A much discussed question is whether the ancient Germans were acquainted with the solstices and equinoxes, an assumption which must be adopted by anyone who regards the Yule festival as a solstitial festival. Their acquaintance with these points has been denied and with this view I myself have concurred[1055]. After my researches in primitive time-reckoning, however, I can no longer maintain this opinion for the later heathen times of the north. For it has been shewn that primitive peoples--and especially those living far north, e. g. the Eskimos--observed the solstices well from certain points on the horizon. Now it has already been seen that the northern peoples observed the times of day in the same manner[1056], and this observation was also extended to the annual course of the sun. It is said, for example, that autumn lasts from the equinox until the sun sets in _eyktarstað_, i. e. the position in which it stands in the _eykt_[1057]; and that south of Iceland and Greenland the sun at the time of the shortest days inhabits _eyktarstað_ and _dagmálastað_ (that is to say at 9 a. m.)[1058]. The evidence, it is true, comes down from Christian days: but the method of determining time is of native origin and certainly goes back into heathen times. Hence it should not be denied that, although nothing of the kind has transpired, the solstices and equinoxes might have been approximately determined in the same way, and it may be that the regulation of the calendar profited by this. Any other day of the year can be fixed by observation in the same way, though the observation of the solstices is probably the oldest. As late as the beginning of the 19th century this method was adopted in Norway as a check to the prime-staff. On certain farms there was a definite stone, buried in the earth, to which the people repaired for these observations. They noticed when the sun rose and shone out above certain mountain peaks, or when its last rays touched this or that summit. They also observed the length of the shadow on the face of a cliff, or noted when it touched the brow of a mountain or a certain stone. Thence they were able to give the important days of the year, e. g. the festival of St. Paul or Candlemas. Our authority says that the observation was very inaccurate, so that the Christmas Day of the people might fall on January 2. But it was not so bad as that, since they still followed the old style. The sun-mark for the first summer day (April 14) agreed with the 23rd of April[1059].