There are however other ways of exactly fixing a day, viz. by observation of the stars and of the solstices and equinoxes. The former method is hardly ever used directly as a means of determining religious dates, and this fact is very significant for the practical character of the observation of the stars. No religious ideas are associated with the phases of the stars, although star-myths innumerable are related. The reason is not easy to discover. A contributory factor may be that although the observation of the stars is wide-spread, it is yet not a matter which concerns every man, and also that the stars always give only a single point of time and do not form cyclical periods within the year, though on the other hand they are intimately connected with the phases of the natural year and with agriculture. The principal reason may be conjectured to be that the reckoning of months, on account of its connexion with the popular festival seasons and with the selection of days, has been from the beginning chiefly carried out with a view to religious considerations. It is only among certain peoples that the observation of the solstices and equinoxes plays any great part, and that consequently the religious importance of the sun is also great. But the festivals of the solstices and equinoxes, recurring at regular intervals in the course of the year, are far from being able to compare with those of the phases of the moon. It has already been mentioned that the Eskimos were able accurately to observe the winter solstice[1149]. At this time, about the 22nd of December, they held a festival to rejoice over the return of the sun and the good hunting weather. They collected together from all over the country in great parties, entertained one another in the best possible manner, and when they had gorged themselves to the full they got up to play and to dance[1150]. Certain Indian peoples have made quite a special custom of the observation of the solstices and equinoxes. Thus for instance did the Inca people, but they had lunar months also, and even the great festival of the sun in December was regulated by the days of the lunar month[1151]. The Zuñi determine the festival times by the observation of thirteen different positions of the sun on the horizon, but they have also lunar months, five of which are named from natural phases, and six from colours borrowed from certain rites[1152]. The ceremonies are therefore still distributed among the months, and the most obvious explanation is that the observation of the thirteen positions of the sun really serves to determine the thirteen months, and with them the times of the rites. The old Mexican calendar seems to have no connexion with the moon, but in Ginzel’s opinion this does not exclude the possibility of an earlier development on the basis of a relationship with the course of the moon[1153]. In any case the regulation of the festivals by the