SOLSTICES AND EQUINOXES. AIDS TO THE DETERMINATION OF TIME.
We have seen in the foregoing pages how the phases of Nature, with
their somewhat variable dates, are everywhere employed in the
determination of time; how in the moon there lies ready to hand a
clear, stable (at least within very narrow limits), and constant unit
of time which could be turned to account in calculating; and how
out of the fusion of natural phases and moons there arose a roughly
empirical lunisolar year. For the more accurate fixing both of the
seasons and of the months the phases of the stars are employed;
these, being dependent on the sun, keep pace with the natural year,
but, unlike the phases of Nature, are not subject to climatic
variations but are astronomically fixed.
It is however possible astronomically to fix the solar year by a
second method, viz. the observation of the annual course of the sun,
especially of the solstices: the observation of the equinoxes is a
much more difficult matter. The observation of the solstices can be
performed in a way similar to that mentioned above, p. 21, in which
noon is determined by the position of the sun, but is much more
difficult to carry out and requires far more accurate and delicate
methods. Two fixed points at least are necessary--a standing-ground
and in the simplest case a mark on the horizon; other methods are
still more complicated. An observation of the annual course of the
sun, therefore, unlike that of the stars,--which everywhere, no
matter where, can be performed immediately--demands a fixed place
and special aids to determination. It follows that the observation
of the solstices and equinoxes belongs to a much higher stage of
civilisation than does that of the stars. It can only arise among
a people with a fixed dwelling-place, since a race which leads a
nomadic life and changes dwellings and camps is without the necessary
fixed points of observation. After all it is only natural--and this
actually is the case--that the observation of the course of the sun
should be in use only among certain specially gifted peoples.
It is used by the Eskimos, who have a very highly developed sense
of place, and know how to make good maps. Moreover where the sun in
winter stands very low on the horizon, and for a time altogether
disappears beneath it, the conditions are very favourable for the
observation of its return. Older authors say that by the rays of
the sun on the rocks the Eskimos can tell with tolerable accuracy
when it is the shortest day[1039]; more recently we have been told
of the Ammasalik that they can calculate beforehand the time of
the shortest day--and that accurately to the day--not only from
the solstitial point, but also from the position of Altair in the
morning twilight[1040]. They begin their spring when the sun rises
at the same spot as Altair[1041]. This is a quite isolated, but an
accurate, determination of the course of the sun from the fixed
stars. The Hudson Bay Eskimos of Labrador recognise the arrival of
the solstices by the bearing of the sun with reference to certain
fixed landmarks[1042]. The Central Eskimos must do the same, since
they are acquainted with the winter solstice and when this and new
moon coincide they omit their intercalary month[1043].
The tribes of Arizona observed the course of the sun, more
particularly to determine the dates of their religious ceremonies,
but also to decide the time of secular occupations. Among the Zuñi
the winter solstice begins when the rising sun strikes a certain
point at the south-west end of ‘Corn Mountain’, and a great feast is
then celebrated. Then the sun moves to the north, passes the moon at
_ayonawa yälläne_, and continues round to a point north-west of Zuñi,
which is called ‘Great Mountain’, where it sets consecutively for
four days at the same point. The last day is the summer solstice.
On this occasion also a great festival is celebrated[1044]. The Hopi
determine the time for their religious ceremonies, for planting,
and for sowing by observing the points on the horizon where the sun
rises or sets. The winter ceremonies are determined by the position
of the sunset, the summer by the position of the sunrise. The two
points of the solstices are called the ‘houses’ of the sun. There
are 13 landmarks, by means of which the seasons are determined from
the ecliptic. The number suggests that there is some connexion
with the months. It would in that case be a quite isolated example
of the regulation of the months by the observation of the sun’s
position[1045].
The Incas erected artificial marks. There were in Cuzco sixteen
towers, eight to the west and eight to the east, arranged in groups
of four. The two middle ones were smaller than the others, and the
distance between the towers was eight, ten, or twenty feet. The space
between the little towers through which the sun passed at sunrise
and sunset was the point of the solstices. In order to verify this
the Inca chose a favourable spot from which he observed carefully
whether the sun rose and set between the little towers to east and
west. For the observation of the equinoxes richly ornamented pillars
were set up in the open space before the temple of the sun. When the
time approached, the shadow of the pillars was carefully observed.
