THE CALENDAR-MAKERS.
As long as the determination of time is adjusted by the phases of
Nature which immediately become obvious to everyone, anybody can
judge of them, and should different people judge differently there
is no standard by which the dispute can be settled, because the
natural phases run into one another or are at least not sharply
defined. The accuracy in determination demanded by time-reckoning
proper is therefore lacking. Accuracy becomes possible as a result
of the observation of the risings of stars, and this observation
begins even at the primitive stage, but it is not a matter that
concerns everyone. It requires a refined power of observation and
a clear knowledge of the stars, so that the heavens can be known.
This is especially the case with the commonest observations, those
of the morning rising and evening setting. The observer must be
able to judge, by the position of the other stars, when the star in
question may be expected to twinkle for a moment in the twilight
before it vanishes. The accuracy of the time-determination from the
stars depends therefore upon the keenness of the observation. In this
the individual differences of men soon come into play, along with
a regular science which introduces the learner to the knowledge of
the stars and its uses. Thus Stanbridge reports of the natives of
Victoria that all tribes have traditions about the stars, but certain
families have the reputation of having the most accurate knowledge;
one family of the Boorung tribe prides itself upon possessing a
wider knowledge of the stars than any other[1160]. An account has
been given above[1161] according to which an old chief instructed
the young people of the tribe in the knowledge of the stars and
the occupations which these announce. Of the Torres Straits tribes
Rivers says:--When the rising of a star is expected, it is the duty
of the old men to watch; they rise when the birds begin to call and
watch until daybreak. As in the case of _kek_ (Achernar, the most
important star), so also probably in the case of other important
stars and constellations the appearance of certain other stars is a
sign that the star expected will soon appear. For _kek_ the stars in
question are two named _keakentonar_; when they appear on the horizon
at dawn, it is known that in a few days _kek_ will shew himself, and
the observation becomes especially keen. The setting of a star is
observed in the same way[1162].
By the phases of the stars both occupations and seasons are
regulated, and thus a standard is furnished by which to judge, and
a limit is set to the indefiniteness of the phases of Nature. An
old missionary relates of the Orinocese that it is incredible how
confused their minds become if they neglect to observe the signs
which make known the approach of winter; they may then say in winter
that one or two months are yet wanting, and in the height of summer
they sometimes spread the report among their countrymen that the
winter will soon be upon them; the evening setting of the Pleiades
announces the coming of winter and therefore affords a means of
correcting the time-reckoning[1163].
The moon strikes the attention of everyone and admits of immediate
and unpractised observation; at the most there may sometimes be some
doubt for a day as to the observation of the new moon, but the next
day will set all right. But because the months are fixed in their
position in the natural year through association with the seasons,
the indefiniteness and fluctuation of the phases of Nature penetrate
into the months also, and are there even increased, for the reasons
stated above. Cause for doubt and disagreement is given, the problem
of the regulation of the calendar arises. Hence in the council
meetings of the Pawnee and Dakota it is often hotly disputed which
month it really is. So also the Caffres often become confused and do
not know what month it is; the rising of the Pleiades decides the
question. The Basuto in determining the time of sowing are not guided
by the lunar reckoning, but fall back upon the phases of Nature;
intelligent chiefs however know how to correct the calendar by the
summer solstice[1164].
The differences in intelligence already make themselves felt at
an early stage, and are still more plainly shewn when we come to
a genuine regulation of the calendar. Some of the Bontoc Igorot
state that the year has eight, others a hundred months, but among
the old men who represent the wisdom of the people there are some
who know and assert that it has thirteen[1165]. The further the
calendar develops, the less does it become a common possession. Among
the Indians, for example, there are special persons who keep and
interpret the year-lists illustrated with picture-writings, e. g. the
calendrically gifted Anko, who even drew up a list of months[1166].
It is very significant that even where a complete calendar does
exist, it will be found that this is not in use to its fullest
extent among the people. The Masai days of the month have already
been given[1167]; but the nomenclature of the days is not so popular
throughout that any Masai on any day could determine that day with
perfect accuracy. Only the following days and groups of days are in
regular use:--The 1st day, as the beginning of the counting and of
the brightness of the moon (_sic!_), the 4th as the new moon, the
10th as the final day of the first decade, the 15th as the final day
of the moon’s brightness, the 16th as the beginning of the dark half
of the month, the 17th as the chief of the unlucky days, 18-20 as
_es sobiain_, the 20th as the final day of the second decade, 21-23
as _nigein_, the 24th as the beginning of ‘the black darkness’, and
from the 24th on to the disappearance of the moon. Of these days the
4th, 10th, 17th, 24th, and 1st are especially common. The people
therefore count in a more concrete fashion than those who are learned
in the calendar.
