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For primitive man the day is the simplest and most obvious unit of time. The variations of day and night, light and darkness, sleeping and waking penetrate at least as deeply into life as the changes following upon the course of the year, such as heat and cold, drought and rainy seasons, periods of famine and plenty. But for the primitive intellect the year is a very long period, and it is only with difficulty and at a later stage that it can be conceived and surveyed as a whole. Day and night, on the other hand, are short units which immediately become obvious. Their fusion into a single unit, the day of 24 hours, did not take place till later, for this unit as we employ it is abstract and numerical: the primitive intellect proceeds upon immediate perceptions and regards day and night separately.

Evidence for this fact is furnished by most languages, which are as a rule without any proper term for day and night together, the circle of 24 hours. In writing English one sadly misses the Swedish dygn, which has exactly the required significance. The German Volltag is an artificial and not very happy compound. The Greeks also formed a learned and rare (though good) compound, νυχθήμερον. The usual method is to make use of a term according to the pars pro toto principle. This principle, which we meet here at the outset and shall come across more and more frequently in the course of the following pages, is of great importance for the development of time-reckoning since it shews how the original time-indication is discontinuously related to a concrete phenomenon, and only slowly and at a later period develops into a continuous numerical unit of time.

To describe the period of 24 hours, regarded as a single unit for purposes of calculation, most modern and also the ancient tongues employ the term that denotes its light part, i. e. ‘day’ etc. Primitive peoples have no term to express this idea and must describe the period by means of expressions equivalent to ‘day and night’, e. g. ‘sun-darkness’ (Malay Archipelago)[2], ‘light and darkness’ (Yukaghir in N. E. Asia)[3]. The day is sometimes described by the concrete phenomenon which it brings, namely the sun. The Bontoc Igorot of north Luzon have the same word for sun as for day, a-qu, and the time is reckoned in suns[4]. The Comanche Indians reckon the days in ‘suns’[5], and in an Indian hieroglyph from the northern shores of Lake Superior the duration of a three days’ journey described is expressed by three circles, i. e. three suns[6]. The western tribe of the Torres Straits reckons time in ‘suns’, i. e. days[7]. We may compare the well-known primitive idea that the sun originates afresh for every new day. The same thing is found in the language of signs. La Billardière in the year 1800 relates of the very low Tasmanians, now long since extinct, that they had some idea of regulating time by the apparent motion of the sun. In order to inform him that they would make a journey in two days, they indicated with their hands the diurnal motion of the sun and expressed the number two by as many of their fingers. This, he asserts, is the only reference that can be found to any knowledge of the movements of the heavenly bodies[8]. So also according to Homfray the natives of the Andamans describe a day by making a circle with the right arm, i. e. a revolution of the sun. We may compare the indication of the time of day by pointing with the hand to the position of the sun, with which we shall shortly have to deal. It is not improbable that the designation of the day by means of an indication of the course of the sun arose in the first place from the indication of the position of that planet. The same method of expression is found in the classical languages as a poetic or hierarchical archaism[9], and also in medieval Latin. But ἥλιος, sol, is also used to denote the yearly revolution of the sun, i. e. a year, and the year is denoted by φάος, lux. Still more striking and more significant for the discontinuous method of reckoning is the Homeric use of ἠώς, ‘dawn’, instead of day, e. g. “this is the twelfth dawn since I came to Ilion”,[10] “this is the twelfth dawn he lies so”,[11] and elsewhere. Aratus follows the Homeric use[12]. The nature of this pars pro toto reckoning will be further explained in the chapter dealing with the year.

The counting of the days from the dawns is unique, and the counting from the day-time is comparatively rare: the Indo-European peoples of olden times, and indeed most of the peoples of the globe, count the days from the nights. For this it will be sufficient to quote Schrader’s statement:—“Moreover it can hardly be necessary to give evidence for this well-known custom of antiquity. In Sanskrit a period of 10 days is called daçarâtrá (:râtrî = ‘night’); nîçanîçam, ‘night by night’ = ‘daily’. ‘Let us celebrate the old nights (days) and the autumns (years)’, says a hymn. In the Avesta the counting from nights (xsap, xsapan, xsapar) is carried out to a still greater extent. As for the Germanic peoples, among whom Tacitus had already observed this custom,[13] we constantly find in ancient German legal documents such phrases as sieben nehte, vierzehn nacht, zu vierzehn nachten. In English fortnight, sennight are in use to-day. That the custom existed among the Celts is proved by Caesar, De Bell. Gall. VI, 18, spatia omnis temporis non numero dierum, sed noctium finiunt (‘they define all spaces of time not by the number of days but by the number of nights’). The Arabians have the same practice. They say ‘in three nights’, ‘seventy nights long’, and date e. g. ‘on the first night of Ramadan’, ‘when two nights of Ramadan have gone’, or ‘are left’[14].”

For primitive and barbaric peoples the evidence is equally abundant. The Polynesians in general counted time in nights. Night is po, to-morrow is a-po-po, i. e. the night’s night, yesterday is po-i-nehe-nei, the night that is past[15]. The New Zealanders, in former times, had no names for days, but only for nights[16], and so with the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands—and the same is certainly true of the Polynesians as a whole, since they describe the ‘days’, or rather the nights, by the phases of the moon. The Society Islanders reckon in nights; to the question ‘How many days?’ corresponds in their tongue ‘How many nights?’[17] So also do the inhabitants of the Marquesas[18]. In the Malay Peninsula periods exceeding a fraction of a day are reckoned in nights[19]. Among the Wagogos of German East Africa the phases of the moon and the number of nights serve as more exact determinations of time. The third night after the appearance of the moon, for example, is the day following the third night after the moon’s appearance[20]. Sometimes they say ‘day and night’ when they wish to describe the full day of 24 hours. Occasionally they say that they have worked so many days, with reference to the day-time only[21]. Except in the case of this tribe I have found no notes on the African peoples; little attention seems to have been paid to the point in their case. But the material for America abounds. The Greenlanders reckon in nights[22], though certainly we are not told how those who live north of the Polar Circle reckon in summer. So do the Indians of Pennsylvania[23], the Pawnees, who often made use of notches cut in a stick or a similar device for the computation of nights or even of months and years[24], and the Biloxi of Louisiana[25]. Usually however the night is denoted not by this word but by ‘sleep’, ‘sleeping-time’. Of the Kiowas it is expressly stated[26] that they reckon the length of a journey in ‘darks’, kon, i. e. nights, and not in ‘sleeps’. If the question of the distance of any place arises the answer is ‘so many darks’. It may even be doubted whether ‘sleep’ is not sometimes translated ‘night’ by the reporters. The Dakotas say that they will return in so many nights or sleeps[27]. Among the Omahas the night or sleeping time marked the division of days, so that a journey might be spoken of as having taken so many sleeps[28]. The Hupas of Arizona[29], the tribes of the North-East[30], and the Kaigans of the North-West[31] also reckon in sleeps. This mode of reckoning is therefore the common one, that of the Comanches in suns is an exception. Finally the natives of Central Australia also count time in ‘sleeps’[32].

