--Observation

of the stars by the Greeks and Romans--Star-lore: N. America

--S. America--Africa--India--Australia--Oceania--Indication

of time from the stars--Observation of the stars: Bushmen

--Australia--N. America--S. America--Africa--East Indian

Archipelago--Torres Straits--Melanesia--Polynesia--The stars

as causes and omens of the weather.

CHAPTER V.--THE MONTH 147

The moon--Counting of months and their days--Indications of

the position of the moon--Salutations to the new moon--

Celebration of the full moon--Other phases--The greater

phases of the moon--Further phases--Days named after the

phases of the moon--Groups of days named after the phases

of the moon--Days counted from the greater phases--Decades--

African systems--The quarters of the moon.

CHAPTER VI.--THE MONTHS 173

Series of months: N. Asia--Siberia--Eskimos--N. America--S.

America--Africa--East Indian Archipelago--Torres Straits--

Oceania.

CHAPTER VII.--CONCLUSIONS 217

Imperfect counting of the moons--Connexion between moons and

seasons--Multiplicity and absence of names of months--Pairs

of months.

CHAPTER VIII.--OLD SEMITIC MONTHS 226

1. _Babylonia._ Sumerian months--Akkadian months--Babylonian

etc. months--2. _The Israelites._ Canaanitish months--

Israelitish months--New moon and months--3. _The

pre-Mohammedan Arabs._ Arabian months.

CHAPTER IX.--CALENDAR REGULATION. 1. THE INTERCALATION 240

Incomplete series of months--Uncertainty as to the month--

Difficulties in reckoning months--Empirical intercalation--

The Jews--Correction of the months by the stars--Correction

of the Batak year--The pre-Mohammedan intercalation--The

Babylonian months and the stars.--The Babylonian intercalation

empirical--Correction of the year by the solstices and

the stars.

CHAPTER X.--CALENDAR REGULATION. 2. BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 267

Uncertainty as to the beginning of the year--New Year

feasts--Beginning of the year--The Israelitish New Year--

The Pleiades year--. _Appendix_: The Egyptian year.

CHAPTER XI.--POPULAR MONTHS OF THE EUROPEAN PEOPLES 282

Month-names: Albanian--Basque--Lithuanian--Lettish--

Slavonic--German--Anglo-Saxon months--The Anglo-Saxon

lunisolar year--Scandinavian month-names--Old Scandinavian

lunar months--Later Swedish moon-months--Finnish

moon-months--Lapp months.

CHAPTER XII.--SOLSTICES AND EQUINOXES. AIDS TO THE

DETERMINATION OF TIME 311

Observation of the solstices and equinoxes--Observation of

the equinoxes by the Scandinavians--Seed-time determined by

the observation of the sun--Devices for counting days, etc.

CHAPTER XIII.--ARTIFICIAL PERIODS OF TIME. FEASTS 324

The market-week in Africa--Greater periods in Africa--The

market-week in Asia--America--Rome--_Shabattu_ and sabbath--

Origin of the sabbath--The sabbath a market-day--Festivals

and seasons--Cycles of festivals--Regulation of the festivals

by the moon--Full moon the time of festivals--Festivals

determined by the course of the sun--Months named after

festivals.

CHAPTER XIV.--THE CALENDAR-MAKERS 347

Calendrical observations by certain gifted persons--The

priests as calendar-makers--Sacral and profane

calendar-regulation.

CHAPTER XV.--CONCLUSION 355

1. _Summary of results._ The concrete nature of

time-indications--Discontinuous and ‘aoristic’

time-indications--The _pars pro toto_ counting of the

periods--The continuous time-reckoning--Empirical

intercalation of months--2. _The Greek time-reckoning._

Early Greek time-reckoning--The Oktaeteris and the

months--Sacral character of the Greek calendar--Influence

of Apollo and Delphi--Babylonian origin of the Greek

calendar-regulation.

ADDENDUM TO P. 78 NOTE 2 370

LIST OF AUTHORITIES QUOTED 371

INDEX 382

INTRODUCTION.

The ancient civilised peoples appear in history with a

fully-developed system of time-reckoning--the Egyptians with the

shifting year of 365 days, which comes as nearly as possible to the

actual length of the year, counting only whole days and neglecting

the additional fraction; the Babylonians and the Greeks with the

lunisolar, varying between twelve and thirteen months and arranged

by the Greeks from the earliest known period of history in the

cycle of the _Oktaeteris_. It has always been clear that these

systems of time-reckoning represent the final stage of a lengthy

previous development, but as to the nature of this development

the most daring hypotheses have been advanced. Thus, for example,

eminent philologists and chronologists have believed the assertion

of Censorinus, Ch. 18, and have supposed that the _Oktaeteris_ was

preceded by a _Tetraeteris_, even by a _Dieteris_. It may indeed at

once be asserted that such a hypothesis lacks intrinsic probability.

To account for the early development hard facts are needed, and

unfortunately these, especially in the case of the Greeks, are

extremely few. Where they are required they must be sought elsewhere.

Setting aside all ingenious but uncertain speculations, our only

practicable way of proceeding is by means of a comparison with

other peoples among whom methods of time-reckoning are still in

the primitive stage. This is the ethnological method which is so

well-known from the science of comparative religion, but the claims

of which have been so vigorously contested upon grounds of no small

plausibility. Fortunately this dispute need not be settled in order

to prove the validity of the comparative method for an investigation

into the origin and development of methods of reckoning time. The

gist of the dispute may be expressed as follows:--The ethnological

school of students of comparative religion assumes that the

intellect of the natural man can only master a certain quite limited

number of universal conceptions; from these spring more and more

abundantly differentiated and complicated ideas, but the foundation

is everywhere the same. Hence our authority for comparing the

conceptions of the various peoples of the globe with one another in

order to lay bare this foundation. The opponents of the school deny

the existence of these fundamental conceptions, and maintain that the

points of departure, the primitive ideas of the various peoples, may

be as different as the peoples themselves, and that therefore we are

not authorised in drawing general conclusions from the comparison or

from the fundamental conceptions themselves.

In the matter of the indication and reckoning of time, however, we

have not to do with a number of conceptions which may be supposed

to be as numerous and as various as we please. At the basis lies

an accurately determined and limited and indeed small number of

phenomena, which are the same for all peoples all over the globe, and

can be combined only in a certain quite small number of ways. These

phenomena may be divided into two main groups: (1) the phenomena of

the heavens--sun, moon, and stars--and (2) the phases of Nature--the

variations of the climate and of plant and animal life, which on

their side determine the affairs of men; these, however, depend

finally upon one of the heavenly bodies, viz. the sun. The claim that

the comparative ethnological method can be justified only when we are

dealing with a narrowly circumscribed number of factors is therefore

here complied with, owing to the very nature of the subjects treated.

The comparative method does not shew how things have happened in a

special case in regard to one particular people: it only indicates

what _may_ have happened. But much is already gained if we can

eliminate the impossibilities, since from the complete result of the

development, no less than in other ways, we may obtain a certain

basis for our deductions.

For the investigation of primitive methods of time-reckoning no

special astronomical or other technical knowledge is needed: in fact,

such knowledge has rather played a fatal part by causing attention

to be paid exclusively to the system of time-reckoning and leading

to constant attempts to discover older and more primitive systems.

_A priori_, indeed, we might venture to state that a system is

always based upon previous data: unsystematic indications of time

precede the system of time-reckoning. These modest beginnings have

been obscured from view by the prejudice in favour of the systematic

technical and astronomical chronology. The only absolutely necessary

thing is a clear idea of the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies,

i. e. the sun, the moon, and the most important of the fixed stars,

and of the phases of the climate and the life of animals and plants,

which give the units of the time-reckoning.

For a statement of the course and phases of the heavenly bodies and

the units of the time-reckoning given by these I refer to the article

mentioned in the preface, the pertinent sections of which are here

quoted:--

“_The units of the time-reckoning_ are given by the motions of the

heavenly bodies (expressed according to the Ptolemaic system), and

the more intimately these enter into the life of man, the more

important do they become. For this reason only those units which

depend upon the sun have asserted themselves in our calendar, those

depending upon the moon having been dropped, except for the movable

paschal term, which has been kept on religious grounds. The units

are the year, the month, and the day. Other units more convenient

for time-reckoning play no part in the arrangement of the calendar

since they are without importance for practical life. _The day_ (=

24 hours, νυχθήμερον) is determined from the apparent motion of the

heavenly bodies about the earth, which is caused by the rotation of

the earth on its axis; but since the sun also, on account of the

annual revolution of the earth about it, runs through the zodiac

in an opposite direction to its daily movement and completes the

circle of the ecliptic in a year, a day will be a little longer than

a complete rotation of the earth. Or to put it otherwise:--The time

between two successive upper culminations of a star, i. e. between

the moments at which the star passes through the meridian-line of

one and the same place (= attains the zenith), represents an axial

rotation: that is a _stellar day_. The time between two successive

culminations of the sun is, on account of the annual motion of the

sun (really that of the earth), 3 min. 56.=5= secs. longer than

a stellar day: that is a _solar day_. The number of stellar days

in a year is greater by one day than the number of solar days. The

stellar day does not follow the variations of light and darkness

and therefore does not enter into the calendar. The difference

between the actual solar day, which is of slightly varying length,

and the mean solar day abstracted from it for the purposes of our

clock-regulated time-reckoning has no significance for antiquity.

The second unit determined by the sun is the _year_, the period of a

revolution of the earth about the sun. In relation to the apparent

motion of the sun it may be defined as the time which the sun takes

to come back again to the same fixed star. This is a _stellar_ or

_sidereal year_, the length of which amounts to 365 days 6 hrs. 9

min. 9.=34= secs. The _tropic year_ is the time which the sun

takes to come back to the crossing point of the equator, viz. the

vernal equinox. This is the natural year. Its length varies a little;

it is about 20 minutes shorter than the stellar year. The _lunar_

or _moon-month_ is determined from the visible phases of the moon.

This term will be used only when it is necessary to make an express

distinction between the lunar and our Roman month; the latter is a

conventional subdivision of the year which has nothing to do with

the moon, and has the name ‘month’ only because it historically

arose from the lunar month and in its duration comes fairly near

the latter. But when in relation to antiquity--apart from Rome

and Egypt--we speak of months, lunar months are as a rule to be

understood. The moon revolves around the earth twelve times a year

and a little more: consequently it moves backwards in the zodiac

much more rapidly than the sun. The interval between two successive

moments at which the moon culminates at the same spot at the same

time as one and the same star is a _sidereal month_ (cp. the sidereal

year); its length is 27 days 7 hrs. 43 min. 11.=42= secs., but

it does not follow the phases of the moon and is therefore of no

consequence for the calendar. The phases of the moon are dependent

upon the position of the moon in relation to the sun and the earth.

