CHAPTER II.

THE SEASONS.

The year is for us a numerical quantity of 365 or 366 days. But we

speak of the year in two senses, first as the calendar year beginning

on New Year’s Day, and secondly as the current year, a period of the

same number of days beginning at one chosen day, as for instance in

giving a person’s age. The word ‘year’ may however also represent the

highest chronological unit even independently of the seasons, as in

the case of the Egyptian shifting year of exactly 365 days, and the

Islamite lunar year of 354. These however are exceptional cases. At

the basis lies the natural year conditioned by the course of the sun

and by the natural phases dependent thereon, which penetrate closely

into the life of man. This connexion has necessitated the agreement

of the numerical year with the sun, whence arises a situation very

inconvenient for reckoning, namely that years of a varying number of

days have to be accepted, since the natural year does not contain a

whole number of days.

The year as a numerical quantity is only the tardily attained summit

of development, and the connexion with the natural year has always

been so strongly felt that, except in certain cases such as the

Egyptian and Islamite years, the chronological year has had to adjust

itself accordingly. Here also we see the point of departure, the

natural phenomena which are in the end dependent upon the course

of the sun, such as the variation between heat and cold, verdure

and snow, rainy season and drought, the blooming and withering of

vegetation, between the different trade-winds or monsoons, between

abundance and scarcity of food. With these and similar concrete

phenomena the time-reckoning is from its origin bound up, and is

at first discontinuous, i. e. it fixes the attention solely on the

phenomena in question, and not on the year as a whole. The fusion

of the various seasons into the circle of the year is arrived at

only by degrees: the year is at first counted by the _pars pro toto_

method. The process is therefore similar to that already found in the

discussion of the day.

It must be granted as a premise to our investigation that when we

speak of ‘seasons’ not only the larger divisions of the year are

to be understood by the word--those which alone of all the natural

epochs of the year are current among us to-day--but also smaller

divisions which might perhaps be called seasonal points; for instance

the times of cherry-blossoming and hop-picking are also seasons.

Such short--often very short--seasons are not distinguished in

any important feature from the longer: the difference only arises

from the longer or shorter duration of the phenomena in question.

The Hidatsa Indians describe any period thus marked by a natural

occurrence, be it long or short, the hot season or the season of

strawberries, by the same word, _kadu_, ‘season’, ‘time’ (of the

occurrence), and the longer seasons include shorter[198].

We begin with these shorter seasons since they are more foreign to

us: to primitive man however they are of extreme importance, since in

the absence of a regular calendar they afford the only means he knows

of determining the shortest periods of the natural year, in so far as

they are connected with this. A time-determination of this nature is

important not so much for giving the date of any occurrence as for

establishing beforehand the time of certain occupations, e. g. sowing

or a festival.

The classical instance is afforded by the peasants’ maxims of

Hesiod. The cry of the migrating cranes shews the time of ploughing

and sowing[199]. If one sows too late, the crop may still thrive

if Zeus sends rain upon it on the third day after the cuckoo has

called for the first time in the leaves of the oak (486). Before

the appearance of the swallow, the messenger of spring, the vines

should be pruned (568). But when the snail climbs up the plants

there should be no more digging in the vineyards (571). When the

thistle blossoms and the shrill note of the cicada is to be heard,

summer has come, the goats are at their fattest, and the wine is at

its best (582). The sea can be navigated when the fig-tree shews at

the end of its branches leaves which are as big as the foot-prints

of the crow (679). Especially well-known and beloved as a sign that

the hard winter was over was the swallow: evidence is afforded by

the famous procession of the Rhodian swallow-youths[200], and by a

vase-decoration clearly expressing the delight felt at the appearance

of the herald of Spring[201]. The observation of the birds of passage

was very useful for this kind of time-determination: Homer already

knows it, ‘when the cranes flee the winter’, he says[202], so also

Theognis: “I hear, son of Polypais, the voice of the shrill-crying

crane, even her who to mortals comes as harbinger of the season for

ploughing”[203]. Aristophanes makes his birds boast of it:--

“All lessons of primary daily concern

You have learnt from the Birds, and continue to learn.

Your best benefactors, and early instructors,

We give you the warning of seasons returning.

When the Cranes are arranged, and muster afloat

In the middle air, with a creaking note,

Steering away to the Libyan sands,

Then careful farmers sow their lands;

The crazy vessel is hauled ashore,

The sail, the ropes, the rudder, and oar

Are all unshipped, and housed in store.

The shepherd is warned, by the Kite reappearing,

To muster his flock, and be ready for shearing.

You quit your old cloak at the Swallow’s behest,

In assurance of summer, and purchase a vest”[204].

Similar time-determinations from natural phenomena are still not

entirely neglected by the modern peasant. In Bohuslän (W. Sweden) the

sowing-time was at hand when the swallow had come, it was the right

sowing-time when the juniper flowered. In northern Scania (S. Sweden)

the barley was to be sown when the hawthorn was in bloom. Older

people could not give their birthdays but only knew that they were

born e. g. at the rye- or potato-harvest, when the cattle were first

driven out to pasture (in the spring), etc. My father knew quite

well that his birthday was the fifth of September, but when anyone

asked him when he was born he would generally answer: ‘When they pick

hops’. The Eskimos said that such and such a person was born when

eggs were collected or seals caught[205]. From modern Palestine a

bond is quoted in which a sum of money was to be paid when next the

_fakûs_ (a kind of cucumber) was ripe[206].

We return to the primitive peoples and give first a few examples

in which a natural phenomenon serves as the sign of the beginning

of one of the longer divisions of the year or of some occupation,

generally agriculture. Of the Bushmen we are told that they paid

particular attention to the time at which the first thunder-storm

broke. They hailed it with great joy since they counted it a sure

sign that summer had commenced. In the midst of their excessive

rejoicing they tore in pieces their garments of skins, threw them

into the air, and danced for several nights in succession. The Garieb

Bushmen made great outcries accompanied with dancing and playing

upon their drums[207]. The Banyankole of Uganda used the euphorbia

trees to guide them as to the nearness of the rainy season: when

these trees began to shoot out new growth they knew that the rains

were near[208]. The Indians of the Orinoco took great pains to

determine the approach of the rainy season, as Gilij relates in a

chapter entitled: _De segni, che precedon l’inverno_[209]. The signs

were:--The scream of the Araguato monkeys at midnight or at the

approach of day; the sudden bursting into blossom of certain trees;

the swelling of the brooks, which almost dry up in summer but swell

a few days before the rainy season; the yams which in summer have

lost their leaves suddenly grow green again when the rainy season

is at hand; finally the heliacal setting of the Pleiades. The tribe

of the Bigambul in S. E. Australia reckon the seasons from the

blossoming of certain trees. _Yerra_, for example, is the name of a

tree that blossoms in September: this time of the year is therefore

called _yerrabinda_. The apple-tree blossoms at Christmas time,

which is called _nigabinda_. The iron-bark tree blossoms about the

end of January, and this time is called _wobinda_. The height of

summer however is named by them ‘the time when the ground burns the

feet’: at this time no trees blossom[210]. The natives of New Britain

(Bismarck Archipelago) determine the planting-season from the buds

of certain trees and from the position of certain stars[211]. In Alu

(Solomon Islands) one division of the year is determined from the

bloom on the almond, another from the Pleiades[212]. The time for the

sun-dance of the Kiowa Indians is determined by the whitening of the

down on the cotton-plant[213]. One of the annual festivals of the

Society Islands is regulated by the blossoming of the reed[214].

Instances are numerous in which phenomena like those mentioned

by Hesiod serve as signs for agricultural labour. The Indians of

Pennsylvania say that when the leaf of the white oak, which comes out

in spring, is as large as a mouse’s ear it is time to plant maize:

they note that the whippoorwill has come by then, and is constantly

fluttering round them calling out his Indian name _wekolis_ in order

to remind them of planting-time, just as if he were saying ‘_hacki

heck_’, ‘go and plant maize’[215]. Among the Thonga the period in

July when the warm weather begins is called _shimunu_, ‘the little

heat’: the mahogany and sala trees become covered with leaves,

certain flowers blossom. Winter has passed away, soon the summer

will come. When the Thonga woman notes these signs she picks up her

hoe and sets off for the hills or the marshes to make the fields

ready. In January comes _nwebo_, the time for the first ears of maize

to ripen[216]. Among the Ba-Ronga January is _nuebo_, the time of

the first ripe ears: great pains are taken to keep away the birds

from the _sorgho_ fields, and therefore one period is known as ‘the

time when the birds are driven away’[217]. When a certain mushroom

named _kulat bantilong_ appears in large quantities the Dyaks of S.