To reckon in nights is therefore the rule among the primitive Indo-European peoples, the Polynesians, and the inhabitants of North America. For Asia, which however is not so important for primitive time-reckoning on account of the old and far-reaching influence of civilisation in that continent, for Africa, and for S. America evidence is wanting or is forthcoming only in isolated instances. The reason probably is that in these continents also time is really reckoned in nights, and our informants have not noticed the agreement. This however is an argumentum ex silentio. Be that as it may, the fact remains that at least half the globe reckons the days in nights.

The current explanation of this striking fact is given by Schrader thus:—“Since the chronometer of primitive times is the moon and not the sun, the reason for counting in nights instead of days becomes almost self-evident”[33]. This statement is a priori not perfectly correct, inasmuch as there is and can have been no people that has not observed the daily course of the sun as well as the monthly phases of the moon: as chronometer neither of the two bodies is older than the other. The difference lies in the development of the time-reckoning. In point of fact an inner connection seems to exist between the counting of the days in nights and the designation of the days, or rather the nights, of the month according to the phases of the moon, to which we recur further on. Even such low races as the tribes of Central Australia already have names for the phases of the moon, from which they reckon time[34], but unfortunately we are not told how many. The Polynesians have very elaborately developed these, so that every day has its separate name. The Wagogos also use the phases of the moon as indications of time. The Arabs speak of ten phases of the moon, combining three days under each name. The Indians know the phases of the moon, but seem to have named and made use of them only roughly: the only tribe that possesses a list of the names of the days of the moon-month is the Kaigans[35], and unfortunately this list is incomplete. Moreover there are no indications that the primitive Indo-European peoples distinguished the phases of the moon otherwise than roughly. The finer distinction and nomenclature of the moon-phases, so that in the end each day comes to have its separate name, is clearly a very far advanced special development: the use of the word ‘night’ to express the period of 24 hours is much older. A causal connection, such as Schrader and others have maintained, must lie in the fact that the period of 24 hours is named after the phases of the moon and consequently the day itself is reckoned in nights. But this is only a comparatively isolated and advanced development, against which must be set the fact that the Indians and so primitive a people as the Australians use not the word ‘night’ but ‘sleep’, which has nothing to do with the moon.

The explanation must therefore be sought elsewhere, and is one which also applies to the use of the word ‘winter’ for year etc. Primitive man knows only concrete indications of time, and in reckoning prefers to use a concrete and clearly visible point of reference. The complete day of 24 hours is unknown to him and so he must reckon according to the principle of pars pro toto, and as a matter of fact it is possible to reckon just as well from a part of the whole as from the whole itself, provided that the part chosen is one that only recurs once every day. The day itself, with its various occupations, offers no such point of reference unless the reckoning is based upon the daily appearance of the sun, which is also actually done in certain cases. However in the daily course of the sun, as we have already seen, two features, its duration and the changing position of the sun, stand out prominently: but it is easier to reckon from points than from lengths, which divert the attention from the number. Now the sleeping-time is necessarily bound up with each day, yet it has no separate parts, or acquires them only later among certain peoples. The time between going to sleep in the evening and waking in the morning appears as an undivided unit, a point. It offers for reckoning a convenient basis in which no mistake or hesitation is possible such as can occur in the various occupations that fall within the period computed. The method of reckoning in nights is merely an outcome of the necessity for a concrete unmistakable time-indication: it is a typical example of the pars pro toto principle and time-reckoning, which, on the psychological grounds just mentioned are especially favoured in the counting.