The open space was circular and a line was drawn through its centre
from east to west. Long experience had taught them where to look for
the equinoctial point, and by the distance of the shadow from this
point they judged of the approach of the equinox. When from sunrise
to sunset the shadow was to be seen on both sides of the pillar and
not at all to the south of it, they took that day as the day of the
equinox. This last account is for Quito, which lies just under the
equator. At the spring equinox the maize was reaped and a feast was
celebrated, at the autumn equinox the people celebrated one of their
four principal feasts[1046]. The months were calculated from the
winter solstice.
Among the Amazulu, we are told, the path of the sun in winter is
different from its summer path: for it travels northward till it
reaches a certain place,--a mountain or a forest (where it rises
and sets)--and it does not pass beyond these two places; it comes
out of its winter house; when it comes out it goes southward to
its summer place. We say that when it quits its winter place it is
fetching the summer, until it reaches a certain mountain or tree;
and then it turns northward again, fetching the winter, in constant
succession. These are its houses; we say so, for it stays in its
winter house a few days: and when it quits that place we know that
it has ended the winter and is now fetching the summer; and indeed
it travels southward until, when the summer has grown, it enters
the summer house a few days, and then quits it again, in constant
succession[1047]. The Basuto also call the summer solstice the house
of the sun, and intelligent chiefs adjust the reckoning of the months
by it[1048].
For the Bismarck Archipelago the following details are given. On the
island of Vuatam there is celebrated some time after the solstice and
usually at the beginning of January--the exact date depends on the
weather--a festival the object of which is to regulate the course of
the sun and to secure good weather. In the whole of the north-eastern
part of the Gazelle Peninsula the fact of the solstice is known,
although no festival is celebrated. When the sun had its greatest
southern amplitude it rose over Birar on St. George’s Channel. A
native magistrate, To Kakao, explained how the sun would turn again
and would finally attain its greatest northern amplitude on the
horizon when it sank between the volcanic mountains ‘South Daughter’
and ‘Mother’. In Valaur the view is completely cut off to the east,
and so the sun is observed at its setting, the turning-point in the
south being formed by two mountain peaks situated close together.
Another southern turning-point is furnished by still another
mountain. The spot denoting the turning-point in the Baining mountain
is chosen rather far off, and the observation is therefore not very
accurate. The solstices are brought into connexion with the variation
of the monsoons. To Kakao said that the north-east trade-wind blew
all the time the sun was in the south (November to February), but
during the time when it was situated in a northerly direction (May to
August) the south-east monsoon prevailed. In Valaur the south-east
monsoon blows as long as the sun sets WNW (May to August): but from
November to February, when the sun sets WSW, the north-west trade
blows[1049]. The Moanu of the Admiralty Islands name the divisions of
the year according to the position of the sun. If it stands north of
the equator the division in question is called _morai im paün_ (‘war
sun’), since it is during this time more particularly that wars are
carried on. When the sun stands above the equator this division is
named _morai in kauas_ (‘sun of friendship’): this is the time of
peace and of mutual visits. When the sun turns southward the colder
season, _morai unonou_, begins[1050].
One would suspect that this Melanesian science, like the knowledge
of the stars, is borrowed from the Polynesians: for the latter
understood the annual course of the sun. In Tahiti the place of the
sunrise was called _tataheita_, that of the sunset _topa-t-era_.
The annual movement of the sun from the south towards the north
was recognised, and so was the fact that all these points of the
daily approach to the zenith lay in a line. This meridian was
called _t’era-hwattea_, the northern point of it _tu-errau_, and
the opposite point above the horizon, or the south, _toa_[1051].
According to other sources the December solstice was called
_rua-maoro_ or _rua-roa_, the June solstice _rua-poto_. The Hawaiians
called the northern limit of the sun in the ecliptic ‘the black,
shining road of Kane’, and the southern limit ‘the black, shining
road of Kanaloa’. The equator was named ‘the bright road of the
spider’ or ‘the road to the navel of Wakea’, equivalent to ‘the
centre of the world’[1052]. How the Polynesians came to recognise the
tropics and the equator is unfortunately unknown, but certainly they
did it like other peoples by observing the solstices and equinoxes at
certain landmarks.