E. Borneo regard it as a sign that the time for rice-planting has

come[218]; among the Malgassi the blossoming of the shrub _Vernonia

appendiculata_ in November is regarded in the same way[219]. In

New Zealand plants and birds which appear at regular seasons give

signs of the approach of the time to begin agricultural labours. Two

kinds of migratory cuckoo, _Cuculus piperatus_ and _nitens_, which

appear at Christmas-time on the coasts, mark the period of the first

potato-harvest. The flowering of the beautiful _Clematis albida_

reminds the people to dig over the soil for the planting of potatoes,

which is done in October[220]. According to the communication of a

native, the Basutos reckon time by the changing of the seasons, the

birth-times of animals, the annual variation and growth of plants,

but also by the stars and the moon[221]. The most curious method is

one common among the Hidatsa Indians, who reckon from the development

of the buffalo calf _in utero_[222]. Such signs may also serve to

mark off the longer seasons: the Tunguses begin summer with the time

when the grayling spawns, and winter with the time when the first

good squirrel is caught[223].

The examples hitherto given are only single instances intended

to make clear the manner and signification of this method of

indicating time. Similar starting-points for reckoning are afforded

the whole year through, and as their times are fixed in regard to

each other, they may form a sort of calendar. The statements made

for the extremely primitive Andamanese give a very characteristic

circle of occupations throughout the year, though here we have to

do not with names of seasons but with the phenomena and business

of the year, which our authority gives according to the European

calendar. January: much honey; two kinds of wild fruit ripen and are

gathered. February: two other kinds of wild fruit, also a tuber;

the inhabitants of the coastal districts catch the dujong and also

a few turtles; the older folk make out of bark turtle-nets, cables,

and lines for harpoons. March: still another two kinds of wild fruit

ripen, wild honey is abundant. April: many visits of neighbouring

tribes; fruit is scanty, there is only one kind ripe, the honey is

finished, the bread-fruit has not yet ripened. From May to August

the ripe bread-fruit forms the principal food. In June many cases of

death occur since the men in their boar-hunting expeditions in the

forest sleep without shelter. In August certain white caterpillars

which live in the decaying tree-trunks are a favourite dish. From

August to October boats are built. In November the people are

particularly merry. The turtle-catch is productive, the weather is

pleasantly cool, there is little rain, and shelter is not necessary.

Different tribes visit one another and feast and dance together[224].

How upon such a foundation a number of seasons may be built up is

shewn by a comparison with an instructive account referring to

the Eskimos of the Ungava district of Labrador. The seasons have

distinctive names and are again sub-divided into a great number of

shorter seasons. There are more of these during the warmer weather

than in winter. The reason is obviously that the summer offers so

many changes, and the winter so few. The chief events are the return

of the sun, always a sign of joy to the people, the lengthening

of the day, the warm weather in March when the sun has attained

sufficient height, the melting of the snow, the breaking up of the

ice, the open water, the time of birth of various seals, the advent

of exotic birds, the nesting of gulls, eider, and other native birds,

the arrival of white whales and the whaling season, salmon fishing,

the ripening of salmon-berries and other species of edibles, the time

of reindeer crossing the river, the trapping of fur-bearing animals,

and hunting on land and water for food. Each of these periods has its

special name applied to it, although several may overlap each other.

The appearance of mosquitoes, sandflies, and horseflies is marked by

dates anticipated with considerable apprehension of annoyance[225].

The Eskimos of Greenland reckon from the winter solstice five moons

until the time when the nights become so bright that it is impossible

to reckon any longer from the moon. Then they reckon by the

increasing size of the young of the eider-duck and by the ripening of

berries, or along the sea-coast by the departure of the tern and the

fatness of the seals; when the reindeer shed the velvet from their

horns they know that it is time to move into the winter houses[226].

These smaller seasons have seldom developed into an annual cycle

otherwise than among some agricultural peoples[227], unless they

have been fitted into the larger seasons. This is the case with

the western tribes of the Torres Straits, who also determine the

seasons from the stars. In the counting of the seasons they commonly

begin with _surlal_ (mid-October to the end of November). This name

is given to the turtles when copulating: while in this state they

float on the sea and are readily caught. The constellation known as

the Shark arises. Everything is dried up, the yams are ripe. The

sounding of the first thunder is the sign for planting yams. _Raz_

(December to February) is described as ‘the time of death’, i. e.

the season when the leaves die down. The first part of this season

is called in Mabuiag _duau-urma_, ‘the falling of the cashew nuts’.

There is an interval of fine weather and the wind is shifty: this

coincides with Christmas-time. This is the time when the yams which

have been planted begin to sprout. In Muralug this period is called

_malgui_, which is the exact equivalent of our word ‘spring’.

The next division is called _dob_, ‘the last of growing things’,

or _kusikuki_, ‘medusae of the north-west’, the latter name being

due to the large numbers of jelly-fish that float on the sea. The

runners of the yams now grow. The time immediately after this is

called _purimugo_, in Muralug _apagap_ or _keme_. The longer season

following _raz_ is _kuki_, (March to May), the time when strong winds

blow intermittently from the north-west, accompanied by deluges

of rain, and the time of the damp heat. The appearance of the

constellation _dogai kukilaig_ (Altair, together with β, γ _aquilae_)

heralded the beginning of this season. It has the sub-divisions

_kuki_, _kupa kuki_, and _gugad arai_. The dry season, _aibaud_,

forms the remaining part of the year. The south-west wind, _waur_,

blows steadily: for this reason the first part of this period is

known as _waur_ and perhaps merits a distinctive name as much as

_raz_. It is marked by the appearance of the constellation _magi

Dogai_ (Vega with β, γ _lyrae_). Food is abundant and festivals are

celebrated. The divisions of _aibaud_ are _sasiwaur_ (‘child’, i. e.

lesser south-east), _piepe_, _tati waur_ (‘father’, i. e. greater

south-east), and _birubiru_, a bird which at this time migrates from

New Guinea to Australia[228].

The Kiwai Papuans who dwell on the opposite coast of New Guinea

have the same star myths as the inhabitants of the Torres Straits

Islands: for them, however, no smaller but only two greater seasons

are mentioned[229]; on the other hand they have months[230]. The

smaller seasons have clashed with the reckoning by moons, and have

surrendered their names to describe the latter. They have therefore

in great measure become merged in the counting of the months, which

will be dealt with later. The greater seasons on the other hand, on

account of their length, could not be merged in the reckoning by

months, and these have therefore everywhere remained. The number of

the longer seasons varies considerably, and is of course connected

not only with the climatic conditions but also with the fundamental

phenomena which for one reason or another attract attention; a

larger season may also be divided into two or three smaller ones.

It may be taken for granted that all peoples outside the tropics,

even where it has not been thought necessary expressly to mention

the fact, know the two larger divisions of the year, the warmer

and colder seasons. Where the plants die in winter and the trees

lose their leaves, or where the snow covers the ground, this

great difference becomes especially pronounced and determines the

whole mode of life: but even in the sub-tropical regions it is

obvious enough. To it corresponds in many parts of the tropics and

sub-tropical zones the natural division into a dry and a rainy

season. For the division into the summer period of vegetation and

winter with its snow and ice it is superfluous to give examples:

the above-quoted description of the year of the Labrador Eskimos

is a typical instance. Swanton and Boas state that certain Indian

tribes of N. W. America divide the year into two equal parts of six

months each, summer extending from April to September, and winter

from October to March[231]. The Comanches reckon by the cold and the

warm seasons[232]. I give a few instances from districts in which

a winter of this nature does not exist. Among the Hopi of Arizona

the year has two divisions--there seems to be no equivalent to our

four seasons--which may be termed the periods of the named and the

nameless months: the former is the cold period, the latter is the

warm. They may also be called the greater and the lesser periods,

since the former begins in August and ends in March[233]. The Zuñi

of western New Mexico also divide the year into two periods of six

months each[234]. The Chocktaw of Louisiana have the same number of

seasons[235]. The natives of Central Australia have names for summer

and winter[236].

In the tropics there is often only one rainy and one dry season,

with two divisions of the year corresponding to these. On the

Orinoco there are summer and winter, i. e. the dry and the rainy

seasons. In Maipuri the dry season is called _camoti_, ‘the glowing

splendour of the sun’, and the rainy season _canepó_. Among the

Tamanacho winter is called _canepó_, ‘rain’, ‘rainy season’, summer

is _vannu_, ‘crickets’, since these insects chirp incessantly to

the end of the season[237]. The Tupi have expressions for dry and

rainy seasons but not for the year as a whole. The Bakairi reckon

by the semesters of the dry and the rainy seasons[238]. The Karaya

of Central Brazil reckon the year from one fall of the river to

another. They thereby distinguish two seasons, the dry season when

they live on the sand-banks, and the rainy season when they live on

the upper banks of the river[239]. The Wagogo of E. Africa divide the

year into two halves: _kibahu_, the dry season, about May-October,

and _kifugu_, the rainy season, November to April[240]. So also

the Nandi: _iwotet_, rainy season, March-August, and _kement_, dry

season, September-February[241]; further the tribes of Loango[242],

the Bantu tribes of the Congo State[243], and the Cross River negroes

of the Cameroons[244]. The Tshi-speaking peoples divide the year into

two periods: the smaller _hohbor_, from May to August, and the larger

from September to April[245]. Among the Akamba the year consists

of two rainy seasons separated by two dry periods: _ambua anzwa_,

_ambua ua_[246]. Where this natural division prevails, however, the

half-year is often put in the place of the year[247].