For the indication of a point of time within the day the reference to the course of the sun is the means that lies nearest to hand, and the indication can indeed be given quite concretely by means of a gesture in the direction of the heavens. This language of signs is especially common in Africa. The Cross River natives of Southern Nigeria indicate the time by pointing to the position in the heavens which the sun occupies at that time of the day[36]. When someone asked a Swahili what time it was, he answered, “Look at the sun”, although this tribe knew other ways of indicating time[37]. The Wagogo in order to shew the time of day indicate with the hand the position of the sun in the heavens[38]. In Loango the people indicate the time satisfactorily enough from the motion of the sun, in divisions of two hours, by dividing the vault of the sky with outstretched arm, often using both arms as indicators[39]. Moreover most peoples have descriptive expressions for parts of the day, as for instance the inhabitants of the Lower Congo[40], the Masai of East Africa, who estimate the time of day from the position of the sun[41], and the Hottentots, who express with certainty and clearness both points and duration of time by referring to the position of the sun[42]. In Dahomey the natives tell the hours by means of the sun; they say that the sun is here or there, in order to give the time of day[43]. The Caffres are able to give the exact time of day by pointing with outstretched arm to the spot at which the sun appears at the time they wish to indicate. So, for example, when the Caffre wishes to shew that he will come at two o’clock in the afternoon of the next day, he will say, “I will be here to-morrow, when the sun is there”,—pointing to the position occupied by the sun at 2 p. m.[44]. The Waporogo of German East Africa estimate the divisions of the day from the position of the sun, which they indicate with outstretched arm. When the arm is vertically raised, that means 12 o’clock noon, and the other hours of the day they are able to give with a sure instinct by means of a greater or lesser inclination of the arm towards the body, corresponding to the position of the sun[45]. In other parts of the world we find the same thing. Thus in the New Hebrides the hours of the day are indicated by pointing with the finger to the altitude of the sun[46]. If a native of Australia is asked at what time anything took place or is going to take place, his answer will take the form of pointing to the position which the sun occupied or will occupy in the sky at that particular time[47]. The Bontoc Igorot of Luzon point to the heavens in order to indicate the position the sun occupied when a particular event occurred[48]. The Kanyans of Sarawak, if asked at what time anyone will arrive, point to the sun and say, “When the sun stands there”[49]. In the Dutch East Indies the time of day is given from the position of the sun[50]. The inhabitants of Java divide the day into ten natural but vague and unequal subdivisions, and for astrological purposes the day of 24 hours is divided into five parts. They also determine the time of day by the length of the shadow and by the working-time, but the most common method is by pointing to the situations of the sun in the heavens, when such and such an event took place[51]. In order to indicate the time the natives of Sumatra also point to the height in the sky at which the sun stood when the event of which they are speaking occurred[52]. The natives of the western tribe of the Torres Straits, though they have learned to tell the time from the clock, also know how to give it very accurately by observing the height of the sun[53]. The Tahitians determine the six parts of their day from the sun’s altitude[54]. Among the Omaha Indians the sun indicates the time of day. A motion towards the zenith meant noon, midway between the zenith and the west, afternoon, and midway towards the east, forenoon[55]. The Karaya of Central Brazil divide up the day according to the position of the sun. Indications of time are given by pointing with the hand to the place occupied by the sun at the time in question[56].

This method of indicating the time of day is quite satisfactory, especially in the tropics and for primitive needs, and only more rarely does it give place to other methods, the chief of which is the observation of the length of shadows. The Javanese know this latter method but do not often use it. In their old writings we find a traveller described as setting out on his journey or arriving at the end of it when his shadow was so many feet long[57]. The Masai usually estimate the time of day from the position of the sun, but more rarely from the length of the shadows[58]. When the shadow measures nine feet, the Swahili say, “It is 9 o’clock (sic!)”[59]. To indicate the time of day or to represent a distance the Cross River natives use the length of shadows. They have however in most of their houses a curious species of sun-dial, a plant about 50 cm. high, with violet-white flowers. The flowers gradually begin to open at sunrise, by noon they are wide open, and they gradually close again between noon and sunset. One of these plants is placed in every garden and enclosed within little stones[60]. To the south of Lake Nyassa the time of day is reckoned either from the position of the sun or from the length of the shadow thrown by a stick, nthawe[61]. The Society Islanders among their numerous expressions for the time of day include two which have reference to shadows, ‘the shadow as long as the object’, ‘the shadow longer than a man’[62]. The Benua-Jahun, a primitive tribe of the Malay Peninsula, indicate the progress of the day by the inclination of a stick. Early morning is represented by pointing a stick to the eastern horizon. Placed erect it indicates noon, inclined at an angle of about 45° to the west it corresponds nearly with three o’clock, and so on[63]. This practice is doubtless connected with the common use of a stick in the Indian Archipelago for observations of time, and is by no means primitive. The ancient Athenians seem to have indicated time by measuring off with the foot the length of the shadow cast by their bodies upon the level ground before them as they stood. At all events the length of shadows served to indicate time, cp. Aristophanes, Ekkles., 652, “when the staff is ten feet, to go perfumed to dinner”[64]. The gnomon which, according to Herodotus II, 109, the Greeks borrowed from the Babylonians was an upright stick the shadow of which was measured: it was also an important instrument for astronomical observations[65]. Here however we are already at a highly developed stage and know nothing about the origins.

The indication of time from the position of the sun is really only satisfactory in the tropics, where the sun always stands very high and the length of its daily course is not exposed to too great variation. Where the sun is much lower in winter than in summer, and the length of the day varies greatly at different times of the year, the method ceases to be practicable. If descriptive expressions of one kind or another are not resorted to, other means must be found. Above all it is important to determine the fixed point which divides the day into two parts, i. e. noon. In the living-room of the houses of the Scanian peasants, which were always built ‘according to the sun’, i. e. facing east and west, there was in the southern window-sill, beside the middle shaft of the frame, a line which was called the ‘noon-line’. When the shadow of the shaft fell parallel with this line it was noon. This device is not exactly primitive, since windows in the room, more particularly in the wall, belong to a quite advanced stage of civilisation. But on the other hand such customs as the determination of noon and other moments of the day from the position of the sun above certain points on the horizon—elevations and hills—are old. In Iceland the divisions of the day were, and still are, determined from the visible course of the heavenly bodies. The people imagined that the sun in the course of a day and a night ran through the eight equal regions of the heavens (ættir, sing. ætt). The time of day was determined from the position of the sun above the horizon by the selection in every house of certain outstanding points within the range of vision to serve as ‘day-marks’ (dagsmǫrk, sing. -mark)—where these were lacking, small piles of stones were erected for the purpose—so that when the sun stood above one of these marks a certain time of day was given. The most important times thus determined were rismál or miðr morgin (6 a. m.), dagmál (9 a. m.), hádegi (12 o’clock noon), míðmundi (1.30 p. m.), nón (undoubtedly originally called undorn and also eykt, 3 p. m.), miðr aptann (6 p. m.), and nattmál (9 p. m.). These indications in hours are however only approximate, since the time varies according to the position of the place in question[66]. The word eykt really designates any of these approximately three-hour divisions; but since the length of the day varies enormously so far north, the business of everyday life leads to an attempt at systematising, e. g. rismál = ‘the time of rising’. The spot which the sun has reached at one of these divisions is therefore called dagmálastað, nónstað, eyktarstað etc. This mode of determining time must be old since it is also found in Scandinavia, where it has given names to many mountain-peaks. In Baedeker I have only noticed:—Middagsfjället in Jämtland, Middagshorn in Norangdal, Middagshaugen in Aardal, Sogn, Middagsnib in Oldendal in the Nordfjord district, Middagsberg on the Nærøfjord in Sogn, Nonsnib above Loen Water in Nordfjord, Solbjørgenut in the Nærøfjord, Sogn. From Fritzner’s Old Norwegian Lexicon (s. v. eyktarstað) I take:—Durmaalstind, Rismaalsfjeld, Nonsfjeld, Natmaalstinden, Middagsfjeld in Tromsö ‘amt’ and in Finnmarken, Eyktargnipa and Undornfjeld in Mule Syssel in Iceland; the peak of the latter lies in the nonstað. Such names are common in Norway. In Sweden there are further:—Middagsberget in Dalecarlia = Gesundaberget, just south of Mora; the name is found again in Härjedalen, in addition to Nonsberget, Nonsknätten and Middagshognan. Lidén[67] instances similar names in S. Sweden and in England, and also those formed with mosse, ‘swamp’, vik, ‘bay’, and åker, ‘field’. It is easy to understand why middag, ‘noon’, everywhere predominates as a nomenclator. The Lapps also indicate time by the position of the sun in relation to the surrounding natural objects[68].

