Only seldom is it mentioned that the months are counted on the fingers, although obviously this must often happen; the Klamath and the Modok used to do so formerly[1085]. Certain very primitive peoples use not only fingers and toes but also other parts of the body in counting. The day of an assembly is determined in this fashion by an Australian tribe which in words can seldom count more than four. The people touch various parts of each other’s bodies--the wrist, the arm, the head--each of which stands for a special day, until the intended day is reached. Thus two or more groups can accurately determine the lapse of time and can meet on the day agreed upon[1086]. The curious names of months of the Tunguses of the Sea of Okhotsk[1087] are similarly to be explained, as is shewn by the method of counting the year used by the Yukaghir. They call the year _n-e’ -malgil_, which means ‘all the joints’. The reckoning of the months by the joints is done in the following manner. They bend the third row of phalanges of the fingers on both hands, and put them together. The line of the joining they call July. Then the knuckles of the second row of phalanges on the right hand will be August. The joints between the phalanges and metacarpals represent September; the wrist-joint is October; the elbow-joint is November; the shoulder-joint, December; between the head and the backbone will be January; the shoulder-joint on the left arm will be February; the elbow-joint, March; the wrist-joint, April; the joint between the fingers and the palm, May; and the knuckles of the second row of phalanges on the left hand, June[1088]. These examples may suffice. The subject is monotonous and is of little importance for the calendar, since the days are counted independently of the latter, beginning at an arbitrary starting-point. The counting that is important for the calendar is that according to the days of the lunar month, but in this the primitive peoples hold to the concrete phenomenon of the moon. The habit of reckoning in this fashion may however be partly responsible for the fact that among certain peoples every day of the month has not been given a name, but the days are counted from certain points of departure, such as new moon, full moon, etc. Very rarely do we meet with a genuinely calendrical use of the tally. The Wa-Sania of East Africa, who as subjects of the Galla and later since the invasion of the Somali have been exposed to all kinds of civilising influences, make a notch for each day, and at the end of the month the stick is laid aside and a new one comes into use[1089]. Similarly at the southern end of Lake Nyassa pieces of wood strung on a cord are used in counting the days of the month that have passed[1090].