The Eskimos of Greenland, when it is dark, indicate the time from _nelarsik_ (Vega)[186], or from the Pleiades[187]. Among them the observation of the stars is uncommonly well developed. The Lapps, who have to tend their reindeer during the long winter nights, determine the course of time by certain stars. _Sarvon_ is the largest star in the heavens: when in winter it stands in the middle of the sky it marks midnight; it is called the night-clock of the Lapps. The Great Dog, the Old Man, and the Old Woman are three stars that pursue _sarva_. They rise when the people go to sleep, and set a little before daybreak. They ascend the heavens obliquely in front of _sarva_, in the morning they dip downwards. Another authority states that _sarva_ is the Great Bear; the first couple of stars in it are the Old Man and the Old Woman, the second the Dog and the Elk. The reindeer herdsman decides from it how far night is advanced, and when he may expect to be relieved. _Lovosj_ or _suttjenes_ is the name given to the Pleiades. The constellation indicates midnight, when the weather is good. A fable tells how this constellation saved a servant who had been driven out by his master into the great cold of a winter night. The young men wish the maidens to tend the reindeer by night and say:--“Go and kiss the _suttjenes_ young men”, but the maidens answer:--“Go yourselves and kiss the _suttjenes_ maidens”[188]. Of the old Icelanders Kålund writes:--“At night the moon and certain stars, especially the Pleiades, afford them the same aid” (i. e. as the signs of day)[189]. The Homeric Greeks--at least in a general fashion--also judged of the advance of night by the position of the stars[190]. This more accurate method is therefore peculiar to a few primitive peoples specially gifted in astronomy.