The gestures may be accompanied by descriptive expressions, as among the negroes, or replaced by them, which seems to be the rule among other peoples. The latter practice offers the further advantage of being available in the night-time, when it is necessary to mention a point of time after dark. The Kayans denote the time of day by pointing to the position of the sun, but for morning and evening they also use the expressions ‘when the sun has risen’ or ‘set’[69]. Expressions for the most important divisions, sunrise and sunset (= morning and evening) and noon, are found among all peoples. Even the tribes of Central and Northern Australia have words e. g. for evening and for morning before sunrise[70]. The richness of the terminology however varies exceedingly. The Indians divide the day into three or four rough divisions only. The Seminole of Florida divided up the day by terms descriptive of the positions of the sun in the sky from dawn to sunset[71]: unfortunately we are not told what these words were or how many of them existed. Among the Hopi of Arizona there is every evidence that the time of day was early indicated by the altitude of the sun[72]. The Omahas know no smaller divisions of the day than morning, noon, and afternoon, to which certainly must be added the transitional periods of sunrise and sunset[73]. The Occaneechi of Virginia measure the day by sunrise, noon, and sunset[74]. The Algonquins of the same province mention the three times of the rise, power, and lowering of the sun[75]. Many tribes however had four divisions[76], e. g. the Natchez of Louisiana, who divided the day into four equal parts: half the morning, until noon, half the afternoon, until evening[77]. But there is also a richer terminology, e. g. the Kiowa words for dawn (‘first-light’), sunrise (lit. ‘the-sun-has-come-up’), morning (lit. ‘full-day’), noon, earlier afternoon until about 3 o’clock, late afternoon, evening (lit. ‘first-darkness’)[78]; and in particular among the Statlumh of British Columbia: dawn (‘it-just-comes-day’), early morning (‘just-now-morning’), morning light (‘just-see-things’), full light (‘just-now-day’), sunrise (‘outside-sun’), early morning (midway between sunrise and noon), noon (up till about 2 p. m.), middle of the afternoon, about 4 p. m., ‘three-fourths-of-the-day-have-gone’, ‘sun-sitting-down’, ‘the-sun-gone’,’evening-creeping-up-the-mountain’ (this refers to the line of shadow on the eastern mountains), ‘reached-the-top’, i. e. the line of the shadows, twilight, ‘getting-dark’, night, darkness, pitch dark[79].

Of the Indians of S. America little is reported. ‘The-sun-is-perpendicular’ was the expression for noon on the Orinoco[80]. The Indians of Chile had words for morning twilight, dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, evening, evening twilight, night, and midnight[81].