The Javanese have a dry and a rainy period which include six of their

seasons[248], and so have the Islamite Malays of Sumatra[249]. The

Polynesians divide the year throughout into two greater periods.

Their seasons were in general two, the rainy season or winter, and

the dry season or summer, but varied according to the situation of

the particular group of islands north or south of the equator. On

the Society Islands they embraced the months of May-November and

November-May respectively. On the Sandwich Islands the rainy season,

_hooilo_, lasted from about Nov. 20 to May 20, the dry season, _kau_,

from May 20 to Nov. 20[250]. We shall find later that both seasons

were named and regulated according to the visibility or invisibility

of the Pleiades. Other writers also give information for Hawaii.

When the sun moved towards the north, the days were long, the trees

bore fruit, and the heat was prevalent: it was summer; but when

the sun moved towards the south, the nights became longer and the

trees were without fruit: it was winter[251]. _Kau_ was the season

when the sun was directly overhead, when daylight was prolonged,

the trade-wind prevailed, days and nights alike were warm, and the

vegetation put forth new leaves. _Hooilo_ was the season when the

sun declined towards the south, the nights grew longer, days and

nights were cool, and the herbage (lit. vines) died away: each had

six months. On Kauai Island the seasons were called _mahoe-mua_

and _mahoe-hope_[252]. In Tahiti the bread-fruit can be gathered

for seven months, for the other five there is none: for about two

months before and after the southern solstice it is very scarce, but

from March to August exceedingly plentiful. This season is called

_pa-uru_ (_uru_ = ‘bread-fruit’)[253]. The recurring scarcity of

bread-fruit shewed the changes in the course of the year, but the

Pleiades afforded a surer limit[254]. In Samoa one authority gives

the wet season, ending in April, and the dry season, which comes to

an end with the palolo fishing in October[255]; another _vaipalolo_,

the palolo or wet season from October to March, and _toe lau_, when

the regular trade-winds blow, embracing the other months[256]; a

third the season of fine weather--in which however much rain falls in

some localities--and the stormy season, when it rains heavily[257].

The importance of agriculture is so great that the seasons in

following it may sometimes depart from the changes of the climate.

The Bontoc Igorot have two seasons which however do not mark the wet

and dry periods, as might be expected in a country where these two

periods occur: _cha-kon_ is the season of rice or ‘palay’ growth and

harvesting, _ka-sip_ the remaining portion of the year[258]. In

the New Hebrides the year is divided into two parts, the periods of

yam-planting and harvesting[259].

In certain localities the atmospheric conditions are such that two

divisions of the year may be distinguished according to the winds,

as for instance in the Marshall Islands, where there are the months

of calm and the months of squalls[260]. More commonly two seasons

are given by the variation of the monsoons, as on the island of

Bali, east of Java: in each case there were six homonymous months.

The Kiwai Papuans have _uro_, the comparatively dry season of the

south-east monsoon (April-December), and the time of the prevailing

north-west wind, _hurama_, a period of alternating calms, storms of

wind and rain, and thunder[261]. A native judge from the island of

Vuatam in the Bismarck Archipelago remarked that the north-west trade

blew throughout the time when the sun was southerly, that is from

November to February, but during the time in which the sun moved in a

northerly direction, May to August, the south-east monsoon prevailed.

On Valam it is said that the south-east monsoon blows as long as the

sun sets WNW, i. e. from May to August: from the month of November

to February, when it sets WSW, the north-west trade blows[262]. In

Rotuma or Granville Island near the equator periods of six months are

reckoned. The west wind, which blows from October to April, serves

to distinguish these two periods, although it does not affect the

vegetation[263]. The people of the Nicobar Islands reckon by the

south-west monsoon (November to April)[264]. The Benua-Jahun of the

Malay Peninsula distinguish the half-year of the north monsoon and

that of the south monsoon[265].

It would seem that the whole year might easily arise through the

fusion of these two larger periods: that this is not the case will be

shewn in the following chapter.

These half-years are as a rule well defined, but the natural

conditions upon which they depend are subject to fluctuation, and

in particular there are transitional periods the position of which

cannot be certainly decided. Moreover smaller characteristic periods

arise within the larger, and hence more seasons appear. Elsewhere the

natural conditions are such that they directly lead to more than two

seasons, e. g. where there are two different rainy seasons in the

year. From these circumstances it becomes plain that a fluctuation

between a larger or smaller number of seasons is possible, and

indeed it often actually occurs. The seasons that adhere to natural

phenomena are never clearly defined like a division of the calendar:

the limits are uncertain, different seasons may be merged into one

another or in part overlap one another, as has been shewn in the case

of the Eskimos of Labrador.

Among the Eskimos of the Behring Strait the year is often divided

into four seasons corresponding to the usual occupations, but these

divisions are indefinite and irregular in comparison with the

reckoning by months[266]. Of the Indians in general it is said that

as a rule four seasons are recognised and have specific names applied

to them (apart from the tribes that have two). In many cases however

the latter may split up both summer and winter into two subdivisions:

this is stated e. g. for the Chocktaw of Louisiana[267]. The

Siciatl of British Columbia however have three: spring, summer, and

winter[268]. The Thompson Indians of the same province group their

months into five seasons, winter beginning with the first snow that

stays on the ground, and lasting until its disappearance from the

valleys, generally the 2d, 3d, and 4th months, spring beginning with

the disappearance of the snow, and embracing the period of frequent

Chinook winds, 5th and 6th months, summer 7th, 8th, and 9th months,

early autumn (Indian summer) 10th and 11th months, and late fall

which takes up the rest of the year[269]. The neighbouring tribe of

the Shuswap recognise five seasons exactly corresponding to those of

the Thompson Indians[270].

The natural phenomena from which the seasons are determined and

named vary according to the geographical latitude, the nature of

the country, and the mode of life, i. e. according as the tribe

lives by hunting or by agriculture. Certain writers state that the

Indians of Virginia divided the year into five seasons: the budding

of spring, the earing of corn or ‘roasting-ear time’, summer or ‘the

highest sun’, corn-gathering or ‘fall of the leaf’, and winter[271].

The Maida of northern California say that the seasons--the rainy

season, the leafy season, the dry season, and the season of

falling leaves--were instituted by Kodoyampeh, the Creator[272].

The Kiowa distinguished only four seasons: _saigya_ or _säta_,

considered to begin at the first snowfall; _asegya_, spring (the

etymology of the word is unknown, a more recent name is _son-pata_,

‘grass-springing’), which begins when grass and buds sprout and the

mares foal; _paigya_, summer (_pai_, ‘sun’), which begins when the

grass has ceased to sprout and lasts until fires become necessary in

the _tipis_ at night; _paongya_, autumn (the thickening of the coat

or fur, _pa_, of the buffalo and other animals), sometimes called

‘the time when the leaves are red’, begins when the leaves change

colour[273]. It is to be noted that these seasons must be of very

different length. In the same way the Dakota reckon five months each

for winter and summer and only one month each for spring and autumn,

but it is expressly mentioned that this reckoning is not strictly

followed[274]. The Pawnee divided the year into a warm and a cold

period, and also into the four seasons, each of which however was

normalised to three months[275]. The account of the Comanches is

somewhat indefinite: they have no computation of time beyond the

seasons, which are reckoned by the rising height of the grass, the

fall of the leaves, and the cold and the hot season. They very seldom

reckon in new moons[276]. They have the four seasons therefore. The

Indians of Chile have words for our four seasons[277].

The above-mentioned names of the five seasons are those of the

Algonquins of Virginia[278]; the Occaneechi of the same district

call them:--the budding or blossoming, the ripening, midsummer,

harvest or fall, winter[279]. Certain agricultural tribes of the

east divided autumn into early autumn, when the leaves change

colour, and late autumn, when they fall, but denoted the two periods

by entirely different names[280]. Agriculture is responsible for

the adding of a fifth season to the four arising from the warm and

the cold periods and the times of transition between these[281].