That the Greeks also recognised the solstices by means of the
observation of certain landmarks may be gathered from a passage in
Homer. In the Odyssey Eumaeus says of his native land: “A certain
island Syrie ... above Ortygia, where the sun turns”[1053]. Wherever
Syrie lay, even though in the realm of fable, the idea is that it
lies in the direction of the spot at which the sun at its turning
rises or sets. It therefore serves as a landmark, it is ‘the house of
the sun’. Hesiod is so familiar with the winter and summer solstices
that he reckons time from them in days[1054].
A much discussed question is whether the ancient Germans were
acquainted with the solstices and equinoxes, an assumption which must
be adopted by anyone who regards the Yule festival as a solstitial
festival. Their acquaintance with these points has been denied and
with this view I myself have concurred[1055]. After my researches
in primitive time-reckoning, however, I can no longer maintain this
opinion for the later heathen times of the north. For it has been
shewn that primitive peoples--and especially those living far north,
e. g. the Eskimos--observed the solstices well from certain points
on the horizon. Now it has already been seen that the northern
peoples observed the times of day in the same manner[1056], and this
observation was also extended to the annual course of the sun. It is
said, for example, that autumn lasts from the equinox until the sun
sets in _eyktarstað_, i. e. the position in which it stands in the
_eykt_[1057]; and that south of Iceland and Greenland the sun at the
time of the shortest days inhabits _eyktarstað_ and _dagmálastað_
(that is to say at 9 a. m.)[1058]. The evidence, it is true, comes
down from Christian days: but the method of determining time is of
native origin and certainly goes back into heathen times. Hence
it should not be denied that, although nothing of the kind has
transpired, the solstices and equinoxes might have been approximately
determined in the same way, and it may be that the regulation of the
calendar profited by this.
Any other day of the year can be fixed by observation in the same
way, though the observation of the solstices is probably the oldest.
As late as the beginning of the 19th century this method was adopted
in Norway as a check to the prime-staff. On certain farms there was
a definite stone, buried in the earth, to which the people repaired
for these observations. They noticed when the sun rose and shone out
above certain mountain peaks, or when its last rays touched this or
that summit. They also observed the length of the shadow on the face
of a cliff, or noted when it touched the brow of a mountain or a
certain stone. Thence they were able to give the important days of
the year, e. g. the festival of St. Paul or Candlemas. Our authority
says that the observation was very inaccurate, so that the Christmas
Day of the people might fall on January 2. But it was not so bad as
that, since they still followed the old style. The sun-mark for the
first summer day (April 14) agreed with the 23rd of April[1059].
Agricultural peoples in particular have developed various methods
of this kind. The rice-cultivating peoples of the East Indies use
various methods in order to determine the important time of sowing.
Of the observation of the stars we have already spoken[1060]. Among
the Kayan of Sarawak an old priest determines the official time
of sowing from the position of the sun by erecting at the side of
the house two oblong stones, one larger and one smaller, and then
observing the moment when the sun, in the lengthening of the line of
connexion between these two stones, sets behind the opposite hill.
The sowing-day is the only one determined by astronomical methods.
In other respects the time-reckoning is a more or less arbitrary one
and is dependent on the agriculture[1061]. Of the hollows in a block
of stone at Batu Sala, in the river-bed of the upper Mahakam, it is
said that they originated in the fact that the priestesses of the
neighbouring tribes used formerly to sit on the stone every year in
order to observe when the sun would set behind a certain peak of the
opposite mountain. This date then decided the time for the beginning
of the sowing[1062].
In the first example we have artificially erected marks instead
of the usual natural landmarks: compare also the towers at Cuzco.
The pillars of Quito were a kind of gnomon, an instrument of
immense importance for the scientific astronomy and accurate
time-determination of antiquity. In this case the observation was
much simplified on account of the situation just below the equator.
The method is used again in Borneo, where it is very important to
determine the right time for sowing the seed, and the approach of the
short dry season before it in which the timber from the clearings
must be dried and burnt. The Kenyah observe the position of the sun.