It follows that the observation of the calendar is a special
occupation which is placed in the hands of specially experienced and
gifted men. Among the Caffres we read of special ‘astrologers’[1168].
Among the Kenyah of Borneo the determination of the time for sowing
is so important that in every village the task is entrusted to a
man whose sole occupation it is to observe the signs. He need not
cultivate rice himself, for he will receive his supplies from the
other inhabitants of the village. His separate position is in part
due to the fact that the determination of the season is effected
by observing the height of the sun, for which special instruments
are required. The process is a secret, and his advice is always
followed[1169]. It is only natural that this individual should keep
secret the traditional lore upon which his position depends; and thus
the development of the calendar puts a still wider gap between the
business of the calendar-maker and the common people.
Behind the calendar stand in particular the priests. For they are
the most intelligent and learned men of the tribe, and moreover the
calendar is peculiarly their affair, if the development has proceeded
so far that value is attached to the calendar for the selection of
the proper days for the religious observances. We are not told that
the Kenyah who has charge of the calendar is a priest, but among the
Kayan (also of Borneo) it is a priest who determines the seed-time
from the observation of the ecliptic, and on the upper Mahakam a
priestess[1170]. In Bali the Brahmins, in Java the village priests,
determine the seasons by observing a crude sun-dial[1171]. Of the
Tshi-speaking peoples it is said that the priests keep a reckoning of
the time, using different methods for the purpose, and make known the
approach of the annual festivals[1172]. Among the Hausa the priests
determine the time of the festivals according to the position of the
moon[1173]; here also the months are named after the festivals. To
a very general extent it is true among peoples like the Indians of
Arizona, where the religious ceremonies are the centre of the life
of the tribe, that the priests are the calendar-makers. Among the
Hopi the priests determine from the observation of the solstices
and equinoxes the time for the religious ceremonies and for the
agricultural labours[1174]. Among the Zuñi the priest of the sun is
alone responsible for the calendar. He takes daily observations of
the sunrise at a petrified tree-stump east of the village, which he
sprinkles with meal when he offers his matins to the rising sun. When
the sun rises over a certain point of the Corn Mountain he informs
the elder brother Bow priest, who notifies a certain religious body,
the members of this society come together and the great feast of
the winter solstice is then celebrated. The summer solstice and its
festival are determined in similar fashion[1175].
Among the priests there is formed a special class whose duty it is to
make observations and keep the calendar in order. Among the Hawaiians
‘astronomers (_kilo-hoku_) and priests’ are mentioned[1176];
they handed down their knowledge from father to son; but women,
_kilowahine_, are also found among them[1177]. Elsewhere the nobles
appear alongside of the priests; thus in Tahiti it is the nobles
that are responsible for the calendar, in New Zealand the priests.
In the latter country there is said to have been a regular school,
which was visited by priests and chiefs of highest rank. Every year
the assembly determined the days on which the corn must be sown and
reaped, and thus its members compared their views upon the heavenly
bodies. Each course lasted from three to five months[1178].
For Loango it is reported that the king’s star-gazers apparently took
observations from a little wood; further that they sometimes knew
how to arrange matters to suit their own convenience, for they gave
out (probably when the sky was clouded) that the moon was several
days old, and thus gained a couple of hours for the rising of Sirius
and could postpone the dreaded thirteenth month until the end of the
next year[1179]. In these districts, where a strong day-superstition
prevails, external influence is doubtless probable, but the account
is significant in that it speaks for an artificial retardation of
the calendar. Such a manipulation is characteristic of the professed
calendar-maker.
The king himself also takes charge of the calendar. The Inca
observed the solstices in person, and was assisted in so doing by
the cleverest of his people; the priests assembled to determine
the equinoxes[1180]. The calendar of the Society Islands was fixed
by King Pomare and his family[1181]. That the Inca appeared in a
priestly office for this purpose is certain; that Pomare did the same
is doubtful, since European influence has no doubt been brought to
bear upon this case.