But other transitional periods between the longer seasons also

arise independently[282]. The Lapps have names for the four

ordinary seasons, but their language also contains compounds like

‘spring-winter’, i. e. late winter,--a compound also known in Swedish

(_vår-vinter_)--and ‘autumn-summer’, i. e. late summer[283]. The

Lapps of Västerbotten divide the year into _sjeunjestie_, the dark

period, and _tjuoikestie_, the bright period. They also have four

seasons:--_dalvie_, winter, from the freezing of the lakes till the

melting of snow; _geira_, spring, time of snow-melting and spring

floods; _gese_, summer, from the time when the earth becomes visible

to the fading of the grass; _tjatj_, autumn, from this time until the

lakes begin to freeze again. The Lapps speak also of _talve-qvoutel_,

mid-winter, _kese-qvoutel_, midsummer, and _tjaktje-kese_, late

summer[284].

The Yukaghir of N. E. Sibiria use more often the names of periods or

the seasons of the year than the names of the months. They have six

seasons. The limits of these seasons can hardly have corresponded in

former times to fixed dates. Being at present baptized, they reckon

the seasons of the year according to the Greek-Orthodox holidays;

and thus we have the following seasons:--1, _puge_, summer, from St.

Akulina to Mary’s Day, 13th June to 8th September; 2, _nade_, autumn,

from the 8th of September to St. Michael’s Day, 8th of November; 3,

_cieje_, winter, from the 8th of November to Purification, 2d of

February; 4, _pore_, first spring, from Purification to St. George’s

Day, 23d of April; 5, _cille_, the second spring, from the 23d of

April to the beginning of snow-melting, usually to St. Nicholas’

Day, 9th of March; the name denotes the icy surface forming during

the night on the snow, after having melted during the day, and is

also given to a month; 6, _conjile_, the third spring, from the

snow-melting period to St. Akulina’s Day[285].

Africa offers good examples of the fluctuation and further

sub-division of the seasons. The Wagogo of East Africa divide the

year into the dry season, about May to October, and the rainy season,

November to April. In the latter they further distinguish the little

rainy season, _songola_, November and December, and the greater

one, _itika_, about February and March[286]. In the neighbourhood

of Mombasa the great rains begin in April and last approximately

for a month, _mwaka_ or _masika_: _mchoo_ is a week in August, and

_vuli_ a fortnight in November, with showers. Beyond the seasons the

natives have little idea of the lapse of time[287]. The Wa-Sania of

British East Africa have three periods of four months each, _gunu_,

_adolaia_, and _huggaia_, but no explanation whatever of these names

is given[288]. The Masai divide the rainy season into three periods,

and also have four seasons of three months each:--(1) _ol dumeril_,

the time of the lesser rains, preceding that of the great rains. The

latter fall in (2) _en gokwa_, named after the Pleiades, which at

that time _rise_ low on the _western_ horizon (_sic!_). Then follows

(3) _ol airodjerod_, the season of the gentle after-rains, and then

(4) _ol ameii_, the time of hunger and drought[289]. Hollis begins

the list with the months of the showers, and calls the season of the

great rains _l’apaitin le-’l-lengon_, ‘the months of plenty’, stating

that the latter season, in which the setting of the Pleiades takes

place in the evening, is called from these _loo-’n-gokwa_[290]. Among

the Ewe tribes the year has three periods:--_adame_, March to June;

_keleme_, July to October; _pepi_, November to February. In the first

two much rain falls, so that work in the fields is greatly hindered.

Inland the year begins in March with the yam-sowing, and ends in

February. The three principal seasons include four months each.

Inland _keleme_ also includes another period, _masa_, September and

October, the second maize-sowing. Hence the name ‘masa-corn’. _Pepi_

is the harmattan time, in which fall yam-harvesting, grass-drying,

and hunting[291]. The Yoruba divide the year into the dry season, the

season of the harmattan wind, and the rainy season, the last-named

being further divided into the time of the first rains and that of

the last rains or ‘little rainy season’[292]. In Loango a dry and

a rainy season of about 6 months each are distinguished. In many

districts there is also a third season, _tschimuna_, the time of the

ripening of favourite fruits etc., and the hot seasons are then often

simply called _bimuna_[293].

Where two rainy seasons separated by dry seasons occur, a fuller

division of the year presents itself. The Babwende have five

seasons:--_ntombo_, from the first rains at the end of September or

beginning of October to the ceasing of the great rains at the end of

January; _kianza_, the lesser dry season, to the beginning of the

great rains in February; _ndolo_, the latter part of the rainy season

up to _sivu_, the dry season, which begins in June; and _mbangala_,

in August and September, when the grass withers and is burnt up[294].

The Wadschagga count:--the great rainy season, 4 months; the time

of dew, 2 months; the season of heat, about 2 months; the so-called

lesser rainy season, 1-2 months; the great heat, about 3 months[295].

The seasons of the Banyankole are determined by the rains. The longer

period is termed _kyanda_ and usually has six months: the lesser,

_akanda_, has four, and there are two months called _itumba_. During

the six months very little rain falls, then come a few days of rain

followed by four months of dry weather, and after that two other

months of rain[296]. A very striking example of the crossing and

overlapping of the seasons is afforded by the Bakongo. They have

_sivu_, the cold season, at the beginning of the dry season which

commences about May 15; _mbangala_, the dry season with little or

no dew, July to the middle of October, including also _mpiaza_, the

grass-burning season, second half of July, August, and September;

_masanza_, early light rains, latter part of October, November, and

December; _nkianza_, short dry season, most of January and the early

part of February; _kundi_, _nsafu_, fruit season, end of February to

May, including _kintombo_, heavy rains, March, April, and _nkiela_,

the time when the rains cease, from the beginning to the middle of

May[297].

In the inland districts of Madagascar, in the neighbourhood of

Antananarivo, there are properly only two seasons, a hot rainy

period from the beginning of November to the end of April, and

a cold dry period during the other months. However four seasons

are distinguished:--_lohataona_, ‘head of the year’, September

and October, when the rice is planted and a few showers fall;

_fahavaratra_, ‘the thunder-time’, from the early part of November

to the end of February or into March; _fararano_, ‘the last rains’,

from the beginning of March to the end of April; and _ririnina_,

‘time of bareness’, when the grass becomes dry, June to August.

Rice is planted twice, first before the end of October and again in

November or December; the first crop is ripe in January or early

in February, the second about April; the two crops however are not

clearly distinguished and together last about four months[298]. One

name for winter is _maintang_, ‘the earth is dry’[299].

The Hottentots seem to keep in view the vegetation rather than the

climate. Their seasons are four in number. First, early spring. When

with increasing warmth, independently of the rain-fall, trees and

bushes break into leaf, and in good years winter or early spring

rains have revived the grass, spring or blossoming-time has come; it

begins in August and ends in October. The following season, which

in the upland Damara dialect is called ‘the sun-time’, embraces the

first half of the hot period in which, when the year is good, the

so-called lesser rains fall. If these are wanting, or, as is usually

the case, are scanty, the land is for the most part desolate, without

grass or herbage. This time of drought is described by the same

word as the drought itself: it prevails from October to December

inclusive. The season upon the productiveness of which the welfare of

the Hottentots in the main depends may be called the pasture-season:

it includes the period of the greater rains and the time immediately

after this, when the fodder has not yet lost its freshness. It

fills, loosely speaking, the period January-April, and constitutes

summer and early autumn. Winter, or the cold season, May to August,

embraces two-thirds of autumn and the first half of winter[300]. The

Herero also have four seasons:--spring (from September onwards),

summer, autumn or the rainy season, and winter[301].

In Burmah there are three seasons, though certainly they are

regulated by the months: the cold season, the hot season, and the

rainy season[302]. The Polynesians usually have two long seasons, but

three are not unheard of. A native of the island of Molokai, in the

Sandwich group, states that there the year was divided into three

seasons:--_maka-lii_, _kau_, and _hoo-ilo_. _Maka-lii_ was so called

because the sun was then less visible, being obscured by clouds, and

the days were shortened. _Kau_ was so termed because tapa could then

safely be spread out to dry. _Hoo-ilo_ meant ‘changeable’[303]. The

two main seasons are called _kau_ and _hoo-ilo_. It is to be observed

however that in a notice from Hawaii they are called _hoo-ilo_ and

_maka-lii_[304]. This shews that the number is not fixed. On the

Society Islands besides the two seasons regulated by the Pleiades

there were also three seasons: (1) _tetau_, autumn or season of

plenty, the harvest of bread-fruit, commencing with December and

continuing until _faahu_, which corresponded to January and a part

of February, the time of the most frequent rains, comprising three

months; (2) _te tau miti rahi_, the season of high sea, November to

January; (3) _te tau poai_, the longest season, winter, the season

of drought and scarcity of food, which usually extended from July to

October[305]. It will however be seen that these seasons do not fill

up the year, and that the second partly covers the first. Their names

are taken from different phenomena of Nature. The New Zealanders

distinguish four seasons:--spring, _te aro aro_, _mahaua_, _te toru_,

‘the time of growth’, both _toru_ and _aro aro_ signify ‘the shooting

or springing forth of plants’, _mahaua_ is the season of warmth;

summer, _raumati_, _waru_, _rehua_,--_raumati_ means ‘dead leaves’,

and the summer is so called because all the trees with one exception

are evergreen and shed their leaves in summer; autumn, _ngahura

matiti_; winter, _hotoke_, _puanga_, the season when the earth is

damp and gives forth her worms, which were formerly highly prized as

food[306]. The seasons are regulated by the stars, _puanga_ is the

great winter star, _rehu_ the great summer star.