When the three bodies are in a straight line (or rather in a plane

perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic) in such a way that the

earth is in the middle, the side of the moon turned towards the

earth is completely illuminated and we have full moon: when the moon

is in the middle, the side turned towards the earth is completely

overshadowed, and that is new moon. In between lie the separate

phases of the waxing and waning moon. The _synodic month_ is the

interval between two new moons and comprises on an average 29 days 12

hrs. 44 min. 2.=98= secs. This is the true lunar month: other

varieties of month are of no importance for us.

"_The risings and settings of the stars._ It has already been

remarked that the sun in the course of a year runs through the

zodiac backwards, so that one particular star culminates 3 min. 56

secs. earlier every day. Hence it is evident that if we indicate

the exact interval of time between the culmination of the sun and

that of one particular star, or name the star with which the sun

precisely culminates, we can determine the day of the solar year.

This is the principle of one method of computing time which was very

common among ancient and primitive peoples, but has entirely dropped

out of use in modern times owing to our paper calendar. The stars

are so to speak the stationary ciphers on the clock-face and the

sun is the hand. In practice we naturally have to do not with the

invisible culmination of the stars but with the position of the sun

and certain neighbouring stars on the edge of the horizon, whereby

the matter becomes more complicated on the astronomical side. For

this observation the so-called circumpolar stars are singled out,

that is to say the stars situated so near the pole that they do not

set (e. g. the Great Bear). If the star rises or sets simultaneously

with the rising of the sun, this is called the _true cosmic rising_

or _setting_. If the star rises or sets simultaneously with the

setting of the sun, this is termed the _true acronychal rising_ or

_setting_. These risings and settings of the star are not visible,

since the sun hides them by its light: the rising and setting are

perceptible only when the star stands at some distance from the sun,

i. e. only the so-called apparent rising and setting are practically

observable. We have already seen that the sun every day drops nearly

4 minutes behind a certain star. Assuming that sun and star rise

simultaneously on one day (true cosmic rising), then after a few days

have passed--the period varying somewhat according to the latitude

of the place of observation, the time of the year, the size and

place of the star--there will come a day on which the star rises so

early that it is visible in the morning twilight, immediately before

the sun appears. This is the _heliacal_ or _morning rising_. From

this day the star will rise earlier and earlier, and will therefore

remain visible for a longer and longer period. In the course of half

a year, commonly a little sooner or later, the time of rising will

have been pushed so far back that it will take place in the evening

twilight; when it is pushed still farther back the rays of the

setting sun eclipse the star and its rising is no longer visible.

The last visible rising of the star in the evening twilight is the

_apparent acronychal_ or _evening rising_. After a few more days the

star goes so far back that it rises at the very moment in which the

sun sets--the true acronychal rising. The rising, which is advanced

constantly further into the light of day, is no longer visible,

but on the other hand we now see the setting of the star. If it is

assumed that the star is situated on the western horizon, i. e. sets,

when the sun is on the eastern horizon, i. e. rises--and incidentally

it is to be noted that this position, when the star is not situated

in the ecliptic, may be divided by an interval of a larger or smaller

number of days from the opposite position, viz. star on the eastern,

sun on the western horizon--this is the true cosmic setting. The star

moves forward, i. e. its setting takes place earlier in the morning,

and after a few days it will be noticed in the morning twilight

immediately before it sets, and this is the first visible setting in

the morning twilight, the _apparent cosmic_ or _morning setting_.

From this day the setting moves further and further forward into

the night and approaches the evening twilight. At length it will be

so near sunset that the star no longer sets in the night but in

the evening twilight. The last visible setting of the star in the

evening twilight is the _heliacal_ or _evening setting_. After a few

days the star has approached still nearer to the sun: both set at

the same moment, the true cosmic setting. If the star stands in the

ecliptic, the true cosmic setting coincides in date with the true

cosmic rising, otherwise these are divided by a greater or smaller

number of days (see above). As the star moves on, a heliacal rising

follows again, and so on. Between the day of the heliacal setting and

that of the heliacal rising the star is invisible, since it stands so

near the sun that it is eclipsed by the sun’s rays. It has already

been remarked that we can determine the day of the year by indicating

the true rising and setting of a star at a certain spot. As far

as the apparent rising and setting are concerned this indication

can only be approximate, since the visibility of a star depends on

several variable factors--the size of the star (because a smaller

star, in order to be visible, must move farther from the sun than a

brighter one), the transparency of the atmosphere, the keenness of

vision of the observer, the geographical latitude of the place of

observation (since the farther north or south the sun is, the more

slowly, because more obliquely, will it sink below the horizon). In

this latter respect, for instance, there is a perceptible difference

between Rome and Egypt. Only an approximate indication of time,

therefore, can be derived from the rising and setting of the stars”.

The phases of the climate and of plant and animal life cannot

be particularly described, since they naturally vary so much in

different countries. It can only be remarked that though they depend

upon the course of the sun, yet in certain cases, owing to the

special climatic conditions of the individual years, they may be

to some extent advanced or retarded, and further that the climatic

phenomena of many parts of the earth, especially in the Tropics

but also in the Mediterranean countries, recur with a far greater

regularity than in our northern climes, which are subject to such

uncertain weather. Instances are the trade-winds and monsoons, the

dry and the rainy seasons.

Upon the above-mentioned units the system of time-reckoning will be

based. The days are joined into months and the months into years;

only more rarely are the seasons interposed as regular units of time.

The system is like a chain the links of which run into one another

without gaps: each link is equivalent, or as nearly as possible

equivalent, to every other link of the same class, and therefore need

only be given a name and counted, not necessarily conceived in the

concrete, although this is not excluded. This is the only genuine

system, a system of _continuous time-reckoning_, which excludes

all gaps in the chain and all links of indeterminate length. The

relation between the larger and the smaller units may be treated in

various ways, chiefly on account of the fact that the smaller units

do not divide exactly into the larger. Sometimes the smaller units

may be fitted into the larger as subdivisions of the latter, so that

they constitute the links of the chain formed by the larger unit.

The inequality referred to shews then that the units vary to some

extent in number or size (year of 365 or 366 days, of 12 or 13 lunar

months, lunar month of 29 or 30 days). In that case the beginnings

of the larger unit and of the first of the smaller units coincide.

Thus in our year New Year’s Day and the first day of the first month

coincide, but the length of the months varies somewhat. This is an

inheritance from the lunisolar year, in which also New Year’s Day

and the first day of the first month coincided and the length of

the month varied between 29 and 30 days, but in addition the year

varied between 12 and 13 months. This mode of reckoning, in which the

smaller units are contained in the larger as subdivisions of them,

will be termed the _fixed_ method.

But where the smaller units do not exactly divide into the larger,

both may also be counted independently of one another without being

equalised. A case in point is our week, which is reckoned without

reference to the year, so that every year begins with a different day

of the week. This method of reckoning we shall term the _shifting_

method. It is less systematic than the fixed method, and we shall

therefore expect to find it play a greater part in earlier times than

at the present day.

The system of time-reckoning, the continuous counting of the

time-units, represents the final point of the development. It is

our object to investigate the preceding stages, both systematic

and unsystematic. Certain important ideas which frequently recur

must however first be clearly set down. The _time-reckoning_ in the

proper sense of the term is preceded by _time-indications_ which

are related to concrete phenomena of the heavens and of Nature.

Since these indications depend upon the concrete phenomenon, their

duration fluctuates with the latter, or rather the duration does

not stand out by itself but the phenomenon as such is exclusively

regarded: the time-indication is not durative, like the link in any

system of time-reckoning, but indefinite, or, to borrow a grammatical

term, aoristic. And setting aside these finer distinctions we also

find that the phenomena to which the time-indications are related

are of fluctuating and very unequal duration. Since the duration

is indeterminate and fluctuating, and the time-indications are

not limited one by the other but overlap and leave gaps, they

cannot be numerically grouped together. Here we ought really to

speak not of a time-_reckoning_ in the proper sense, but only of

time-_indications_. But since the word ‘time-reckoning’ has become

naturalised, this method may be described as the _discontinuous_

system of time-reckoning, because the time-indications do not stand

in direct relation to other time-indications but are related only to

a concrete phenomenon, and through that to other time-indications,

so that they are of indeterminate length and cannot be numerically

grouped together.

If the number of dawns, suns, autumns, or snows that has passed since

a certain event took place, or will elapse before a certain event is

to take place, be indicated, the time that has passed or is to pass

will be defined, because the dawn or the sun recurs once in the day,

and an autumn or a snow, i. e. winter, once in the year. This is the

oldest mode of counting time. It is not the units as a whole that are

counted, since the unit as such had not yet been conceived, but a

concrete phenomenon recurring only once within this unit. It is the

_pars pro toto_ method so extensively used in chronology, and by this

name we shall call it[1].

Since it must now be regarded as the natural course of development

that the systematic has gradually arisen out of the unsystematic, and

that the indication of concrete phenomena following one another in

the regular succession of Nature has preceded the abstract numerical

indication of time offered by our calendars, the origin of the

time-reckoning must be sought not in any one system, however simple,

but in the discontinuous or _pars pro toto_ time-indications which

are related to concrete phenomena.

Our task is now to make clear the nature of these discontinuous and

_pars pro toto_ time-indications, since from them proceeds, as order

is ever evolved out of chaos, the continuous time-reckoning, the

calendar.

CHAPTER I.

THE DAY.

For primitive man the day is the simplest and most obvious unit of

time. The variations of day and night, light and darkness, sleeping

and waking penetrate at least as deeply into life as the changes

following upon the course of the year, such as heat and cold,

drought and rainy seasons, periods of famine and plenty. But for

the primitive intellect the year is a very long period, and it is

only with difficulty and at a later stage that it can be conceived

and surveyed as a whole. Day and night, on the other hand, are

short units which immediately become obvious. Their fusion into a

single unit, the day of 24 hours, did not take place till later, for

this unit as we employ it is abstract and numerical: the primitive

intellect proceeds upon immediate perceptions and regards day and

night separately.

