Primitive Time-reckoning: A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoplesNilsson, Martin P. (Martin Persson)
History
Primitive Time-reckoning: A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoples
Nilsson, Martin P. (Martin Persson)
Chronology
in the third _meb zizimi_, almost full _eip meb_, and full moon _giz
meb_[681].
Among the tribes of Central Brazil (the Bakairi), as also elsewhere,
the phases of the moon have found mythological expression. The moon
is represented as a shuttle-cock; the phases start from the full
moon. First a lizard comes and takes hold of it, on the second day an
armadillo, and then a Giant armadillo, whose thick body soon quite
covers the yellow feathers[682]. The phases are similarly explained
among the Paressi[683].
In regard to the more accurate determination of the days of the
moon-month up to the point when each day has its separate name, it
is possible to proceed in two ways, either to develop more and more
elaborately the concrete descriptions from the phases and positions
of the moon, until every day thus takes its name from the shape or
the position of the moon, or else simply to number the days. The
simple counting and numbering of all the days of the month from the
new moon up to 29 or 30 is the most abstract method, and it is only
found among the most highly developed peoples. Commonly a mixed
system obtains, such, for instance, as that of the Romans, so that
within the month, from the starting-points offered by the phases, the
days of a certain smaller division are counted, or a short phase is
distinguished by means of adjectives in the first, the second, and
even the third day of the phase.
The following may serve as an example of a purely concrete system.
Among the Mendalam Kayan of Borneo the different days of the period
of the moon’s visibility have the following names in the Busang
language (the common commercial tongue of the Bukau):--_njina_ (see)
_dang_ (pretty well); _matau_ (eye) _dang_; _lekurdang_; _butit_
(belly) _halab_ (tetrodon, a trunk-fish) _ok_ (little); _butit
halab aja_ (big); _keleong_ (body) _paja ok_; _keleong paja aja_;
_beleling_ (edge) _dija_; and _kamat_ (full moon). The days following
have the same names, but in the inverse order, and with the addition
of _uli_, i. e. to go home. The days of the moon’s invisibility
are not reckoned[684]. The days mentioned amount to only 2 × 8;
others must therefore be lacking, or do the names given apply to
moon-phases of more than one day’s duration? The author’s wording
seems to contradict this. The Batak of Sumatra describe the days by
the names of the planets (borrowed from the Sanskrit), repeated four
times. To distinguish one from another they make use of additions
some of which may probably be referred to original Batak terms[685].
A complete system exists among the Toradja of the Dutch East Indies,
in connexion with a fully developed day-superstition such as so often
accompanies the moon-month. On certain days, here distinguished by
an asterisk, it is forbidden to work in the fields: other work is
however permitted. *1, _eo mboeja_, ‘day of the moon’, from the
evening on which the crescent of the moon was first seen. 2 to 9 have
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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