The terminology for the parts of the day is especially rich in Africa, a fact which is connected with the refinement of the observation of the sun’s position resulting from the custom of indicating this by a gesture in the direction of the heavens. Such simple indications as those of the Babwende for noon, ‘the-sun-over-the-crown-of-the-head’, and for midnight, ‘the-silence-of-the-land’[82], are rare. A number of elaborate time-indications are as a rule employed. The Wadschagga say at six o’clock in the morning ‘the sun rises’, at twelve o’clock ‘the sun rests on his cushion’ (like a tired porter), from twelve to one ‘the sun goes straight on’, about two it ‘bows’, about six it ‘falls down’, or ‘spreads its arms out’, like a man in the act of falling[83]. The terms used by the Bangala are:—about 2 a. m., the lying fowl; 3, the lying bird; 4, the first fowl; 4–5, the sun is near; 5, not translated; 5.₃₀–6, the dawn; 6, the sun is come; 6.₁₅–7, ntete; 12 noon, 2–3, 3–4, not translated; 6, the fowls go in, or the sun enters, or the sun darkens; 6.₃₀, twilight finishes; 11–12, one set of the ribs or one side of a person, meaning that a person turns from lying on one side over on to the other; 12 midnight, second division or second half[84]. In Bornu the expressions for the time of day are formed by the aid of the word dinia = ‘world’, ‘universe’, ‘sky’. From about 4 to 5 ‘the world cuts the aurora’; at 6 ‘the world is light’; at 12 ‘the sun is in the centre of the world’. Afterwards follow ‘it is evening’, twilight, night, midnight. Since the people are Mohammedans they also have expressions for the hours of prayer[85]. The expressions used by the Shilluk of the White Nile are translated[86]:—“The first morning, twilight becomes visible, morning dawn, morning, the earth is morning (it is morning)—the difference here is not evident—noon, the sun is in the zenith, the sun begins to sink (afternoon), it is afternoon, the sun is setting, the sun has set, it is night, at night, midnight.” The Yoruba divide the day into early morning, morning or forenoon, noon (when the day is ‘perpendicular’), shadow-lengthening or afternoon, evening or twilight[87]. The Masai distinguish the following parts of the day:—at 4 a. m. it is ‘not-yet-early’; at 5 it is ‘early’; somewhat later come dawn, twilight (about 5.₃₀, ‘the-sun-is-still-far-off’), and sunrise (‘the-sun-shews-himself-a-little’ or ‘rises’). From 8 to 10 it is ‘still-early’, towards 11 they say ‘the-sun-is-not-yet-perpendicular-overhead’, at 12 ‘the-sun-is-perpendicular-overhead’. The afternoon is usually expressed by ‘the-shadow-is-turned-round’. This phrase is often used for the period from 3 to 5 p. m. In particular, 12–2 = ‘the-sun-is-broken’, 2–4 = ‘afternoon-now’, 4–6 is evening, 5 = ‘the-sun-goes-down’, sunset glow = ‘the-twilight-follows-the-sun’. With the coming of darkness begins the tapa, which lasts until 8 o’clock, when the people usually go to rest[88]. Another authority gives the following list:—Evening, when the cattle return to the kraal just before sunset; night-fall, or the hour for gossip, before the people go to bed about 8 o’clock; then night, midnight, and the time when the buffaloes go to drink (about 4 a. m.), this latter is the hour before the sun rises; then ‘the blood-red period’ or ‘the time when the sun decorates the sky’, this is the hour when the first rays of the sun redden the heavens; after that morning, when the sun has risen. There are also hours called ‘the-sun-stands-(or is-)opposite-to-one’ (midday), and ‘the-shadows-lower-themselves’ (1–2 p. m.)[89]. The Nandi, north-east of the Victoria Nyanza, divide the day into six parts with separate names: 5–6 a. m., 6–9 a. m., 9 a. m.–2 p. m., 2–6 p. m., 6–7 p. m., night. They have moreover a highly developed terminology for the hours of the day, to which we shall return later. The Baganda distinguish the following times of day:—night, midnight, cock-crow, early dawn, morning, ‘little sun’ (early morning from 6 to 9), full or broad daylight (9–2), midday, afternoon, evening[90]. The lower classes sometimes reckon from the meal-times, breakfast at 7 a. m., dinner at noon, and supper at 6 p. m. Women engaged in rough work in the gardens spoke of the time at which such and such an event took place as that of the first or second pipe, the first marking an interval of rest at 8 a. m., the second being smoked when work ceased at 10 a. m.[91]. The expressions for the times of day among the Thonga of South Africa have been translated and explained as follows:—“The dawn is called nipandju; then come tlhabela sana, the time when the rays of the sun (sana) are piercing; hisaka sana, when they are burning; nhlekani, the middle of the sky, or shitahataka, the maximum point of heat; then ndjenga or lihungu, the afternoon; the time when the sun goes down (renga); ku pela or ku hlwa, when it reaches the horizon; and inpimabayeni, the twilight, literally ‘the time when you do not easily recognise strangers coming to your village because it grows dark’”[92]. It is remarkable here that many indications are given from the increasing heat and not from the position of the sun. The Hottentots distinguish morning and evening twilight, morning brightness, i. e. the time of clear day shortly before sunrise (the native name is given because about dawn it is usually most perceptibly cold), and evening brightness, ‘the red twilight’. ‘Little children’s twilight’ was in some places the name given to the time of the first noticeable diminution of light after sunset, in accordance with the belief that at this hour most children were born. Afternoon and morning were only approximate. A distinction was made between evening and late evening, which extended till long after sunset[93]. The author just quoted remarks that in this case one is struck by the fact that while the limits of day and night are elaborately marked out, of the hours of day itself only noon is brought into prominence. The same is the case with most peoples who possess a more highly developed terminology of this nature, and the circumstance is perfectly natural, since the concrete differences in the phenomena of light and of the heavens become so great and so easily visible during the transition from day to night and night to day. As soon as the sun has risen a little in the heavens these differences consist chiefly in the position of the sun and in the increasing heat. Here the language of signs is really more expressive.

The aboriginals of the Andaman Islands have terms for the following times of day:—dawn, the time between this and sunrise, sunrise, the time between sunrise and 7 a. m., morning (three different expressions), noon, the time from noon to 3 p. m., from 3 to 5, from 5 to sunset, sunset, twilight, from night-fall to midnight, midnight[94]. In Busang (the common commercial language of the Bakau) as spoken by the Mendalam Kayan of Borneo the different times of day are named:—dow (day) bekang (open, split) = 6 a. m.; dow njirang (to shine) mahing (powerful) = about 9 a. m.; dow negrang (upright) marong (real) = about 12 noon; dow njaja (great) = about 4 p. m.; dow lebi (little) = about 6 p. m.[95] The terms used by the Islamite Malayans of Sumatra are mingled with Arabic loan-words, which I indicate by (Ar.):—6 a. m. (Ar.) dawn, 9 ‘half of the rising’, 11 ‘close to noon’, 12 ‘middle of the day’, 12–1 p. m. (Ar.), 1–3 ‘mid-descent’, 3 ‘the time of the long sinking’, 4 (Ar.) afternoon, 5.₃₀ ‘time of twilight’, 6 (Ar.) sunset, 8 (Ar.) evening[96]. The Javanese speak of morning, forenoon, noon, afternoon, fall of the day, sunset, evening[97]. The Achenese of Sumatra, who have a fully developed calendar influenced by Arabic, keep the old names for the times of day but with Arabic words and the Moslem hours of prayer intermingled. About 6 a. m. = with the breaking forth of the sun; 7–7.₃₀ = the sun a pole high, referring to the poles used in propelling craft; 9 = rice time, i. e. meal time; 10 = the loosening of the ploughing-gear; 11 = the approaching of the zenith; 12 = the zenith; 12.₃₀ = the falling from the zenith; 1.₃₀–2 = the middle of the period devoted to obligatory noon-day prayers; 3 = the last part of this; 3.₃₀ = the beginning, 4.₃₀–5 = the middle, and 5.₃₀ = the last part of the time of afternoon prayers; 6 = sunset; 7.₃₀ = evening, especially referring to the time of commencement of the evening prayer; then come midnight and the last third of night, 3 a. m. = the single crowing of the cock, 4–4.₃₀ = the continuous crowing of the cocks, nearly 5 = the streaks of dawn[98]. For the Malays of the Peninsula the following list is given:—just before dawn = before the flies are astir; after sunrise = the heat begins; about 8 a. m. = when the dew dries up; about 9 = when the sun is half-way above. Then follow:—when the plough rests; noon = just noon, right in the middle, when the shadows are round; afternoon = when the day turns back; about 1.₃₀ p. m. = after (Friday) prayer; about 3 = when the buffaloes go to water; about 10 = when the children have gone to sleep[99].