Their instrument is a straight cylindrical pole of hardwood, fixed
vertically in the ground and carefully adjusted with the aid of
plumb-lines; the possibility of its sinking deeper into the earth is
prevented. The pole is a little longer than the outstretched arms of
its maker and stands on a cleared space by the house, surrounded by a
strong fence. The observer has further a flat stick on which lengths
measured from his body are marked off by notches. The other side has
a larger number of notches, of which one marks the greatest length of
the midday shadow, the next one its length three days after it has
begun to shorten, and so on. The shadow is measured every midday. As
it grows shorter after reaching its maximal length the man observes
it with special care, and announces to the village that the time
for preparing the land is near at hand[1063]. In Bali and Java the
seasons are determined by the aid of a gnomon of rude construction,
having a dial divided into twelve parts[1064].
The Kayan use a somewhat different method. The weather-prophet lets
in a beam of light through a hole in the roof of his chamber in the
long-house, and measures the distance of the patch of light from
the point vertically below the hole. Thus they obtain a measurement
similar to that given by the shadow on a sun-dial[1065]. Still more
elaborate is the method used by some of the Klementan by which time
is determined from the position of a star. A tall bamboo vessel is
filled with water and then inclined until it points directly towards
a certain star. It is set upright again, and the level of the water
left in the vessel is measured. In order to determine the seed-time
the vessel is provided with an empirically given mark at a certain
height, and when the level of the water coincides with the mark after
the inclining of the vessel towards the star, it is the time for
sowing[1066]. The writers omit to say that the observation must take
place at a certain time of day, e. g. morning or evening twilight.
Then it becomes possible to determine the season by the height of the
star above the horizon.
All this is neither primitive nor native. In Bali and Java the
Brahmin and Islamite priests observed the sun-dial, and from there
the practice came to Borneo. Where the idea of using a vessel of
water for measurement originated I am unable to determine, but it
is much too refined to be a primitive invention. The only genuinely
primitive method is the observation of the annual course of the
sun and the solstices by the aid of certain landmarks on the
horizon. This method is found in all parts of the world, but only
among certain peoples. It has never attained real importance for
the regulation of the calendar: the development of the calendar
to greater accuracy proceeds by the indirect way of the lunisolar
time-reckoning.
By way of appendix a few notices of the aids used in calculating may
be collected. They are almost always quite simple--knots in a string,
the tally, or the joints of the body.
The use of the tally in counting the years has already been dealt
with above[1067]; this use is certainly later, each stick attaining
so to speak an individual life. It is otherwise with the counting of
the days, where the question usually is to determine the number of
days which will elapse before an assembly or some other undertaking
previously agreed upon, so that all may arrive together. The same
reckoning may also occasionally serve a second purpose.
The Peruvian _quipos_ mark the culminating-point of the method of
counting by knots in a cord. Something similar existed among the
Nahyssan of Carolina. Time was measured and a rude chronology was
arranged by means of knots of various colours. This system proved
so convenient in dealing with the Indians that it was adopted for
that purpose by a governor of South Carolina[1068]. When a chief of
the Miwok of California decides to hold a dance in his village, he
dispatches messengers to the neighbouring rancherias, each bearing a
string wherein is tied a number of knots. Every morning thereafter
the invited chief unties one of the knots, and when the last one
is reached, they joyfully set forth for the dance--men, women, and
children[1069]. Sticks serve the same purpose. Once when the Natchez
and the Chocktaw wished to attack the French in Louisiana, each tribe
received a bundle of sticks, one of which was to be withdrawn and
destroyed each day, so that they might strike their blows at the same
time[1070]. The Pawnee used the tally for counting nights, months,
and years, but had advanced so far as to employ picture-writing in
doing so. * means day or sun, × star or night, ☾ moon, month[1071].
This is the forerunner of the Indian picture-calendar already
mentioned[1072].
According to Barrow the Caffres assist their memories by means of
a tally, although this authority did not himself find this custom
among them; but the Hottentot servants of the colonists, among whom
were several Caffres, used this method in counting the number of the
cattle earned[1073]. Among the Wagogo if it was desired to count the
days, e. g. in connexion with the sitting of a court of justice,
as many knots were tied in a string as there were nights to elapse
before this date. In Nigeria palm-nuts are used in counting[1074],
just as in southern Brazil the years are counted by means of acajou
nuts[1075], and as the tribes of Bolivia count with grains of
maize[1076]. The Baganda, in order to keep in mind the days of the
month, tie knots in a piece of plant-fibre and afterwards count
the knots[1077]. In New Guinea the months were counted by means of
notches cut in trees: the New Zealanders are said to have added every
month a little piece of wood or a small stone to a heap[1078].
