Primitive Time-reckoning: A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoplesNilsson, Martin P. (Martin Persson)
History
Primitive Time-reckoning: A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoples
Nilsson, Martin P. (Martin Persson)
Chronology
The phenomena of Nature afford little basis for the naming of
the times of day, since there is hardly one of them which recurs
regularly every day at a definite time, with the exception of
cock-crow, which is in great favour as an indication of the time
before sunrise. Other exceptional cases are such names as that
mentioned for the Society Islands, ‘the stirring of the flies’; one
given for the Mahakam Kayan of Borneo, _tiling_ (a cricket which
is only to be heard at sunset) _duan_ (to sing)[110]; a couple of
expressions of the Wadschagga, ‘the cry of the partridge’ in the
evening, ‘the turning of the smoke down the mountain’[111]; and one
of the Nandi, ‘the elephants have gone to water’[112]. But a people
which devotes itself to cattle-rearing or to agriculture may borrow
from its regular daily occupations expressions for the times of
day. Thus the Mahakam Kayan, besides the above-mentioned name for
late afternoon and the term for noon (_beluwa dow_, ‘half-day’),
have an expression for about 4 p. m.--_dow uli_, i. e. ‘the time of
the home-coming from work in the fields’. The Javanese are strongly
influenced by civilisation and have, especially for astrological
purposes, a fully developed chronological system; not seldom,
however, the times of day are given in relation to the rural labour.
So they say ‘when the buffalo is sent to the pastures’, ‘when the
buffalo is brought back from the pastures’ or ‘is housed’ etc.; but
for the time of the occurrence of any event the position of the sun
is usually indicated[113]. The Achenese and the Malays of Sumatra
have an expression exactly corresponding to the Greek βουλυτός[114].
The Wadschagga have expressions for the position of the sun, but
also others[115], among which may be mentioned ‘the first going of
the oxen to the pastures in the morning’. This kind of terminology
seems to have been developed into a system among the Banyankole,
a cattle-raising tribe of the Uganda Protectorate. The day is
divided up in the following way:--6 a. m., milking-time; 9 a. m.,
_katamyabosi_, not translated; 12 noon, rest for the cattle; 1 p. m.,
the time to draw water; 2 p. m., the time for the cattle to drink; 3
p. m., the cattle leave the watering-place to graze; 4 p. m., the sun
shews signs of setting; 5 p. m., the cattle return home; 6 p. m., the
cattle enter the kraal; 7 p. m., milking-time[116]. This terminology
is of especial interest since it remains in various Indo-European
languages as a relic of antiquity, and affords a hitherto little
observed piece of evidence for the life of antiquity which agrees
well with others. Compare Sanskrit _sagavás_, the time when the cows
are herded together; βουλυτός, the time when the oxen were unyoked
in the Homeric phrase ἦμος δ’ ἠέλιος μετενίσσετο βουλυτόνδε[117];
and Irish _im-buarach_, morning, ‘at the yoking of the oxen’. With
rest or meal-times are associated Old High German _untorn_, ‘noon’,
the time of the mid-day rest, Sanskrit _abhipitvam_, ‘evening’, and
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