chief ploughing-season. But the first month _nsi_ must once have been one of the starting-points of the counting[777]. That the two months above-mentioned are interpolations does not seem to be correct: for the _nkinyambwo_ shews that the Wadschagga, like so many other peoples, have had thirteen months, one of which was omitted when necessary. The process seems clear from the statements given. When the thirteenth month (probably under Islamite influence) passed out of use, in the now strictly lunar year the months got out of place in reference to the seasons. If the fifth month _kusanu_ keeps the place in reference to the seasons to which its other names point, it falls in the ninth month of the author’s list, _kukendu_, which, according to natural conditions, is the beginning of the year. That only ten months are numbered and the others named affords independent evidence, and is in keeping with the system of counting in tens. That the two months in question are inserted between the third (or fourth) and the first points to a conventionalising of the system such as is anything but primitive. Here, as always, numbered months shew themselves to be a late phenomenon. Curious names of months, of a kind which we have hardly met with hitherto, are found in the comparatively highly civilised Hausa states (Kano, Sokoto), where the Arabic and Julian names for the months are also known. 1 (January), _wata-n-tshika-n-shekara_, or _tshiki_, ‘month of the filling of the belly’, since much food is eaten, especially at full moon, or _wata-n-wauwo_, month of the _wauwo_-game (with torches); 2, _wata-n-gani_, month of the _gani_-game; 3, _wata-n-takutika_, month of the _takutika_-game, or _wata-n-takalufu_; 4, _ware-ware-n-farin_; 5, _ware-ware-n-biu_; 6, _ware-ware-n-aku_. _Ware-ware_ is the name of a small bird which builds its nest in a hole in the ground; it is therefore doubtful to which element it belongs. And so it is with these three months, April, May, June, in which no games take place, so that it was not known where to place them; for this reason they are called the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd _ware-ware_. The word also denotes a person who talks now one way, now another, a doubtful person. 7, _wata-n-azumi-n-tsofafi_, month of the fast of the old people; 8, _wata-n-sha rua-n-tsofafi_, month of the old people’s water-drinking; 9, _wata-n-azumi_, month of fasting; 10, _wata-n-karama-n-salla_, month of the little _salla_ festival; 11, _wata-n-bawa-n-salloli_, month of the slaves, in this month all (but especially the slaves) have much work for the festival of the following month; 12, _wata-n-baba-n-salla_, month of the great _salla_ festival, or _wata-n-laiya_, month of the slaughtering of the lamb. The festivals, especially the _salla_ festivals, do not always take place in the months named after them: the time is determined by the priests in accordance with the position of the moon (_wata_ = ‘moon,’ ‘month’)[778].