The full moon also gives rise to special feasts: half Africa dances in the light of the nights of full moon. The Bushmen, for example, never neglected the dance at the time of the new and full moon. Dancing began with the new moon and was continued at the full moon[655]. In Dahomey the festivals take place at full moon, the days being fixed by the native government[656]. This is also the case elsewhere. The people of Timor on the night of the full moon dance from night-fall till sunrise: the dancing songs are principally of an erotic character[657]. On the Nicobars at new and full moon feasts were celebrated in which great quantities of an intoxicating beverage prepared from the juice of the cocoa-palm were drunk[658]. The Celtic Iberians of ancient Spain assembled outside their gates on the nights of full moon and celebrated a feast and danced in honour of an unknown god[659]. Who can help thinking here of the well-known words of Tacitus about the Germans?--“Their meetings are, except in case of chance emergencies, on fixed days, either at new moon or full moon: such seasons they believe to be the most auspicious for beginning business”[660]. A fact is here mentioned to which we shall recur below, viz. that the feasts and religious festivals are often celebrated during the time of full moon. This is due not only to the full light of the moon but also to the world-wide idea that everything which is to prosper belongs to the time of the waxing moon, and above all to the days when it has reached its complete phase[661]. New moon and full moon, therefore, by the religious significance attached to them, prove themselves to have been the two phases which were first observed. It is certainly no mere accident that in a word-list of an Australian tribe, the Kakadu of North Territory, only terms for new moon and full moon exist (_malpa nigeri_ and _mirrawarra malpa_ respectively)[662]. Starting from these two phases, the whole period of the moon can be divided into two halves, formed by the waxing and the waning moon. The phases are the same in both halves, but follow one another in the inverse order. Hence they can be described by the same word, with an additional word for the half of the month: but this is only vouched for in one instance, viz. for the Mendalam Kayan of Borneo[663]. On the other hand this division is extremely common, especially among more highly developed peoples, in the counting of the days of the month, to which I return below. Quite primitive peoples cannot count so far as 15, or do so only with difficulty: instead of this they distinguish still further phases of the moon.