Behind the calendar stand in particular the priests. For they are the most intelligent and learned men of the tribe, and moreover the calendar is peculiarly their affair, if the development has proceeded so far that value is attached to the calendar for the selection of the proper days for the religious observances. We are not told that the Kenyah who has charge of the calendar is a priest, but among the Kayan (also of Borneo) it is a priest who determines the seed-time from the observation of the ecliptic, and on the upper Mahakam a priestess[1170]. In Bali the Brahmins, in Java the village priests, determine the seasons by observing a crude sun-dial[1171]. Of the Tshi-speaking peoples it is said that the priests keep a reckoning of the time, using different methods for the purpose, and make known the approach of the annual festivals[1172]. Among the Hausa the priests determine the time of the festivals according to the position of the moon[1173]; here also the months are named after the festivals. To a very general extent it is true among peoples like the Indians of Arizona, where the religious ceremonies are the centre of the life of the tribe, that the priests are the calendar-makers. Among the Hopi the priests determine from the observation of the solstices and equinoxes the time for the religious ceremonies and for the agricultural labours[1174]. Among the Zuñi the priest of the sun is alone responsible for the calendar. He takes daily observations of the sunrise at a petrified tree-stump east of the village, which he sprinkles with meal when he offers his matins to the rising sun. When the sun rises over a certain point of the Corn Mountain he informs the elder brother Bow priest, who notifies a certain religious body, the members of this society come together and the great feast of the winter solstice is then celebrated. The summer solstice and its festival are determined in similar fashion[1175]. Among the priests there is formed a special class whose duty it is to make observations and keep the calendar in order. Among the Hawaiians ‘astronomers (_kilo-hoku_) and priests’ are mentioned[1176]; they handed down their knowledge from father to son; but women, _kilowahine_, are also found among them[1177]. Elsewhere the nobles appear alongside of the priests; thus in Tahiti it is the nobles that are responsible for the calendar, in New Zealand the priests. In the latter country there is said to have been a regular school, which was visited by priests and chiefs of highest rank. Every year the assembly determined the days on which the corn must be sown and reaped, and thus its members compared their views upon the heavenly bodies. Each course lasted from three to five months[1178].