Evidence for this fact is furnished by most languages, which are as a

rule without any proper term for day and night together, the circle

of 24 hours. In writing English one sadly misses the Swedish _dygn_,

which has exactly the required significance. The German _Volltag_ is

an artificial and not very happy compound. The Greeks also formed a

learned and rare (though good) compound, νυχθήμερον. The usual method

is to make use of a term according to the _pars pro toto_ principle.

This principle, which we meet here at the outset and shall come

across more and more frequently in the course of the following pages,

is of great importance for the development of time-reckoning since it

shews how the original time-indication is discontinuously related to

a concrete phenomenon, and only slowly and at a later period develops

into a continuous numerical unit of time.

To describe the period of 24 hours, regarded as a single unit for

purposes of calculation, most modern and also the ancient tongues

employ the term that denotes its light part, i. e. ‘day’ etc.

Primitive peoples have no term to express this idea and must describe

the period by means of expressions equivalent to ‘day and night’,

e. g. ‘sun-darkness’ (Malay Archipelago)[2], ‘light and darkness’

(Yukaghir in N. E. Asia)[3]. The day is sometimes described by the

concrete phenomenon which it brings, namely the sun. The Bontoc

Igorot of north Luzon have the same word for sun as for day, _a-qu_,

and the time is reckoned in suns[4]. The Comanche Indians reckon the

days in ‘suns’[5], and in an Indian hieroglyph from the northern

shores of Lake Superior the duration of a three days’ journey

described is expressed by three circles, i. e. three suns[6]. The

western tribe of the Torres Straits reckons time in ‘suns’, i. e.

days[7]. We may compare the well-known primitive idea that the sun

originates afresh for every new day. The same thing is found in the

language of signs. La Billardière in the year 1800 relates of the

very low Tasmanians, now long since extinct, that they had some idea

of regulating time by the apparent motion of the sun. In order to

inform him that they would make a journey in two days, they indicated

with their hands the diurnal motion of the sun and expressed the

number two by as many of their fingers. This, he asserts, is the only

reference that can be found to any knowledge of the movements of the

heavenly bodies[8]. So also according to Homfray the natives of the

Andamans describe a day by making a circle with the right arm, i. e.

a revolution of the sun. We may compare the indication of the time

of day by pointing with the hand to the position of the sun, with

which we shall shortly have to deal. It is not improbable that the

designation of the day by means of an indication of the course of the

sun arose in the first place from the indication of the position of

that planet. The same method of expression is found in the classical

languages as a poetic or hierarchical archaism[9], and also in

medieval Latin. But ἥλιος, _sol_, is also used to denote the yearly

revolution of the sun, i. e. a year, and the year is denoted by φάος,

_lux_. Still more striking and more significant for the discontinuous

method of reckoning is the Homeric use of ἠώς, ‘dawn’, instead of

day, e. g. “this is the twelfth dawn since I came to Ilion”,[10]

“this is the twelfth dawn he lies so”,[11] and elsewhere. Aratus

follows the Homeric use[12]. The nature of this _pars pro toto_

reckoning will be further explained in the chapter dealing with the

year.

The counting of the days from the dawns is unique, and the counting

from the day-time is comparatively rare: the Indo-European peoples

of olden times, and indeed most of the peoples of the globe, count

the days from the nights. For this it will be sufficient to quote

Schrader’s statement:--“Moreover it can hardly be necessary to

give evidence for this well-known custom of antiquity. In Sanskrit

a period of 10 days is called _daçarâtrá_ (:_râtrî_ = ‘night’);

_nîçanîçam_, ‘night by night’ = ‘daily’. ‘Let us celebrate the old

nights (days) and the autumns (years)’, says a hymn. In the Avesta

the counting from nights (_xsap_, _xsapan_, _xsapar_) is carried out

to a still greater extent. As for the Germanic peoples, among whom

Tacitus had already observed this custom,[13] we constantly find

in ancient German legal documents such phrases as _sieben nehte_,

_vierzehn nacht_, _zu vierzehn nachten_. In English _fortnight_,

_sennight_ are in use to-day. That the custom existed among the Celts

is proved by Caesar, _De Bell. Gall._ VI, 18, _spatia omnis temporis

non numero dierum, sed noctium finiunt_ (‘they define all spaces of

time not by the number of days but by the number of nights’). The

Arabians have the same practice. They say ‘in three nights’, ‘seventy

nights long’, and date e. g. ‘on the first night of Ramadan’, ‘when

two nights of Ramadan have gone’, or ‘are left’[14].”

For primitive and barbaric peoples the evidence is equally abundant.

The Polynesians in general counted time in nights. Night is _po_,

to-morrow is _a-po-po_, i. e. the night’s night, yesterday is

_po-i-nehe-nei_, the night that is past[15]. The New Zealanders, in

former times, had no names for days, but only for nights[16], and

so with the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands--and the same is

certainly true of the Polynesians as a whole, since they describe

the ‘days’, or rather the nights, by the phases of the moon. The

Society Islanders reckon in nights; to the question ‘How many days?’

corresponds in their tongue ‘How many nights?’[17] So also do the

inhabitants of the Marquesas[18]. In the Malay Peninsula periods

exceeding a fraction of a day are reckoned in nights[19]. Among the

Wagogos of German East Africa the phases of the moon and the number

of nights serve as more exact determinations of time. The third night

after the appearance of the moon, for example, is the day following

the third night after the moon’s appearance[20]. Sometimes they

say ‘day and night’ when they wish to describe the full day of 24

hours. Occasionally they say that they have worked so many days,

with reference to the day-time only[21]. Except in the case of this

tribe I have found no notes on the African peoples; little attention

seems to have been paid to the point in their case. But the material

for America abounds. The Greenlanders reckon in nights[22], though

certainly we are not told how those who live north of the Polar

Circle reckon in summer. So do the Indians of Pennsylvania[23],

the Pawnees, who often made use of notches cut in a stick or a

similar device for the computation of nights or even of months and

years[24], and the Biloxi of Louisiana[25]. Usually however the night

is denoted not by this word but by ‘sleep’, ‘sleeping-time’. Of the

Kiowas it is expressly stated[26] that they reckon the length of a

journey in ‘darks’, _kon_, i. e. nights, and not in ‘sleeps’. If

the question of the distance of any place arises the answer is ‘so

many darks’. It may even be doubted whether ‘sleep’ is not sometimes

translated ‘night’ by the reporters. The Dakotas say that they will

return in so many nights or sleeps[27]. Among the Omahas the night

or sleeping time marked the division of days, so that a journey

might be spoken of as having taken so many sleeps[28]. The Hupas of

Arizona[29], the tribes of the North-East[30], and the Kaigans of

the North-West[31] also reckon in sleeps. This mode of reckoning

is therefore the common one, that of the Comanches in suns is an

exception. Finally the natives of Central Australia also count time

in ‘sleeps’[32].

To reckon in nights is therefore the rule among the primitive

Indo-European peoples, the Polynesians, and the inhabitants of North

America. For Asia, which however is not so important for primitive

time-reckoning on account of the old and far-reaching influence

of civilisation in that continent, for Africa, and for S. America

evidence is wanting or is forthcoming only in isolated instances.

The reason probably is that in these continents also time is

really reckoned in nights, and our informants have not noticed the

agreement. This however is an _argumentum ex silentio_. Be that as it

may, the fact remains that at least half the globe reckons the days

in nights.

The current explanation of this striking fact is given by Schrader

thus:--“Since the chronometer of primitive times is the moon and not

the sun, the reason for counting in nights instead of days becomes

almost self-evident”[33]. This statement is _a priori_ not perfectly

correct, inasmuch as there is and can have been no people that has

not observed the daily course of the sun as well as the monthly

phases of the moon: as chronometer neither of the two bodies is

older than the other. The difference lies in the development of the

time-reckoning. In point of fact an inner connection seems to exist

between the counting of the days in nights and the designation of

the days, or rather the nights, of the month according to the phases

of the moon, to which we recur further on. Even such low races as

the tribes of Central Australia already have names for the phases of

the moon, from which they reckon time[34], but unfortunately we are

not told how many. The Polynesians have very elaborately developed

these, so that every day has its separate name. The Wagogos also use

the phases of the moon as indications of time. The Arabs speak of ten

phases of the moon, combining three days under each name. The Indians

know the phases of the moon, but seem to have named and made use of

them only roughly: the only tribe that possesses a list of the names

of the days of the moon-month is the Kaigans[35], and unfortunately

this list is incomplete. Moreover there are no indications that the

primitive Indo-European peoples distinguished the phases of the moon

otherwise than roughly. The finer distinction and nomenclature of the

moon-phases, so that in the end each day comes to have its separate

name, is clearly a very far advanced special development: the use of

the word ‘night’ to express the period of 24 hours is much older. A

causal connection, such as Schrader and others have maintained, must

lie in the fact that the period of 24 hours is named after the phases

of the moon and consequently the day itself is reckoned in nights.

But this is only a comparatively isolated and advanced development,

against which must be set the fact that the Indians and so primitive

a people as the Australians use not the word ‘night’ but ‘sleep’,

which has nothing to do with the moon.

The explanation must therefore be sought elsewhere, and is one

which also applies to the use of the word ‘winter’ for year etc.

Primitive man knows only concrete indications of time, and in

reckoning prefers to use a concrete and clearly visible point of

reference. The complete day of 24 hours is unknown to him and so he

_must_ reckon according to the principle of _pars pro toto_, and as

a matter of fact it is possible to reckon just as well from a part

of the whole as from the whole itself, provided that the part chosen

is one that only recurs once every day. The day itself, with its

various occupations, offers no such point of reference unless the

reckoning is based upon the daily appearance of the sun, which is

also actually done in certain cases. However in the daily course of

the sun, as we have already seen, two features, its duration and the

changing position of the sun, stand out prominently: but it is easier

to reckon from points than from lengths, which divert the attention

from the number. Now the sleeping-time is necessarily bound up with

each day, yet it has no separate parts, or acquires them only later

among certain peoples. The time between going to sleep in the evening

and waking in the morning appears as an undivided unit, a point.

It offers for reckoning a convenient basis in which no mistake or

hesitation is possible such as can occur in the various occupations

that fall within the period computed. The method of reckoning

in nights is merely an outcome of the necessity for a concrete

unmistakable time-indication: it is a typical example of the _pars

pro toto_ principle and time-reckoning, which, on the psychological

grounds just mentioned are especially favoured in the counting.