The natives of the Solomon Islands have a rich terminology. In Buin the following degrees of brightness in the daylight are distinguished:—4 a. m., ‘it gradually begins to get light’; 5, ‘the brightness is coming on’; 6, ‘the sun shews himself’; 7, ‘it is getting sun’, ‘the sun is there’; 10, ‘the sun is over the side-rafters of the roof’ (i. e. not yet quite overhead); 12 noon, ‘the sun has come overhead’; 2 p. m., ‘with westerly inclination’, ‘turning’; 3.30, ‘it has come to the tying of the knot’ (on the Gazelle Peninsula they say of this time ‘the sun has sat down to glow’); 5, ‘darkness is drawing near’; 6, ‘it has begun to get dark’; 7, ‘it has grown dark’[100]. Moreover there are words and expressions which mean ‘middle of the heavens’, ‘the sun is over the ridge’, ‘the sun stands below 70° from the horizon’, ‘the sun is on the entrance-beam’[101]. A feature of special note here is that the houses (which must all be built facing the same direction) and their parts serve as aids in indicating time. The inhabitants of New Britain (Bismarck Archipelago) divided up the day according to the position of the sun, and had words for sunrise, noon, afternoon, the time of the declining sun, nearly sunset, sunset, and presumably some others[102].

The Polynesians mingle the time-indications based on the position of the sun with others which are derived from the life of men and nature. We are told that the Hawaiian day was divided into three general parts, 1, breaking the shadows, 2, the plain, full day, 3, the decline of the day. But this must be completed by what follows:—The lapse of night, however, was noted by five stations: 1, about sunset; 2, between sunset and midnight; 3, midnight; 4, between midnight and sunrise; 5, sunrise[103]. A native Hawaiian writes:—“When the stars fade away and disappear, it is ao, daylight; when the sun rises, day has come, la; when the sun becomes warm, morning is past; when the sun is directly overhead it is awahea, noon; when the sun inclines to the west in the afternoon, the expression is wa ani ka la. After that come evening, ahi-ahi (ahi, fire), and then sunset, napoo ka la, and then comes po, the night, and the stars shine out”. Other expressions are translated:—‘there comes a glimmer of colour on the mountains’, ‘the curtains of night are parted’, ‘the mountains light up’, ‘day breaks’, ‘the east blooms with yellow’, ‘it is broad daylight’[104].

These are, poetically regarded, very fine examples of the rich terminology for the time of transition between night and day. In Tahiti the day has six divisions which are fairly accurately determined by the height of the sun. Names are given for midnight, midnight to daybreak, daybreak, sunrise, the time when the sun begins to be hot, when it reaches the meridian, evening before sunset, the time after sunset[105]. The names for the times of day among the Society Islanders were particularly well developed. For the day there were two expressions according to its extension either from morning to evening twilight or from the rising to the setting of the sun. No division into regular periods was known, nor any means of establishing these; nevertheless the islanders distinguished a varying number of points of time, according to recurring physical changes, at unequal distances from each other. Thus:—the time of cock-crow, the first breaking of clouds, twilight, the stirring of the flies, the time at which a man’s face can be recognised, daylight, the dipping forward of the sun’s edge, sunrise, the sun above the horizon, the rays broadening over the land, the rays falling on the crown of the head, the same a little oblique, the shadow as long as the object, the same longer than the man, the sun near the horizon, sunset, the time at which the houses are lit up, twilight, night, midnight[106]. For the Marquesas are given:—daybreak, twilight, dawn, (‘the day or the red sky, the fleeing night’), broad day—bright day from full morning to about ten o’clock—, noon (‘belly of the sun’), afternoon (‘back part of the sun’), evening (‘fire-fire’, the same expression as in Hawaii, i. e. the time to light the fires on the mountains or the kitchen fire for supper)[107]. The Samoans divided the day into first dawn, dawn, cock-crowing, day-break, the time when the bird iao was heard (i = call, ao = day-break), morning, the time to feed the tame pigeons (about 9 a. m.), the sun upright (= noon), half-way down (about 3 p. m.), sunset. After that the night was divided into:—the crying of the cricket (about 20 minutes after sunset), fire-lighting (about half-an-hour later), the extinguishing of the lights (about 9 p. m.), midnight, and tulna o pa ma ao, ‘the standing together of night and day’[108].

Indications of this nature are convenient only in countries in which the sun is neither too often nor too long hidden by clouds. When the sun is hidden the inhabitants have to manage as best they can. A very interesting statement in this connection is made by a Swahili native. In rainy days his tribe observed the crowing of the cock. At the first cock-crow they knew that it was 5 or 6 a. m.; when the cock failed to crow all sense of a division of time was lost to them[109].

