day and as many of the night, this more accurate division of night being of course determined by the stars[172]; the only expressions reported however are those for midnight and the time from midnight to daybreak[173]. On the Marquesas Islands the first night-watch was ‘the hour of ghosts’; the advanced night was termed ‘black night’, and midnight ‘great sleep’; the last watch of night was ‘the coming of day’[174]. The Wadschagga have three night watches:--the awakening in the evening, that in the middle (midnight), and that in the morning twilight[175]. The Javanese have night, midnight, and waning of night[176]. Where the cock is kept, its crow serves as a sign that the night is drawing to an end, as for instance among the Swahili[177], and in the Dutch Indies[178]; the Yoruba distinguish other cock-crowings, such as ‘the cock opening the way’, i. e. the first cock-crowing, ‘the time of the cock-crowing immediately before sunset’[179]. Quite exceptional however is the device ascribed to the inhabitants of the New Hebrides. In order to denote the hours of the night they make a gesture in the direction of the spot where the sun would be at the corresponding hour of day[180]. There is only one means of accurately indicating the times of night, and that is by the observation of the stars. Many peoples judge from the position of the morning-star the time that has yet to elapse before sunrise: but this cannot always be done, and in any case the method is only of use in the early morning. But the fixed stars are always there. The difficulty however arises that every day the stars gain about four minutes on the sun; the stars must therefore be accurately known, and the observer must either be acquainted with their positions at definite times of the year or else be constantly choosing a new star as his chronometer. Not many peoples have got so far as that. Although the science of astronomy was very well developed among the Polynesians, we are told of the Tahitians that to distinguish the hours of night by means of the stars was a science with which very few of them were acquainted[181]. On the Society Islands the advance of night was determined from the stars[182]; and so in Hawaii, with as great accuracy as the hours of the day from the sun[183]. “When the Milky Way passes the meridian and inclines to the west, people (in Hawaii) say ‘the fish has turned’”[184]. Among the Indians of South America the knowledge of the stars is very wide-spread. E. Nordenskjöld, who visited the border districts where Brazil, Bolivia, and the Argentine meet, says repeatedly that the stellar heavens are the Indian’s clock and compass. When sitting in their huts they can, without looking out, indicate the positions of the more important constellations in the sky. If one is out with an Indian at night he will point to Orion or some other constellation and shew how far it will have moved on before the end of the journey is reached[185].