For the indication of a point of time within the day the reference

to the course of the sun is the means that lies nearest to hand,

and the indication can indeed be given quite concretely by means

of a gesture in the direction of the heavens. This language of

signs is especially common in Africa. The Cross River natives of

Southern Nigeria indicate the time by pointing to the position in

the heavens which the sun occupies at that time of the day[36]. When

someone asked a Swahili what time it was, he answered, “Look at the

sun”, although this tribe knew other ways of indicating time[37].

The Wagogo in order to shew the time of day indicate with the hand

the position of the sun in the heavens[38]. In Loango the people

indicate the time satisfactorily enough from the motion of the sun,

in divisions of two hours, by dividing the vault of the sky with

outstretched arm, often using both arms as indicators[39]. Moreover

most peoples have descriptive expressions for parts of the day, as

for instance the inhabitants of the Lower Congo[40], the Masai of

East Africa, who estimate the time of day from the position of the

sun[41], and the Hottentots, who express with certainty and clearness

both points and duration of time by referring to the position of the

sun[42]. In Dahomey the natives tell the hours by means of the sun;

they say that the sun is here or there, in order to give the time

of day[43]. The Caffres are able to give the exact time of day by

pointing with outstretched arm to the spot at which the sun appears

at the time they wish to indicate. So, for example, when the Caffre

wishes to shew that he will come at two o’clock in the afternoon of

the next day, he will say, “I will be here to-morrow, when the sun

is there”,--pointing to the position occupied by the sun at 2 p.

m.[44]. The Waporogo of German East Africa estimate the divisions

of the day from the position of the sun, which they indicate with

outstretched arm. When the arm is vertically raised, that means 12

o’clock noon, and the other hours of the day they are able to give

with a sure instinct by means of a greater or lesser inclination

of the arm towards the body, corresponding to the position of the

sun[45]. In other parts of the world we find the same thing. Thus in

the New Hebrides the hours of the day are indicated by pointing with

the finger to the altitude of the sun[46]. If a native of Australia

is asked at what time anything took place or is going to take place,

his answer will take the form of pointing to the position which the

sun occupied or will occupy in the sky at that particular time[47].

The Bontoc Igorot of Luzon point to the heavens in order to indicate

the position the sun occupied when a particular event occurred[48].

The Kanyans of Sarawak, if asked at what time anyone will arrive,

point to the sun and say, “When the sun stands there”[49]. In the

Dutch East Indies the time of day is given from the position of the

sun[50]. The inhabitants of Java divide the day into ten natural but

vague and unequal subdivisions, and for astrological purposes the

day of 24 hours is divided into five parts. They also determine the

time of day by the length of the shadow and by the working-time, but

the most common method is by pointing to the situations of the sun

in the heavens, when such and such an event took place[51]. In order

to indicate the time the natives of Sumatra also point to the height

in the sky at which the sun stood when the event of which they are

speaking occurred[52]. The natives of the western tribe of the Torres

Straits, though they have learned to tell the time from the clock,

also know how to give it very accurately by observing the height of

the sun[53]. The Tahitians determine the six parts of their day from

the sun’s altitude[54]. Among the Omaha Indians the sun indicates

the time of day. A motion towards the zenith meant noon, midway

between the zenith and the west, afternoon, and midway towards the

east, forenoon[55]. The Karaya of Central Brazil divide up the day

according to the position of the sun. Indications of time are given

by pointing with the hand to the place occupied by the sun at the

time in question[56].

This method of indicating the time of day is quite satisfactory,

especially in the tropics and for primitive needs, and only more

rarely does it give place to other methods, the chief of which is

the observation of the length of shadows. The Javanese know this

latter method but do not often use it. In their old writings we find

a traveller described as setting out on his journey or arriving at

the end of it when his shadow was so many feet long[57]. The Masai

usually estimate the time of day from the position of the sun, but

more rarely from the length of the shadows[58]. When the shadow

measures nine feet, the Swahili say, “It is 9 o’clock (_sic!_)”[59].

To indicate the time of day or to represent a distance the Cross

River natives use the length of shadows. They have however in most

of their houses a curious species of sun-dial, a plant about 50 cm.

high, with violet-white flowers. The flowers gradually begin to open

at sunrise, by noon they are wide open, and they gradually close

again between noon and sunset. One of these plants is placed in every

garden and enclosed within little stones[60]. To the south of Lake

Nyassa the time of day is reckoned either from the position of the

sun or from the length of the shadow thrown by a stick, _nthawe_[61].

The Society Islanders among their numerous expressions for the time

of day include two which have reference to shadows, ‘the shadow

as long as the object’, ‘the shadow longer than a man’[62]. The

Benua-Jahun, a primitive tribe of the Malay Peninsula, indicate the

progress of the day by the inclination of a stick. Early morning is

represented by pointing a stick to the eastern horizon. Placed erect

it indicates noon, inclined at an angle of about 45° to the west it

corresponds nearly with three o’clock, and so on[63]. This practice

is doubtless connected with the common use of a stick in the Indian

Archipelago for observations of time, and is by no means primitive.

The ancient Athenians seem to have indicated time by measuring off

with the foot the length of the shadow cast by their bodies upon the

level ground before them as they stood. At all events the length of

shadows served to indicate time, cp. Aristophanes, _Ekkles._, 652,

“when the staff is ten feet, to go perfumed to dinner”[64]. The

gnomon which, according to Herodotus II, 109, the Greeks borrowed

from the Babylonians was an upright stick the shadow of which was

measured: it was also an important instrument for astronomical

observations[65]. Here however we are already at a highly developed

stage and know nothing about the origins.

The indication of time from the position of the sun is really only

satisfactory in the tropics, where the sun always stands very high

and the length of its daily course is not exposed to too great

variation. Where the sun is much lower in winter than in summer,

and the length of the day varies greatly at different times of the

year, the method ceases to be practicable. If descriptive expressions

of one kind or another are not resorted to, other means must be

found. Above all it is important to determine the fixed point which

divides the day into two parts, i. e. noon. In the living-room of the

houses of the Scanian peasants, which were always built ‘according

to the sun’, i. e. facing east and west, there was in the southern

window-sill, beside the middle shaft of the frame, a line which was

called the ‘noon-line’. When the shadow of the shaft fell parallel

with this line it was noon. This device is not exactly primitive,

since windows in the room, more particularly in the wall, belong

to a quite advanced stage of civilisation. But on the other hand

such customs as the determination of noon and other moments of

the day from the position of the sun above certain points on the

horizon--elevations and hills--are old. In Iceland the divisions of

the day were, and still are, determined from the visible course of

the heavenly bodies. The people imagined that the sun in the course

of a day and a night ran through the eight equal regions of the

heavens (_ættir_, sing. _ætt_). The time of day was determined from

the position of the sun above the horizon by the selection in every

house of certain outstanding points within the range of vision to

serve as ‘day-marks’ (_dagsmǫrk_, sing. -_mark_)--where these were

lacking, small piles of stones were erected for the purpose--so that

when the sun stood above one of these marks a certain time of day

was given. The most important times thus determined were _rismál_ or

_miðr morgin_ (6 a. m.), _dagmál_ (9 a. m.), _hádegi_ (12 o’clock

noon), _míðmundi_ (1.30 p. m.), _nón_ (undoubtedly originally

called _undorn_ and also _eykt_, 3 p. m.), _miðr aptann_ (6 p. m.),

and _nattmál_ (9 p. m.). These indications in hours are however

only approximate, since the time varies according to the position

of the place in question[66]. The word _eykt_ really designates

any of these approximately three-hour divisions; but since the

length of the day varies enormously so far north, the business of

everyday life leads to an attempt at systematising, e. g. _rismál_

= ‘the time of rising’. The spot which the sun has reached at one

of these divisions is therefore called _dagmálastað_, _nónstað_,

_eyktarstað_ etc. This mode of determining time must be old since

it is also found in Scandinavia, where it has given names to many

mountain-peaks. In Baedeker I have only noticed:--_Middagsfjället_

in Jämtland, _Middagshorn_ in Norangdal, _Middagshaugen_ in

Aardal, Sogn, _Middagsnib_ in Oldendal in the Nordfjord district,

_Middagsberg_ on the Nærøfjord in Sogn, _Nonsnib_ above Loen Water

in Nordfjord, _Solbjørgenut_ in the Nærøfjord, Sogn. From Fritzner’s

Old Norwegian Lexicon (s. v. _eyktarstað_) I take:--_Durmaalstind_,

_Rismaalsfjeld_, _Nonsfjeld_, _Natmaalstinden_, _Middagsfjeld_ in

Tromsö ‘amt’ and in Finnmarken, _Eyktargnipa_ and _Undornfjeld_

in Mule Syssel in Iceland; the peak of the latter lies in the

_nonstað_. Such names are common in Norway. In Sweden there are

further:--_Middagsberget_ in Dalecarlia = Gesundaberget, just south

of Mora; the name is found again in Härjedalen, in addition to

_Nonsberget_, _Nonsknätten_ and _Middagshognan_. Lidén[67] instances

similar names in S. Sweden and in England, and also those formed

with _mosse_, ‘swamp’, _vik_, ‘bay’, and _åker_, ‘field’. It is easy

to understand why _middag_, ‘noon’, everywhere predominates as a

nomenclator. The Lapps also indicate time by the position of the sun

in relation to the surrounding natural objects[68].

The gestures may be accompanied by descriptive expressions, as among

the negroes, or replaced by them, which seems to be the rule among

other peoples. The latter practice offers the further advantage of

being available in the night-time, when it is necessary to mention

a point of time after dark. The Kayans denote the time of day by

pointing to the position of the sun, but for morning and evening

they also use the expressions ‘when the sun has risen’ or ‘set’[69].

Expressions for the most important divisions, sunrise and sunset (=

morning and evening) and noon, are found among all peoples. Even the

tribes of Central and Northern Australia have words e. g. for evening

and for morning before sunrise[70]. The richness of the terminology

however varies exceedingly. The Indians divide the day into three

or four rough divisions only. The Seminole of Florida divided up

the day by terms descriptive of the positions of the sun in the sky

from dawn to sunset[71]: unfortunately we are not told what these

words were or how many of them existed. Among the Hopi of Arizona

there is every evidence that the time of day was early indicated by

the altitude of the sun[72]. The Omahas know no smaller divisions

of the day than morning, noon, and afternoon, to which certainly

must be added the transitional periods of sunrise and sunset[73].