The names of the greater seasons are therefore taken for the most

part from the varying phases of the climate, but very often refer

also to the phenomena of natural life accompanying these. The

climatic phases, on account of their fluctuating duration and their

limited number, afford no means of distinguishing and naming a

greater number of smaller seasons: the phases of plant and animal

life may be used as an equivalent and are much better adapted to this

purpose, especially when to them are added the regular occupations of

agriculture. In the above examples terms referring to natural life

have already been found mingled with those borrowed from the climate.

Where the seasons are numerous this is always the case: direct

references to the climate may even be entirely lacking. These facts

shew moreover that between the largest and smallest seasons there

exists no difference in the main: they pass into one another without

interruption through a series of intermediate stages. Such smaller

seasons may be run together into the circle of the year; but this

seldom occurs, since the ordinary reckoning according to lunar months

has absorbed the smaller seasons, which, on account of their varying

and indeterminate length, are inconvenient for reckoning, whereas the

regular and definite length of the months makes them easy to reckon.

It is however sometimes the case.

The Indians in general have lunar months named from natural

occurrences, but not so the Luiseño of Southern California. According

to P. S. Sparkman in his unpublished Dictionary of their language

the Luiseño year was divided into 8 periods, each of which was

again divided into two parts, distinguished as ‘large’ and ‘small’

or ‘lean’. These divisions did not represent periods of time but

merely indicated when certain fruits and seeds ripened, grass began

to grow, and trees came into leaf in the valley or on the mountain.

The native names are given but are unfortunately not translated. Du

Bois, to whom we are indebted for this information, names the parts

‘months’ (in inverted commas), and adds that the names are all taken

from the physical features of different seasons. _Tausunmal_, about

August, means that everything is brown and sear. _Tovukmal_ refers to

the little streams of water washing the fallen leaves. _Tasmoimal_

means that the rain has come and grass is sprouting. In _nemoimal_

the deer grow fat. The ‘months’ are marked by the rising of certain

stars. The seasons have here developed into a regular calendrical

cycle[307].

In reality this cycle is in no way distinguished from the succession

of seasons given above: it has only been improved and regulated. This

happens more particularly under the influence of agriculture; one can

speak of an agricultural year the seasons of which are determined

and named in accordance with agriculture. Of the Fanti of the Gold

Coast it is said that they divide the year, according to the changes

of the climate, into nine parts with distinct names, beginning with

the harmattan wind in January and ending with the small tornadoes

in December[308]. The periods however are related to agriculture,

as appears from a detailed description for the countries around the

Niger. The end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry

(about November) forms a kind of season by itself, and is called

_odun_ (year). The farmers go on weeding their farms to give the

crops of their second harvest a chance. The dry season is divided

into two sections of two months each. During the day it is very

hot. The cold wind blowing from the east is called _harmattan_ by

Europeans, _oye_ by the natives. The second crops of corn, beans,

and guinea-corn are now gathered. The land is cleared for the next

season’s crops, and the bush already felled is burnt. This is also

the fishing season. The dry season (_erun_) continues for the next

two months, but during the latter part of the second month the

rumbling of thunder is heard and small rains fall. The preparation of

the ground is continued and yam-planting begins. The rainy season

may be divided into two parts separated by a little dry season: the

first section consists of five lunar months of rain, the latter of

two lunar months, one nearly dry month intervening. The first two

months of this section of the rains are called _asheroh ojo_: it

is the tornado season. At the beginning of this season ground-nuts

and the first crop of corn are planted. In the next two months the

rain-fall reaches its maximum. Towards the end of the second month

it becomes possible to eat new corn. The main crop however is left

standing in the fields until it becomes quite dry, which happens when

the next season, the little dry season, sets in. This sub-division of

the rainy season is called _ago_, probably because the corn has grown

tall during the last month. The season called _awori_ consists of one

month of rain and the little dry season. The first crop of yams, the

corn, the ground-nuts, and the gourds are gathered in. Before long

the rains have ceased, the seed for the second crop of corn is sown.

The two following months are called the _arokuro_ season, and like

the first two months of the rains they are tornado months. Bushes

are felled in order to prepare the land for next year’s sowing, and

weeding is continued[309]. The months mentioned are lunar months.

An interesting feature is that the names of the seasons do not

altogether coincide with the natural divisions of the climate, as the

following comparison clearly shews:--_odun_, end of rains, beginning

of dry season; _erun_, dry season I, II, 4 months; _asheroh ojo_,

season of rains (tornadoes), 2 months; _ago_, rainy season, maximum,

2 months; _awori_, 1 month rain and little dry season; _arokuro_,

season of rains (tornadoes), 2 months. The deviations are brought

about, as the description shews, by the business of agriculture.

The Shilluk know the months but also divide the year into the

following nine seasons:--_yey jeria_, about September, harvest of red

dura; _anwoch_, about October, end of the harvest, people are waiting

for white dura to ripen; _agwero_, about November-December, harvest

of white dura begins; _wudo_, December to January, harvest of white

dura continues; _leu_, January-February, the hot season, _dodin_,

about March, in these two there is no work in the fields; _dokot_,

about April, ‘mouth of rain’, beginning of the rains; _shwer_, about

May-July, time for planting red dura; _doria_, about July-September,

beginning of harvest[310]. A similar but more indefinite mode

of reckoning seems to exist among the Bakairi of S. America, of

whom it is said that they reckon by dry and rainy seasons, and

also distinguish ‘months’ not by the moon but quite vaguely by

the rain and the heat and the phases of the maize-culture[311].

Their months are given as follows:--‘hardest rain’, about January;

‘less rain’, February; ‘rain ceases’, March; ‘it (the weather)

becomes good’, April; ‘wood-cutting’, May and June; July, nameless;

‘end-of-the-day-time’, August; ‘the rain is coming’, September and

October; ‘the maize ripens’, November; December, nameless[312].

The agricultural year is most clearly defined among the

rice-cultivating peoples of the Indian Archipelago, by whom the

seasons are determined according to the state of the rice. It is

said, for example, in speaking of an event, that it happened at the

blossoming or harvesting of the rice[313]. Among the Bahau, a Dyak

tribe of Borneo, the year is divided into eight periods according

to the various kinds of labour carried on in the rice-field:--the

clearing of the brushwood (to prepare the fields for cultivation),

the felling of the trees, the burning of the wood felled, the

sowing or celebration of the seed-time festival, the weeding, the

harvest, the conclusion of the harvest, the celebration of the new

rice-year[314]. The Bontoc Igorot, as has been mentioned, divide the

year into two parts, the period of rice-culture and the other period.

There are however other periods which vary in different villages as

regards name, number, and duration, but are everywhere called after

the characteristic occupations that follow one another in the course

of the year. Eight of these together make up the calendar, and seven

of them have to do with the rice-cultivation. Each period receives

its name from the occupation which characterises its beginning, and

keeps this name until the beginning of the next period, even when

the occupation that characterised it had ceased some time before. To

_cha-kon_ belong:--(1) _i-na-na_, the first period in the year, the

time, as it is said, of no more work in the rice sementeras, when

practically all the fields are prepared and transplanted; in 1903

it began on Feb. 11 and it lasts about 3 months, continuing until

the time of the first rice-harvest in May, in 1903 till May 2; (2)

_la-tub_, the time of the first harvests, lasts about four weeks and

ends about June 1; (3) _cho-ok_, the time when most of the rice is

harvested, fills about 4 weeks, in 1903 till July 2; (4) _li-pas_,

the season of ‘no more palay-harvest’, lasts for about 10 or 15 days.