In the Nicobars notched sticks in the form of a scimitar-blade are
in use. They have notches on the edge and on the flat, the former
denote months, the latter the days of the waning and waxing moon.
They are used e. g. in finding out when a child of the owner learned
to walk. The Shompen take a piece of bamboo and make as many bends
in it as they mean to reckon days[1079]. The Negritos of Zambales
in order to count the days make knots in a cord of _bejuco_ and cut
off one of these knots every day[1080]. On the Solomon Islands also
knotted cords are used for the same purpose[1081]. The counting is
particularly necessary for the celebrating of the great feast of the
dead at the proper time. The eating the death, _gana matea_, begins
with the burial; they eat first, as they say, ‘his graves’, after
that they eat ‘his days’--the 5th, 10th, and after that every ten
up to the hundredth, and it may be, in the case of a father, wife,
or mother, even so far as the thousandth. For counting the days, so
that the guests from distant villages may arrive on the proper days,
they use cycas fronds, one in the hands of each party, on which the
appointed days are marked by the pinching off or turning down of a
leaflet as each day passes[1082]. According to another authority the
moons are counted. At the coming of the young moon after the death
of a man either a knot is made in a thread or a notch is cut in a
piece of wood. Up to thirty moons are then counted. The object is to
calculate the time up to the great funeral wake of dead chiefs. For
young people it takes place from 20 to 30 months afterwards, for old
people after 10 months, for an unimportant person as soon as 3 or 4
months afterwards[1083]. In Nauru, west of the Gilbert Islands, knots
were tied in a string when days were to be counted, e. g. the 15 days
of the confinement of a woman[1084].
Only seldom is it mentioned that the months are counted on the
fingers, although obviously this must often happen; the Klamath
and the Modok used to do so formerly[1085]. Certain very primitive
peoples use not only fingers and toes but also other parts of the
body in counting. The day of an assembly is determined in this
fashion by an Australian tribe which in words can seldom count more
than four. The people touch various parts of each other’s bodies--the
wrist, the arm, the head--each of which stands for a special day,
until the intended day is reached. Thus two or more groups can
accurately determine the lapse of time and can meet on the day agreed
upon[1086]. The curious names of months of the Tunguses of the Sea
of Okhotsk[1087] are similarly to be explained, as is shewn by the
method of counting the year used by the Yukaghir. They call the
year _n-e’ -malgil_, which means ‘all the joints’. The reckoning
of the months by the joints is done in the following manner. They
bend the third row of phalanges of the fingers on both hands, and
put them together. The line of the joining they call July. Then the
knuckles of the second row of phalanges on the right hand will be
August. The joints between the phalanges and metacarpals represent
September; the wrist-joint is October; the elbow-joint is November;
the shoulder-joint, December; between the head and the backbone will
be January; the shoulder-joint on the left arm will be February; the
elbow-joint, March; the wrist-joint, April; the joint between the
fingers and the palm, May; and the knuckles of the second row of
phalanges on the left hand, June[1088].
These examples may suffice. The subject is monotonous and is
of little importance for the calendar, since the days are
counted independently of the latter, beginning at an arbitrary
starting-point. The counting that is important for the calendar
is that according to the days of the lunar month, but in this the
primitive peoples hold to the concrete phenomenon of the moon. The
habit of reckoning in this fashion may however be partly responsible
for the fact that among certain peoples every day of the month has
not been given a name, but the days are counted from certain points
of departure, such as new moon, full moon, etc. Very rarely do we
meet with a genuinely calendrical use of the tally. The Wa-Sania
of East Africa, who as subjects of the Galla and later since the
invasion of the Somali have been exposed to all kinds of civilising
influences, make a notch for each day, and at the end of the month
the stick is laid aside and a new one comes into use[1089]. Similarly
at the southern end of Lake Nyassa pieces of wood strung on a cord
are used in counting the days of the month that have passed[1090].
The Kiwai Papuans count the months by means of little sticks, which
are tied into two bundles corresponding to the two seasons of the
year. One end is pointed, the other oblique, and when a month has
passed, the stick corresponding to it is turned round. The stick
belonging to the month _keke_ is provided with a top-knot and
feather, that of _karongo_ has a mark cut in it and a top-knot like
that of _keke_, but no feather[1091].