The Occaneechi of Virginia measure the day by sunrise, noon, and

sunset[74]. The Algonquins of the same province mention the three

times of the rise, power, and lowering of the sun[75]. Many tribes

however had four divisions[76], e. g. the Natchez of Louisiana, who

divided the day into four equal parts: half the morning, until noon,

half the afternoon, until evening[77]. But there is also a richer

terminology, e. g. the Kiowa words for dawn (‘first-light’), sunrise

(lit. ‘the-sun-has-come-up’), morning (lit. ‘full-day’), noon,

earlier afternoon until about 3 o’clock, late afternoon, evening

(lit. ‘first-darkness’)[78]; and in particular among the Statlumh

of British Columbia: dawn (‘it-just-comes-day’), early morning

(‘just-now-morning’), morning light (‘just-see-things’), full light

(‘just-now-day’), sunrise (‘outside-sun’), early morning (midway

between sunrise and noon), noon (up till about 2 p. m.), middle of

the afternoon, about 4 p. m., ‘three-fourths-of-the-day-have-gone’,

‘sun-sitting-down’, ‘the-sun-gone’,’evening-creeping-up-the-mountain’

(this refers to the line of shadow on the eastern mountains),

‘reached-the-top’, i. e. the line of the shadows, twilight,

‘getting-dark’, night, darkness, pitch dark[79].

Of the Indians of S. America little is reported.

‘The-sun-is-perpendicular’ was the expression for noon on the

Orinoco[80]. The Indians of Chile had words for morning twilight,

dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, evening, evening twilight, night, and

midnight[81].

The terminology for the parts of the day is especially rich

in Africa, a fact which is connected with the refinement of

the observation of the sun’s position resulting from the

custom of indicating this by a gesture in the direction of the

heavens. Such simple indications as those of the Babwende for

noon, ‘the-sun-over-the-crown-of-the-head’, and for midnight,

‘the-silence-of-the-land’[82], are rare. A number of elaborate

time-indications are as a rule employed. The Wadschagga say at six

o’clock in the morning ‘the sun rises’, at twelve o’clock ‘the

sun rests on his cushion’ (like a tired porter), from twelve to

one ‘the sun goes straight on’, about two it ‘bows’, about six it

‘falls down’, or ‘spreads its arms out’, like a man in the act of

falling[83]. The terms used by the Bangala are:--about 2 a. m.,

the lying fowl; 3, the lying bird; 4, the first fowl; 4-5, the sun

is near; 5, not translated; 5.=30=-6, the dawn; 6, the sun is

come; 6.=15=-7, _ntete_; 12 noon, 2-3, 3-4, not translated; 6,

the fowls go in, or the sun enters, or the sun darkens; 6.=30=,

twilight finishes; 11-12, one set of the ribs or one side of a

person, meaning that a person turns from lying on one side over on

to the other; 12 midnight, second division or second half[84]. In

Bornu the expressions for the time of day are formed by the aid of

the word _dinia_ = ‘world’, ‘universe’, ‘sky’. From about 4 to 5 ‘the

world cuts the aurora’; at 6 ‘the world is light’; at 12 ‘the sun

is in the centre of the world’. Afterwards follow ‘it is evening’,

twilight, night, midnight. Since the people are Mohammedans they

also have expressions for the hours of prayer[85]. The expressions

used by the Shilluk of the White Nile are translated[86]:--“The

first morning, twilight becomes visible, morning dawn, morning,

the earth is morning (it is morning)--the difference here is not

evident--noon, the sun is in the zenith, the sun begins to sink

(afternoon), it is afternoon, the sun is setting, the sun has set, it

is night, at night, midnight.” The Yoruba divide the day into early

morning, morning or forenoon, noon (when the day is ‘perpendicular’),

shadow-lengthening or afternoon, evening or twilight[87]. The

Masai distinguish the following parts of the day:--at 4 a. m.

it is ‘not-yet-early’; at 5 it is ‘early’; somewhat later come

dawn, twilight (about 5.=30=, ‘the-sun-is-still-far-off’),

and sunrise (‘the-sun-shews-himself-a-little’ or ‘rises’).

From 8 to 10 it is ‘still-early’, towards 11 they say

‘the-sun-is-not-yet-perpendicular-overhead’, at 12

‘the-sun-is-perpendicular-overhead’. The afternoon is usually

expressed by ‘the-shadow-is-turned-round’. This phrase is often

used for the period from 3 to 5 p. m. In particular, 12-2 =

‘the-sun-is-broken’, 2-4 = ‘afternoon-now’, 4-6 is evening, 5 =

‘the-sun-goes-down’, sunset glow = ‘the-twilight-follows-the-sun’.

With the coming of darkness begins the _tapa_, which lasts until 8

o’clock, when the people usually go to rest[88]. Another authority

gives the following list:--Evening, when the cattle return to the

kraal just before sunset; night-fall, or the hour for gossip, before

the people go to bed about 8 o’clock; then night, midnight, and the

time when the buffaloes go to drink (about 4 a. m.), this latter is

the hour before the sun rises; then ‘the blood-red period’ or ‘the

time when the sun decorates the sky’, this is the hour when the

first rays of the sun redden the heavens; after that morning, when

the sun has risen. There are also hours called ‘the-sun-stands-(or

is-)opposite-to-one’ (midday), and ‘the-shadows-lower-themselves’

(1-2 p. m.)[89]. The Nandi, north-east of the Victoria Nyanza, divide

the day into six parts with separate names: 5-6 a. m., 6-9 a. m.,

9 a. m.-2 p. m., 2-6 p. m., 6-7 p. m., night. They have moreover a

highly developed terminology for the hours of the day, to which we

shall return later. The Baganda distinguish the following times of

day:--night, midnight, cock-crow, early dawn, morning, ‘little sun’

(early morning from 6 to 9), full or broad daylight (9-2), midday,

afternoon, evening[90]. The lower classes sometimes reckon from the

meal-times, breakfast at 7 a. m., dinner at noon, and supper at 6

p. m. Women engaged in rough work in the gardens spoke of the time

at which such and such an event took place as that of the first or

second pipe, the first marking an interval of rest at 8 a. m., the

second being smoked when work ceased at 10 a. m.[91]. The expressions

for the times of day among the Thonga of South Africa have been

translated and explained as follows:--“The dawn is called _nipandju_;

then come _tlhabela sana_, the time when the rays of the sun (_sana_)

are piercing; _hisaka sana_, when they are burning; _nhlekani_, the

middle of the sky, or _shitahataka_, the maximum point of heat;

then _ndjenga_ or _lihungu_, the afternoon; the time when the sun

goes down (_renga_); _ku pela_ or _ku hlwa_, when it reaches the

horizon; and _inpimabayeni_, the twilight, literally ‘the time when

you do not easily recognise strangers coming to your village because

it grows dark’”[92]. It is remarkable here that many indications

are given from the increasing heat and not from the position of

the sun. The Hottentots distinguish morning and evening twilight,

morning brightness, i. e. the time of clear day shortly before

sunrise (the native name is given because about dawn it is usually

most perceptibly cold), and evening brightness, ‘the red twilight’.

‘Little children’s twilight’ was in some places the name given to

the time of the first noticeable diminution of light after sunset,

in accordance with the belief that at this hour most children were

born. Afternoon and morning were only approximate. A distinction

was made between evening and late evening, which extended till long

after sunset[93]. The author just quoted remarks that in this case

one is struck by the fact that while the limits of day and night

are elaborately marked out, of the hours of day itself only noon is

brought into prominence. The same is the case with most peoples who

possess a more highly developed terminology of this nature, and the

circumstance is perfectly natural, since the concrete differences

in the phenomena of light and of the heavens become so great and so

easily visible during the transition from day to night and night

to day. As soon as the sun has risen a little in the heavens these

differences consist chiefly in the position of the sun and in the

increasing heat. Here the language of signs is really more expressive.

The aboriginals of the Andaman Islands have terms for the following

times of day:--dawn, the time between this and sunrise, sunrise,

the time between sunrise and 7 a. m., morning (three different

expressions), noon, the time from noon to 3 p. m., from 3 to 5,

from 5 to sunset, sunset, twilight, from night-fall to midnight,

midnight[94]. In Busang (the common commercial language of the

Bakau) as spoken by the Mendalam Kayan of Borneo the different times

of day are named:--_dow_ (day) _bekang_ (open, split) = 6 a. m.;

_dow njirang_ (to shine) _mahing_ (powerful) = about 9 a. m.; _dow

negrang_ (upright) _marong_ (real) = about 12 noon; _dow njaja_

(great) = about 4 p. m.; _dow lebi_ (little) = about 6 p. m.[95]

The terms used by the Islamite Malayans of Sumatra are mingled

with Arabic loan-words, which I indicate by (Ar.):--6 a. m. (Ar.)

dawn, 9 ‘half of the rising’, 11 ‘close to noon’, 12 ‘middle of

the day’, 12-1 p. m. (Ar.), 1-3 ‘mid-descent’, 3 ‘the time of the

long sinking’, 4 (Ar.) afternoon, 5.=30= ‘time of twilight’, 6

(Ar.) sunset, 8 (Ar.) evening[96]. The Javanese speak of morning,

forenoon, noon, afternoon, fall of the day, sunset, evening[97]. The

Achenese of Sumatra, who have a fully developed calendar influenced

by Arabic, keep the old names for the times of day but with Arabic

words and the Moslem hours of prayer intermingled. About 6 a. m. =

with the breaking forth of the sun; 7-7.=30= = the sun a pole

high, referring to the poles used in propelling craft; 9 = rice

time, i. e. meal time; 10 = the loosening of the ploughing-gear;

11 = the approaching of the zenith; 12 = the zenith; 12.=30=

= the falling from the zenith; 1.=30=-2 = the middle of the

period devoted to obligatory noon-day prayers; 3 = the last part

of this; 3.=30= = the beginning, 4.=30=-5 = the middle,

and 5.=30= = the last part of the time of afternoon prayers;

6 = sunset; 7.=30= = evening, especially referring to the

time of commencement of the evening prayer; then come midnight and

the last third of night, 3 a. m. = the single crowing of the cock,

4-4.=30= = the continuous crowing of the cocks, nearly 5 = the

streaks of dawn[98]. For the Malays of the Peninsula the following

list is given:--just before dawn = before the flies are astir;

after sunrise = the heat begins; about 8 a. m. = when the dew dries

up; about 9 = when the sun is half-way above. Then follow:--when

the plough rests; noon = just noon, right in the middle, when

the shadows are round; afternoon = when the day turns back; about

1.=30= p. m. = after (Friday) prayer; about 3 = when the

buffaloes go to water; about 10 = when the children have gone to

sleep[99].