The phenomena of Nature afford little basis for the naming of the times of day, since there is hardly one of them which recurs regularly every day at a definite time, with the exception of cock-crow, which is in great favour as an indication of the time before sunrise. Other exceptional cases are such names as that mentioned for the Society Islands, ‘the stirring of the flies’; one given for the Mahakam Kayan of Borneo, tiling (a cricket which is only to be heard at sunset) duan (to sing)[110]; a couple of expressions of the Wadschagga, ‘the cry of the partridge’ in the evening, ‘the turning of the smoke down the mountain’[111]; and one of the Nandi, ‘the elephants have gone to water’[112]. But a people which devotes itself to cattle-rearing or to agriculture may borrow from its regular daily occupations expressions for the times of day. Thus the Mahakam Kayan, besides the above-mentioned name for late afternoon and the term for noon (beluwa dow, ‘half-day’), have an expression for about 4 p. m.—dow uli, i. e. ‘the time of the home-coming from work in the fields’. The Javanese are strongly influenced by civilisation and have, especially for astrological purposes, a fully developed chronological system; not seldom, however, the times of day are given in relation to the rural labour. So they say ‘when the buffalo is sent to the pastures’, ‘when the buffalo is brought back from the pastures’ or ‘is housed’ etc.; but for the time of the occurrence of any event the position of the sun is usually indicated[113]. The Achenese and the Malays of Sumatra have an expression exactly corresponding to the Greek βουλυτός[114]. The Wadschagga have expressions for the position of the sun, but also others[115], among which may be mentioned ‘the first going of the oxen to the pastures in the morning’. This kind of terminology seems to have been developed into a system among the Banyankole, a cattle-raising tribe of the Uganda Protectorate. The day is divided up in the following way:—6 a. m., milking-time; 9 a. m., katamyabosi, not translated; 12 noon, rest for the cattle; 1 p. m., the time to draw water; 2 p. m., the time for the cattle to drink; 3 p. m., the cattle leave the watering-place to graze; 4 p. m., the sun shews signs of setting; 5 p. m., the cattle return home; 6 p. m., the cattle enter the kraal; 7 p. m., milking-time[116]. This terminology is of especial interest since it remains in various Indo-European languages as a relic of antiquity, and affords a hitherto little observed piece of evidence for the life of antiquity which agrees well with others. Compare Sanskrit sagavás, the time when the cows are herded together; βουλυτός, the time when the oxen were unyoked in the Homeric phrase ἦμος δ’ ἠέλιος μετενίσσετο βουλυτόνδε[117]; and Irish im-buarach, morning, ‘at the yoking of the oxen’. With rest or meal-times are associated Old High German untorn, ‘noon’, the time of the mid-day rest, Sanskrit abhipitvam, ‘evening’, and Lithuanian piëtus, ‘noon’, which goes back to Sanskrit pitus, ‘meal-time’[118].

Time-indications of various kinds are, as we have seen, used alongside of one another; when they are fully employed a very highly organised terminology for the times of day may be arrived at. The names for the times of day among the Nandi seem almost artificial:—2 a. m., the elephants have gone to the waters; 3, the waters roar; 4, the land (sky) has become light; 5, the houses are opened; 5.₃₀, the oxen have gone to the grazing-ground; 6, the sheep have been unfastened; 6.₃₀, the sun has grown; 7, it has become warm; 7.₃₀, the goats have gone to the grazing-ground; 9, the goats have returned from the grazing-ground; 9.₃₀, the goats sleep in the kraal; 10, the goats have arisen, the oxen have returned; 10.₃₀, the oxen sleep; 11, untie the cattle, i. e. let the calves get their food, the goats feed; 11.₃₀, the oxen have arisen; 12 noon, the sun has stood upright, the goats sleep in the wood; 12.₃₀, the goats have drunk water; 1 p. m., the sun turns, i. e. goes towards the west, the cattle have drunk water; 1.₃₀, the drones hum; 2, the sun continues to go towards the west, the oxen feed; 3, the goats have been collected; 4, the oxen drink water for the second time, the goats have returned; 4.₃₀, the goats sleep; 5, the eleusine grain has been cleaned for us, take the goats home, shut up the calves; 5.₃₀, the goats have entered the kraal; 6, the sun is finished, the cattle have returned; 6.₁₅, milk (sc. the cows); 6.₄₅, neither man nor tree is recognisable, cattle-fold doors have been closed; 7, the heavens are fastened; 8, the porridge is finished; 9, those who have drunk milk are asleep; 10, the houses have been closed; 11, those who sleep early wake up; 12, the middle of the night[119].

As a last example I give the most detailed list of all, from the neighbourhood of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The times given are naturally to be taken on the average. 12 midnight, centre of night or halving of night; 2 a. m., frog-croaking; 3, cock-crowing; 4, morning also night; 5, crow-croaking; 5.₁₅, bright horizon, glimmer of day, reddish east; 5.₃₀, the colours of cattle can be seen, dusk, diligent people awake, early morning; 6, sunrise, day-break, broad daylight; 6.₁₅, dew falls, the cattle go out; 6.30, the leaves are dry (i. e. the dew disappears); 6.₄₅, the hoar-frost disappears, the day chills the mouth (this applies only to the two or three winter months); 8, advance of the day; 9, (the sun is) over (at a right angle with) the purlin; 12 noon, over the ridge of the roof.—In the forenoon the position of the sun nearly square with the eastern purlin of the roof marked about 9 o’clock; and as noon approached, its vertical position about the ridge-pole, or at least its reaching the meridian, clearly indicated 12 o’clock. In regard to the terms for the afternoon we must bear in mind that the houses in former times were always built with their length running north and south and with the single door and window facing the west; the sunlight coming in after midday at the open door by its gradual progress along the floor gave a fairly accurate measure of time. The house therefore served, as among the Dyaks, as a kind of sun-dial.—12.₃₀ p. m., day taking hold of the threshold; 1, peeping in of the day (into the room), day less one step; 1.₃₀—2, slipping of the day, decline of the day, afternoon; 2, (the sun) at the rice-pounding place (i. e. the sunbeam falls on the rice mortar), at the house-post (there were in the house three posts supporting the ridge: in the southern one there were notches, jinja andry, from which the advance of the sunlight and of the day was observed); 3, at the place of tying the calf (as the rays reached the one of the posts to which the calf was tied at night); 4, at the sheep- or poultry-pen; 4.₃₀, the cow newly calved comes home; 5, the sun touching (i. e. when the declining sunshine reached the eastern wall of the house); 5.₃₀, the cattle come home; 5.₄₅ sunset flush; 6, sunset (lit. ‘sun dead’); 6.₁₅, the fowls come in; 6.₃₀, dusk, twilight; 6.₄₅, the edge of the rice-cooking pan is obscure; 7, people begin to cook rice; 8, people eat rice; 8.₃₀, finished eating; 9, people go to sleep; 9.₃₀, everyone in bed; 10 gun-fire; 12, midnight[120].