To the half-year _ka-sip_, belong:--(5) _ba-li-ling_, which takes

its name from the general planting of camotes and is the only one

of the calendar periods not named from the rice industry: it lasts

about 6 weeks, or nearly to the end of August; (6) _sa-gan-ma_, the

time when the sementeras which are to be used as seed-beds for the

rice are put into condition, the earth being turned three several

times, lasts about 2 months: on Nov. 15, 1902 the seed was just

peeping from the kernels; the seed is sown immediately after the

third turning of the earth, which thus ended early in November; (7)

_pa-chog_, the period of seed-sowing, begins about Nov. 10; although

the seed-sowing does not last many days, the period continues for 5

or 6 weeks; (8) _sa-ma_, the last period, in which the sementeras are

prepared for receiving the young plants, and in which these seedlings

are transplanted from the seed-beds, lasts nearly 7 weeks, from about

Dec. 20 to Feb. 10. The Igorot often say e. g. that an event occurred

in _la-tub_ or will take place in _ba-li-ling_; they therefore keep

these periods in mind just as a European thinks of some particular

month in which an event has happened[315]. The greatly varying length

of the periods is once more to be noted, and also the fact that a

vacant season is made into a period (see e. g. under (7)), it being

necessary to fill in the gaps so that the circle shall be continuous.

How such seasons and the year formed out of them may be developed

under the influence of the improved calendar into periods of

definite numbers of days is shewn by the Javanese peasant calendar

which is still used in Bali and Java. The year is an embolimic

year of 360 days and is divided into 12 periods of unequal length.

These are:--_koso_, 41 days; _karo_, 23; _katigo_, 24; _kapat_, 24

(25)[316]; _kalimo_, 26 (27); _kanam_, 41 (43); _kapitu_, 41 (43);

_kawolu_, 26 (in leapyear 27); _kasongo_, 25; _kasapuluh_, 25 (24);

_dasto_, 23; _sodo_, 41. The first ten of these names are the ordinal

numerals of the Javanese vernacular, the last two, according to

Wilken, are corruptions of Sanskrit words. In Bali the year begins

with the eleventh season (April), in Java with the winter solstice.

The different divisions correspond to the following occupations

and natural events:--1, the falling of the leaves, burning of dry

grass, and cutting of trees for the cultivation of mountain rice; 2,

beginning of vegetation; 3, blossoming of wild plants, planting of

yams and other secondary crops; 4, rutting season, high winds, the

rivers swell; 5, preparations for rice-planting; 6, ploughing and

rice-sowing; 7, rice is planted, the canals are repaired; 8, rice

grows and flowers; 9, the seeds form in the rice-plants; 10, rice

turning yellow; 11, the rice-crop is ripe, harvest begins; 12, cold

weather begins, the harvest is finished and the rice housed. This is

almost literally translated from the language of the natives[317].

Wilken gives to certain periods a different number of days (see note

1); according to him the year has 365 days, but every fourth year is

a leapyear with 366 days. The calendar was regulated in 1855 by Pakoe

Boewånå III, naturally according to the Gregorian calendar: hence

the variation from Crawfurd’s statements. This is the only instance

of an attempt to bring a natural calendar into agreement with the

demands of a modern one; it is however unpractical and inconvenient

on account of the varying length of the divisions. It is still used

in eastern Java and in the Tengge mountains[318].

In China, besides the lunisolar type of year, there is a division

of the year into 24 parts, the names of which correspond to the

climatic phenomena but are also borrowed from the phenomena of

natural life. They are:--rain-water, 15 days; moving of snakes, 15

days; spring equinox, 15 days; pure brightness, 15 days; sowing-rain

and dawn of summer, together 31 days; little fruitfulness (Ginzel) or

little rainy season (d’Enjoy), corn in the beard, together 31 days;

summer solstice, 16 days; beginning of heat, 16 days; great heat,

signs of autumn, together 31 days; end of heat, white dew, together

31 days; cold dew, 15 days; autumn equinox, 15 days; hoar-frost,

15 days; signs of winter, 15 days, beginning of snow, great snows,

together 29 days; winter solstice, 15 days; little cold, 15 days;

great cold, 15 days; dawn of spring, 15 days[319]. Of this division

Ginzel says that among the Chinese the seasons are expressed by

a division of the ecliptic: they are therefore astronomical, the

Chinese have no special names for the physical seasons. In former

times they took the length of the astronomical year to be 365¼

days, and assumed an equal period for the course of the sun in the

ecliptic; but they afterwards learnt to calculate the beginning of

the divisions directly. It would be surprising however not to find

underlying the present divisions old seasons which the astronomical

knowledge has drawn within its scope, and which have thus been

systematically developed and regulated. To decide the matter would

require special knowledge which the present writer does not possess.

It is to be noted moreover that the periods are connected in pairs,

the odd numbers (according to Ginzel’s scheme) are called _tsie_, the

even _k’i_, the joint name being _tsie-k’i_.

As far as the Indo-European period is concerned it seems now to

be agreed that there were then three seasons: for only the roots

occurring in the words _hiems_, _ver_, and _summer_ recur in a

greater number of the Indo-European languages. The much criticised

statement of Tacitus about the Germans is therefore corroborated:

“They know and name winter and spring and summer, but are ignorant

of the name and the goods of harvest”[320]. Spring however is not

equivalent to the other two seasons, for Indo-European antiquity

certainly also divided the year into two parts, the cold and the

warm seasons. The question whether the primitive Indo-European tribe

had two or three seasons is therefore pointless, and that this is so

will be readily understood by anyone who has become familiar with

the overlapping and the instability of the seasons of the primitive

peoples. The same phenomenon repeats itself in the addition of a

fourth season. The Greeks complete the circle of the year with the

three seasons winter, spring, and summer (χειμών, ἔαρ, θέρος), but in

Homer the fruit-harvest, ὀπώρη, already appears with the pretensions

of an independent season. Alkman has these four[321]. The principle

of nomenclature is however different: the first three names are

derived from climatic phenomena, ὀπώρα from the fruit-harvest. Now

since four climatic periods are naturally to be distinguished--cold,

warmth, and two transitional periods--the logical consequence is that

the fourth season should also be referred to the climate, and indeed

to the still unnamed period of transition between summer and winter.

This period however does not coincide with ὀπώρα, but follows it.

The latter term is therefore corrected to φθιν- or μετόπωρον; the

ὀπώρα naturally persists as the fruit harvest, and Theophrastus[322]

counts it in addition to the other four and thus gets five seasons.

The same thing seems to have happened in the case of the Latin

_autumnus_, although the process cannot be demonstrated. If the

small seasons are included the circle may be still further extended.

Thus the pseudo-Hippocratean treatise Περὶ ἑβδομάδων[323] gives

seven seasons:--1, seed-time, σπορητός, from the early rising of the

Pleiades to the winter solstice; 2, winter, until the late rising

of Arcturus; 3, tree-planting, φυταλιά, up to the spring equinox;

4, spring; 5, summer, from the early rising of the Pleiades up to

that of Sirius; 6, fruit-harvest, ὀπώρα, until the early rising of

Arcturus; 7, autumn. This arrangement is certainly affected by the

septenary system which pervades the treatise, but is founded on a

popular basis: the smaller seasons, which otherwise pass into the

greater, are given an independent position by the side of these.

The system has not prevailed, it is true, but it affords a typical

example of the instability of the seasons.

Exactly the same process recurs in the Indian seasons. The natural

division of the North Indian year is into three periods--a warm, a

rainy, and a cold season. Three corresponding seasons are the most

usual in the Vedic period, and these are still the popular divisions

in the Punjab. Later two transitional periods are interpolated,

one of an autumnal character between the rainy season and the cold

season, and a warm period between the cold season and the hot.

These five seasons often occur in the Brahmanas. The well-known six

seasons--_vasanta_, spring; _grishma_, hot season; _varsha_, rainy

season; _śarad_, autumn; _hemanta_, winter; _śiśira_, cool season:

the cold season is divided into two periods--are the result of a

systematic comparison with the months, the latter being distributed

in pairs among the seasons. By this arrangement the rainy season is

the loser, since it embraces at least three months. There is also

a second sexpartite division of the year, not indeed mentioned in

the Vedic literature but better corresponding to the course of the

seasons, in which the rainy season is divided into two periods[324].

The splitting up of the seasons persists to this day among the

Germanic peoples; but a systematising of these small seasons is only

found when they are referred to the Julian months. This point will be

dealt with below, in chapter XI. The phenomenon is known to me from

my own native district. The word _höst_, ‘autumn’, still persists

there in the old literal sense of harvest, mowing, and indeed

_höhösten_ is particularly the hay-harvest. Hence the designation of

the autumn season as _höst_ is felt to be insufficiently accurate

and the term is replaced by _efterhöst_, literally ‘after-harvest’,

late autumn. Between summer and _efterhöst_ appears the _skyr_

(dialect for _skörd_), the harvest, as a fifth season; sometimes

there is added a sixth season, _sivinter_, late winter. Little

attention has been paid to this phenomenon, though it is common

enough. The periods of the rural occupations in particular give

rise to such terms. Any period of this nature is described by the

old Swedish word _and_ (_ann_), now obsolete except in dialects.