The natives of the Solomon Islands have a rich terminology. In

Buin the following degrees of brightness in the daylight are

distinguished:--4 a. m., ‘it gradually begins to get light’; 5,

‘the brightness is coming on’; 6, ‘the sun shews himself’; 7, ‘it

is getting sun’, ‘the sun is there’; 10, ‘the sun is over the

side-rafters of the roof’ (i. e. not yet quite overhead); 12 noon,

‘the sun has come overhead’; 2 p. m., ‘with westerly inclination’,

‘turning’; 3.30, ‘it has come to the tying of the knot’ (on the

Gazelle Peninsula they say of this time ‘the sun has sat down to

glow’); 5, ‘darkness is drawing near’; 6, ‘it has begun to get

dark’; 7, ‘it has grown dark’[100]. Moreover there are words and

expressions which mean ‘middle of the heavens’, ‘the sun is over the

ridge’, ‘the sun stands below 70° from the horizon’, ‘the sun is

on the entrance-beam’[101]. A feature of special note here is that

the houses (which must all be built facing the same direction) and

their parts serve as aids in indicating time. The inhabitants of New

Britain (Bismarck Archipelago) divided up the day according to the

position of the sun, and had words for sunrise, noon, afternoon, the

time of the declining sun, nearly sunset, sunset, and presumably some

others[102].

The Polynesians mingle the time-indications based on the position

of the sun with others which are derived from the life of men and

nature. We are told that the Hawaiian day was divided into three

general parts, 1, breaking the shadows, 2, the plain, full day,

3, the decline of the day. But this must be completed by what

follows:--The lapse of night, however, was noted by five stations:

1, about sunset; 2, between sunset and midnight; 3, midnight; 4,

between midnight and sunrise; 5, sunrise[103]. A native Hawaiian

writes:--“When the stars fade away and disappear, it is _ao_,

daylight; when the sun rises, day has come, _la_; when the sun

becomes warm, morning is past; when the sun is directly overhead

it is _awahea_, noon; when the sun inclines to the west in the

afternoon, the expression is _wa ani ka la_. After that come evening,

_ahi-ahi_ (_ahi_, fire), and then sunset, _napoo ka la_, and then

comes _po_, the night, and the stars shine out”. Other expressions

are translated:--‘there comes a glimmer of colour on the mountains’,

‘the curtains of night are parted’, ‘the mountains light up’, ‘day

breaks’, ‘the east blooms with yellow’, ‘it is broad daylight’[104].

These are, poetically regarded, very fine examples of the rich

terminology for the time of transition between night and day.

In Tahiti the day has six divisions which are fairly accurately

determined by the height of the sun. Names are given for midnight,

midnight to daybreak, daybreak, sunrise, the time when the sun begins

to be hot, when it reaches the meridian, evening before sunset, the

time after sunset[105]. The names for the times of day among the

Society Islanders were particularly well developed. For the day

there were two expressions according to its extension either from

morning to evening twilight or from the rising to the setting of

the sun. No division into regular periods was known, nor any means

of establishing these; nevertheless the islanders distinguished a

varying number of points of time, according to recurring physical

changes, at unequal distances from each other. Thus:--the time of

cock-crow, the first breaking of clouds, twilight, the stirring

of the flies, the time at which a man’s face can be recognised,

daylight, the dipping forward of the sun’s edge, sunrise, the sun

above the horizon, the rays broadening over the land, the rays

falling on the crown of the head, the same a little oblique, the

shadow as long as the object, the same longer than the man, the

sun near the horizon, sunset, the time at which the houses are

lit up, twilight, night, midnight[106]. For the Marquesas are

given:--daybreak, twilight, dawn, (‘the day or the red sky, the

fleeing night’), broad day--bright day from full morning to about ten

o’clock--, noon (‘belly of the sun’), afternoon (‘back part of the

sun’), evening (‘fire-fire’, the same expression as in Hawaii, i.

e. the time to light the fires on the mountains or the kitchen fire

for supper)[107]. The Samoans divided the day into first dawn, dawn,

cock-crowing, day-break, the time when the bird _iao_ was heard (_i_

= call, _ao_ = day-break), morning, the time to feed the tame pigeons

(about 9 a. m.), the sun upright (= noon), half-way down (about 3 p.

m.), sunset. After that the night was divided into:--the crying of

the cricket (about 20 minutes after sunset), fire-lighting (about

half-an-hour later), the extinguishing of the lights (about 9 p. m.),

midnight, and _tulna o pa ma ao_, ‘the standing together of night and

day’[108].

Indications of this nature are convenient only in countries in which

the sun is neither too often nor too long hidden by clouds. When the

sun is hidden the inhabitants have to manage as best they can. A

very interesting statement in this connection is made by a Swahili

native. In rainy days his tribe observed the crowing of the cock. At

the first cock-crow they knew that it was 5 or 6 a. m.; when the cock

failed to crow all sense of a division of time was lost to them[109].

The phenomena of Nature afford little basis for the naming of

the times of day, since there is hardly one of them which recurs

regularly every day at a definite time, with the exception of

cock-crow, which is in great favour as an indication of the time

before sunrise. Other exceptional cases are such names as that

mentioned for the Society Islands, ‘the stirring of the flies’; one

given for the Mahakam Kayan of Borneo, _tiling_ (a cricket which

is only to be heard at sunset) _duan_ (to sing)[110]; a couple of

expressions of the Wadschagga, ‘the cry of the partridge’ in the

evening, ‘the turning of the smoke down the mountain’[111]; and one

of the Nandi, ‘the elephants have gone to water’[112]. But a people

which devotes itself to cattle-rearing or to agriculture may borrow

from its regular daily occupations expressions for the times of

day. Thus the Mahakam Kayan, besides the above-mentioned name for

late afternoon and the term for noon (_beluwa dow_, ‘half-day’),

have an expression for about 4 p. m.--_dow uli_, i. e. ‘the time of

the home-coming from work in the fields’. The Javanese are strongly

influenced by civilisation and have, especially for astrological

purposes, a fully developed chronological system; not seldom,

however, the times of day are given in relation to the rural labour.

So they say ‘when the buffalo is sent to the pastures’, ‘when the

buffalo is brought back from the pastures’ or ‘is housed’ etc.; but

for the time of the occurrence of any event the position of the sun

is usually indicated[113]. The Achenese and the Malays of Sumatra

have an expression exactly corresponding to the Greek βουλυτός[114].

The Wadschagga have expressions for the position of the sun, but

also others[115], among which may be mentioned ‘the first going of

the oxen to the pastures in the morning’. This kind of terminology

seems to have been developed into a system among the Banyankole,

a cattle-raising tribe of the Uganda Protectorate. The day is

divided up in the following way:--6 a. m., milking-time; 9 a. m.,

_katamyabosi_, not translated; 12 noon, rest for the cattle; 1 p. m.,

the time to draw water; 2 p. m., the time for the cattle to drink; 3

p. m., the cattle leave the watering-place to graze; 4 p. m., the sun

shews signs of setting; 5 p. m., the cattle return home; 6 p. m., the

cattle enter the kraal; 7 p. m., milking-time[116]. This terminology

is of especial interest since it remains in various Indo-European

languages as a relic of antiquity, and affords a hitherto little

observed piece of evidence for the life of antiquity which agrees

well with others. Compare Sanskrit _sagavás_, the time when the cows

are herded together; βουλυτός, the time when the oxen were unyoked

in the Homeric phrase ἦμος δ’ ἠέλιος μετενίσσετο βουλυτόνδε[117];

and Irish _im-buarach_, morning, ‘at the yoking of the oxen’. With

rest or meal-times are associated Old High German _untorn_, ‘noon’,

the time of the mid-day rest, Sanskrit _abhipitvam_, ‘evening’, and

Lithuanian _piëtus_, ‘noon’, which goes back to Sanskrit _pitus_,

‘meal-time’[118].

Time-indications of various kinds are, as we have seen, used

alongside of one another; when they are fully employed a very highly

organised terminology for the times of day may be arrived at. The

names for the times of day among the Nandi seem almost artificial:--2

a. m., the elephants have gone to the waters; 3, the waters roar;

4, the land (sky) has become light; 5, the houses are opened;

5.=30=, the oxen have gone to the grazing-ground; 6, the sheep

have been unfastened; 6.=30=, the sun has grown; 7, it has

become warm; 7.=30=, the goats have gone to the grazing-ground;

9, the goats have returned from the grazing-ground; 9.=30=,

the goats sleep in the kraal; 10, the goats have arisen, the oxen

have returned; 10.=30=, the oxen sleep; 11, untie the cattle,

i. e. let the calves get their food, the goats feed; 11.=30=,

the oxen have arisen; 12 noon, the sun has stood upright, the goats

sleep in the wood; 12.=30=, the goats have drunk water; 1 p.

m., the sun turns, i. e. goes towards the west, the cattle have

drunk water; 1.=30=, the drones hum; 2, the sun continues to go

towards the west, the oxen feed; 3, the goats have been collected; 4,

the oxen drink water for the second time, the goats have returned;

4.=30=, the goats sleep; 5, the eleusine grain has been cleaned

for us, take the goats home, shut up the calves; 5.=30=, the

goats have entered the kraal; 6, the sun is finished, the cattle have

returned; 6.=15=, milk (sc. the cows); 6.=45=, neither man

nor tree is recognisable, cattle-fold doors have been closed; 7, the

heavens are fastened; 8, the porridge is finished; 9, those who have

drunk milk are asleep; 10, the houses have been closed; 11, those who

sleep early wake up; 12, the middle of the night[119].