Finally I collect the Homeric expressions for the parts of the day. They are far from being so elaborately organised as the examples quoted above, and many are incidental periphrases; the terminology is still at its beginnings. Its character is quite primitive also in the juxtaposition of terms of different kinds. The day is divided into the familiar three parts. ‘It will be a dawn, or an afternoon, or a noon when I am to be killed’, says Achilles[121]. The meaning of ἠώς, ‘dawn’, is also extended so that the word can denote forenoon or at least morning. Cp. the following phrases:—‘I slept the whole night and to the dawn and to the noon’,[122] ‘as long as it was dawn and the holy day increased’[123]; of this the phrase already quoted, ‘as the sun turned over to the unyoking of the oxen’, is the counterpart. In this sense appears also the derivative ἠοίη. When Menelaus wishes to surprise the Old Man of the Sea he goes to the seashore ‘as the dawn appeared’[124]: the Old Man is said to come ‘as the sun ascends the middle of the heavens’[125]. Thus ‘we waited the whole dawn’ until ‘the Old Man came up from the sea at noon’[126]. The afternoon, in which the suitors amuse themselves with dance and song, is also called eventide[127]; when evening, ἕσπερος, comes, they go home to sleep[128]. Besides these larger divisions smaller ones were also indicated, e. g. the morning twilight, ‘when it was not yet dawn but still the twilight of the ending night’[129]. Before dawn there appears the morning star, ἑωσφόρος, Il. XXIII, 226, Od. XIII, 93. ἠώς, ‘dawn’ in the proper sense of the word, is often used as a time-indication, sometimes in the well-known periphrastic expressions of Il. XI, 1, XIX, 1, Od. V, 1. XXIII, 347, XXII, 197, sometimes alone, e. g. ‘at dawn’, ‘at the appearance of dawn’[130]. Sunrise is always indicated by verbal and often periphrastic expressions, simply by ἀνιέναι, ‘rise’[131], further ‘the sun, leaving the fair sea, rose into the all-brazen heaven to shine for the immortal ones’ etc.[132], and ‘neither as he ascends to the starry heaven nor as he again turns back to the earth from the heavens’[133], similarly Od. XII, 380 ff., Il. XI, 735 ‘as long as the shining sun rose above the earth’[134], and Il. VII, 421 ff. ‘the sun thereafter once more struck the fields, ascending in the heavens from the deep and soft-flowing ocean’[135]. The expression can therefore also include the time immediately following after sunrise, but is not applied to the whole period of the sun’s ascension, i. e. the forenoon. The culmination of the sun is mentioned in Od. IV, 400 (cp. above) and in Il. VIII, 68. The decline of the day is thus described, ‘the day was for the greater part gone’[136]; for the sinking of the sun see Od. XI, 18, XII, 381 (cp. above), and the already quoted expression ‘the sun turned over to the unyoking of the oxen’. Sunset (Il. XVII, 454, XVIII, 241, Od. II, 388) is described by the common word δύνειν, ‘set’, or by ‘goes under the earth’[137], or ‘the bright light of the sun sank down in the ocean, drawing after himself the dark night’[138]. The evening star has the same name as evening, ἕσπερος[139]. The Homeric Greeks therefore do not seem to have observed the position of the sun in any but the most general fashion. We may add certain indications taken from the business of daily life. The word βουλυτός (cp. above p. 31) appears in the twice-recurring verse ‘as the sun turned over to the unyoking of the oxen’[140]. It is not the sun but the ploughman that unyokes the oxen: the word has therefore become established as a chronological terminus technicus which is significant on account of its antiquity. About the expression ἐν νυκτὸς ἀμολγῷ there has been much dispute. It occurs:—Il. XI, 173 and XV, 324, where lions surprise a herd, XXII, 28, in the simile of the morning rising of Sirius, 317, of the shining forth of the evening star, Od. IV, 841 ‘so clear appeared the dream to her’[141]: it is a well-known fact that we dream for the most part shortly before waking. The sense ‘beginning or end of night’ is therefore fully confirmed. As for the etymology I do not hesitate to pronounce in favour of that lying nearest to hand, viz. ἀμέλγειν, ‘to milk’, and therefore ‘milking-time’. Compare the terms of the Banyankole for early morning at 6 o’clock and evening at 7—‘milking-time’—and those of the Nandi: 6 p. m. ‘the sun is over, the cattle have come back’; 6.₁₅, ‘milk’ (sc. the cows). That only these two expressions have settled into termini technici admits of a not unimportant conclusion in regard to antiquity. The meal-hour as an indication of time occurs Il. XI, 86, ‘when a wood-cutter prepares his meal after having fatigued his arms by felling large trees’[142], and Od. XII, 439, ‘when a man rises from the market-place to go home to the meal after having judged many quarrels’[143],—in the latter instance in connexion with the market. This time-indication was destined to have a great future as the social life of the Greeks developed. Phrases such as the following are of common occurrence:—‘when the market-place is full’[144], ‘before the market-place has filled itself’[145], ‘the breaking up of the assembly of the market-place’[146], etc. The night was divided into the familiar three parts (although the expression μέση νύξ, ‘middle of the night’, first occurs in the smaller Iliad) and was judged according to the position of the stars:—‘Let us go, for the night draws close to an end and the dawn is near. The stars are far gone. The greater part of night is gone, the two parts, only the third part remains’[147]; ‘when it was the third part of the night and the stars had passed’[148]. The morning star serves as a time-indicator at the nocturnal home-coming of Odysseus[149].