The examples just given are not numerous, and this corresponds to
the actual state of affairs, since we have here to do with the
treatment of a genuine calendarial science by certain peoples,--only
at a quite undeveloped stage can questions of the time-reckoning
be dealt with in a deliberative assembly--and our researches are
concerned with primitive peoples. The end which the calendar-maker
has in view is the establishing of an ordered series of days marked
out into divisions, the series being kept in place by certain fixed
points, and recurring cyclically. First of all the regulation of
the lunisolar calendar is his principal task, and it is one which
everywhere takes the chief place. For this purpose the calendar-maker
must become accurately acquainted with the course of the sun and with
the stars. Here the four solstices and equinoxes are distinguished by
their recurrence at tolerably regular intervals of time; the stars
however cannot of themselves be brought into a system with equal
intervals of time, but are only applied to such a system in order
to fix it. Hence it follows that the observation of the solstices
and equinoxes has, at least in single cases, been erected into a
calendric system, but the observation of the stars not so--except in
Babylon--although they also are observed, so that they come to be
accurately known, and the planets are even discovered, e. g. by the
Polynesians. The calendar and practical life become to some degree
separated from each other; the first lays the principal emphasis upon
the correct ordering of the series of days, which is of especial
importance on religious grounds for the selection of days and the
fixing of the right day for the religious observances; in practical
life, however, the point of chief importance is to determine the
times when the various occupations may be begun and sea-voyages
undertaken, both of which depend upon the solar year, and for this
the stars afford the best aid. Hence it happens that sometimes the
reckoning by the stars appears, as one more profanely determined, in
a certain opposition to the lunisolar reckoning, which has a more
religious character. This happened in ancient Greece, where the stars
served for the time-reckoning of sailors and peasants while the
lunisolar calendar was developed and extended under sacral influence;
the festival calendar, which was regulated and recorded by the moon,
became the official civil calendar. It was only later that the
stellar calendar was systematically brought under the influence of
the fully developed astronomy and of the Julian calendar.
In sailing, the stars afford to the primitive sea-faring peoples the
only means of finding their way when the land can no longer be seen.
From the necessities of sea-faring the greatly advanced knowledge
of the stars possessed by the South Sea peoples has arisen; this
is because practical ends are served not by a priestly wisdom, but
by a profane. Nevertheless the knowledge of the stars is a secret
which is carefully guarded in certain families, and kept from
the common people--as is reported of the Marshall Islands[1182].
Among the Moanu of the Admiralty Islands it is the chiefs who
are initiated by tradition into the science of the stars[1183].
On the Mortlock Islands, where the science of the stars is very
highly developed, there was a special astronomical profession; the
knowledge of the stars was a source of respect and influence, it
was anxiously concealed, and only communicated to specially chosen
individuals[1184]. Only a few can determine the hours of night by
the stars. The Tahitian Tupaya, who accompanied Cook on his first
voyage, was a man of this kind, specially distinguished for his
nautical knowledge of the stars[1185]. The elements of the science,
however, seem to have been pretty generally known, and from the
Caroline Islands comes a curious account of a general instruction
therein. It was first mentioned by the Spanish missionary Cantova in
the year 1721, and was later confirmed by Arago. In every settlement
there were two houses, in one of which the boys were instructed in
the knowledge of the stars, and in the other the girls; only vague
ideas were imparted, however. The teacher had a kind of globe of the
heavens on which the principal stars were marked, and he pointed out
to his pupils the direction which they must follow on their various
journeys. One native could also represent on a table by means of
grains of maize the constellations known to him[1186]. This is a
nautical, non-priestly astronomy, which has really little to do with
calendarial matters in general, although as a matter of fact in the
Carolines and the Mortlock Islands it has led to the naming of all
months from constellations, and therefore to a systematic sidereal
regulation of the calendar[1187].
On the other hand the priests also have observed the stars and
used their stellar science principally for sooth-saying, as e.
g. in Hawaii and in Babylonia. But neither does this lead to any
improvement of the calendar, since the religion must keep to the
existing lunisolar calendar, although in one case of the most
far-reaching importance the astrology arose from it. The improving of
the calendar, the object of which must be, after the full development
of the lunisolar, to return to the solar calendar, in order that
the calendar may be better adapted to the needs of practical life,
becomes henceforth the task of the lay scientific astronomer.