As a last example I give the most detailed list of all, from the

neighbourhood of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The

times given are naturally to be taken on the average. 12 midnight,

centre of night or halving of night; 2 a. m., frog-croaking; 3,

cock-crowing; 4, morning also night; 5, crow-croaking; 5.=15=,

bright horizon, glimmer of day, reddish east; 5.=30=, the

colours of cattle can be seen, dusk, diligent people awake, early

morning; 6, sunrise, day-break, broad daylight; 6.=15=, dew

falls, the cattle go out; 6.30, the leaves are dry (i. e. the dew

disappears); 6.=45=, the hoar-frost disappears, the day chills

the mouth (this applies only to the two or three winter months); 8,

advance of the day; 9, (the sun is) over (at a right angle with) the

purlin; 12 noon, over the ridge of the roof.--In the forenoon the

position of the sun nearly square with the eastern purlin of the roof

marked about 9 o’clock; and as noon approached, its vertical position

about the ridge-pole, or at least its reaching the meridian, clearly

indicated 12 o’clock. In regard to the terms for the afternoon we

must bear in mind that the houses in former times were always built

with their length running north and south and with the single door

and window facing the west; the sunlight coming in after midday at

the open door by its gradual progress along the floor gave a fairly

accurate measure of time. The house therefore served, as among the

Dyaks, as a kind of sun-dial.--12.=30= p. m., day taking hold

of the threshold; 1, peeping in of the day (into the room), day less

one step; 1.=30=--2, slipping of the day, decline of the day,

afternoon; 2, (the sun) at the rice-pounding place (i. e. the sunbeam

falls on the rice mortar), at the house-post (there were in the house

three posts supporting the ridge: in the southern one there were

notches, _jinja andry_, from which the advance of the sunlight and of

the day was observed); 3, at the place of tying the calf (as the rays

reached the one of the posts to which the calf was tied at night); 4,

at the sheep- or poultry-pen; 4.=30=, the cow newly calved comes

home; 5, the sun touching (i. e. when the declining sunshine reached

the eastern wall of the house); 5.=30=, the cattle come home;

5.=45= sunset flush; 6, sunset (lit. ‘sun dead’); 6.=15=,

the fowls come in; 6.=30=, dusk, twilight; 6.=45=, the edge

of the rice-cooking pan is obscure; 7, people begin to cook rice; 8,

people eat rice; 8.=30=, finished eating; 9, people go to sleep;

9.=30=, everyone in bed; 10 gun-fire; 12, midnight[120].

Finally I collect the Homeric expressions for the parts of the day.

They are far from being so elaborately organised as the examples

quoted above, and many are incidental periphrases; the terminology is

still at its beginnings. Its character is quite primitive also in the

juxtaposition of terms of different kinds. The day is divided into

the familiar three parts. ‘It will be a dawn, or an afternoon, or a

noon when I am to be killed’, says Achilles[121]. The meaning of ἠώς,

‘dawn’, is also extended so that the word can denote forenoon or at

least morning. Cp. the following phrases:--‘I slept the whole night

and to the dawn and to the noon’,[122] ‘as long as it was dawn and

the holy day increased’[123]; of this the phrase already quoted, ‘as

the sun turned over to the unyoking of the oxen’, is the counterpart.

In this sense appears also the derivative ἠοίη. When Menelaus wishes

to surprise the Old Man of the Sea he goes to the seashore ‘as the

dawn appeared’[124]: the Old Man is said to come ‘as the sun ascends

the middle of the heavens’[125]. Thus ‘we waited the whole dawn’

until ‘the Old Man came up from the sea at noon’[126]. The afternoon,

in which the suitors amuse themselves with dance and song, is also

called eventide[127]; when evening, ἕσπερος, comes, they go home to

sleep[128]. Besides these larger divisions smaller ones were also

indicated, e. g. the morning twilight, ‘when it was not yet dawn

but still the twilight of the ending night’[129]. Before dawn there

appears the morning star, ἑωσφόρος, Il. XXIII, 226, Od. XIII, 93.

ἠώς, ‘dawn’ in the proper sense of the word, is often used as a

time-indication, sometimes in the well-known periphrastic expressions

of Il. XI, 1, XIX, 1, Od. V, 1. XXIII, 347, XXII, 197, sometimes

alone, e. g. ‘at dawn’, ‘at the appearance of dawn’[130]. Sunrise

is always indicated by verbal and often periphrastic expressions,

simply by ἀνιέναι, ‘rise’[131], further ‘the sun, leaving the fair

sea, rose into the all-brazen heaven to shine for the immortal ones’

etc.[132], and ‘neither as he ascends to the starry heaven nor as

he again turns back to the earth from the heavens’[133], similarly

Od. XII, 380 ff., Il. XI, 735 ‘as long as the shining sun rose above

the earth’[134], and Il. VII, 421 ff. ‘the sun thereafter once

more struck the fields, ascending in the heavens from the deep and

soft-flowing ocean’[135]. The expression can therefore also include

the time immediately following after sunrise, but is not applied to

the whole period of the sun’s ascension, i. e. the forenoon. The

culmination of the sun is mentioned in Od. IV, 400 (cp. above) and

in Il. VIII, 68. The decline of the day is thus described, ‘the day

was for the greater part gone’[136]; for the sinking of the sun see

Od. XI, 18, XII, 381 (cp. above), and the already quoted expression

‘the sun turned over to the unyoking of the oxen’. Sunset (Il.

XVII, 454, XVIII, 241, Od. II, 388) is described by the common word

δύνειν, ‘set’, or by ‘goes under the earth’[137], or ‘the bright

light of the sun sank down in the ocean, drawing after himself the

dark night’[138]. The evening star has the same name as evening,

ἕσπερος[139]. The Homeric Greeks therefore do not seem to have

observed the position of the sun in any but the most general fashion.

We may add certain indications taken from the business of daily life.

The word βουλυτός (cp. above p. 31) appears in the twice-recurring

verse ‘as the sun turned over to the unyoking of the oxen’[140].

It is not the sun but the ploughman that unyokes the oxen: the

word has therefore become established as a chronological _terminus

technicus_ which is significant on account of its antiquity. About

the expression ἐν νυκτὸς ἀμολγῷ there has been much dispute. It

occurs:--Il. XI, 173 and XV, 324, where lions surprise a herd, XXII,

28, in the simile of the morning rising of Sirius, 317, of the

shining forth of the evening star, Od. IV, 841 ‘so clear appeared

the dream to her’[141]: it is a well-known fact that we dream for

the most part shortly before waking. The sense ‘beginning or end

of night’ is therefore fully confirmed. As for the etymology I do

not hesitate to pronounce in favour of that lying nearest to hand,

viz. ἀμέλγειν, ‘to milk’, and therefore ‘milking-time’. Compare the

terms of the Banyankole for early morning at 6 o’clock and evening

at 7--‘milking-time’--and those of the Nandi: 6 p. m. ‘the sun is

over, the cattle have come back’; 6.=15=, ‘milk’ (sc. the

cows). That only these two expressions have settled into _termini

technici_ admits of a not unimportant conclusion in regard to

antiquity. The meal-hour as an indication of time occurs Il. XI,

86, ‘when a wood-cutter prepares his meal after having fatigued his

arms by felling large trees’[142], and Od. XII, 439, ‘when a man

rises from the market-place to go home to the meal after having

judged many quarrels’[143],--in the latter instance in connexion

with the market. This time-indication was destined to have a great

future as the social life of the Greeks developed. Phrases such as

the following are of common occurrence:--‘when the market-place is

full’[144], ‘before the market-place has filled itself’[145], ‘the

breaking up of the assembly of the market-place’[146], etc. The night

was divided into the familiar three parts (although the expression

μέση νύξ, ‘middle of the night’, first occurs in the smaller Iliad)

and was judged according to the position of the stars:--‘Let us go,

for the night draws close to an end and the dawn is near. The stars

are far gone. The greater part of night is gone, the two parts, only

the third part remains’[147]; ‘when it was the third part of the

night and the stars had passed’[148]. The morning star serves as a

time-indicator at the nocturnal home-coming of Odysseus[149].

The Latin expressions I merely copy from Censorinus, Ch. 24, and

insert in brackets the additions made by Macrob., _Sat._ I, 3, 16

ff. _Tempus quod huic_--i. e. _nox media--proximum est vocatur de

media nocte (media noctis inclinatio), sequitur gallicinium, cum

galli canere incipiunt, dein conticinium, cum conticuerunt; tunc

ante lucem, et sic diluculum, cum sole nondum orto iam lucet.

Secundum diluculum vocatur mane cum lux videtur sole orto, post

hoc ad meridiem, tunc meridies, quod est medii diei nomen, inde

de meridie (inde--i. e. a meridie--tempus occiduum), hinc suprema

... post supremam sequitur vespera ante ortum scilicet_--this must

be before the appearance of the star--_eius stellae, quam Plautus

vesperuginem ... appellat_. There are also _ortus_ and _occasus

solis_, _crepusculum_. This terminology is poor and applies almost

exclusively to the daylight. In ancient Rome the edifices of the

Forum are said to have served as sun-dials. A servant of the consul

proclaimed noon “when the sun peeped between the Rostra and the

Graecostasis; when the sun sank from the Maenian column to the prison

he proclaimed evening, but only on clear days”[150]. With the advance

of civilisation the Greek terms for the twelve hours of the day, each

of which varied in length according to the time of the year, became

customary, a fact which is connected with the spread of sun- and

water-clocks[151]. Hence arises in the Middle Ages the terminology

derived from the daily mass (_hora canonica_)[152]. In daily life

there was often a recurrence to primitive methods. I borrow a few

examples of a quite primitive character from the early medieval tract

_Peregrinatio Aetheriae_:--‘the hour when people can recognise each

other’[153], ‘when the crow of cocks begins’[154], ‘from the first

cock-crow’[155], etc., but also _hora tertia_, _quinta_, _sexta_

(noon).

An obviously isolated method is the determination of the times of day

from the daily twice-recurring ebb and flow of the tides; the method

is also very unsuitable, since the period of a complete tide is 12

hours 25 minutes, so that the two periods together exceed the day by

nearly an hour. In fact the Eskimos of Greenland are the only people

who reckon by the tides. They divide up the day according to ebb and

flow, although they must always reckon differently on account of the

variations of the moon[156]. Dalsager[157] also points this out and

remarks that their reckoning cannot last for two consecutive days, so

that they have to make a fresh division every day. The rudiments of

this method are however seen among some of the tribes of Polynesia.

Immediately after the above-quoted divisions of the day among the

Society Islanders are mentioned “the longer periods before noon and

midnight during which the sea rises, and the others following these,

in which it falls”[158], and “night or the light quite gone, when the

sea begins to flow towards the land, about 11 at night”[159]. The

Hawaiians called the rising of the tide by such names as the rising,

big, full, and surrounding sea; when the water neither rose nor fell

it was called the standing sea; the ebbing sea they spoke of as the

parted, retiring, and defeated sea[160].

