It has been shewn, then, that even among the most primitive peoples of the globe the stars are known, observed, considered, and used for the determination of time--the Pleiades, indeed, first and foremost, but other constellations as well; of the not nearly so frequent determination of the advance of night from the motions of the stars we have already spoken in chapter I. There is however a difference that should not be neglected between this method of determining time and the time-indications from natural phases. So far as I have been able to discover, the stars are never used in a narrative, i. e. where the date of any familiar event is to be given, but only where practical rules for the constantly recurring occupations and labours are concerned, and also for the festivals. The method therefore does not apply to the historical event in the wider sense, but only to the reiterated event the recurrence of which is empirically known. The consciousness of a fixed and constant order is therefore impressed upon the mind of primitive man much more powerfully by the eternal revolution of the constellations than by the variation of the seasons. CHAPTER V. THE MONTH. The course of the sun determines the variation between day and night, and causes the natural phases of the year. From the position of the sun the times of the day can be given with ease and certainty, but not so the seasons of the year,--to the exceptions I shall recur in chapter XII. From the fixed stars the hours of the night can be determined, and still more frequently are the seasons regulated by them. But this kind of time-determination necessarily refers to points of time, and not to periods. Only for one or two days has the star the position which serves for the determination of time. No division of the year into parts can be carried out by this method, the most that can be done is to regulate the already existing divisions by it.