For the other districts I add from the Dialect Dictionary of

Rietz:--_hobal_, the period on the one hand between the tillage in

spring and the hay-harvest, and on the other between the hay- and

the corn-harvest, the former period being the greater, the latter

the small _hobal_. Elsewhere the word has the form _hovel_, summer

being divided into _hoveln_, _mellan-anna_ and _ann_ (which is here

used pregnantly to mean harvest). Compounds with _and_ are _vår-_,

_säs-_, _gödsel-_, _hö-_, _slått-_, _skår-_, _skyr-_ and _sädes-and_

(periods of spring, sowing, manuring, hay, hay-harvest, harvest,

corn). The North Frisians of Amrum and Föhr for instance mark events

by the periods _um julham_ (‘at Christmas’), _um wosham_ (‘in early

spring’), _pluchleth_ (ploughing-time), _meedarleth_ (hay-harvest),

_kaarskörd_ (corn-reaping). In Norway there are current as general

time-indications:--fishing-time (_fiskja_), springtime (_voarvinna_

or _voaronn_), ploughing-time (_plogen_ or _plogvinna_), midsummer

(_haavoll_ or _haaball_), ‘between time’, i. e. between ploughing and

hay-making, (_mellonn_), early summer (_leggsumar_), haymaking-time

(_høyvinna_, _høyonn_, or _slaatt_), harvest-time (_haustvinna_ or

_skurd_), ‘shortest-days-time’ (_skamtid_)[325]. In Iceland, where

the sheep-farming is the principal industry, we find:--Lamb-weaning

time or Pen-tide, _stekk-tid_, in May; Parting-tide, _fra-faerar_,

when the sheep are driven to the hills; Market-tide, _kaup-tid_,

when all purchases for the year are made; Home-field hay-time

and Out-field hay-time (July and August); Folding-tide, _rettir_

(September), when the sheep are driven off the hill pastures into

folds to be separated into flocks and marked. Again from wild

birds and eider-ducks one calls the spring Egg-tide. The fisherman

uses such seasons as _ver-tid_, Fishing-tide; of these there is

a spring, an autumn, and a winter fishing-month. Flitting-days,

_fardagar_, come in the spring, and _skil-dagar_ in summer, when

servants leave.[326] In the old German laws and elsewhere similar

time-indications are common, e. g. at plough-time, at the second

plough-time, at autumn-sowing, at harvest, at hay-making time, at

hemp-gathering, after harvest and hay-making, at the bean-harvest, at

plough-time, at the grape-harvest, at sowing-time, at harvest-time,

fall of the leaves, sprouting of the leaves, oat-cutting or

harvest[327]. In Anglo-Saxon a similar expression occurs in a law of

King Vihtraed in the year 696, _sexton dæge rugernes_ (rye-harvest).

These periods are in themselves indefinite, they fail to achieve a

definite length or quite fixed position in the year. Where they do

so, this is due to the comparison with the Julian months, of which

more later.

However over the number of the seasons among the Germans or, what has

often been regarded as the same thing,--and this is an evidence of

the false methods by which the problem has been attacked--over the

German division of the year, a long and vigorous dispute has been

carried on. That the year was divided into two parts, summer and

winter, is well known. I refer to the Scandinavian half-years[328],

to the testimony of Bede[329] that the Anglo-Saxons reckoned six

months for winter and six for summer, and to the German expressions

for a year: ‘in bareness and in leaf’, ‘bare and leaf-clad’,

‘in straw and in grass’[330]. No less a scholar than J. Grimm

has cast doubt on the statement of Tacitus that the Germans had

only three seasons, but later he withdrew his doubts in view of

the consideration that the Germans at the time of Tacitus were

acquainted with grain-culture but not with fruit-culture, and that

the word autumn, harvest, referred to the fruit and vine-harvests

and therefore naturally did not appear among the Germans of that

time[331]. In view of the linguistic phenomenon mentioned above, p.

71, it seems now to be agreed that the account of Tacitus is in

the main correct. Weinhold has given the treatment of the question

its direction. According to him the tripartite division to which

reference has been made crowded out the older division into two

parts, the points of division, he maintains, doubtless coinciding

in the first instance with the three _Lauddinge_ or _ungebotene

Gerichte_ (regular courts), which are found as early as the time

of Charlemagne. The beginnings of the four seasons--determined

from saints’ days--in February, May, August, and November are of

foreign origin: on the other hand the quadripartite division of

the year, arising from the fact that mid-winter and midsummer were

added to the beginning of winter and summer as interpolations in the

time-reckoning, is German. This Weinhold tries to prove from the

popular festivals associated with these dates. The attempt however is

a complete failure. No season begins with any of the solstices, on

the contrary these fall right in the middle of a season. His thesis

rests on an erroneous conception of the festivals, viz. that they are

in general calendar-festivals. Under primitive conditions a festival

(the harvest-home in particular) may certainly conclude a division of

time and may thus also indicate the beginning of a new season, but

as a rule the festivals, though regulated by the calendar, are not

so ordered that they coincide with the beginning of a season. We are

therefore not authorised in drawing conclusions as to the beginning

of a division of the year from the existence of an old festival.

Support has been lent to the idea of Weinhold by the fact that in

later times the beginnings of the seasons were indicated by festivals

and saints’ days. The fact of the matter is that the common medieval

calendar was composed of a series of festivals and saints’ days from

among which suitable and well-known days were chosen in the dating

of the beginnings of the seasons also. For the general understanding

it was necessary throughout to bring in popular saints’ days[332].

Tille attacks Weinhold very sharply but remains throughout under the

influence of the method indicated by the latter: his work, however,

has its good points, inasmuch as it refers to economic conditions,

agriculture, the payments of rent, etc. The bipartite division, he

asserts, is primitive Indo-European, the tripartite is of foreign

(Egyptian) origin: both existed for a long time side by side. This

fact is explained by an old sexpartite division of the year, since

the six seasons could be run together either in twos or in threes.

The beginnings of the half-years are given by natural phenomena,

those of the three annual divisions are placed by Tille at March

13, July 10, and Nov. 11, old style: in the north on account of the

climatic conditions they are pushed back a month. Hammarstedt[333]

remarks very pertinently that the beginning of winter in November,

in the north in October, belongs to the reckoning in half-years, and

that hence arises the absurdity that Tille has to give Feb. 10 as the

date for the beginning of spring in the north. But to assign Dec. 13

with Hammarstedt as the beginning of one of the three seasons agrees

just as little with the natural seasons of the year.

The principal error lies in the systematising, the seasons being

regarded as periods of a definite number of days. This is not the

case even to-day, and still less was it so, as we have seen, among

primitive peoples. Still more clearly does the same error of method

appear in Tille’s assumption of a sexpartite division of the year,

or of sixty-day periods, as they are expressly termed. He refers

to the six old Indian seasons, which are a comparatively late and

artificial product called forth by the adoption of the names of the

seasons in the reckoning by months[334], and to the pairs of months

of the Syrian and Arabian calendar. He regards as 60-day divisions

not only the smaller seasons mentioned above, p. 75, the duration of

which was originally no less indefinite than it is to-day, but also

the Germanic pairs of months, which owe their origin to an adaptation

of the Roman months (for this see below, ch. XI). The 60-day periods

are so far from being primitive that they first took their origin

under the influence of the reckoning in months.

In Iceland there still exists a curious calendar, the ‘week-year’.

The year is divided into two halves, _misseri_; the people reckon in

so many _misseri_, not years; it consists of _whole_ weeks, in the

ordinary year 52 (= 364 days), in leapyear 53 (= 371 days). Until

midsummer (or mid-winter) they reckon forwards, so many weeks of

summer or winter have elapsed, after that backwards, so many weeks

of summer (winter) remain[335]. Bilfinger in a penetrating study

has tried to shew that this curious calendar is an outcome of the

ecclesiastical calendarial science of the Middle Ages. He does not

however prove his case: rather, the calendar, as tradition shews,

reaches far back into heathen times[336].

The reckoning in weeks was once common to all Scandinavia. The

Lapps have special names for every week of the year, borrowed from

festivals and saints’ days falling within the weeks; they have

therefore taken from the Scandinavians the reckoning in weeks and

adapted it to the uses of a primitive time-reckoning. From the

same source they have also derived the special significance of the

summer night (April 14, Tiburtius) and of the winter night (Oct. 14,

Calixtus), from which also two weeks are named. The system is better

preserved in certain parts of South Sweden[337]. The people count

in _räppar_, quarter-years--in Öland they are called _trettingar_,

thirteenths, i. e. 13 weeks--beginning with the _räppadagar_: these

are Lady Day, Midsummer Day, Michaelmas Day, and Christmas Day, old

style. Just as in Iceland, they reckon backwards, not however in the

same quarters as there, but in the quarters before Midsummer and

Christmas: in the other two quarters they count forwards. In northern

Scania I have met with a relic of the same type of reckoning, the

‘number of weeks’ (_ugetalet_), which begins on April 6 (Lady Day,

old style), and is reckoned backwards as far as the thirteenth week.

