The difficulty of struggling through to the conception of the year is exemplified by certain peoples who know two seasons but reckon in half-years without joining them together. Naturally this happens in the rare case in which there is very little difference--or none at all--between the two halves of the year. Thus of the Akikuyu of British East Africa it is reported:--The equatorial year has no winter or summer. Its passage is marked by two wet seasons, which occur in what are our spring and autumn. The planting is done in all cases at the first commencement of the rains, and harvesting as soon as the crop has ripened after the cessation of the rain. There are therefore two seed-times and two harvests in twelve months, and when the native speaks of a year he means six months[346]. This is very natural, since by ‘year’ a vegetation-period is often to be understood: the half-year reckoning however also appears where a difference between the two seasons does exist. In Rotuma or Granville Island the inhabitants reckon in periods of six months or moons. The west monsoon, which blows from October to April, doubtless serves to distinguish these seasons: otherwise the difference between the seasons is hardly perceptible, the island lying near the equator. The half-years each contain six months, to which the same names are given in both halves[347]. The people of the Nicobars reckon in monsoon half-years, _shom-en-yuh_, the SW monsoon, _sho-hong_, blowing from May to October, and the NE monsoon, _ful_, from November to April, so that two of these form one of our years[348]. The half-years are also said to contain seven months each[349]: in reality they must vary between 6 and 7 months, as the year varies between 12 and 13. In New Britain (Bismarck Archipelago) there are monsoon years of five months: the two intervening periods of the variable winds and of the calms, each lasting one month, are not counted[350]. It is said that the Benua-Jahun of the Malay Peninsula have no other division of the year than the natural one of the north and south monsoons, each of which they call a ‘wind-year’, _satahun angni_; however a word for year, _sa taun_, is also ascribed to them[351]. In Bali the year is divided into two seasons or monsoons, each of which includes six months; since the months of both halves have the same names it is evident that originally only half-years existed[352]. The greatest unit of time among the Orang Kubu of Sumatra is the six-month _mussim_ (season), which is of Malay origin[353]. The Samoans have a name for a period of twelve months, but they formerly reckoned years of six months (_tau-sanga_); each of these corresponded to one of the two six-month periods, the palolo or rainy season and the monsoon season[354]. The Moanu of the Admiralty Island name the division of the year according to the position of the sun. When it stands north of the equator, the season in question is named _morai in paiin_ (sun