The night is the time of complete darkness and rest, and therefore

the frequently mentioned expression, ‘sleeping-time’, corresponds to

night. Seldom is the whole time during which the sun remains below

the horizon to be understood by it. On the Society Islands there

were two expressions for day according to its extension from morning

to evening twilight or from sunrise to sunset[161]. The Hawaiian

judge, Fornander, follows this mode of speech when he distinguishes

five periods of night, (1) about sunset, (2) between sunset and

midnight, (3) midnight, (4) between midnight and sunrise, and (5)

sunrise[162]. For the times between sunset and night-fall and between

night and sunrise there is a rich terminology which has already been

illustrated. During the night itself time-indications are for obvious

reasons scanty. Often the only point distinguished is midnight, e.

g. by the Kiowa[163], the Masai[164], the Shilluk[165]; ‘the silence

of the land’ among the Babwende[166], ‘the back of night’ among

the Hottentots[167], ‘the time of sleep’ among the Hawaiians[168].

Hence arises of itself a threefold division in which the periods of

night before and after midnight are distinguished, as e. g. by the

Hawaiians[169]. The usual method is to start from the day, i. e. the

limit of the day, and then to proceed on both sides in the direction

of midnight, as in the late evening of the Hottentots, which extends

till long after sunset[170], and the ‘not yet early’ and the _tara_

(beginning at dusk and extending till the time of rest) among the

Masai[171], etc. The Tahitians are credited with six divisions of the

day and as many of the night, this more accurate division of night

being of course determined by the stars[172]; the only expressions

reported however are those for midnight and the time from midnight

to daybreak[173]. On the Marquesas Islands the first night-watch

was ‘the hour of ghosts’; the advanced night was termed ‘black

night’, and midnight ‘great sleep’; the last watch of night was ‘the

coming of day’[174]. The Wadschagga have three night watches:--the

awakening in the evening, that in the middle (midnight), and that in

the morning twilight[175]. The Javanese have night, midnight, and

waning of night[176]. Where the cock is kept, its crow serves as a

sign that the night is drawing to an end, as for instance among the

Swahili[177], and in the Dutch Indies[178]; the Yoruba distinguish

other cock-crowings, such as ‘the cock opening the way’, i. e. the

first cock-crowing, ‘the time of the cock-crowing immediately before

sunset’[179]. Quite exceptional however is the device ascribed to the

inhabitants of the New Hebrides. In order to denote the hours of the

night they make a gesture in the direction of the spot where the sun

would be at the corresponding hour of day[180].

There is only one means of accurately indicating the times of night,

and that is by the observation of the stars. Many peoples judge from

the position of the morning-star the time that has yet to elapse

before sunrise: but this cannot always be done, and in any case the

method is only of use in the early morning. But the fixed stars

are always there. The difficulty however arises that every day the

stars gain about four minutes on the sun; the stars must therefore

be accurately known, and the observer must either be acquainted with

their positions at definite times of the year or else be constantly

choosing a new star as his chronometer. Not many peoples have got

so far as that. Although the science of astronomy was very well

developed among the Polynesians, we are told of the Tahitians that to

distinguish the hours of night by means of the stars was a science

with which very few of them were acquainted[181]. On the Society

Islands the advance of night was determined from the stars[182]; and

so in Hawaii, with as great accuracy as the hours of the day from

the sun[183]. “When the Milky Way passes the meridian and inclines

to the west, people (in Hawaii) say ‘the fish has turned’”[184].

Among the Indians of South America the knowledge of the stars is very

wide-spread. E. Nordenskjöld, who visited the border districts where

Brazil, Bolivia, and the Argentine meet, says repeatedly that the

stellar heavens are the Indian’s clock and compass. When sitting in

their huts they can, without looking out, indicate the positions of

the more important constellations in the sky. If one is out with an

Indian at night he will point to Orion or some other constellation

and shew how far it will have moved on before the end of the journey

is reached[185]. The Eskimos of Greenland, when it is dark, indicate

the time from _nelarsik_ (Vega)[186], or from the Pleiades[187].

Among them the observation of the stars is uncommonly well developed.

The Lapps, who have to tend their reindeer during the long winter

nights, determine the course of time by certain stars. _Sarvon_ is

the largest star in the heavens: when in winter it stands in the

middle of the sky it marks midnight; it is called the night-clock

of the Lapps. The Great Dog, the Old Man, and the Old Woman are

three stars that pursue _sarva_. They rise when the people go to

sleep, and set a little before daybreak. They ascend the heavens

obliquely in front of _sarva_, in the morning they dip downwards.

Another authority states that _sarva_ is the Great Bear; the first

couple of stars in it are the Old Man and the Old Woman, the second

the Dog and the Elk. The reindeer herdsman decides from it how far

night is advanced, and when he may expect to be relieved. _Lovosj_

or _suttjenes_ is the name given to the Pleiades. The constellation

indicates midnight, when the weather is good. A fable tells how this

constellation saved a servant who had been driven out by his master

into the great cold of a winter night. The young men wish the maidens

to tend the reindeer by night and say:--“Go and kiss the _suttjenes_

young men”, but the maidens answer:--“Go yourselves and kiss the

_suttjenes_ maidens”[188]. Of the old Icelanders Kålund writes:--“At

night the moon and certain stars, especially the Pleiades, afford

them the same aid” (i. e. as the signs of day)[189]. The Homeric

Greeks--at least in a general fashion--also judged of the advance of

night by the position of the stars[190]. This more accurate method

is therefore peculiar to a few primitive peoples specially gifted in

astronomy.

From the investigation of the modes of naming and reckoning the day

and its parts it follows for primitive time-reckoning in general

that the time-indications refer to concrete phenomena, and therefore

either they indicate a point of time or, if they are related to

periods, these periods are of different and fluctuating length. They

are accordingly of no use in calculating, they cannot simply be added

together even when a number of such periods together make up the

period of a complete day, i. e. they are fundamentally discontinuous.

When several days are to be counted the _pars pro toto_ method is

used: instead of the whole day a part is counted. Within the day

two phenomena chiefly recur with such unfailing constancy as to be

of use in counting: they are the daily reviving sun and the night or

sleeping-time. The word for sun is often the same as that for day.

Within the day fall a number of occupations which chiefly turn the

attention to its length and varying phenomena, and this is the case

also with the sun itself, for the varying position of the sun in the

heavens affords the most usual mode of indicating the time of day.

For the counting a point of time is best suited, or, which comes to

the same thing, a unit without subdivisions, a blank period. This

is the reason why the counting by ‘sleeps’ or nights predominates.

On the same grounds the quite isolated _pars pro toto_ counting

of the days from the dawns in Homer may be explained. To indicate

the duration of time primitive peoples make use of other means,

derived from their daily business, which have nothing to do with

time-reckoning; in Madagascar ‘rice-cooking’ often means half an

hour, ‘the frying of a locust’ a moment[191]. The Cross River natives

say:--‘The man died in less than the time in which maize is not yet

completely roasted’, i. e. less than about 15 minutes; ‘the time in

which one can cook a handful of vegetables’, i. e. an hour[192]. The

Malays, the Javanese, and the Achenese use the following expressions

for a period of time:--a blink of the eyes (literally), the time

required for chewing a quid of _sirih_ (about 5 minutes), the time

required for cooking a _kay_ of rice (about half an hour), for

cooking a _gantang_ of rice (about an hour and a half), half a day, a

‘sun-dark’, i. e. a complete day and night[193]. The natives of New

Britain (Bismarck Archipelago) measure the time between sunset and

the moon-rise by the smouldering of a torch or the time occupied in

cooking yams, taro, or wild taro. Short divisions of time were also

expressed by comparative terms, e. g. the throwing of a stick for a

short distance, ‘a woman’s crossing’, or the distance a woman would

paddle[194]. Very often duration of time is indicated by reference

to the time needed to traverse a well-known piece of road between

two places. Examples are superfluous. But all these indications of

periods of time are found among more developed peoples: the primitive

peoples pay little or no attention to them.

Both in the case of the day and in that of the other time-units this

clinging to a natural basis long proved a hindrance to a rational

system of time-reckoning, which could only be achieved by breaking

away from natural phenomena. For there are no fixed natural limits

of day, but if morning and evening, or still more clearly sunrise

and sunset, are chosen as the limits, these must change every day

and the days will vary in length. Here the midnight period proved of

assistance, since it facilitated the establishing of a fixed point

of divergence. This was done in Rome, and the practice had its root

in daily life, where in order to indicate the time of occurrence of

events which took place in the night-time the calculation was pushed

forwards on both sides towards midnight, until this became the limit

of divergence. It is however an artificial epoch that must be found

by calculation[195].

In the second place the hour of antiquity is a twelfth part of

the whole time of daylight, and this duodecimal division was also

transferred to the night, which had commonly been divided into four

watches according to the practice borrowed from military life. This

hour therefore varied in length according to the time of the year.

The inconvenience of a varying division of this nature must have

made itself felt in daily life, although in the south it was not so

insupportable as it must have been in the north. It rendered the

construction of the clock difficult, and above all was impracticable

for scientific astronomy. Hence alongside of it appeared even in

antiquity the hour of constant length or the double hour, viz. a

twelfth or a twenty-fourth part respectively of the complete day. The

double hour, notwithstanding Bilfinger’s assertion to the contrary,

arose in Babylon (_kasbu_), and is connected with the duodecimal

division of the zodiac[196]. This hour of constant length was not

generally adopted until very late: the varying hour remained almost

up to the end of the Middle Ages. Our modern hour has only been in

general use since about the 14th century, when it was first spread by

the construction of the striking-clock[197]. Its convenience for the

business of practical life and the construction of the clock together

secured the victory of the hour as 1/24th of the day, originally a

numerical and astronomical division. A condition for its use was the

fusion of day and night into one unit, since as long as these were

kept separate the constant hour could not thrive. Both the complete

day and its regular divisions however only won their way after a very

long time, because men were unwilling to depart from the natural

basis in time-reckoning. The substitution of the artificial for the

natural time-reckoning has also, as far as the day is concerned,

created a rational system of reckoning which has borrowed from the

natural system only one feature, viz. the average length of the

complete day.