The duration of both rural occupations and natural phenomena is

determined in so many weeks. As the starting-point of this reckoning

in weeks the four great festivals which come nearest to the four

points of the solstices and equinoxes are chosen. There can be no

doubt that these have made their appearance under the influence of

the Christian calendar instead of the four Old Scandinavian points

of division of the year. The people call Calixtus’ day (Oct. 14)

the first day of winter, and Tiburtius’ day (April 14) the first

day of summer; many rune-staves have this division of the year, and

almost all describe the former by a tree without leaves, the latter

by a tree in leaf. They fall in the same weeks as the initial days

of winter and summer in Iceland, which vary there on account of the

peculiar arrangement of the calendar. In Scandinavia, however, they

have been transformed into fixed days under the influence of the

Julian calendar.

It is a natural conclusion that the reckoning in weeks had its origin

in the use of the rune-staff. Since the week-day letters on these

are repeated the whole year through, the weeks offered an easy means

of reckoning. This conclusion is certainly correct, but still we

may venture to ask why the week-day letters were admitted into the

national calendar by the North especially, and why the reckoning in

weeks should be adopted in popular use only there. The reason can

only be that the counting in weeks was already in use before the

rune-staff was introduced. This mode of counting, which in Iceland

had been developed into a curious form of year, was in Scandinavia

adapted to the Julian calendar and remained bound up with this. The

leap-week was therefore unnecessary. The old basis is however still

preserved in the points of departure, the summer and winter nights.

It is the same system as the Icelandic, built up on the week and the

year, but differently modified: the idea of any borrowing cannot be

entertained. The basis of this calendar, therefore, was once common

to all Scandinavia, and the calendar must go back to heathen times.

Under the influence of the popular lay astrology the week was early

spread among the Germanic peoples: on it and on an approximate

knowledge of the length of the year, such as could easily be

acquired in the lively intercourse with Christian lands during the

Viking period, the system of the Icelandic calendar is built up. An

indigenous element however appears, the half-year reckoning, and

indeed the great probability is that the limitation of the half-year

to a fixed number of days was first achieved as a result of this

systematising of the calendar. Winter and summer, like all natural

seasons, had at first no fixed limits. The quarters arose in the

course of the reckoning, the people counting forwards in the first

half of the half-year and backwards in the other half. The middle

points of the half-year, mid-winter and midsummer, fell where both

reckonings met. This agrees with the popular objection to high

numbers. The Germanic tribes of the south, in accordance with their

milder climate, commonly reckoned five months for winter. In the

north the dead season is longer, about six months, and this fact has

contributed to the half-year reckoning which, as has already been

remarked, is widely characteristic of northern peoples. That the

limits between both seasons were unstable and could be moved forward

according to circumstances is in my opinion shewn by the names of the

initial days of the half-year--_sumarmál_ (plural) and _vetrnaetr_,

‘the winter nights’. Where a definitely determined day is in question

the plural is out of place: it is used to describe a period, for

instance _jol_ (plur.) denotes Christmas-time[338].

With the two opening days of the calendar and the one division in

the middle are often combined the three great sacrificial feasts,

the autumn festival at the winter nights, the Yule festival at

mid-winter, and the spring festival at the summer nights. It is

true that the first of these festivals, which was celebrated at the

beginning of a period of rest after the completion of the harvest

and agricultural labour, denoted, as such festivals often do, the

conclusion of the old year and the beginning of the new. That it was

fixed for a definite day cannot be demonstrated any more than that

the festival of victory in spring, celebrated before the Vikings

went forth on their voyages, fell exactly on the summer night. On

the contrary the time probably varied according to circumstances:

the expression of Snorre lacks calendarial accuracy and remains

indefinite:--“They should sacrifice against the winter to get a

good year, and at mid-winter sacrifice for germination; the third

sacrifice in summer, and this was a sacrifice of victory”[339]. In

historical times the Yule festival is regulated by the Christian

calendar; Snorre says that in heathen times it was celebrated

at the _hökku_ night, but of this we have no certain knowledge.

Things happened as in the Middle Ages and later: after a calendar

has arisen the festivals are regulated by this, but they are not

calendar-festivals, and in reconstructing the scheme of the calendar

from the festivals very great caution must be exercised.

Our conclusion is that the Germanic seasons, like the seasons in

general, were not in themselves definitely limited divisions of time,

and that alongside of the greater seasons smaller ones arose without

there being any numerical determination of the relationship between

the two. Seasons only become divisions consisting of a definite

number of days when in the regulation of the calendar they are taken

over as calendar divisions, as winter and summer were in Scandinavia.

Where a calendar has arisen directly out of the seasons, the

divisions, like the seasons, are of varying length[340]. This also

shews that the Germanic seasons first attained a definite number of

days through the calendar-regulation introduced from abroad. Further,

when a calendar existed, the beginning of the seasons could be given

with reference to this: the day varied according to circumstances,

but the choice was limited in this manner, viz. that only a popular

festival or saint’s day was appropriate as a distinguishing day.

Here also, therefore, the calendar was the starting-point for the

regulation of the seasons. A division of the year in the more

accurate sense also first arose through the regulation of the

calendar, since, owing to the method of calculation, the middle

days of the half-year divisions became distinguishing days in

the calendar. When the calendar came, the old festivals were also

regulated by it.

By way of supplement two or three curious exceptional cases may be

noted. A completely isolated instance is offered by the Bangala of

the Upper Congo, who count in lunar months, and, since there is no

dry season, reckon for longer periods by the rise of the rivers[341].

In the monsoon districts however it is frequently a peculiarity to

distinguish the seasons by the winds. Of Sumatra it is reported:--The

principal seasons are named after the quarters of the heavens from

which the wind blows. At the time when we were in Taluk, April to

mid-June, the south monsoon was blowing; the east, the west, and

the north monsoons also come under consideration for the seasons.

Moreover the people also distinguish a dry and a rainy period. The

seasons 4. _tahun djin_, 5. _tahun wou_, 6. _tahun sai_ were regarded

as falling within the rainy period, while the dry season set in

with 1. _t. ali_, and continued with 2. _t. dal awal_, and 3. _t.

dal akhir_. In the two seasons 7. _t. ha_ and 8. _t. ‘am_ dry and

wet weather alternate[342]. In New Britain (Bismarck Archipelago),

between the two greater seasons of the south-east and the north-west

monsoons, each consisting of 5 months, there were two smaller

intermediate seasons of one month each, the period of variable winds

and the period of calm[343]. In Songa (Vellalavella), one of the

Solomon Islands, various seasons are distinguished according to the

direction of the wind:--the time of the west wind, _nanano_; the

time of the almond-ripening, _tovarauru_ (the time of the north

wind); _rari_, the time of the south wind--during this period calm

prevails at night but there is wind in the day-time; _sassa nanamo_,

time of the east wind; _mbule_, time of calm, lasting about a

month. After _mbule_ follow _tovaruru_, lasting about 2 months, and

_sassa nanamo_, one month. In Lambutjo the matter is still further

complicated. The following winds are distinguished:--south wind,

west wind, good wind at the time of almond-ripening, lasting about

one month. Further the east wind, strong or quite weak with squalls,

not good. Three months afterwards comes the west wind, lasting about

2-3 months. After the east wind a south-west wind, very strong, at

that time one cannot sail on the sea: it often comes 5 months after

the east wind. After the south-west wind a SE wind, lasting only 1-2

weeks. Then strong E wind, lasting 1-2 months, during which time

navigation in canoes is impossible. Then again a time of ‘clear

water’, i. e. calm, lasting two months. After this, S wind, NW wind,

and NE wind. Each of these lasts only a short time, altogether they

occupy 3-4 months. Then begins a lighter E wind, lasting 3-4 weeks.

Then about one month of light W wind, then again stronger E wind for

1-2 months. Afterwards S wind for 1½-2 months, lighter SE wind for

1-2 weeks, and then again stronger E wind for 2-3 months. At the time

of the west wind there is much rain, at the time of the east wind

much sunshine[344]. It is very interesting to see how accurately

primitive peoples observe Nature, but these are not indications

of time. On the Gazelle Peninsula it has been observed that when

the SE monsoon blows the sun comes up in the east, and when the NW

monsoon blows it rises in the south: the wind comes from the opposite

direction to that in which the sun rises[345].