_Pawnee._--"They had no method of computing years by calendric notation. Occasionally a year that had been marked by some important event, as a failure of crops, unusual sickness, or a disastrous hunt, was referred to as _a year by itself_, but at a few years' remove even this mark became indistinct or faded altogether away. Any occurrence ten or twelve years past was usually designated as _long ago_. Their great use of the past was not as history, but simply as a storehouse of tradition, and this tendency soon enveloped the most important events with a semi-traditional glamour. When time was computed by years, it was done by winters. The year comprised alternately twelve and thirteen moons or months.... The intercalary month, _ŭsarĕr´ăhu_, was usually inserted at the close of the summer months. The regular months were grouped as with us by threes, the first three constituting winter (_pi´[`c]ĭkŭt_), the second three spring (_ora´rĕkaru_), the next three summer (_li´ŭt_), the last three autumn (_lĕtskukĭ_). The year was also divided into two seasons (_kŭt´ĭharu_), a warm and a cold. As may be readily anticipated, there was much confusion in their system of reckoning by moons. They sometimes became inextricably involved and were obliged to have recourse to objects about them to rectify their computations. Councils have been known to be disturbed, or even broken up, in consequence of irreconcilable differences of opinion as to the correctness of their calculations." "As an aid to the memory, they frequently made use of notches cut in a stick or some similar device for the computation of nights (for days were counted by nights) or even of months and years. Pictographically a day or daytime was represented by a six or eight pointed star, thus, *, as a symbol of the sun. A simple cross, thus X (a star), was a symbol of a night; and a crescent, thus ☾, represented a moon or lunar month" (_Dunbar, 1_). _Dakota, and Cheyenne._--"The Dakota count their years by winters (which is quite natural, as that season in their high levels and latitudes practically lasts more than six months), and say a man is so many snows old, or that so many snow seasons have passed since an occurrence. They have no division of time into weeks, and their months are absolutely lunar, only twelve, however, being designated, which receive their names upon the recurrence of some prominent physical phenomenon. For example, the period partly embraced by February is called the 'raccoon moon'; March, 'the sore eye moon;' and April, that in which the geese lay eggs. As the appearance of raccoons after hibernation, the causes inducing inflamed eyes, and oviposition by geese vary with the meteorological character of each year, and as the twelve lunations reckoned do not bring them back to the point in the season where counting commenced, there is often dispute in the Dakota tipis toward the end of winter as to the correct current date" (_Mallery, 4_).